Entertainment changes to what it wants to listen to.....

[wamba2000]

Been having a recurring problem, just the past couple weeks.

 

If listening to USB music, change to Sirius and listening to a channel for a while....then turn the Cmax off to run into a shop, when I come back and start the car, the Entertainment screen goes back to the USB and starts playing some random song.  This has happened at least 6 times in the past week.

 

Any ideas?

[AMSDPS]

Try to go into the settings and turn the USB auto-play feature off. I believe what is happening is that when you return to your car, your USB starts charging again and assumes that you just plugged it in.

[Jus-A-CMax]

Yes, it happpens to me too...lets call ths...IdiotSYNCrocies ;)

 

AMSDPS - great suggestion, I'll check mine too.

[wamba2000]

Thx AMS, will try that.  Funny it should just start happening after months, but with MFT, anything is not a surprise, it is quirky.

[Edsel]

Have this problem as well.  I would say its happened at least 10 times since I've owned the car.  Will check the auto-play. 

[colea]

I've had a similar problem (SEL 302A, 3.5.1), but don't need to use Sirius to cause it. Just turning the car off, running an errand, then a few minutes later turning it back on is sometimes (not always) enough to make it start playing songs in alphabetical order, rather than the album it had been on previously. Have now turned Auto Play off to see if it makes a difference. Thanks for the suggestion.

[wamba2000]

Turned off AutoPlay in the Media settings this morning, will see if the issue re-occurs.  It usually happens just like colea said: run an errand, shut the car down for a few minutes, then it changes the programming on the Entertainment when you re-start.

 

Maybe it is is Windows Sleep mode when you power off.  Need to dawdle around on errands to let it finally power off?

 

Colea, I see you are on 3.5.1, and still have the issue....so much for hoping for an easy fix.

Edited May 20, 2013 by wamba2000

[LizM]

It happens to me, too.  Will check the Auto Play.  Also, I will turn the radio off when before turning off the c-max and when I get back in, and turn on the car - radio starts up.  Crazy C-Max.

[GreenChicago]

I have not yet used a USB drive so I can't report same issue, but I notice that my C-MAX SEL/202A sound system defaults to an AM station I have never listened to on start up. I almost always listen to streaming BT from an iPhone 4s (grrr, can't get controls to work on MFT), but when I restart the vehicle even with the phone plugged in and play button started, it defaults to a random AM station. I can't seem to find an "autoplay" function for radio. Anyone else having this issue?

[salsaguy]

green - if you dont use your phone as the source for music but instead use FM or a USB stick does it still do it?

[dtorres]

From other MyTouch forums I've learned that it's related to the cataloging of the songs on your usb drive. My Ford Touch is really sensitive to the metadata embedded in each song. When one off the songs has something embedded (ie song title, artist, etc) that the system doesn't know what to do with (like a symbol in a song name) the cataloging fails and it switches to usb and starts playing a song from a usb source. The supposed fix is to check all the embedded metadata for each song which can be a real pain in the butt. I did it once and it fixed the problem. When the car would start the cataloging would successfully complete and the system wouldn't switch to usb. However the next time I added a bunch of song to my usb drive I didn't check the metadata for each song and the problem came back. I'm too lazy to fix it again. It's a poor implementation on Ford's part because most usb enabled devices are smart enough to just ignore metadata they don't understand and move on.

[GreenChicago]

green - if you dont use your phone as the source for music but instead use FM or a USB stick does it still do it?

Yes, and the behavior has gotten even more random this past week. If I was listening to FM when I shut off, I sometimes get a random Sirius station, or vice versa. It's never the one I was last listening to, even if it was FM-- it would switch stations. More often it switches bands. I'm headed in for the 3.1.5 upgrade on Monday, so hopefully the MFT Poltergeist will exit my vehicle ;-)

 

One other odd artifact I've noticed-- when I stream BT through my phone, I need to raise the volume significantly. (I have iTunes sound check on in computer settings, so all music from phone plays at same volume.) But if I switch to Sirius or FM, it's at least 3x as loud as when streamed through mBT from my iPhone 4s. Anyone else have this particular CMAX poltergeist?

[GreenChicago]

From other MyTouch forums I've learned that it's related to the cataloging of the songs on your usb drive. My Ford Touch is really sensitive to the metadata embedded in each song. When one off the songs has something embedded (ie song title, artist, etc) that the system doesn't know what to do with (like a symbol in a song name) the cataloging fails and it switches to usb and starts playing a song from a usb source. The supposed fix is to check all the embedded metadata for each song which can be a real pain in the butt. I did it once and it fixed the problem. When the car would start the cataloging would successfully complete and the system wouldn't switch to usb. However the next time I added a bunch of song to my usb drive I didn't check the metadata for each song and the problem came back. I'm too lazy to fix it again. It's a poor implementation on Ford's part because most usb enabled devices are smart enough to just ignore metadata they don't understand and move on.

Veeery interesting, dtorres! Thanks for the sleuthing-- that makes sense. I do notice that when there are random characters the MFT display sometimes inserts a series of question marks like so "???" But other times when it plays the exact same song from the same source with the same metadata, it does get the title and artist right. I do believe I have a poltergeist in my cmax. This is probably an impossible expectation, but does anybody know if there are plans to include any sort of background art or cover flow in the future, rather than just displaying a big, ugly bluetooth symbol? Has anybody changed the background successfully, and if so, let us know how you did it?

[HotPotato]

GreenChicago, unlike plugging in your phone via the dock connector, in Bluetooth mode the phone's own volume controls are still active. So if you don't have your phone's volume cranked up, the volume will similarly be lower when streaming audio in-car. At least that's how it is in mine.