Playing an iPod using one the USB ports

[mikekoz]

   We have had a C-max now for about 3 weeks with the Sony Audio system. For the first week or so, my iPod played fine. However, during the last few weeks, I can hardly get the system to recognize it. It is a 160GB iPod Classic and it is about 2 years old. I also have an iPhone 3GS and have tried an 8GB iPod my wife has, and both do not work. I am going to call the dealer next week and ask my salesperson, but I am not sure if he will know the answer.  The display on the iPod seems to know it is connected to a Ford Sync system, but the system rarely recognizes it. I have tried a master reset and have also used a USB drive to try to upgrade Sync, but both did nothing. It has Sync version 3.14 which seems to be the latest as the upgrade did not change it. Has anybody else experienced this and is there a fix?

 

Edited December 2, 2012 by mikekoz

[darrelld]

I have a 160gb iPod Classic and haven't had any problems. Sometimes in my VW the iPod will not be recognized until I do a hard reboot on the iPod.

 

Edited December 2, 2012 by darrelld

[mikekoz]

I have a 160gb iPod Classic and haven't had any problems. Sometimes in my VW the iPod will not be recognized until I do a hard reboot on the iPod.

 

    Thanks, but I tried that the first time it happened. I should have mentioned that. I thought for sure that would resolve the problem, but the issue is apparently with the hardware or software in the vehicle as I have three Apple devices that do the same thing. The odd thing is that I tried two external hard drives today and they seemed to work fine, at least a few times. I may have to use one all week to see if it works. If it does, that will work fine for me until I can get this resolved.

[darrelld]

Thanks, but I tried that the first time it happened. I should have mentioned that. I thought for sure that would resolve the problem, but the issue is apparently with the hardware or software in the vehicle as I have three Apple devices that do the same thing. The odd thing is that I tried two external hard drives today and they seemed to work fine, at least a few times. I may have to use one all week to see if it works. If it does, that will work fine for me until I can get this resolved.

One thing that helped with the lockups was using Tuneup to clean my songs and tags

[mikekoz]

  After some more testing with various devices this morning, I am convinced the problem is with the Sync system in my C-max. I tried using 4 different external hard drives, all formatted as Fat32, and none worked, with one exception. I have a Toshiba 320GB drive that I put my entire music collection on, and when I first connected it, it did not work. After a second attempt, it worked and the Sync system indexed it, and all was golden. I then turned off the car, turned it back on, then reconnected the drive, and got the "Device is not supported" error like all the other times. I also see that people using this Sync system have been having lots of problems with it. I wish I would have read about this before I bought the car. I would not have purchased the car if I had known about these issues in advance. I have found no information online that is any help either, so I guess my only option is too bring it back to the dealer.

[darrelld]

  After some more testing with various devices this morning, I am convinced the problem is with the Sync system in my C-max. I tried using 4 different external hard drives, all formatted as Fat32, and none worked, with one exception. I have a Toshiba 320GB drive that I put my entire music collection on, and when I first connected it, it did not work. After a second attempt, it worked and the Sync system indexed it, and all was golden. I then turned off the car, turned it back on, then reconnected the drive, and got the "Device is not supported" error like all the other times. I also see that people using this Sync system have been having lots of problems with it. I wish I would have read about this before I bought the car. I would not have purchased the car if I had known about these issues in advance. I have found no information online that is any help either, so I guess my only option is too bring it back to the dealer.

Have you checked our version of Sync to make sure its the latest?

[mikekoz]

 It is 3.1.3 which supposingly is the most up to date version. I downloaded the upgrade tool and put it on a USB drive, then connected it to the car's USB port. Went to "install apps" which seemed to complete, then put the USB drive back in the computer to verify.  The version number did not change, however, after the online utility verified the install as successful. Maybe we should have bought a Prius!

[darrelld]

 It is 3.1.3 which supposingly is the most up to date version. I downloaded the upgrade tool and put it on a USB drive, then connected it to the car's USB port. Went to "install apps" which seemed to complete, then put the USB drive back in the computer to verify.  The version number did not change, however, after the online utility verified the install as successful. Maybe we should have bought a Prius!

Sorry for your frustration, 3.1.3 is the latest version. Do you have the SEL? The other thing I would suggest is using a different cable and if that doesn't work a Master Reset.

 

Edited December 2, 2012 by darrelld

[mikekoz]

   Yes we have the CEL and I have tried 3 cables when trying to get the Apple devices to work, and about the same amount of cables with the USB hard drives. I have done the master reset. We paid a lot of money for this vehicle to have an odd thing like this go wrong with it. We traded in a Honda Pilot and everything worked that I plugged into that audio system. It had its bugs and flaws, but it was far superior to this system in the C-max.

Edited December 2, 2012 by mikekoz

[Michigan Max]

 Maybe we should have bought a Prius!

Maybe you should have. 

 

I have a NEW iPod Nano plugged into my USB and have never had it not work. I can use SYNC to bring up any song or album or artist with voice commands. I can also search through all my artists and albums on the touch screen which also shows the album art. If your Honda Pilot system was "far superior" it must have been something because I'm totally impressed with what SYNC and Myford Touch does.

I can understand some frustration but the "should have bought a Prius" comment is laughable. I'm sure no one has any issues with a Prius.

Edited December 2, 2012 by Michigan Max

[mikekoz]

Maybe you should have. 

 

I have a NEW iPod Nano plugged into my USB and have never had it not work. I can understand some frustration but the "should have bought a Prius" comment is laughable. I'm sure no one has any issues with a Prius.

 

 

     Then laugh. Good for you if you have an iPod that has always worked.  My comment was pretty much tougue and cheek humor, possibly made a bit bitter by being disappointed by a function of my C-max.  I actually would not have bought a Prius anyway as I wanted an American made vehicle. I am also aware that people that own the Prius have problems. Toyota vehicles have had issues the last few years that you would have to be living under a rock to not be aware of them. So do other vehicles of all other makes and models. Nothing is perfect. So please keep your comments like this to yourself as they do not help.   

[Michigan Max]

So please keep your comments like this to yourself as they do not help.   

Does saying "should have bought a Prius" or my Honda Pilot system was "far superior" help to describe your issues? No, yet you put those "jabs" on a public C-Max forum and then complain when when someone responds to these comments. If you want only "helpful" responses, then only describe your issues and ask for help. If your gonna make comments such as the ones you did, expect responses on a public forum.

[mikekoz]

Does saying "should have bought a Prius" or my Honda Pilot system was "far superior" help to describe your issues? No, yet you put those "jabs" on a public C-Max forum and then complain when when someone responds to these comments. If you want only "helpful" responses, then only describe your issues and ask for help. If your gonna make comments such as the ones you did, expect responses on a public forum.

 

 

      I guess putting in those lines does not help my situation. My intention was not to bash the Ford Sync system, but I ended up doing that anyway out of frustration. I am also mad at myself for not doing my homework before we bought the vehicle. I read reviews about the C-max, but not the Sync system which I was not familiar with until we bought it. Now I am reading about problems with it going back a few years ago on other vehicles. I used the reference to the Honda only because it was the only other system like this I have used, and it does a lot of things Sync does. Keep in mind also that all these things worked great the first week and a half I had the C-max. Up until the last week and a half, I would have been singing its praises! For some unknown reason, it just stopped working. Apparently Ford is working on an update to Sync, but it will not be available to hybrid owners until first quarter 2013. I am hoping Ford will fix this before then. Sorry for coming across a bit abrasive!

[mikekoz]

 Looks like my C-max has to go to the doctor!! ..;(.  Maybe the techs at Ford can sort it out!!

[nemonik]

Stop and mull over "Have you checked our version of Sync to make sure its the latest?"

 

We have hit the moment in time where we are software updating our cars off of thumb drives.  Srsly.  

 

How disconnected are the car's individual computer systems?  

 

I hope these updates are digitally signed.

 

Are we far off from a black hat computer virus being secreted onto one of these updates, installed blindly in the hopes of improving our iPod playback, and one day all taken on a joy ride we won't soon forget?  

 

Muh ha ha ha.  ;)

Edited December 3, 2012 by nemonik

[salprint]

I have a very old Ipod and have not had any issues except that it always seems to want to play songs in alphabetical order.  I can do a voice command of "Shuffle all on" and it works fine, but then the next time I drive the car it goes back to alphabetical.  Not a big deal to me.

If I were you, I'd do a master reset on the Ipod, reload all my music into it, and then give a try.  I find the MFT to be a very good system.  Before this, I had several Ford cars that had Sync, but not MFT, and they had these little glitchy issues also, but I always found a way to fix them.  By the way...I also had a Chevy Camaro and their system had glitches too, and my brother has a Toyota Rav 4, and he has some glitches with his system also.

[mikekoz]

I have a very old Ipod and have not had any issues except that it always seems to want to play songs in alphabetical order.  I can do a voice command of "Shuffle all on" and it works fine, but then the next time I drive the car it goes back to alphabetical.  Not a big deal to me.

If I were you, I'd do a master reset on the Ipod, reload all my music into it, and then give a try.  I find the MFT to be a very good system.  Before this, I had several Ford cars that had Sync, but not MFT, and they had these little glitchy issues also, but I always found a way to fix them.  By the way...I also had a Chevy Camaro and their system had glitches too, and my brother has a Toyota Rav 4, and he has some glitches with his system also.

 

 

  I tried a reset on my iPod, but did not reload the music onto it. My wifes Nano and my iPhone 3GS also did not work. I spoke to a support person at Ford today and she recommended I let the techs look at it. Oddly enough, today it worked!! Both my iPod Classic 160 and my external 320GB USB hard drive both worked fine. Go figure! I have also put music on my iPod that for some reason would not play in the order it should have on the album.

   I am not sure what Ford will do with it unless they have some way of hard resetting the system beyond what you can do manually. Maybe they will try a complete reinstall of the software.