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Glitches, strange behaviour...2013 MFT

lip

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Hi,
I've got a 2013 Explorer XLT with MFT and navigation option...

Let me start out saying that I'm a bit of a geek and the MFT was a large part of the decision to go with the Explorer...it's also a looker as well...

So far my experience with the MFT has been a mixed bag...

Positives
- Generally very intuitive
- Nice functionality (although it's criminal that the applications are non existent and hardly any of the cool features work up here in Canada)
- Navigation is surprisingly good
- Integration with Zune player is very good
- Stereo bluetooth works well (when it works)

Negatives
- laggy. Ford either has horrible software programmers or the hardware is severely lagging. Seems to have problems doing more than one thing at a time. Please don't blame Microsoft as Ford is just using windows embedded which works fine with the industrial PLC's my company makes
- stereo bluetooth - sometimes it connects fine and plays music from my windows phone and other times it refuses to connect for the music portion while the phone itself is connected
- zune - I've got a 32gb zune player. When you first plug it in, the indexing takes ageeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Seriously, there is no excuse for it taking over 2 hours to just pull artist and song details from the device...it tends to bog the whole system down and I had to leave my car on with the key in it for a couple of hours to fully index and even then it only worked after trying it a few times.
After it working great for a few days, it suddenly came up with the message that a non compatible usb device was plugged in...I then started to look for the dreaded fuse box (which I could not find without a flashlight)...while driving home about 30 minutes later, it just decided to find the zune after plugging it in and out about 10 times and turning off the explorer a few times
- voice recognition - completely pitiful. However, I believe this has as much to do with the mft not being able to do too many things at one time as sometimes it's spot on

Overall, I think it's pretty shameful on Ford's part to still be having issues on the 3rd year of this vehicle with the main product feature, the MFT. Ford needs to fire the team or pay Microsoft to do it themselves...perhaps with the new MS "metro" design which is cool....

Anyone else have the zune music player issues or related usb music device problems?

LIP
 



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I don't have nav, but your experience is pretty much the same as mine. ('11 XLT) I'm used to the molasses-like speed, but I'm frequently infuriated by the Bluetooth audio and its hit and miss functionality. You just never know from one trip to the next if BT audio is going to work. The worst part is having it work fine, stop at the drugstore for 5 minutes, then come out and it simply refuses to work. Inexplicable and annoying.
 






I don't have nav, but your experience is pretty much the same as mine. ('11 XLT) I'm used to the molasses-like speed, but I'm frequently infuriated by the Bluetooth audio and its hit and miss functionality. You just never know from one trip to the next if BT audio is going to work. The worst part is having it work fine, stop at the drugstore for 5 minutes, then come out and it simply refuses to work. Inexplicable and annoying.


I just can't believe that in the 2 model years since you had your vehicle, they are barely farther ahead...
I'm wondering if they purchased a set amount of hardware volume from the OEM of the touchscreen computer and are forced to continue to work with hardware that was never up to 'snuff...
Does MFT work as slowly on a Ford truck or the other models?

The act of turning your vehicle off and then back on again should not cause one to have to cross their fingers hoping functionality will work...

What a joke...
 






The act of turning your vehicle off and then back on again should not cause one to have to cross their fingers hoping functionality will work...

Something I've noticed about the BT audio glitchiness is that the shorter the stop, the more likely BT audio won't work when I start up. Like pumping gas, or a 5 minute stop at the drugstore. It makes me wonder if MFT goes into some short term hibernation on brief stops, but at some point fully reboots during longer stops.
 






What also is a joke is that the factory reset isn't a factory reset...
it only resets the phone connection and a couple of other things from what I can tell...radio stations, sirius stations are still kept
 






I just can't believe that in the 2 model years since you had your vehicle, they are barely farther ahead...
I'm wondering if they purchased a set amount of hardware volume from the OEM of the touchscreen computer and are forced to continue to work with hardware that was never up to 'snuff...
Does MFT work as slowly on a Ford truck or the other models?

The act of turning your vehicle off and then back on again should not cause one to have to cross their fingers hoping functionality will work...

What a joke...

It is my understanding that the hardware is decent for what it is supposed to do. I have seen the actual stats posted before, and while it is not a super computer by any measure, it looks capable of running an efficiently coded HMI like MFT. Problem seems to be that MFT is not very efficiently coded. BUT....that can be remedied, and I hope that Ford is rewriting MFT in a responsible manner (and I believe they are) so that it can live up to Ford's claims and our expectations (good luck on the latter, lol).
 






While I'm NOT a geek, I did have a USB issue with music. It turns out my USB drive had an embedded u3 system file(s) and they were clogging everything up.

Once I went to a straight memory stick, loaded the tunes on it, not only did the USB work fine, but some of the lagging issues cleared up for other MFT functions as well.

Not saying this is your problem, but might be worth a look on the USB drive to see if there are some rogue system files on it.

Good luck.
 






It's a Zune I'm using...I tried it on the old and updated firmware and issues still have arose...
However, we are good for a couple of days now!
 






Never had a problem with my Zune 32 but often when my Zune 120 is hooked up I get Zune not found message. I ignore the message and everything works, I'm wondering if it has to do with the 32 being flash based and the 120 having a hard drive.. Perhaps it takes a few seconds to ready itself when MFT wants to see it.
 






It is my understanding that the hardware is decent for what it is supposed to do. I have seen the actual stats posted before, and while it is not a super computer by any measure, it looks capable of running an efficiently coded HMI like MFT. Problem seems to be that MFT is not very efficiently coded. BUT....that can be remedied, and I hope that Ford is rewriting MFT in a responsible manner (and I believe they are) so that it can live up to Ford's claims and our expectations (good luck on the latter, lol).

Just for your reference, Ford Sync is running on a single core processor running at 600MHz. It has 512MB of RAM and 2GB of flash memory storage. Sync is built on Microsoft Windows Automotive, which is based on Windows CE.

I think the specs look fine, but imo, I would have put at least a dual core processor in there to speed things up.
 






Hi,
I've got a 2013 Explorer XLT with MFT and navigation option...

Let me start out saying that I'm a bit of a geek and the MFT was a large part of the decision to go with the Explorer...it's also a looker as well...

So far my experience with the MFT has been a mixed bag...

Positives
- Generally very intuitive
- Nice functionality (although it's criminal that the applications are non existent and hardly any of the cool features work up here in Canada)
- Navigation is surprisingly good
- Integration with Zune player is very good
- Stereo bluetooth works well (when it works)

Negatives
- laggy. Ford either has horrible software programmers or the hardware is severely lagging. Seems to have problems doing more than one thing at a time. Please don't blame Microsoft as Ford is just using windows embedded which works fine with the industrial PLC's my company makes
- stereo bluetooth - sometimes it connects fine and plays music from my windows phone and other times it refuses to connect for the music portion while the phone itself is connected
- zune - I've got a 32gb zune player. When you first plug it in, the indexing takes ageeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Seriously, there is no excuse for it taking over 2 hours to just pull artist and song details from the device...it tends to bog the whole system down and I had to leave my car on with the key in it for a couple of hours to fully index and even then it only worked after trying it a few times.
After it working great for a few days, it suddenly came up with the message that a non compatible usb device was plugged in...I then started to look for the dreaded fuse box (which I could not find without a flashlight)...while driving home about 30 minutes later, it just decided to find the zune after plugging it in and out about 10 times and turning off the explorer a few times
- voice recognition - completely pitiful. However, I believe this has as much to do with the mft not being able to do too many things at one time as sometimes it's spot on

Overall, I think it's pretty shameful on Ford's part to still be having issues on the 3rd year of this vehicle with the main product feature, the MFT. Ford needs to fire the team or pay Microsoft to do it themselves...perhaps with the new MS "metro" design which is cool....

Anyone else have the zune music player issues or related usb music device problems?

LIP

What features are you refering to? I just bought a '13 Exp Ltd...and am curious.

Thanks!
 






I don't have nav, but your experience is pretty much the same as mine. ('11 XLT) I'm used to the molasses-like speed, but I'm frequently infuriated by the Bluetooth audio and its hit and miss functionality. You just never know from one trip to the next if BT audio is going to work. The worst part is having it work fine, stop at the drugstore for 5 minutes, then come out and it simply refuses to work. Inexplicable and annoying.

Bluetooth issues could be more than just the explorer's fault. My phone and bt headset have a love/hate relationship. I've had that problem with just about every phone/ headset combo I've tried. There are too many variants of it.
I haven't noticed any big issues yet with mine, but they definitely should have given it better specs, at least a dual core 1ghz cpu and 1gb of ram.
 






Just for your reference, Ford Sync is running on a single core processor running at 600MHz. It has 512MB of RAM and 2GB of flash memory storage. Sync is built on Microsoft Windows Automotive, which is based on Windows CE.

I think the specs look fine, but imo, I would have put at least a dual core processor in there to speed things up.

Here's a link that goes into detail of what is powering MFT for those interested:

http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/ford-focus-infotainment-sync-myford,3206-2.html

And for the geeky types who like all the nitty-gritty details:

http://www.freescale.com/webapp/sps/site/prod_summary.jsp?code=i.MX516
 
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I had a similar problem...

And mine became much more responsive/fast when I went in and turned off the automatic phonebook download in the settings (Phone-->Phonebook-->Automatic Download--> Off, or at least i think that was the menu path, pretty close to it). It may be that it is trying to catalog your Zune every time you enter the vehicle, and unless you change the content of the Zune's drive substantially, and very often, it probably is unnecessary to do so. I hope this helps. :salute:
 
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Negatives

- zune - I've got a 32gb zune player. When you first plug it in, the indexing takes ageeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Seriously, there is no excuse for it taking over 2 hours to just pull artist and song details from the device...it tends to bog the whole system down and I had to leave my car on with the key in it for a couple of hours to fully index and even then it only worked after trying it a few times.
After it working great for a few days, it suddenly came up with the message that a non compatible usb device was plugged in...I then started to look for the dreaded fuse box (which I could not find without a flashlight)...while driving home about 30 minutes later, it just decided to find the zune after plugging it in and out about 10 times and turning off the explorer a few times

Anyone else have the zune music player issues or related usb music device problems?

LIP

LIP - How many songs do you have on your Zune, and does all of your music have the metadata filled in? If the metadata isn't completely filled out, the system will take longer to index.

What also is a joke is that the factory reset isn't a factory reset...
it only resets the phone connection and a couple of other things from what I can tell...radio stations, sirius stations are still kept

There are a few different modules for the various controls and features. MyFord Touch basically relays information to where it needs to go. For instance, the radio stations are housed on a separate module; when you select a preset station from MFT, the APIM (SYNC module) will send a signal to the radio. This is why a Master Reset only removes SYNC and Navigation related info.

What features are you refering to? I just bought a '13 Exp Ltd...and am curious.

Thanks!

KanewtZ - I believe you already have your answer on this one, but I believe LIP is referring to SYNC Services, Vehicle Health Report, and AppLink. :)

And mine became much more responsive/fast when I went in and turned off the automatic phonebook download in the settings (Phone-->Phonebook-->Automatic Download--> Off, or at least i think that was the menu path, pretty close to it). It may be that it is trying to catalog your Zune every time you enter the vehicle, and unless you change the content of the Zune's drive substantially, and very often, it probably is unnecessary to do so. I hope this helps. :salute:

darenberg - Turning off Auto Phonebook Download has been known to help with this and phone connections. Here are the steps:

PHONE > SETTINGS > MANAGE PHONEBOOK > AUTO DOWNLOAD PHONEBOOK > OFF

BTW, Great tip! :)

Rebecca
 






This is why a Master Reset only removes SYNC and Navigation related info.

Rebecca, I found a bug w/ the Master reset you may want to report. If you have favorites setup with Voice Tags, and then you do a master reset it will remove the favorite, but leave the voice tag. You are then unable to setup a favorite using a voice tag that was previously set prior to the master reset. If you press the voice control, and say the old voice tag it will beep indicating it understood the tag, but will do nothing because it's not associated with a favorite.
 






Negatives
- laggy. Ford either has horrible software programmers or the hardware is severely lagging. Seems to have problems doing more than one thing at a time. Please don't blame Microsoft as Ford is just using windows embedded which works fine with the industrial PLC's my company makes

I agree, I think the programmers at Ford are just not that smart. How could they not know that the MFT hardware had onboard graphics to begin with... They figured it had onboard graphics 1 model year later. There needs to be a better programming team or something because this is like as amateur and insufficient programming as a person who thinks HTML is a programming language...
 






Rebecca, I found a bug w/ the Master reset you may want to report. If you have favorites setup with Voice Tags, and then you do a master reset it will remove the favorite, but leave the voice tag. You are then unable to setup a favorite using a voice tag that was previously set prior to the master reset. If you press the voice control, and say the old voice tag it will beep indicating it understood the tag, but will do nothing because it's not associated with a favorite.

Thank you, 13Sport! I will pass it along. :)

Rebecca
 






Hi,
I've got a 2013 Explorer XLT with MFT and navigation option...

Let me start out saying that I'm a bit of a geek and the MFT was a large part of the decision to go with the Explorer...it's also a looker as well...

So far my experience with the MFT has been a mixed bag...

Positives
- Generally very intuitive
- Nice functionality (although it's criminal that the applications are non existent and hardly any of the cool features work up here in Canada)
- Navigation is surprisingly good
- Integration with Zune player is very good
- Stereo bluetooth works well (when it works)

Negatives
- laggy. Ford either has horrible software programmers or the hardware is severely lagging. Seems to have problems doing more than one thing at a time. Please don't blame Microsoft as Ford is just using windows embedded which works fine with the industrial PLC's my company makes
- stereo bluetooth - sometimes it connects fine and plays music from my windows phone and other times it refuses to connect for the music portion while the phone itself is connected
- zune - I've got a 32gb zune player. When you first plug it in, the indexing takes ageeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeessssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Seriously, there is no excuse for it taking over 2 hours to just pull artist and song details from the device...it tends to bog the whole system down and I had to leave my car on with the key in it for a couple of hours to fully index and even then it only worked after trying it a few times.
After it working great for a few days, it suddenly came up with the message that a non compatible usb device was plugged in...I then started to look for the dreaded fuse box (which I could not find without a flashlight)...while driving home about 30 minutes later, it just decided to find the zune after plugging it in and out about 10 times and turning off the explorer a few times
- voice recognition - completely pitiful. However, I believe this has as much to do with the mft not being able to do too many things at one time as sometimes it's spot on

Overall, I think it's pretty shameful on Ford's part to still be having issues on the 3rd year of this vehicle with the main product feature, the MFT. Ford needs to fire the team or pay Microsoft to do it themselves...perhaps with the new MS "metro" design which is cool....

Anyone else have the zune music player issues or related usb music device problems?

LIP

I have similar issues, the big one is no BT audio even when the phone shows connected via BT.

Your right about the lack of functionality in Canada. The bigger issue there is how "Taboo" it is to provide an honest answer as to why. No one will answer that issue, just skirt around it with "We don't charge for those services in the Canadian vehicles"

Ya that must be why they are $10K higher in MSRP

Canadian On* has almost all those similar features.
 



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