MFT USB Audio "Indexing/Building Commands" - Observations...

[thestumper]

So... I've read all the posts complaining about the MFT usb indexing issues. I was experiencing the same thing with my "classic" 5G Ipod (disk based). It seemed like every time I turned the car off for more than an hour or so, I would have to suffer through the infamous "Indexing.... Building Commands" process which would last as much as 15-20 minutes. As it turns out, I have a 32Gb iPhone (flash based) that I'm not using at the moment, so I loaded it up with the EXACT same music library on my 5G disk iPod, turned off the phone and blue tooth, and decided to experiment.

My findings: over a 48 hour period, I have had NO indexing or command building issues. It works perfectly every time. 5 seconds after powering on the car, I have USB voice commands.

My initial assumption was the since my 5G iPod is at least six years old, the battery was probably and was shutting down when I turned off the vehicle for more than an hour or so. When power was reapplied, the iPod must be cold booting and MFT is seeing it as a new device.....

Wrong.

The other part of my 'science experiment' was giving the old 5G a full charge and seeing how long the charge would last. After 48 hours, I've lost maybe 5%. Plenty of juice. HOWEVER... I did noticed that on extended shutdown, the old 5G disk iPod would go into a "sleep" mode and was essentially going through a cold boot process even thought there was plenty of battery. The flash based iPod Touch and iPhones don't do go through this same process.

Therefore... I summarize that the sleep/reboot process is causing an MFT re-index on older iPod disk-based devices. It sees it as a new device coming online and assumes that it needs to reprocess all of the information.

Would anyone from the IVT/Ford team care to comment on this? Heck, would anyone at all care to add to the discussion....

Note: my next test will be an iPod Touch; flash based without the phone. i'm guessing that it will behave properly, like the phone, because it does not have the same 'sleep' mode that the disk-based iPod has.

 

[thestumper]

Update: My 5G disk iPod stayed charged for over 2 days with the battery only losing about 10%, so for fun I hooked it up to my computer (charge/sync) and left it overnight. I plugged it in at midnight and 7 hours later it was DEAD. The computer goes into sleep mode after about 1/2 hour and it would appear that if the iPod is plugged in during this time, the charge drains pretty rapidly. I would assume that leaving it plugged into SYNC with the car powered off would create a very similar situation.

I have a new battery coming for the iPod to see if it is battery related - I have still had ZERO issues with my flash based iPhone to this point. I'm going to see how MFT behaves with a standard USB drive today. If it acts similarly to the iPhone, then there's something funky about the disk based iPod that a battery may or may not fix.

 

[thestumper]

Update: With the USB drive, it indexes when I turn the vehicle on, but it doesn't seem to be "building commands". Voice commands are available quickly - maybe I'm just not seeing it. Indexing is fast with the 4GB drive, but I'm interested to see what happens with the 32GB drive that arrives tomorrow. So far the iPhone is the only device that seems to work "as expected" with no indexing and command building from power cycle to power cycle.

 

[thestumper]

Update: Installed a new 64GB USB drive yesterday:

http://www.amazon.com/Silicon-Power...&qid=1381064128&sr=8-6&keywords=silicon+Power

It is behaving like the 4GB drive. After the initial index (4 minutes) and the initial "Building Commands" (also about 4 minutes) subsequent indexes happen in a few seconds if that. My guess is that it's not actually indexing at all: it's just doing a quick check/stat on the drive. It has not built commands since the initial boot. Voice commands are thus available almost immediately starting the car.

I still need to test this for at least a few more days before I "sign off" on it as a solution, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

It seems as if there is indeed an issue specific to my disk-based iPod - I have a new battery on order for it based on an earlier post, but I'm not convinced that will make a difference. Regardless, I can get more capacity for less money with the USB drive, so it makes sense to stick with it unless I have problems at some point.

 

[thestumper]

So it's been almost a week since I installed the 64GB USB drive. I have yet to have any significant indexing or command building when the vehicle starts. Occasionally there will be a short delay, but no more than few seconds. Voice commands are available almost immediately. The only exception is when I inserted another USB drive with the "reboot" app on it. That time, when I started the car, it took about 30 seconds - probably because it sensed it had seen another device and needed to do a quick check. As stated earlier, the initial index took 4 minutes, and the commands and additional 4, so 30 seconds isn't bad - again, that has only happened once. It is usually almost immediate.

Just food for thought. I'm still trying to find a slick way of doing playlists on my Mac; iTunes exports them but the path is absolute and tied to the Mac, not the USB drive. I can edit them, but it's tedious.

 

[jeffreycowart]

I bought this TINY usb drive from Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Patriot-Autobahn-Flash-Drive-PSF32GLSABUSB/dp/B00AEGIPD4/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1382020664&sr=8-5&keywords=patriot+32gb

It is so small you do not even know it is there and there is zero chance of hitting it or breaking it.

It is 32GB and works great. I have about 14gb of songs on it. When I update the music on the drive it indexes for less than 5 minutes (will play songs while indexing).

I have only seen it say indexing one time and it was more of a background thing.

 

[TMack2300]

mine is indexing all the time how do i fix this?? im using my old phone a iPhone 5s

 

[FordIVTteam]

Hi Tmack2300,

Please try rebooting your iPhone. If it continuously indexes after that, try reconnecting it to iTunes and reload your music. That should clear this up for you.

Rebecca

 

[TMack2300]

Hi Tmack2300,

Please try rebooting your iPhone. If it continuously indexes after that, try reconnecting it to iTunes and reload your music. That should clear this up for you.

Rebecca

How long should it take to index a 5s with about 40gigs of music?
And thank you..!

 

[FordIVTteam]

You're welcome!

It shouldn't take too long, but it differs for everyone. If after you reboot the phone and it's not done building the index within ten minutes, you may have a corrupt file (or one that SYNC can't read).

Rebecca

 

[TMack2300]

You're welcome!

It shouldn't take too long, but it differs for everyone. If after you reboot the phone and it's not done building the index within ten minutes, you may have a corrupt file (or one that SYNC can't read).

Rebecca

I just hard reset my iPhone 5S and reinstalled via usb cord. Ins building commands and indexing. Im gonna give it 15 mins and check.

 

[TMack2300]

I just hard reset my iPhone 5S and reinstalled via usb cord. Ins building commands and indexing. Im gonna give it 15 mins and check.

well that did the trick... no more indexing so far...
thank you... I hard reset my iPhone 5s and did a master reset om MFT

 

[FordIVTteam]

You're very welcome!

Rebecca

 

[KeyserS]

Sometimes reformatting an older iPod and reinstalling music onto it helps too. I have several I leave in cars, and my Benz stopped recognizing one. I did the reformat, and it's great. I ended up doing it to all my older iPods.

Just got a '16 Sport a couple days ago, and my iPhone 6+ did the "indexing" thing, but the older iPod previously reformatted did great in the '16

 

[dmuscat]

After long research and contacting the IVT team in Ford, I have found some issues that need to be put out to the public as this is not well know even with the dealerships, seems that Sync MFT can only handle a 4gb memory stick that MUST BE FORMATTED in FAT format. Do not use any other format as that will cause issues with MFT. Also do not leave the USB stick inserted for long periods of time as it causes conflicts within the MFT system. Seems this piece is known in the IVT but not popularized. I had experienced many issues with MFT while I have always left a 16GB USB stick (formatted NTFS) inserted. Always trying to figure them out and many, many MFT resets without resolve. Once I found out about the USB issues and MFT, once I removed the USB stick I had, MFT has been working very, very well also with using a 4gb FAT formatted stick. If Ford would give out these items, many people would not be having issues and trying (with great frustration) to figure them out!