Problem using Flashdrive for MP3 files

[mike605]

I am desperate to know what the trick is. I did some reading in the manual but either it doesn't cover it or I completely missed it.

Here is my problem, I use a 128Gig Flashdrive for my audio files which includes radio plays, music, audio books, etc. I start a file and will listen to it, stop the Explorer, later restart things and the file starts up where I left it. HOWEVER, I am also getting times where the audio system starts the flashdrive from the very first MP3 file. I have to browse into the system to restart from scratch the file is was listening to.

I have tried pausing the file before I leave the car without luck. I have placed MyTouch to play a radio station with no luck, it will just restart things from scratch. AND it seems random to me.

So does anyone know a setting or fix for this or where I have missed the obvious here.

Mike

 

[13Sport]

I had this problem w/ larger flash drives (>32gb) ... I am currently using a 16gb flash drive without any issues. I think the power consumption from the larger drives causes issues with MFT (as if the drive was being removed and reinserted).

Try a 8-16gb drive and see if you experience the same problem, if you don't then it has to do w/ the larger drives and the power consumption.

 

[mike605]

I had this problem w/ larger flash drives (>32gb) ... I am currently using a 16gb flash drive without any issues. I think the power consumption from the larger drives causes issues with MFT (as if the drive was being removed and reinserted).

Try a 8-16gb drive and see if you experience the same problem, if you don't then it has to do w/ the larger drives and the power consumption.

Ok, there is a certain logic to that. I have only 1 other flashdrive a 4Gigger. I will give it a checkout and hope for the best. Eventually I will try a 32Gigger and with luck that will solve my problems. Then again there are two USB connections I wonder if you could use two flashdrivers?? Most likely yes.

 

[broken strut]

My problem is as follows:

2 USB sticks that i have used since i got the vehicle. Worked great until the latest upgrade 3.5 Now when i use them the system will go from USB to AM to USB. Then just stop working. It's not the flashdrives, they always worked. Not since the latest update though. Crap. Pure crap. Navigation is slowing down again. Long pauses when searching for addresses. Ford needs to do something. Like revamp the whole system. I had a few problems before the upgrade, but this is ridiculous

 

[mike605]

Well bad news I tried a 4Gig flashdrive and got the same thing. It just resets to the first MP3 file on the flashdrive. I listen to audio books and such and some of these things are 30 to 50 minutes long. After getting 10 minutes into a book and having to stop at a customer site now I am forced to start all over again. This is stupid. First I find out after having purchased the vehicle that it doesn't fully support the iPhone, the most widely used phone I won't say popular, but the most widely used phone and now a simple flashdrive is beyond its understanding.

 

[mike605]

ok this is no longer funny, I just lost the SD card for navigation. The system no longer thinks the card is loaded.

 

[13Sport]

ok this is no longer funny, I just lost the SD card for navigation. The system no longer thinks the card is loaded.

I would say it sounds like the media hub is faulty. This no longer sounds like an MFT issue.

 

[mike605]

Well good news for the home team here. The nav system started seeing the SD card Friday afternoon. I also picked up a PNY 32 Gig flashdrive last night (price was cheap at $19) and the system seems to work with it. It picks up where I stopped a song at. So good news all around. I even used the nav system to make a trip to a dealership to pick up a rear cargo plastic matt, the standard Ford issue type. I was shocked to see the turn drawing on the nav screen look exactly like the turn on the highway I was supposed to make. It was almost like there was a camera on the car turning what was in front into a line drawing. So far I am a happy driver, getting many compliments on the car as well.

 

[briteboy]

I had similar problems with my MP3 files. Turns out that I was using a Sandisk flash drive, and evidently there is some programming on it. It screwed up everything.

When I went with a straight PNY flash, the world corrected itself !

 

[vfral1]

16GB drive works great for me.

 

[2013 White Sport]

I'm using a 16GB PNY flash drive and have had the same experience as mike605 (not the Nav issues though). I tolerated the USB re-indexing at least once a week, but yesterday, I ran an errand and was listening to the USB. Got to the store, ran in and out, and when I got back in the car -it started re-indexing my USB. Annoying, but go through this at least once a week.

This time however, it wasn't indexing (it says it is, but it isn't). I let it attempt to index for 15+ minutes, and with the history of going through this before, the normal pattern is: 1) it says it is re-indexing 2) starts playing the first song shortly after indexing, 3) completes indexing in about 5-7 minutes (2300 songs) and 4) finally builds voice commands (~2mins).

I have removed the USB device and it still shows the USB in the entertainment section (like the USB section is frozen). I have also tried inserting another USB, but it does not appear to recognize anything inserted into the USB drive. I don't want to do a master reset and loose all my phone and other information, but not sure I have a choice.

I'm heading into the dealer for a oil change this week, so I may ask them about it too. Anyone else experience this issue with the USB?

 

[vfral1]

It must be the number of songs. I only have a few hundred on mine.

 

[KarlW]

I have the same issue in my new 2013 sport.

If I had to guess, I think what happens is the USB hub is probed at startup, and the devices enumerated - and something is giving the USB device a different ID, which gets indexed somewhere. Since the device ID is different, it re-indexes it as new, meaning you lose your place.

Sine the sd card reader is on the same USB device hub, you could also get a navigation error after plugging in a new USB device (happened to me twice so far). It's possible to clear the error by simply ejecting the sd card and reinserting it, allowing the device to get recognized again. These issues are definitely related, and likely fixable in software (I'm a code jockey by trade).

 

[BigRed2012]

No one has mentioned this yet but I believe that the drives have to be formatted as FAT32 not NTFS. NTFS formats will "work" but they cause some of these errors. In the case of SanDisk drives, remember that many drives come out of the box with software pre-loaded on them such as auto boot software and the drivers that let your pc read them as a CD drive. The best thing to do is buy a new flash drive and then format it to FAT32 on your PC, do the full format not the 'Quick' option and then load your music onto it. This has solved the problem in my case. MFT may take a while to index songs depending on the number of songs you have as well as the quality of the ID3 tags of your mp3's. It's going to re-index any time you add anything new or even move files around on the device. Hope this is helpful.

 

[KarlW]

Still have the problem and it's formatted as FAT.

 

[mike605]

I have been fighting Sync, designed by those lovely people at Microsft which explains much, and I have noticed a trend. If you pause whatever MP3 you are listening to and pause it when you leave the vehicle AND, this part is important, leave the vehicle in the entertainment screen things seem to work out for you. I have noticed that leaving the vehicle in the phone screen or in the home screen appear to confuse things. Don't know why. Maybe it is a registry problem. I am just glad that Microsoft doesn't provide the base code for our power grid.

 

[KarlW]

Well, it's supposedly an embedded OS that isn't based on Windows (at least that's what I think I read somewhere, but I tend to drink a lot.)

But I think they're obviously sharing something with Windows as their USB functionality mimics that of the USB on a *REALLY* cheap motherboard in a PC.

Regardless, Sync is certainly buggier than the everglades in august. But I can't really criticize the platform too much as it was a pretty big endeavor to begin with. The fact that it works at all on such a variety of vehicles is impressive to me.

But man, I paid a LOT to essentially be a beta tester.