Sync Problems when trying to play music

[lisamc12345]

Has anyone else experienced problems with Sync when trying to play music via bluetooth? I have an iPhone and I like to play the music from my phone via bluetooth. This is great -- when it works, which is about 50% of the time. It's gotten worse over time. Have had an 2011 Explorer for just over a year. Sometimes the music just won't play. And recently it's started really acting up when I try to hit either the seek on the steering wheel or the arrows on the screen to advance to the next song. If I try to do this soon after starting the car, it just will not work. And then about two minutes later, it "catches" up and will advance the number of songs I kept trying to push the button. If I tried three times, all of a sudden it will advance three songs. But sometimes it works right away with no problems. It is so aggravating. I know there is an update coming but it's just so bad that I wonder if I should take it in and get it corrected. Anyone else have problems like this?

 

[Steve1942]

I have similar problems and it occurs both with bluetooth and when it is plugged in via the USB connection. Sometimes it will just not play. Other times what you see on the MFT screen is different than what is playing. It seems to get highly offended if you decide several times you don't like the song and want to skip to the next one.

 

[darenberg]

Yes!

I have had the same problem. BlueTooth audio often fails to start. I have been listening to a book on tape, and if I get out of the car at a stop (store for example) then get back in, its 50-50 whether it will work when I start the engine. As far as the delay in the system...belowis part of a post I made on another thread relating to this. The system is slow and "buggy", and I am not optimistic that there is a software fox for it, though the new is that a "Major" update is coming. It strikes me as a hardware problem.

An update for me. A few weeks back I took my Explorer in for the System update, and it fixed some of the problem. "SYNC Services" is no longer deaf as a doornail, but I still have significant problems with what I call system delay. Basically, for the first four or five minutes after I start the car, it will accept no input from the voice commands, from the "On/Off/Channel change" button in the center of the console, and it will accept only some of the steering column input (Climate, Pre-set-radio stations). The navigation system takes a few minutes before it will accept any input, which basically renders it useless to me. Who drives for five minutes before putting their destination in their GPS? Today, after getting in the car my phone rang over the car's system about two minutes after I started driving, but I could not get the car's system to answer the call, in spite of the fact that it was transmitting BlueTooth to my speakers (Nothing worked, the touch screen, the steering wheel console, nothing would pick up the call with hands free). I had to pull over, manually answer the call, and nearly got into an accident doing that. Three or four minutes after ending that brief call, my radio went silent as the message came up on the screen indicating an incoming call (The call that I had taken several minutes before). I'd love to say this was an isolated incident, but it was not. What powers this system? Old discarded TRS-80 computer processors?

Overall, the MYFOrdTouch and SYNC systems are a colossal failure in my 2011 Explorer. I haven't even gotten to the part about the intermittent "SD Card Fault" messages that render my Nav system COMPLETELY useless at random times.
​

 

[Rocketfan]

I have the same bluetooth audio problem. It has gotten to the point that I no longer even try to use it. One workaround is to just use the USB connection. While this also sometimes does not work (either at the beginning or when you change from streaming Pandora to playing a song on the device), you can almost always get the audio back on by unplugging the phone from the USB cable and replugging it back in (will sometimes play a song on your phone instead of a stream but you can get the stream back by hitting the pause or play button for the stream on your phone).

Not an ideal solution to be sure but at least it works. Hopefully the update fixes this.

 

[lisamc12345]

I have had the same problem. BlueTooth audio often fails to start. I have been listening to a book on tape, and if I get out of the car at a stop (store for example) then get back in, its 50-50 whether it will work when I start the engine. As far as the delay in the system...belowis part of a post I made on another thread relating to this. The system is slow and "buggy", and I am not optimistic that there is a software fox for it, though the new is that a "Major" update is coming. It strikes me as a hardware problem.

An update for me. A few weeks back I took my Explorer in for the System update, and it fixed some of the problem. "SYNC Services" is no longer deaf as a doornail, but I still have significant problems with what I call system delay. Basically, for the first four or five minutes after I start the car, it will accept no input from the voice commands, from the "On/Off/Channel change" button in the center of the console, and it will accept only some of the steering column input (Climate, Pre-set-radio stations). The navigation system takes a few minutes before it will accept any input, which basically renders it useless to me. Who drives for five minutes before putting their destination in their GPS? Today, after getting in the car my phone rang over the car's system about two minutes after I started driving, but I could not get the car's system to answer the call, in spite of the fact that it was transmitting BlueTooth to my speakers (Nothing worked, the touch screen, the steering wheel console, nothing would pick up the call with hands free). I had to pull over, manually answer the call, and nearly got into an accident doing that. Three or four minutes after ending that brief call, my radio went silent as the message came up on the screen indicating an incoming call (The call that I had taken several minutes before). I'd love to say this was an isolated incident, but it was not. What powers this system? Old discarded TRS-80 computer processors?

Overall, the MYFOrdTouch and SYNC systems are a colossal failure in my 2011 Explorer. I haven't even gotten to the part about the intermittent "SD Card Fault" messages that render my Nav system COMPLETELY useless at random times.
​

Wow. I have the exact problems you described. I don't know how Ford got away with putting such a horrible product on the market. Hopefully the update fixes it. The weird thing is though that I didn't have the "lag" in the screen input/steering wheel buttons until recently. Up to about a month ago, they always worked right away.