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Try a different a good quality cable? -it might seem crazy, but this can make a huge difference. SYNC3 and Android Auto on your mobile can be very sensitive with a "crackly" data connection. I only buy expensive high quality cables for use in the car for this very reason, and they typically only last for a few months before sometimes just nudging the phone will cause the connection to SYNC3 to stop and AA stop working. It's not as though I am twirling the phone around the car on the USB cable, but they do get a bit of wear and the connection into the phone isn't quite as strong and consistent as the system needs. Good luck!

I am not sure that you have to have a directory structure, but I choose to have one... has to be easier in the long run to have /music/artist/albumname directory structure in my opinion. Also, when iTunes exports your playlist, it will follow the directory structure it uses - so watch out for having to do the "search and replace" so that the file path in the playlist file it creates can be made to work on your USB. It's a good idea to experiment with a smaller number of files, albums, artists etc first, rather than trying to do your entire library in one go. With the reindexing, you dont want it to do it all the time - it needs to know that something has changed on the USB if you want it to re-index, and the way that I achieved this was to rename the USB drive each time I made a change, especially when I was making frequent changes and experimenting. If you dont do this, then it will re-index at some point - but it could be a frustrating wait if you are trying to see the affect of a change you may have just made. When you are exporting or creating the playlist, you are just using itunes to great the .m3u file; great to hear it is in the same format as my example that we know works great with SYNC3. You need to know that the playlist file is just a list of what is in your playlist, and it does not contain the actual music files themselves - just their names and where they are located. The "located" but can be a problem if the directory structure doesnt match the structure on your USB. Look at the .m3u file you have created, you need to see what the directory structure looks like. In my example, this is the reference to the music file "so far away.mp3" ..\Music\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\01 So Far Away.mp3 The file MUST be located in the directory ..\Music\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\ if it is going to be played, as the playlist shows this directory tree as you can see in the line above. If your music is all in the root directory, then your line would look like this: ..\01 So Far Away.mp3 But I do recommend you follow a folder structure. I hope this makes sense.

Hi, your playlist files should end in a .m3u extension, such as this example "dire straits.m3u" . When SYNC3 does it's indexing, it will find the .m3u files and try to use them as your playlists. It might not matter where they are located, I can't remember if I put them in a folder on the USB called Playlists, or if I just left them in the top directory. Open one of your playlist that iTunes created for you using a simple text editor, such as notepad. The SYNC3 system wants to see a file in this format: #EXTM3U #EXTINF:312,So Far Away - Dire Straits ..\Music\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\01 So Far Away.mp3 #EXTINF:506,Money For Nothing - Dire Straits ..\Music\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\02 Money For Nothing.mp3 #EXTINF:252,Walk Of Life - Dire Straits ..\Music\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\03 Walk Of Life.mp3 #EXTINF:393,Your Latest Trick - Dire Straits ..\Music\Dire Straits\Brothers In Arms\04 Your Latest Trick.mp3 In my example, my playlist tracks are in the "Brothers In Arms" folder, which is in the "Dire Straits" folder, which is in the "Music" folder. If your iTunes playlist isn't working, then it will probably be down to the folders not being valid. I am hoping you can spot the pattern of what you need to change, and rather than editing every line manually, you could use a "search and replace" function within Notepad to replace the wrong directory tree with the correct one. Maybe your will search for "c:\windows\itunes\media\" and replace all instances with "..\Music\" - depending on what you are seeing in the iTunes created playlist. I hope that makes sense! Also, when you put the USB back into SYNC3, it might not re-index right away - so it may not pick up the new playlist files you have created. If this is the case, rename your USB drive to be called something different and reinsert it again.

... and it may have been an Apple update that caused it - but Ford still got the blame

I don't remember trying the reset or not, worth a try - but I think I recall lots of users having the same issue at the time - so I put it down to a software fault.

You should have a test play with a few files/albums first of all, and see how you get on. SYNC3 will need a little time to index the USB and work out what is on it - which is why when having a play you should keep it small. If you put 64GB of music on it, then you should give SYNC3 approx 15 mins to index it. This means it will play the music right away, but you wont be able to search by album/artist/track name or genre until after indexing is complete. From memory, music you have purchased within iTunes is protected, and wont be able to be played. However, if you use iTunes to burn a MP3 CD or DVD, then it will convert those purchased tracks into MP3 files, which you will be able to copy onto the USB and have SYNC3 play. I did an Internet search and found this re supported file formats: Supported audio formats include MP3, WMA, WAV, AAC, and FLAC. Supported audio file extensions include MP3, WMA, WAV, M4A, M4B, AAC, and FLAC. Supported USB file systems include: FAT, exFAT, and NTFS. SYNC 3 is also able to organize the media from your USB device by metadata tags. Metadata tags, which are descriptive software identifiers embedded in the media files, provide information about the file. If your indexed media files contain no information embedded in these metadata tags, SYNC 3 may classify the empty metadata tags as unknown. SYNC 3 is capable of indexing up to 50,000 songs per USB device, for up to 10 devices.

Yes, when your USB has your music loaded - the SYNC3 will still index it, and as long as your music files contain the correct information - then SYNC3 will know artists, song titles, music genre and even playlists, and even be able to display music artwork too. Depending on how you go you could just copy MP3 files onto the USB and see how you get on, or you could find yourself spending 1,000 hours tinkering and getting it all perfect - there is a lot of material you can research if you had nothing better to do! I spent 1000 hours getting mine perfect, and hardly even listen to it or bother updating it sadly - as all my music and podcasts now reside on my phone and/or are streamed from the Internet; so I just plug my phone in and go from there instead.

Hi, below is a list of voice commands you can try using - most of them work with all models, but there are some commands that are version specific. The POI etc does take some getting used to for sure. I guess they didn't think of a command to redial last number! The future for many users is to use Android Auto or Apple CarPlay, which SYNC3 supports. If you have a modern mobile phone and are happy to plug it in each time, then instead of learning how to operate SYNC3, you could spend your time learning Android Auto or Apple Carplay instead - which will bring you a whole new level of frustrations too, but I personally really enjoy using Android Auto and Waze for navigation - and I really recommend you take a look. Also, when running Android Auto or Apple CarPlay - you can ask "the assistant" really anything that comes to mind and can expect some sort of response... what will the weather be today, what is the sports score for yyy, remind me to call joe at 4pm, add eggs to my shopping list. SYNC3 was great when it first came out, but I havent used it for a few years now. Good luck! Here are the SYNC3 commands you can try... "Audio <on/off>" "<AM/FM> <station number>" "<DAB> <station number>" "<USB>" "Play <Track Name>" "Play <Artist Name>" "Play <Genre Name>" "Play <Album Name>" "Play <Playlist Name>" "Browse all <category>" "Shuffle" "Shuffle off" "Call <name> <at home/at work/on cell/on other>" “Dial" | pause | "<phone number>" "Call voicemail" "Do not disturb <on/off>" Messages "Listen to message" “Reply to message” | pause | follow prompts “Climate” | pause | “<Warmer/Cooler>” “Climate 20” “Climate set temperature to 72 degrees” “Climate automatic” “Climate <on/off>” “Climate” | pause | “<Increase/Decrease> fan speed” “Climate” | pause | “Min/Max fan” “Climate” | pause | “AC <on/off>” “Climate” | pause | “Max AC <on/off>” Change voice interaction level "Interaction mode <novice/advanced>" "<Mode> list of commands" Audio, Radio, Sirius, DAB, USB, SD Card, Bluetooth Audio, Phone, Climate Services, Travel Link, Navigation, Browse , Voice Settings, Voice Instructions

I didn't have time to expand on this in my earlier reply, but I went through the same issues some years ago - my iPod Classic was also constantly re-indexing, and it was sad to have to decide that it's life had come to an end. It's basically an issue within SYNC3, which Ford didn't address - and certainly will not address - which is why the Classic has to be swapped for a USB drive. I then spent hours getting music onto my USB drive, recreating playlists etc - but now I have done so, it works really well. There are other threads that talk about the best way to do this, and it depends on what you file formats all are too.

Unfortunately you need to ditch the iPod and instead use a USB with your music on it in your vehicle.

The way to change the audio is to select the "exit" button within Android Auto, which drops you back to SYNC3, with AA still running in the background. Click on the SYNC3 audio button, and select the media/station you want, and either remain in SYNC3 - or click on the Maps or AA buttons to return to AA display. I moved 100% onto using Android Auto when I discovered Waze, which is utterly brilliant. I mainly listen to Podcasts, which I enjoy within AA by using the Pocket Casts app - other options available. All of my music is saved on my phone, which I can access using Google Music - no subscription necessary, and I can also use Spotify or Plex or TuneIn (and many others) to get other online music options too. When I want to listen to the radio, I just "exit" and select the station and return to AA display. Get to play/learn AA, I really recommend it... of course you can also use this to ask Google Assistant questions about weather, news, sport, set reminders, sent text messages - and of course it will read out received messages for you too. I wouldn't say it is perfect, the interface is specifically restricted to avoid distractions when driving - and I would like to be able to make my own settings in the interface, but it is under constant development and will get better and better. Good luck!

It would be interesting to see how this works for you. From memory and many years ago now, I thought it did work - BUT the Sync3 would regularly want to re-index the content on the iPod, which would take time and be very annoying. In the end I moved off from an iPod and just used a USB drive, which was way faster to manage and change content on etc. It was so long ago, and I can't remember what the issues were - but I went to the USB in the end, and rarely use that now it's basically all online!

We solved the issue, which was to do with a SYNC2 software update not updating SYNC3 - the Ford website had two downloads, one for a SYNC2 vehicle and the other for a SYNC3 vehicle... problem solved when the correct download was used - so great result in the end!

Hi Andy, yes no problem - I can do that now.

Something is wrong with either the main zip file you are working with, or in how it is being unzipped. How are you unzipping? Actually, all you need to do is to use Windows Explorer to unzip the files. Best way to do that is to double-click on the zip file itself and see how Windows Explorer expands whats in the zipfile just like you are browsing a normal directory. You should be able to continue and click into the SyncMyRide folder also, and I am sure you should see the files as per my screenshot, not as per your screenshot! Hopefully you agree! Select all those files and click copy - then go to your USB SyncMyRide folder and paste. Now delete all those rogue .cab and .zip files that shouldn't be there; and I am hoping you now have something closer to our good screenshots, with just the .gz files remaining. You actually even leave those rogue files there - as SYNC is only going to look for the files that are listed in the autoinstall file anyway. I hope I have described this clearly enough.