ben senise

i think we may have a confusion of terminology going on here. arent's sync 2 and sync 3 two different products running on different hardware? i am under the belief that you cannot upgrade from sync 2 to 3 just by putting the files on a usb stick. i think my '16 edge had sync 3 with a version 2.x from the factory. then i updated the files to the lastest version of 3.x. is this what you're trying to do @T-MaxEnergi? if you're having problems updating from a USB stick, make sure you're using a USB 2, not USB 3 stick. yes, 2 is older but 3 doesn't appear to work well. there are many posts about that on this and other forums.

it's possible that your phone has a problem but i would still pursue the cable issue a tiny bit more. if i search for "approved usb-c cables" i find a couple of articles like: https://www.androidcentral.com/best-usb-c-cables-adapters https://www.androidauthority.com/best-usb-type-c-cables-682801/ there was a guy named Benson Leung, who i believe was a google engineer or something, who did research and testing on these cables since there were so many issues a couple of years ago. the most effective way of testing a system is to try individual components of a non-working system on a known working system. i.e. my system works so if we took your phone and plugged it into my system and it didn't work, then we can be pretty much certain that it's your phone. if it does work. then we take your cable and plug it into my car and use my phone. it would be ideal to find someone near you with a working system. might be difficult but it's a sure thing. i assume your old phone did not have a USB-C cable, right? the problem there is that you are trying a new phone and a new cable so we can't be sure of which one is causing the problem. if you do decide to swap phones, the pixel phones are pretty decent and there are some good deals on the 3 now since the 4 will be out in a few months. plus, being pixels, they run pure android and get updates immediately upon release. good luck. i know how frustrating these problems are.

i had connectivity problems with my Pixel 2XL and it turned out to be the cable. Even the one that came with the phone didn't work. there were quite a few discussions on the interwebs about many of the cables not being usable. your cable might be a charge-only cable. try searching for info on bad USB=C cables that don't conform to specs and find one that does. i bought one that was up to par and the problem was solved immediately. USB-C cables are not all the same.

i also have a '16 and that problem bugs me as well. i have found that if i manually turn off the unit by pressing the power button on the volume dial before shutting off the engine, it keeps its setting.

i think it's time to find a new ford dealer. this one is obviously not knowledgeable. the automatic wifi update does not work for many people so the only way to update is manually with a USB stick. yes, VIN is used to determine what hardware your car has and thus the appropriate version of software. if your car is 2017, then it is even newer than mine and I have v3. if you log onto that website i mentioned above, it will tell you if it has a newer version for you or not. it's that simple. have a look at that website.

that is very bizarre that you have no media tile. i just checked my car and actually turned off the gracenote info for local media because it was showing the wrong info for one artist. no big deal as i usually listen to spotify these days. you can do it yourself. get it from https://owner.ford.com/ be sure to use a USB 2 stick, not USB 3. yes, 2 is older but the 3 won't work for some reason. let us know how it goes.

are you aware that you can swipe left and right on the settings page with all the tiles? i have two pages, one of them with the "media settings" tile and that's where the gracenote settings are. also, v2 of sync3 is old. i have v3. maybe you should try and update your unit first. that might fix it.

what if your car doesn't have a modem? my sync shows gracenote info and my 2016 edge doesn't have a modem. and the OP states that their 2011 F350 shows the info and i would guess that it doesn't have a modem.

if the OP isn't connecting their phone and using data then maybe the gracenote switch should be off? my thinking is that if the gracenote choice is on, and sync can't get the info, it displays nothing. if it's off, then it will read the CD info. just a thought.

i think by "vintage" he just means the year, like wine. in any case, i have CDs from the very beginning and they have the album info on them. i think it was part of the standards for CD (orange book?) ford, or any other company for that matter, will always tell you that it's normal behavior because the agents are lazy forks and don't give a ship. i would imagine that the system in your car is the same as in other fords with sync 3 and it should show the meta data. there must be a setting somewhere. what do you see on the screen when a disc is playing? on a different note, why not just rip all of your CDs onto a USB stick? then you have all of them and don't have to deal with swapping physical discs and leaving them in a hot car.

yes, in theory you need that on for automatic updates but they are few and far between. better off just downloading the updates onto a USB stick and doing it manually.

what are the messages? if there's one asking you to connect to wifi, that can be turned off in the settings.

i wish i could help more but i think you're going to have to go to the dealer. if you just bought it used from a dealer, i would imagine that they have some sort of guarantee? good luck.

if the phone does not show as charging, then there's a problem. the way to test is to use a cable that is working on another charger or port, like on a computer. if the cable is working elsewhere, then it's the port on the car. perhaps try using another phone as well. i assume you're trying to pair the phone and sync. make sure bluetooth is turned on on both and then initiate the pairing procedure from sync. it should show on your phone under the bluetooth settings. you'll need to ok it. again, try with another phone as well to verify. re the headphone jack (AUX IN), make sure that the phone and cable work on another device. if they do, then it's sync that isn't working. have you checked the fuses? i don't know how the voice command is supposed to work in a 2015 car. i assume you've got sync 2?

are you sure that a 2015 model year should be able to stream from the phone via USB? i think that you can put a memory stick in the USB port and play from that. i don't us iOS but on my android, there is a setting for the phone to work in a mode that makes it behave like a USB drive turning it into a media source so you could use it like that. i think that will only allow you to play music files that are on the phone but not streaming services like spotify. another thing, can it stream via Bluetooth? i think that's the ticket. then you can control playback via the steering wheel buttons. plug it into the USB port for power so the phone doesn't discharge. hope that helps.

that is very strange. i'm just thinking out loud here; when your wife's message pops up on the screen, does it get marked to "read" (i.e. that it has been read)? maybe if the first message isn't read, then it won't display any more? do you have that little envelope on the top right corner of your screen? is the envelope open or closed? if it's open, meaning all messages have been read, and your wife's first message comes along, it displays. then, if it's not getting read, sync won't display the following messages? or, as benk016 says above, it could be a setting in the messaging app. when you reply to her message(s) on your phone, do you see SMS or MMS right next to the paper airplane icon where you type your text? is it different from one message to the next? i'm using Google's Message app v4.1.067. Under settings/advanced/chat features there's a setting "Use data for messaging when available." i would think that this wouldn't impact the display but you never know. maybe try turning that off?

no.

yes, my pixel 2 also said bluetooth has disconnected but after i got a better cable, i never had that problem again. i know cable and bluetooth are two different things but somehow, somewhere, there's a relationship. you need a better cable.

my thought is that there must be a technical difference between the messages from your wife and other messages. so the questions that come to my mind are: do you use the same app for all of your texting? is there a chance that the wife's texts are coming through one app and all other texts through another? are the texts from your wife plain SMS or perhaps MSS? i'm not sure if MSS messages pop up on Sync3.

I had a similar problem with my setup. the culprit was a bad USB cable. there are various articles around the web that list cables that are good and not good. i don't mean that the cable is broken. it seems that the technical specs of the cable aren't good enough. i bought one of the recommended cables on amazon and have never had the problem again. [edit to add] the problems i had were with a google pixel, then pixel 2 phone which both use the USB C connector. I think the cable issue is only for the C type connectors. also, i have an issue with pocket lint gathering in the socket of the phone and thus doesn't let the plug go all the way in which also makes for an unstable connection. a simple solution is to take something very fine and non-conductive to carefully extract any lint from the phone every few months. i shave a wooden toothpick down with a razor knife so that it's flat.

no, disconnecting the battery will not revert the firmware version.

i find that diagnostic very dubious. if a system is slow, it's because it's doing something else at the same time. are you using car play or android auto? is your phone connected? do you have navigation? is your sync set up to update automatically over wifi? do you have the latest version sync? (check https://owner.ford.com/) if i were in your situation, i would go through the settings and turn things off and/or change things to see if that made any difference.

is the phone number that is stored in sync updated to include the extra characters? i think that when you use sync to dial via bluetooth, it uses the info that has been copied to it from the phone whereas when you use android auto or carplay with a cable, it's actually the phone that is being displayed on the sync screen. not sure if this makes sense. if it doesn't, i can try to explain in a different way. maybe delete your phone book info on sync and then get it to copy (download) your phone book data from your phone again?

yay! glad you got everything working. what do you mean by the radio not muting? not muting when the nav gives you verbal directions? if so, it should. i think there's a setting for that. in google maps, there's a setting for playing the nav instructions over bluetooth. sync should let that sound override the radio. i'm sure if you poke around in sync and/or android, you can fix that.

once sync copies the update from the usb stick to the car, it takes a while to actually install. i remember doing it and not seeing the updated version even after the display showed that it had completed. i had dinner and when i went back to the garage, it had updated. it isn't instant. have a look in the morning. it's not likely that you got the non-nav version if you entered your VIN on the website. do you see the android auto button and settings now? i have found this whole experience to be a bit weak on ford's part. we shouldn't have to jump through these hoops. it should "just work."