Ldf150king

Several days ago Downloaded and installed the latest Map update (N1.19) for Sync3. The install was error free but since the update Sync Navigation voice commands are no longer recognized. All other voice commands still work fine. Also I’ve only used the navigation system 3 times since the update and all 3 times the map directions were screwed up. 2 times it put me on dead end dirt roads and I could not complete the trips without using google maps on my phone and the 3rd time it mapped out a course 1 hour longer than google maps, mapquest and several other navigation apps I checked out. So The new Map update is 0 for 3 and a piece of garbage. My old version worked much better. Right now I’d just like to at least get voice commands back. If anyone knows how to fix this please let me know. Thanks!

You might be better off. Several days ago I downloaded and installed the new map version (N1.19) for my F-150 and since the update Sync no longer recognizes voice navigation commands. Twice it’s taken me down dirt roads that were dead ends and on one trip it had me taking a route that was 1 hour longer to my destination versus the route every other navigation app in the world would select. Every time I put a new address in now I have to double check the accuracy on my phone with Google maps. It’s total garbage and I’d go back to the previous version if I didn’t want to waste more HOURS of my life screwing around with it.

Right now the iPod is working out okay but this might definitely be a good future option. It looks like it would do a lot of the heavy lifting in organizing / structuring the media to play nicely with the existing Sync structure or in other words plugging in my media device would be just like plugging in my iPod. If the application works as advertised the price isn’t bad either for a lifetime permanent license. Thanks for the info!

Ah yes. Media or audio source changes on occasion when starting the vehicle OR in the case of a media player, iPod in my case, Sync will on occasion automatically disconnect the media player when starting the vehicle which requires unplugging and resetting the media device itself then plugging back in where Sync will again recognize it and re-index the device. I've been experiencing this BS in the last 2 F150 trucks I've owned, my 2015 Sync 1 version up to my current 2019 Sync 3. There's no rhyme or reason to it and I just gave up spending countless hours trying to figure it out and the times I've contacted Ford about it over the years they don't have a clue either. I simply came to the conclusion that Sync has certain bugs that either don't rank high enough for Ford to fix or they simply don't know how to fix them. Either way it's very frustrating to say the least.

Yes I think I follow you and it means a whole lot more trial and error I think, especially if I need to manipulate the playlist files since I have many playlists. Given the amount of time I’d need to spend on this just for Sync to present me with a playlist option on the menu and the fact the classic is working again I think I’ll just take the easy way out on my plan B. That is just manually create the playlist folders in the drive and drop the MP3s in to their respective playlist folder on the drive. The “Explore” device command on sync will show me all of the playlist folders and I can manually select accordingly. When you initially said you spent 1000 hours arranging all of your music I just thought well I’m sure it took a lot of time but he’s way over exaggerating. Now I know better ? Again, can’t thank you enough for your help on this.

Thanks Asteele. So..... after going through all of this I happened to sync new music to the ipod classic yesterday, plugged in to Sync and no change. Then I went to general settings in Sync > Media devices > Reset Indexing. A warning came up stating all previous indexing would be cleared for the device. I ignored the warning, unplugged the ipod, plugged back in and within about 5 min indexing successfully completed. Unbelievable because I had tried that before and nothing ! So then I drove the vehicle. Parked it for awhile and when I restarted it the thing indexed again but again successfully completed in a few minutes. The next start and stop it did not re-index and all was still good with the music. Absolutely no rhyme or reason to it. So, it's working again but who knows for how long so I think I'll still pursue putting the music on a flash drive as my plan B. On the playlist issue I think I follow you. For example there are online instructions on how to export iTunes playlist to USB Drive and that's what I did. Started iTunes. Clicked on a playlist >file > Library > Export Playlist > Save as M3U file. I saved that file to the USB drive at the top directory level. I did not place it in any folder on the drive. If I look at the file using notepad it has the exact same structure as the file structure you show in your post starting at the very top with #EXTM3U followed by all of the other song file info just as you had shown. However it's not clear to me if that file is a compressed file that actually contains the song MP3 audio files themselves or if it just dictates that particular MP3 song title is part of that playlist ? I'm thinking it's the latter because the file size is only like 16Kb. As a result I also drug and dropped that actual song MP3s for that playlist on to the drive as well but again at the top directory level and not in any folders thinking the playlist file would just associate with the MP3 audio files on the drive and Sync would sort it all out but of course that wasn't the case. I'll try what you recommended, first doing a "Reset Indexing" on the drive through Sync and if that doesn't work rename the drive. Am I taking the right approach though by dumping the actual MP3 files on to the drive along with the M3U playlist file associated with those MP3s or do I need to create some kind of folder structure on the drive to put the files in ? Thanks for all your help / patience !

So a Sync reset and still no fix. As a result I experimented a bit with a flash drive. I opened iTunes and did a drag and drop of 10 songs each from 2 different playlists in to the flash drive folder. Plugged the drive in to the truck and it indexed immediately given the small track volume on the drive. All of the song titles show up with album names and the album artwork displays as well when the tracks are playing. Voice commands also work when requesting song title, artist and album. The only thing I haven't figured out though is how to get sync to recognize playlists. The Sync menu shows no "Playlist" selection option. I exported the playlist file out of iTunes in to the drive folder and that didn't work. I also tried manually creating playlist folders within the drive folder and dropping the tracks within those playlist folders but Sync still doesn't present a "Playlist" selection option. I can select "Explore Device" which then lets me see the manually created playlists and the song tracks within them and I can select "play all" from there which would then play all tracks within that folder. I'd love to figure out how to solve this and I've tried several things I've read on line but no luck yet so that might be as good as it's going to get. It's not a major deal getting to the manually created playlist folders via the Sync "Explore Device" option but doing it this way does inhibit you from being able to call-up a playlist by using use voice commands.

I think there was only 1 sync update since I purchased the truck back in July and the iPod was still working fine after that. I know the iPod isn’t failing. I use it outside of the vehicle on occasion with no problems and it still syncs with iTunes error free. As for the song volume to index Sync 3 literature says it can handle up to 50,000 songs and I’m close to 7,000 so that shouldn’t be an issue. Bottom line, if the Sync master reset doesn’t work I too will be joining the flash drive club. I just hate to think of all the time I’ll need to spend duplicating the iPod content and structure on the drive ☹️

Good point. I’m going to try the reset 1st. If that works then problem solved. If not I’ll try it in the wife’s vehicle. If it doesn’t work there then likely the iPod. I really don’t think the iPod is the issue though. For one thing Apple hasn’t released a software update for the classic in ages and as stated in a previous post the device indexed and worked perfectly fine the first 5 months I’ve had the vehicle. I’ll report back to the forum after the reset with my results. I appreciate the suggestion.

Understand. I might give the reset a try as a last resort before going the flash drive route. If that doesn’t work you and bbf provided plenty of info on the forum here to get me up and running with a USB flash drive and for that I thank you !

Asteele, out of curiosity did you try a master reset on your Sync 3 before finally giving up on your iPod ? I was on chat with a Ford rep yesterday taking one last shot at a Ford solution and the rep suggested trying a new USB cable and as a last resort do a Sync 3 master reset. She also confirmed to me that iPod classic is still showing up as a compatible media device for Sync 3. Having said that it wouldn’t be the first time someone at Ford gave me bad information but I was curious to know if you did try the reset. Thanks!

You are correct. My apologies.

Thanks for this info. It’s very helpful. Just out of curiosity before scrapping the iPod and going to the flash drive did you try a master reset on sync to see if that would fix the problems with the iPod ? In chatting with a rep on the Ford owners page yesterday she told me that iPod classic is still recognized as a compatible device with sync 3. She recommended trying a new USB cable in addition to performing a master reset on sync.

Well that's about 80% of my 7,000 song collection LOL! I have software that will convert the iTunes files back to straight up MP3s. Maybe running all of the files through that software 1st would avoid having to burn everything to CD. If not I'll probably just leave it as is where I have to disconnect the ipod, manually select what I want to play then plug it back in. The Sync features will still be worthless but at least it will still play the music. The last thing I might try is hooking up my Bluetooth adapter to the ipod and playing the music via Bluetooth in the truck. I would still need to manually select music on the ipod but at least I wouldn't need to disconnect and connect all of the time. Can't thank you enough for all of the time you spent sharing your experience with me on this issue. I really appreciate it.

Interesting. Well I guess I’ll just experiment with it to get the look and feel of it and go from there. All of my files are in iTunes and are very organized containing all of the complete / correct info regarding artist, genre, artwork, etc. I spend a great deal of time in remote areas with no cell or internet service so streaming music isn’t a good option for me so I need to try and make this work I guess. Sorry but one more question. All of the music files in my iTunes library have a file extension of .m4a which I think iTunes assigns by default. Would I have to convert all of these to MP3s before loading them on to the flash drive ? Thanks !