iPod classic endless indexing

[Ldf150king]

My vehicle is a 2019 F150 King Ranch.  Over the last few months my iPod classic has been in non stop indexing mode.  Disconnecting / reconnecting doesn’t fix.  Resetting media device also doesn’t work.  To change play list, genre, etc. I need to disconnect the device, manually change it then plug it back in.  Since it’s indexing voice commands do not work and trying to manually change playlists, etc., also doesn’t work.  I get the message “Browsing not available while indexing device’” or something to that effect”.  I also have an issue where roughly 5 to 10 minutes after starting the vehicle the media player stops playing for like 5 to 10 seconds then starts playing again either the same track or skips to a totally different track.  This happens after every single start up.  I’m at my wits end with this thing. Any suggestions on a fix will be greatly appreciated.  In general I find Sync 3 completely buggy and unreliable in many areas.  I can’t download any apps at all and after numerous attempts and I finally gave up trying.  It’s like a huge worthless brick in the dashboard of my $70.000.00  vehicle.  Sync 1 in my 2015 F150 was 10X more reliable than Sync 3.

[asteele]

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

[bbf2530]

3 hours ago, Ldf150king said:

My vehicle is a 2019 F150 King Ranch.  Over the last few months my iPod classic has been in non stop indexing mode.  Disconnecting / reconnecting doesn’t fix.  Resetting media device also doesn’t work.  To change play list, genre, etc. I need to disconnect the device, manually change it then plug it back in.  Since it’s indexing voice commands do not work and trying to manually change playlists, etc., also doesn’t work.  I get the message “Browsing not available while indexing device’” or something to that effect”.  I also have an issue where roughly 5 to 10 minutes after starting the vehicle the media player stops playing for like 5 to 10 seconds then starts playing again either the same track or skips to a totally different track.  This happens after every single start up.  I’m at my wits end with this thing. Any suggestions on a fix will be greatly appreciated.  In general I find Sync 3 completely buggy and unreliable in many areas.  I can’t download any apps at all and after numerous attempts and I finally gave up trying.  It’s like a huge worthless brick in the dashboard of my $70.000.00  vehicle.  Sync 1 in my 2015 F150 was 10X more reliable than Sync 3.

 

Hi Ldf. Loading your music onto a mini flash drive, as asteele mentioned, would be a good idea. I did it

 

However, it could also be hardware or software problem. Possibly a bad APIM or other issue. It is aggravating, but it happens. Therefore, you should make an appointment to have it checked next time you have your F-150 in for service.

 

Let us know how you make out and good luck.

[Multitask]

iPod classic is very old....  time to get new, or use USB stick...  ? one

[asteele]

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.

[Ldf150king]

Asteele thanks so much for the explanation.  What’s crazy though is that it worked fine the first 6 months I had the truck.  That really sucks.  I have 2 classics that I maintain a 7000 song library on both and both still work flawlessly.  I can even use them over Bluetooth with modern Bluetooth adapters that plug in to the headphone jack.  So.... to your point it looks like I’ll now need to spend hours duplicating my library and downloading it to a USB drive.  Then what used to be an easy sync with iTunes to add / maintain the library will also be a more time consuming process.  I guess I’ll search for some music management software to see if there’s an easy way to do this.  So on the iPod you can search music by artist, playlist, genre, etc. and sync presents you with all of those same options.  The USB drive would not have an interface like the iPod so how does the music show up on sync?  Does it appear as just a bunch of individual artist or playlist folders depending on how you loaded it ?  Does sync still give you the option to shuffle or continuous play the songs on the drive and if so would it do that within an individual folder or over the entire collection on the drive?  Sorry for all of the questions but I just don’t understand how this would work without sync reading a device that’s doing all of that music management work in the background like the iPod does.  Thanks !

[asteele]

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.

[Ldf150king]

5 hours ago, bbf2530 said:

 

Hi Ldf. Loading your music onto a mini flash drive, as asteele mentioned, would be a good idea. I did it

 

However, it could also be hardware or software problem. Possibly a bad APIM or other issue. It is aggravating, but it happens. Therefore, you should make an appointment to have it checked next time you have your F-150 in for service.

 

Let us know how you make out and good luck.

Thanks bbf.  I’ll likely end up going the flash drive route as well.  I thought about having the dealer check it out but to be honest I have very little faith in the dealer being able diagnose and fix sync related problems.  The last 2 Ford trucks I’ve purchased I seemed to know more about sync than the sales and service people did.  It’s really sad. 

[Ldf150king]

16 minutes ago, asteele said:

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.

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 !

 

[asteele]

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.

 

 

 

[Ldf150king]

7 hours ago, asteele said:

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.

 

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.     

[bbf2530]

8 hours ago, asteele said:

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.

 

 

 

 

Hi asteele. Just my personal experience regarding purchased iTunes music: I can drag & drop purchased music files from iTunes to my mini USB drive, and play them in my car.

 

Good luck.

Edited February 24, 2020 by bbf2530

[bbf2530]

Hi Ldf. Once you develop a system that works for you, it is not all that hard to transfer your music files and folders from iTunes/your computer, over to a USB drive.

 

Here is mine (excuse the way it may read, not feeling well this morning): Create a folder on your computer. For the sake of discussion, let's say you name yours "F-150 music" (I named mine "MKZ music", after my car). Drag and drop, in entirety, all your music files/folders/playlists from iTunes into the "F-150 music" folder on your computer. Obviously, any non-compatible file formats will not play on your SYNC 3 system, so change them over beforehand to a compatible format.

 

Purchase a large capacity mini-USB drive, and following the instructions for SYNC 3, create whatever music folders you wish on it. Once you have done that, copy (en masse) your music from the "F-150 music file on your computer over to your mini USB drive and into whatever folders/playlists you like.

 

In the future, to add/sync music which you purchase or obtain, simply copy the new music to your "F-150 music" folder on your computer. Then periodically plug your mini USB into your computer and copy the contents of the "F-150 music" folder on your computer over to the mini USB drive. It will then leave the old music alone and add the new. Plus, if you ever lose your mini-USB drive, you will always have a copy of your music files on your computer, ready to directly copy over to a new USB.

 

While I am sure there are better ways to do all of this, this is the system i worked out for myself. After the initial few hours it will take to transfer everything from iTunes, to computer, to mini USB, it actually works quite well.

 

I am also sure my explanation is somewhat confusing, rather simplified, and I probably left out something or another that was important. I will read it over when I'm feeling better, and clarify if necessary.

 

Hope this may help and good luck.

Edited February 25, 2020 by bbf2530

[Ldf150king]

20 hours ago, bbf2530 said:

Hi Ldf. Once you develop a system that works for you, it is not all that hard to transfer your music files and folders from iTunes/your computer, over to a USB drive.

 

Here is mine (excuse the way it may read, not feeling well this morning): Create a folder on your computer. For the sake of discussion, let's say you name yours "F-150 music" (I named mine "MKZ music", after my car). Drag and drop, in entirety, all your music files/folders/playlists from iTunes into the "F-150 music" folder on your computer. Obviously, any non-compatible file formats will not play on your SYNC 3 system, so change them over beforehand to a compatible format.

 

Purchase a large capacity mini-USB drive and following the instructions for SYNC 3, create whatever music folders you wish on it. Once you have done that, copy (en masse) your music from the "F-150 music file on your computer over to your mini USB drive and into whatever folders/playlists you like.

 

In the future, to add/sync music which you purchase or obtain, simply copy the new music to your "F-150 music" folder on your computer. Then periodically plug your mini USB into your computer and copy the contents of the "F-150 music" folder on your computer over to the mini USB drive. It will then leave the old music alone and add the new.

 

While I am sure there are better ways to do all of this, this is the system i worked out for myself. After the initial few hours it will take to transfer everything from iTunes, to computer, to mini USB, it actually works quite well.

 

I am also sure my explanation is somewhat confusing, rather simplified, and I probably left out something or another that was important. I will read it over when I'm feeling better, and clarify if necessary.

 

Hope this may help and good luck.

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.

[bbf2530]

2 hours ago, Ldf150king said:

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.

 

Hi Ldf. Not sure if you were asking me about the iPod and Master Reset. It was asteele that had the iPod indexing problem similar to yours.

 

Good luck.

Edited February 25, 2020 by bbf2530

[Ldf150king]

5 hours ago, bbf2530 said:

 

Hi Ldf. Not sure if you were asking me about the iPod and Master Reset. It was asteele that had the iPod indexing problem similar to yours.

 

Good luck.

You are correct.  My apologies.

[bbf2530]

6 minutes ago, Ldf150king said:

You are correct.  My apologies.

 

 

Hi Ldf. No need for apologies. Just did not want you waiting for a reply from me. Also figured I would point it out so maybe asteele will jump back in and answer you. ?

 

Keep us updated on your USB transfers and good luck. ?

Edited February 25, 2020 by bbf2530

[Ldf150king]

On 2/23/2020 at 5:48 PM, asteele said:

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.

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!

[asteele]

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.

[asteele]

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

[Ldf150king]

9 minutes ago, asteele said:

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

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 ! 

[Multitask]

Can you test the Classic in another vehicle?

Might be of some help to know if it's the Sync version, Ipod version, or Ford vehicle.  ?

[Ldf150king]

3 minutes ago, Multitask said:

Can you test the Classic in another vehicle?

Might be of some help to know if it's the Sync version, Ipod version, or Ford vehicle.  ?

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. 

[Multitask]

Probably ios6 , anyways... any updates to the Sync? if not, then it could be it's starting to fail... OR... it's getting full..  OR.. Sync is getting full of how many it has to index....

 

I have the recent touch 128G, and so far it's good....

[Ldf150king]

41 minutes ago, Multitask said:

Probably ios6 , anyways... any updates to the Sync? if not, then it could be it's starting to fail... OR... it's getting full..  OR.. Sync is getting full of how many it has to index....

 

I have the recent touch 128G, and so far it's good....

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 ☹️