iPod / USB Interface Problems and solutions

[geosho]

Like some on this forum, I have had problems with my iPod / USB interface on my 2014 CX-5 Touring with Bose Audio Package. For reference, my iPod is an iPod Touch Gen2, ModelA1288, 8GB model. For the first week I owned the CX, the iPod worked fine, albeit taking about 2 minutes to read upon startup before it would start playing. All menus, artists, albums, playlist worked fine. Then after a week, it would go into an endless cycle of "iPod Reading", but never start playing, regardless of whether starting it from switching from FM, AM, Bluetooth, Pandora or from iPod itself, as some have recommended on this forum. Unplugging and plugging back in the iPod did not work either. Using the Bluetooth would work, but no menus or other info would come up; you would have to look at the iPod Touch screen itself to select artists, albums, playlists and select songs. The 3.5mm connector did not work at all.

After much frustration, I hooked my iPod Touch back up to my computer and connected with my iTunes account. In the menu, I selected "restore factory defaults" for my iPod Touch, but chose to keep the existing songs on it. I then let the iPod sync with my iTunes account. When I tried the iPod again this morning in the CX, it worked fine, just like it did originally!

Just putting out there a suggested remedy for those who are experiencing problem with their iPod / USB interface: Restore your iPod to its factory defaults without erasing your existing songs on it. It worked for me.

I will update as time goes on to confirm whether it still works or whether future problems occur. the problem is, I do not know why it stopped working to begin with. Perhaps unplugging the iPod while it was still playing and damaging some data or who knows for sure?

 

[TreyP]

When you shut the car off, it resumes where it left off next time you start the car (after more than 10 seconds)?

 

[garyd9]

I can tell you that this doesn't work for non-iOS devices such as the iPod 5th generation or iPod classic (6th/7th gen.) As well as resetting the settings, I've even gone so far as to completely "restore" the iPod (which is basically reformatting it) and then only putting 4 songs on it (split over 2 playlists.)

 

[Pokerdork]

The 3.5mm connector did not work at all.

Wait, what? That's an analog connection, and it doesn't work? Ugh. Are you sure you're using the proper stereo cable? It should have two dark bands on the part that connects to the car, not one. One=mono. Two=stereo. Thanks!

 

[geosho]

To answer the follow up posts. the 2014 CX-5s do not resume the last song played at startup; they start with the first song in alphanumeric order on the iPod.

I do not know about the most recent generation iPods and whether this solution of restoring factory defaults to your iPod will work for the newest gen iPods, but it works for my Gen2 Ipod Touch, my earlier nano and my wife's gen 3 iPod Touch, at least so far.

I have the proper 3.5mm connector as it works for sound with my son's Sony DVD player, but not the iPod Touch.

 

[TreyP]

To answer the follow up posts. the 2014 CX-5s do not resume the last song played at startup; they start with the first song in alphanumeric order on the iPod.

Ok thanks, that's what I figured. For me, that was the biggest issue that I was having with the OEM head unit. Not working at all after switching modes was the 2nd biggest issue.

 

[garyd9]

Ok thanks, that's what I figured. For me, that was the biggest issue that I was having with the OEM head unit. Not working at all after switching modes was the 2nd biggest issue.

TreyP, did you have the playlist issue? (where the radio would play songs from outside the selected playlist)

 

[TreyP]

TreyP, did you have the playlist issue? (where the radio would play songs from outside the selected playlist)

No, that never happened to me. My 5th gen iPod would also load ~1200 songs in around 20 seconds. Starting at the first song every freakin' time though was driving me mad.

 

[garyd9]

No, that never happened to me. My 5th gen iPod would also load ~1200 songs in around 20 seconds. Starting at the first song every freakin' time though was driving me mad.

Okay, that's REALLY odd. 5th generation iPod from like 2006? What iPod? Normal iPod cable? How many playlists? What format was your music in (mp3 or aac)? Which firmware? Formatted by windows or mac?

I have a 5th gen 80GB iPod, firmware 1.3. I've tried in both Win and Mac formats. Loading ~3000 mp3 files takes 7 minutes. Loading a similar number of mp3's ALL downloaded from itunes (mostly all freebies) takes around the same time. Same test with a 5th generation 60GB iPod with the same firmware has identical results. When I use my iPod classic (160GB) with 150GB of music, it takes around 25 minutes to load. (That's my entire music collection, so mostly my own mp3's with about 35 GB of itune's MP3's and a handful of AAC files.)

I have a test iPod I've been using to repeat the problem at the dealership that the same 80GB iPod mentioned above with < 500 songs on it, spread over 4 playlists. On that iPod, I can, 100% of the time, select any but the first playlist and it'll play music only from the very first playlist. (It works fine if I select the song via the artist/album/genre selections.)

On another iPod with 30GB of music loaded (around 5000 songs), it seems to play a completely random track when I select anything from a playlist.

If you had the playlists working properly on a 2014 CX-5 with the touchscreen, I'm EXTREMELY curious what's different with mine. Before you pulled it out, did you happen to take a look at the firmware versions in the radio?

Here's a video (youtube) of what I'm experiencing with the playlists. Please pardon my mispronouncing the names of tracks in the video. The iPod attached in this video is the 80GB 5th gen iPod:

 

[TreyP]

Okay, that's REALLY odd. 5th generation iPod from like 2006? What iPod? Normal iPod cable? How many playlists? What format was your music in (mp3 or aac)? Which firmware? Formatted by windows or mac?

Maybe the reason I never noticed is that I would load a playlist and let it play without picking individual songs? Of course, every time I got in the car I would have to work my way back to that playlist and then navigate up to the song I was on last time manually.

It is an iPod nano, 5th gen. with a short 3" (or so) cable.
5 Playlists
1178 songs
The songs were all mp3, either ripped from CD, bought off amazon, or snagged from YouTube or LimeWire. Never bought from iTunes store, but always loaded to the iPod from iTunes application
I don't know the firmware, but I did try resetting the iPod back to factory, so not the latest by any stretch
All music is Windows format