I really want to remain a ford guy and I love everything about the Focus EXCEPT the horribly buggy sync / MFT system. I Have a 64 GB PNY USB memory stick which has most of my music collection. About 12,000 songs and 63 GB. Every time I select it it says, "indexing USB device". It takes about 3 hours for it to finish. Sometimes when it finishes it is good for a few days, other times it starts indexing from scratch as soon as it completes! I know there have been threads and this issue has been discussed before, but I have yet to come across a solution.
I know some of you are going to say that maybe my drive isn't supported, but I have tried a sandisk 128 GB and had the same problem! One of the main reasons I was looking forward to this MFT system is to have most of my music collection at my fingertips and never mess with cd's again (except to rip them). Yes, all my music is organized in one folder, and I have played with turning gracenote management on and off, and cover art priority between gracenote and files. I have performed a master reset multiple times. I am on version 3.0.2
I would suggest experimenting by limiting the total number of songs and/or total number of songs in one folder. At least you may find an answer as to what triggers this problem.
The one thing everybody in a similar thread agreed on is that sync has trouble indexing a library with music in multiple folders, and the best thing you can do is have all tracks in the same directory. And I don't really want (some) of my music in the car, I want all 12,000 or so tracks. Thanks for the suggestion anyway though
I have an 8GB USB drive and whenever MFT v3.0.2 would go into it's never-ending indexing loop, re-inserting the USB stick would shorten that time down to a minute or less.
I am using folders to organize my collection but they're no more than four deep. Also, there's nothing on it but .mp3 files.
I have tried pulling out my drive and re-inserting it, all it does is start over indexing. It indexes about 1000 songs every 20 minutes. Why could it be going so slow? The files are AAC and MP3
It could be some tagging errors, especially with a library that large. If you haven't already tried it, run syncmyitunes which will catch the easy errors.
If that doesn't work, try Media Monkey or MusicBrainz or another media manager which will do an even more thorough job in identifying errors in the media.
Things like unicode and left over hidden files (usually from Apple) can also cause problems.
Basically, you want to give your music library a good scrubbing.
I had to use MusicBrainz back when I got my car and went through and checked and cleaned every tag manually, it was painstaking. Good news though is it solved the problem. It seems just one bad tag and it can throw the system into chaos (chaos being the endless indexing). Best of luck!
I have 16GB of music on a 32GB thumb-drive with a folder for each artist and a sub folder for each album. I have indexing turned OFF and have had no problems using voice commands to play by artist or by album.
I just wanted to jump in to clarify some information. In order to give voice commands for a certain artist, track, album, or genre, the system must completely index all your files.
During this process, SYNC will play already indexed media if Autoplay is on. However, voice recognition is not available for the media until the indexing process is complete. With Autoplay ON, SYNC allows you to listen to music which has already been randomly indexed during the indexing process. With this feature OFF, SYNC will not begin to play any of your music until all media has all been indexed. The system only needs to completely index once, unless you've added new music or performed a Master Reset.
You can give the commands AUTOPLAY ON and AUTOPLAY OFF for this.
If you're experiencing issues, I recommend running Sync My iTunes like JessicaTi suggested. The application can be found under the SYNC UPDATES tab when logged into your SYNC Owner account.
The only way the system will not index is if you're connected through an auxiliary jack.
If anyone has additional question, please send me a PM.
I sync my 4g iPod touch via USB to a Sync system in my 2013 Focus SE.
Yesterday, voice prompt unexpectedly said "index full" blah blah. From there...endless "indexing" on the screen...while no songs were accessible. [?|] 1st time this one has happened. There have been other sync problem where no playlist commands were accepted...but 1st time for the indexing mess. Once again, Microsoft programming incompetence rears its ugly head. [screwy][screwy][screwy]
At first, I tried sync my iTunes...and in typical fashion the app did not change a thing, except my waiting 30 minutes for the slow search to complete. Prompts about what was changing were of absolutely no help/guidance. [bash]
Then I remembered my 2013 Focus mantra for Sync - pull the fuses and you never loses. [thumb] Did it (Focus Passenger Fuse panel no. 67 (2nd col from left/3rd down) and 72 (3rd col from left, 6 down). Once I put the fuses back, the system didn't even have to index. It just started playing my playlist without issue.
If I post what I really want to say I might get banned here...so draw your own conclusions. Again...pull the fuses and you never loses. [thankyou]
Adding to my post of Sept 2013...I'm thrilled I have only 10 months left on the Focus lease. [clap][clap][clap]. Equally thrilled Ford has finally decided that perhaps SYNC is not so good an idea after all. [gunfire][gunfire][gunfire]
The SYNC system is the absolute worst I have ever encountered in a car system (based on a myriad of rental cars I've used with the same iPod 4G from my Focus during my travels). Random occurrences of "autoplay not available for this device", endless "indexing", or "speech commands not available" have become far too frequent. [chair] Pulling fuses is the easiest way out of these loops. And I'm tired of pulling fuses to get the system to work with my 4th generation iPod Touch. [rant]
I really like the Focus and hope the next model year (by 1/16) offers a more reliable sound system. Otherwise, I'll be looking to lease something other than a Ford.
I have issues with my 128 GB USB Drive from time to time (figured I'd resurrect this thread instead of starting a new one).
The main issue isn't the occasional re-indexing (this happens ever 5-6 ignition cycles and usually doesn't effect playback). What is an issue is when SYNC has a problem reading the USB when you first turn the car on. It seems like if after 5 seconds it can't find the last song you had playing it throws out the index, and reindexes the whole drive from scratch (like you just plugged it in fresh).
In the summer, this happens maybe once every 2-3 months. However once it gets cold (especially when it's under 20 degrees) the damn thing does it nearly every time. It's really annoying that the system gives up so quickly at reading the USB drive and begins a new re-index.
I have 8100 songs, 600 albums and 130 playlists so it takes FOREVER for it to re-index (anywhere from 2 to 10 minutes depending on how "much" Sync thinks it needs to re-index).
My question is, has anyone else noticed this temperature disparity? And has anyone found a solution.
I'm happy I have XM because when my USB drive re-indexes it plays the SAME track every time, and frankly I'm sick of that track (so I have to switch inputs until it is done indexing).
Mine just started this indexing crap, I don't have much music on my iphone but do use pandora a lot via usb. Gonna try the fuse fix.
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