How to burn a MP3 CD with iTunes for the 2012 Ford Focus with the Sony Audio System.

[thosw]

After numerous futile efforts I stumbled across this solution that works.

The Solution: create a Smart Playlist in iTunes, fill it up and sort on artist or album. Create a new Standard Playlist in iTunes. Select all songs from the first (Smart) playlist and drag them to the second (Standard) playlist. DO NOT sort on anything in the Standard Playlist. The second list retains the sort order of the first one, without any activated sort order in the playlist itself.

Burn the MP3 CD in iTunes.

The Result: a 'flat' CD. 

It seems that as soon as you sort a playlist on anything in iTunes, any MP3 CD burned from that list results in neatly organized MP3 CDs that are unfortunately unreadable by the 2012 Ford Focus Sony CD/MP3 player. Only fresh, unsorted playlists result in all files on the first level of the CD.

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[Pendarus]

Originally Posted by thosw

After numerous futile efforts I stumbled across this solution that works.

The Solution: create a Smart Playlist in iTunes, fill it up and sort on artist or album. Create a new Standard Playlist in iTunes. Select all songs from the first (Smart) playlist and drag them to the second (Standard) playlist. DO NOT sort on anything in the Standard Playlist. The second list retains the sort order of the first one, without any activated sort order in the playlist itself.

Burn the MP3 CD in iTunes.

The Result: a 'flat' CD. 

It seems that as soon as you sort a playlist on anything in iTunes, any MP3 CD burned from that list results in neatly organized MP3 CDs that are unfortunately unreadable by the 2012 Ford Focus Sony CD/MP3 player. Only fresh, unsorted playlists result in all files on the first level of the CD.

I manually sort using drag and drop. It comes out fine every time.

[thosw]

Originally Posted by Pendarus

I manually sort using drag and drop. It comes out fine every time.

The key then is to avoid any automated sort of your playlist for the Sony system in the Focus.

I can do anything I want to a playlist and the resulting MP3 disc will work flawlessly in my wife's BMW 328i.

[hotleadsingerguy]

Oooor just drop them on a USB stick and plug it in.

Get a high-capacity USB stick and throw all of your music on it. Right now I have a 32GB Corsair Survivor USB3.0 stick that works wonderfully but is about 300MB from full capacity. About to buy the 64GB version and let it fly. It's also borderline indestructible, waterproof, and looks sweet. I bring it inside, drop any new music on it in 5 sec, and then plug it back into the car. Normally it stays plugged in and I have all of my music with me at all times.

[jdubhack]

Originally Posted by hotleadsingerguy

oooor just drop them on a usb stick and plug it in.

Get a high-capacity usb stick and throw all of your music on it. Right now i have a 32gb corsair survivor usb3.0 stick that works wonderfully but is about 300mb from full capacity. About to buy the 64gb version and let it fly. It's also borderline indestructible, waterproof, and looks sweet. I bring it inside, drop any new music on it in 5 sec, and then plug it back into the car. Normally it stays plugged in and i have all of my music with me at all times.

^^that^^

[forceflow2]

Originally Posted by hotleadsingerguy

Oooor just drop them on a USB stick and plug it in.

Get a high-capacity USB stick and throw all of your music on it. Right now I have a 32GB Corsair Survivor USB3.0 stick that works wonderfully but is about 300MB from full capacity. About to buy the 64GB version and let it fly. It's also borderline indestructible, waterproof, and looks sweet. I bring it inside, drop any new music on it in 5 sec, and then plug it back into the car. Normally it stays plugged in and I have all of my music with me at all times.

This is really the best option (although dealing with the indexing every time you start the car is annoying) since MFT doesn't read tagged MP3s from CD's correctly. Something tells me that won't ever be fixed.