Good to hear!
Kinda. Your profile says 2024 Lariat so you have sync3, like me. Sync3 does this relatively ok as long as you don't have too many files and subfolders. A couple hundred are ok, 10,000 you'll have some serious issues. Load some music and try if you want. (I personally don't care and just pre-download songs and playlists in Spotify.)
Got any old Thumb Drives around ? Not sure about Older Sync 3 in the 22-24 Mav's but start with a smaller Thumb Drive No larger than 64gb (even smaller as a trial and learning tool). Format the Thumb Drive with exFat file system (You can name the Thumb Drive anything you want to make easier to find in your computer and in the Mav Radio.. Then
Is this a Maverick system limitation?
Really Don't know 100% on the Maverick. My older Ford Edge with early Sync3 variation 64gb was max I could get to work and only MP3 (FLAC wouldn't work). Also My older Sync 3 was not able to play SSD in a portable Drive Enclosure. What was strange I could use a portable enclosure with a standard Hard Drive (Spinning platter like in old Laptops) But leaving it in the car all the time the Heat gave the Hard Drive an early death. Gave up on trying and just got the largest Thumb Drive(s) that would work.
Mine scans 6500 files in a few minutes, at least most of the time it does. It seems to take forever if you remove the drive to make any changes to the files. It is so unpredictable. After changes, it absolutely throws fits, sometimes for 20+ minutes, and often requires multiple hard resets. It also decides not to recognize some (but not all) playlists after a few months, which requires re-loading everything. But yeah, the old Non-Sync3 system is horrible. That's the only thing I wish I could improve on my truck.
I already answered that. ford connected audio will index and play a few hundred files relatively ok. it will die on tens of thousands of files.
I'm in your Boat with paying for Subscription / streaming music services. I have a vast collection Music I have collected over the years and stored on my Home NAS.
But Spotify requires either Wifi or a Network Connection and if you have a cap on your Providers Network plan (like I do) you can eat it up fairly fast. With New Maverick I get Sirius XM for a year but I'm not really a fan as I have had it before. I don't do talk radio or sports etc. I actually had a funky hack with Sirius back in around 2012. I had it as a trial for a year with a new car and if you turned off the Subscription in the car until the trial time ended (wait about 2 or 3 weeks after that date if I remember) then turned it back on somehow a flaw in Sirius system allowed it to work again. Itt worked for 6 or 7 years before Sirius (OR I) did something that cause it to stop working and required a Subscription but even with that I found my Stored Music had a higher sound quality.
ironically, if you pay for spotify you can then download media in advance which will make it use the local cache instead of streaming. I did that for years for both quality and data usage, but about a year ago my cell carrier made it cheaper to go unlimited than to keep paying per GB at the rate I used.
