Why does audio system sometimes revert to radio upon starting the engine?

[blu23]

I have a USB stick plugged into the slot just below the info screen on the center stack. It plays back my music just fine. The problem I can't sort out is why the sound system reverts to "radio" about 30 percent of the time when starting the truck. It can happen after just a few minutes of the engine being turned off or as long as over night. Totally random. I usually have the audio system playing from the USB when the engine is shut down and I exit the truck. When I go to use the truck again the audio system seems to "forget" that I had the USB selected as the source when I last used it. I've looked through the owners manual and haven't found anything that would allow me to set the USB as a default. Anyone else out there have this happen? Is there a way to get around this small problem? The audio system is the base one without Sync3. There are close to 1700 MP3 music files on the stick. Nothing else. When I start the engine I see a message next to the audio "source" that the system is "indexing" the stick. Are there too many songs on it? Does something time out? Ideas anyone?

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[Darnon]

You pretty much answered your own question. If the radio doesn't get an audio input from a media device--be it a phone or USB--after a certain amount of time it defaults to the radio. And the system maintains its own index format for MP3 external drives that it needs to re-generate periodically which causes it to time out.

The same thing happens with Android Auto/Carplay if they take too long to connect or don't start playing some audio right away.

 

[blu23]

You pretty much answered your own question. If the radio doesn't get an audio input from a media device--be it a phone or USB--after a certain amount of time it defaults to the radio. And the system maintains its own index format for MP3 external drives that it needs to re-generate periodically which causes it to time out.

The same thing happens with Android Auto/Carplay if they take too long to connect or don't start playing some audio right away.

So is this a result of the length of time the files would take to all play through (almost 95 hours) or the number of files the system needs to index (almost 1700) or the total size (just over 9 GB) before it is able to start to play. The part I find most odd is how random the problem is. Like I said, it occurs around 30 percent of the time.

 

[colinl]

It's the number of files. If there's metadata on the files, it might also spend some time comparing the tracks to the Gracenote database so that you get the song/album art. That's part of the index Darnon mentioned.

 

[blu23]

It's the number of files. If there's metadata on the files, it might also spend some time comparing the tracks to the Gracenote database so that you get the song/album art. That's part of the index Darnon mentioned.

I was wondering why some cover art would show on the screen now and then. A lot more going on here than I would have ever imagined.

 

[colinl]

I was wondering why some cover art would show on the screen now and then. A lot more going on here than I would have ever imagined.

If it really bugs you, the only thing you could reasonably do is move some music to a different USB drive. I would guess that switching thumb drives would be even more annoying than sometimes having to change the source from radio.

 

[blu23]

I'm going to experiment with this a little bit by turning the entertainment system off before I exit the truck. Curious to see if it will index the USB and prepare it for play when the system is turned back on. I'm not usually worried about being entertained while backing out of my parking spot. Too distracted making sure I don't bump into anything. Maybe by then I can turn the system back on and it will have prepared itself for anything I ask it to do. Am I hoping for something that may not happen?

 

[blu23]

Well, so far my little workaround seems to be the answer. I turn off the audio system before exiting the truck and the next time I start the engine I let the system index the USB in the background. When I turn the audio back on, it seem to know the last source used, and plays music from the USB. I did have one strange experience with the USB last week. I tried to use it and there was no music on it at all. When I plugged it into my computer to see where all the files were, I only got a file name with some random characters as the title. I reformatted the stick and reloaded all the music files and I'm hopping this doesn't happen again. Is it possible an "update" from Ford wiped the USB clean?

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