jbuck Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 My 2011 Ford Edge Sport is being built today and I will take delivery in a couple of weeks (hopefully). I put the myford Touch system through the paces at the dealership with one they had in stock and had some problems with Sync. It seems that Sync does not like larger MASS storage devices, at least not the two I tested which are detailed below. Before anyone asks, I did not test with various iPOD models, and have no reason to believe at this time there are compatibility issues with an iPod. This thread may be of more interest to other forum members like me, that are not amongst the zillions of proud iPOD owners. If you are an iPOD owner and have experienced problems please feel free to comment. For the following tests, I attempted to confirm compatibility with the devices I own with the ultimate goal of connecting the largest storage device possible, that can store all my music and are recognized by the Sync system. Test #1: Zune 4GB model was immediately recognized by Sync and the indexing process started. I was told this can take quite a while to complete and I did not finish the syncing process but consider this a successful test. Test #2: I connected my larger Zune 120GB player and the device was not recognized by Sync. Test FAILED! Two Microsoft products that don't work together, what's up with that? Giving all those iPod fans out there some ammunition for why Apple is better. Test #3: I connected a USB powered external hard drive that was 40GB (exFAT) and the hard drive was not recognized by Sync. I read on some older threads that the size of an external hard drive could be an issue, possibly due to the hard drive capacity/size not being supported. I also read somewhere that Sync (perhaps earlier versions) would not work with certain hard drive formats e.g. NTFS = No, but that FAT32 was compatible. I formatted the 40GB hard drive for exFAT which is the only option I have on my Desktop/laptops and this did not work. Suffice it to say that us early adopters have to take the bad with the good. I don't expect that the dealers are sufficiently trained to troubleshoot these things (at this early stage), and may not ever be, so I am seeking feedback from other techies that have had success getting larger MP3 players, or external hard drives to work successfully on the latest myFord touch system. If you have encountered this problem, and have a solution please share any information/thoughts you have. Thanks in advance. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mv-clear Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 I'm almost certain that the only filesystem which Sync will recognize will be FAT, exFat appears to be only natively supported in Vista/Windows 7, I could be wrong, but sticking to Fat 32 will probably allow it to recognize the HD. I use a 16 GB USB stick, formatted to Fat32 and it works fine. M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilsons66604 Posted February 14, 2011 Report Share Posted February 14, 2011 I'm almost certain that the only filesystem which Sync will recognize will be FAT, exFat appears to be only natively supported in Vista/Windows 7, I could be wrong, but sticking to Fat 32 will probably allow it to recognize the HD. I use a 16 GB USB stick, formatted to Fat32 and it works fine. M. My old iPod gen 5 works fine. I'm pretty sure it's still mac formatted. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrHappy Posted February 17, 2011 Report Share Posted February 17, 2011 I've been able to use both ntfs and fat32 formatted thumb drives (up to 8gb tested) and both worked. My issue is both stutter regardless of songs, format of file system, brand of thumb drive and format of song encoding Other than that I LOVE the new Edge, it's fantastic. I think the larger drives are an issue because the system inventories the entire drive and for huge drives it just doesn't have the horsepower (I suspect given the tech specs). If the skipping issue could be fixed it'd be perfect!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilsons66604 Posted February 18, 2011 Report Share Posted February 18, 2011 I've been able to use both ntfs and fat32 formatted thumb drives (up to 8gb tested) and both worked. My issue is both stutter regardless of songs, format of file system, brand of thumb drive and format of song encoding Other than that I LOVE the new Edge, it's fantastic. I think the larger drives are an issue because the system inventories the entire drive and for huge drives it just doesn't have the horsepower (I suspect given the tech specs). If the skipping issue could be fixed it'd be perfect!! The latest update was supposed to address the USB issues (like stuttering). Have you updated? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mv-clear Posted February 19, 2011 Report Share Posted February 19, 2011 The latest update was supposed to address the USB issues (like stuttering). Have you updated? My sync is version 1.8 and i'm using a Kingston 16 GB fat32 formatted U2 USB stick. Not sure of the specs on the USB stick, but I haven't noticed any stuttering. I haven't decided when to get the sync upgrade as mine is working ok, a couple of reboots, and somtime sluggish but works. M. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrHappy Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 Not sure when the last update was. Ours was built in Nov right after the most recent code (at that time) came out so it might be current or might not. With all the horror stories about updates I'm a little leary it could do more harm than good if indeed a newer version is available. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wilsons66604 Posted February 21, 2011 Report Share Posted February 21, 2011 (edited) Not sure when the last update was. Ours was built in Nov right after the most recent code (at that time) came out so it might be current or might not. With all the horror stories about updates I'm a little leary it could do more harm than good if indeed a newer version is available. It's a Tight Rope ( ) Edited February 21, 2011 by wilsons66604 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bhob Posted March 22, 2011 Report Share Posted March 22, 2011 I have a 150GB WD HD that works, FAT32 format Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyabionda Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 You only need to use a media player if you have protected music. Unprotected can be played right off a USB drive. I thought it was a waste to leave my iPod touch in my car all of the time so that's the route I chose. Sync needs the USB drive to be formatted FAT32 so there are no protection/permission issues. Windows can only format up to 32 GB selecting FAT32. I downloaded a utility program to format my drive. Because of the Windows restriction, there are tons of them out there. According to the info I've gathered from the syncmyride user to user forum, there is a recommended max drive size of 100 gb, but larger can be used. There is no max to the number of files on a drive, instead there is a max of 15,000 "grammar objects" but exact duplicates only count as one. (1000 songs by Frank Sinatra is one "grammar object" for artist, each unique track title album name) count as one each and each album name also one each) Since it re-indexes EVERY time you start the car, larger music collections can cause a delay in the availability of your USB music. After the first initial full index, it seems to go faster after that. I sped up the process by changing devices. I used a120 gb portable hard drive at first, but since switched to a high speed, 64gb thumb drive. same files and it indexes much faster. Speed is important. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
tonyabionda Posted March 23, 2011 Report Share Posted March 23, 2011 (edited) You only need to use a media player if you have protected music. Unprotected can be played right off a USB drive. I thought it was a waste to leave my iPod touch in my car all of the time so that's the route I chose. Sync needs the USB drive to be formatted FAT32 so there are no protection/permission issues. Windows can only format up to 32 GB selecting FAT32. I downloaded a utility program to format my drive. Because of the Windows restriction, there are tons of them out there. According to the info I've gathered from the syncmyride user to user forum, there is a recommended max drive size of 100 gb, but larger can be used. There is no max to the number of files on a drive, instead there is a max of 15,000 "grammar objects" but exact duplicates only count as one. (1000 songs by Frank Sinatra is one "grammar object" for artist, each unique track title & album name count as one each) Since it re-indexes EVERY time you start the car, larger music collections can cause a delay in the availability of your USB music. After the first initial full index, it seems to go faster after that. I sped up the process by changing devices. I used a120 gb portable hard drive at first, but since switched to a high speed, 64gb thumb drive. same files and it indexes much faster. Speed is important. Edited March 23, 2011 by tonyabionda Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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