Ipod Connectivity issues

[Erie Von Otto]

2011.75w/nav&apps
i searched the forum. my problem is that the ipods (80g and 160g 5thgen) will sporadically disconnect and lock up. i end up having to do a hard shut down on the ipod and even then have to remove the plug occasionally.
this is happening quite often. sometimes when i start the car it does not recognize the ipod. other times no problem starts right where it left off.
i am using the Y-cable supplied by BMW and it is connected correctly (aux+usb).

any thoughts on this? is it possibly a bad cable? i have never had any issues with the ipod. thanks!

[Falcon Keeper]

I'd try switching to a different cable... if that fails, it lies dormant within your audio system. I'd then take it to your dealer and explain to them your problems.

[Time]

Did you check to make sure your iPod has the latest software?

[Maseroche]

Try the stock Apple cable because as I understood it, that's what you need with your newer system.

[dirtyfreebooter]

Yea, why BMW is still supplying Y-cables is beyond me.. use the regular apple usb cable.. The y-cable is for older idrive/ipod setups.

[ajskydiver]

Just picked up my car in May and using a regular iPod cable and I'm having the same issue.

The iPod doesn't ever seem to shut off, even when the car is turned off and it's getting very hot...such a pain.

[ShadeD1]

Same problem here with a 2010 and a 160gb iPod, I assumed it was my iPod because it is 4 years old.

[Dan Halen]

bumping this because i am having the same f*%king problem. two different ipods- one that is brand new, from apple less than a month ago. right now i can't get it to even power up after it refused to play..

I guess i better talk to my SA....

anyone heard of a fix? yes, it did it with the y-connector and now with the apple connector.
WTF?!

[dirtyfreebooter]

Originally Posted by Dan Halen

bumping this because i am having the same f*%king problem. two different ipods- one that is brand new, from apple less than a month ago. right now i can't get it to even power up after it refused to play..

I guess i better talk to my SA....

anyone heard of a fix? yes, it did it with the y-connector and now with the apple connector.
WTF?!

Well, if you have a combox (Sept 2010 or later production), please, for the love of god, forget the Y-connector.

Another thing you might try, though since one of your iPods is brand new I am not so sure it will make any difference, is to re-format the iPods in iTunes and re-sync the music from scratch.

I've used an iPod touch (1st gen), iPod Video (5th gen, 30GiB HDD based), iPhone 3G, and iPhone 4, and not one hasn't given me issues, and I always keep the software at the latest available.

[Dan Halen]

Thanks for the help- I actually did have to re-sync it- haven't tried it again.
Yeah- I am
Using the apple cord, still same problems as the Y cable...
Sometimes starts right off when I start the car, other times it takes a minute to format? And will start after a couple minutes. Other times it takes over 5 minutes and will Not give track names- and other times it just freezes. Even after I take it out of the car it won't respond- I had to re- boot it for it to come
Back... Weak.
What is the BMW electrical system doing to my iPods?!

[dirtyfreebooter]

I sure you have probably already tried this, but since you have two iPods, have you tried the Apple supplied white cable from both iPods?? The Y-connector is just wrong, I don't expect that to work with sept 2010 systems, but maybe you have bad luck and one or both of the Apple cables is bad. It seems to happen more often not.. unfortunately.

[ajskydiver]

I don't think the USB port is supplying enough power consistently during startup causing the iPod to lockup. Just a guess, really, since it seems only the iPods with actual HDDs instead of SDDs/Flash memory seem to be fine and the mechanical drives obviously use more power.

I got tired of the iPod issue and just bought an Intel SSD and it works perfectly -- so for the last month, I have music without fail about 10 seconds after start up.

[dirtyfreebooter]

yea, HDD ipods due suck, since the power out of the USB sucks. I just got a 64GB flash drive and use that, fits in without any cables and I can close the console with room to spare. And the "instant on" is nice... I always had issues where the HDD iPod takes too long to initialize and the iDrive starts playing but doesn't have any playlist info. I'd have to go to the main menu and back to get it to properly refresh.

Patriot Xporter XT Rage 64 GB

20MB/s write speeds, so its no SSD, but since I sync so little, it not that big of a deal (especially using a tool like rsync that only copies the changes and not all the files each time).

[Dan Halen]

I changed the iPod cord to the brand new one- and it started right where it left off since I rebooted it. And about 5 minutes later while driving it didn't even recognize the iPod! It didn't have an aux input showing up...
I unplugged it and the screen and wheel worked but when I plugged it back in it still didn't recognize.
Wow. Had to plug my iPhone in and it read that music fine.
What a joke for an interface! My
Car was built in April of 2011, btw.
I guess at this point I am just venting... Maybe a trip to the dealer but I feel it would just be a waste of my time.
Any input besides getting a flash drive? I've never used one for music- will it format the same from iTunes? And will it function thru the idrive menu the same? Thanks.

[dirtyfreebooter]

Originally Posted by Dan Halen

I changed the iPod cord to the brand new one- and it started right where it left off since I rebooted it. And about 5 minutes later while driving it didn't even recognize the iPod! It didn't have an aux input showing up...
I unplugged it and the screen and wheel worked but when I plugged it back in it still didn't recognize.
Wow. Had to plug my iPhone in and it read that music fine.
What a joke for an interface! My
Car was built in April of 2011, btw.
I guess at this point I am just venting... Maybe a trip to the dealer but I feel it would just be a waste of my time.
Any input besides getting a flash drive? I've never used one for music- will it format the same from iTunes? And will it function thru the idrive menu the same? Thanks.

Why would it have an AUX input show up? AUX would only show up if you use the 1/8 stereo cable, or have the Y-cable, both of which you are not supposed to use with a combo-box based iDrive. If you are saying you AUX port is disappearing from your iDrive menu, then I would say you have some sort of problem with your iDrive, either a software error or short somewhere. In either case, I'd go to the dealer and show him the problems, especially if they are easily reproducible.

USB drive through the iDrive has the exact same interface as the iPod, even does Album Art if the art is embedded in the audio file. The only downside to USB drive, its harder to sync music with (if you use iTunes), you have to manually copy the music over and make m3u playlists if you want playlists to show up.

Here are some pictures from my setup, iPod Video 30GB (5th generation):





The first item is what is connected to USB port.
The second item is if you have smartphone cradle.
The third item is bluetooth.
The fourth item is the AUX (audio input only).



The 64GB USB drive:





In no way, shape or form, is the AUX port ever involved. Ever.

[Dan Halen]

My mistake- I meant the external device channel- the one the iPod/iPhone shows up on. Today my iPod disappeared from it and after unplugging and replugging it didnt read that I connected anything.
iPhone did work after that.
Thanks for the feedback- I'll see what happens to the iPod and if it keeps repeating I May just buy a Flash drive so I don't go crazy.

Is this iPod problem only happening to some people and not others? And why?

[dirtyfreebooter]

Originally Posted by Dan Halen

Is this iPod problem only happening to some people and not others? And why?

Not sure. HDD based do have more issues due to what I think is, the slower initialization times. Now the iDrive should probably have some sort of wait/timeout to wait for the iPod to be fully ready.

In any case, your iPod is just dropping off, which to me seems like its either a compatibility issue with either the iDrive software and/or the iPod software, or a possibly a bad cable (maybe between the port and the iDrive, not the white Apple cable). If I were you, I would have my dealer look at it. Something is probably wrong, and for the price you pay for an M3, with a warranty, there is no reason not to take it in and try and get it fixed. I mean, BMW clearly supports iPods, it's called the iPod interface on the spec sheet.

I've used an older 8GB iPod touch and it worked much nicer, but 8GB is too small for my collection (210GB), so I started using the older 30G iPod. Liked the space, but hated the little interface issues it had. (Never had it drop out or disconnect randomly though).

The 64GB iPod would be a giant waste for me, since my iPod never leaves my car, so I would pay for the iPod and all its features aside from the Music player and never use it for anything but music. $399 for 64GB iPod Touch, $130 for 64GB USB drive. I went with the USB drive. There is 128GB version for $200 of the USB drive I bought, but right now, I think 64GB is enough for me in the car.

The USB has no battery to worry about, no wires, with my iPod gone, the console isn't cluttered with a white iPod cable. Syncing can be a bit of pain, but if you don't sync that often, its worth it in many ways, let alone price.

Also, plugging in a loaded 64GB of music for the first time into the iDrive takes quite a while for the iDrive to build its internal DB of the songs (for searching and such), and until its done building that database, you can't use it. Took like 20 minutes roughly, the first time I plugged it in after syncing music to it. But this applies to any device, iPod, iPhone, USB drive, that you plug into the iDrive. It will build a database of songs. It is in the manual on page 178.

[ajskydiver]

Originally Posted by robackja

...Took like 20 minutes roughly, the first time I plugged it in after syncing music to it...

That's why I went straight to the 120GB Intel SSD (320 Series). Right now, with almost 60GB of music, it takes approx. 20 seconds to have music playing. The search takes about 5 seconds to be ready. Most importantly, it works every time.

[dirtyfreebooter]

Originally Posted by ajskydiver

That's why I went straight to the 120GB Intel SSD (320 Series). Right now, with almost 60GB of music, it takes approx. 20 seconds to have music playing. The search takes about 5 seconds to be ready. Most importantly, it works every time.

That is only a one-time delay. Once its indexed, everything is instantaneous (unlike the HDD based iPod in my experience). You can play music while its indexing, but not all the search results are returned (only what has been indexed so far) and same goes for any m3u playlists. This applies to all iPods, iPhones, and USB devices plugged in for the first time to the iDrive.

And, I hate to break it to you, but your SSD is no faster than my USB thumb in a USB2.0 port. USB, in the real world, due to protocol overheads, etc, is basically capable of 25MiB/s sustained transfer rate. Both the SSD and the thumb drive I have are capable of reading data > 25MiB/s, so in the car, both are limited by USB speeds, not drive speeds.

And, unless you are connecting to your computer via SATA or eSATA, you will never even come close to fully utilizing that SSD bandwidth capabilities.

For the type of use, due to small size, and limits of USB 2.0, IMHO, the 64GiB/128GiB are the way to go, over the SSD (unless you had an eSATA interface for the computer and did a lot of syncing new music); otherwise, you are paying for all that SSD bandwidth and never using it.

Oh, and if you really wanted the space, 128GB is really the max on usb thumb drive today, so you can go a lot higher via SSD, but the iDrive is only able to index about 16,000 songs in its internal database at one time. (again, that 16,000 limit is stated in the manual, and it probably can go higher than that).

[ajskydiver]

Originally Posted by robackja

...
And, I hate to break it to you, but your SSD is no faster than my USB thumb in a USB2.0 port. USB, in the real world, due to protocol overheads, etc, is basically capable of 25MiB/s sustained transfer rate. Both the SSD and the thumb drive I have are capable of reading data > 25MiB/s, so in the car, both are limited by USB speeds, not drive speeds.

And, unless you are connecting to your computer via SATA or eSATA, you will never even come close to fully utilizing that SSD bandwidth capabilities.

You didn't break it to me, I already know that. ;-)