Quote:
Originally Posted by LiveWire195
Hope I can get some clarity with this because it is really upsetting that I'm not able to figure out why my head unit is having issues with playing music
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Your experience mirrors mine.
I tried using iPods. The MyLink system treats iPods as data storage similar to a USB stick, so anything larger than approximately 32Gb can take a very long time to index. My experience is that older iPods (that cannot connect via Apple CarPlay) are no better than USB sticks—perhaps worse—for usability.
If you are willing to live with MyLink, then USB flash drives are inexpensive and easy to use. All USB flash drives are
not created equally, though. Some will be quickly read and accessed by MyLink, some take forever. My experience suggests that USB 3.0 is essential for speed and ease of reading by MyLink. The larger the flash drive's capacity, the longer it takes for MyLink to index.
Formatting is also an issue. FAT32 seems to be the most consistently successful formatting type, but MyLink will read MacOS and other formats—but not on a consistent basis in my experience. Format corruption and data issues cropped up for me. I had a 128Gb flash drive index within minutes and play wonderfully for approximately two weeks and then it stopped working. After trying different things, I re-formatted it (FAT32) and it worked again, but never as quickly as the first time. I found some non-music files that made MyLink hang up, but even after deleting those files, the 128Gb drive was slow.
Samsung USB flash drives seem to consistently work well for me, specifically the Fit and the Bar drives. There are some good reviews online about which flash drives work best with MyLink. I used two 64Gb Fits in both USB inputs, but they took forever to index.
I tried using a USB hard drive with no success. I did not try very hard, to be honest.
My biggest complaint is inability to play albums. All I want to do it play albums, not playlists or random songs.
The best solution for me has been using my iPhone 7 via Apple CarPlay. I have an app on my iPhone that shuffles by album (not song), and it works wonderfully. I have gotten used to using my car to charge my phone, so I plug it in via USB and it plays. Usually. Apple CarPlay is almost as inconsistent as MyLink. Sometimes it is as easy as plug and play, but sometimes I have to unplug and re-plug the phone; similarly, it often takes up to one minute for CarPlay (or MyLink) to recognize the phone and start playing. In approximately half of those instances, MyLink/CarPlay will not recognize the iPhone and it ends up being recognized as an iPod via MyLink alone and I must use the MyLink player, not CarPlay. Go figure.
I would venture that the most hassle-free connection between my iPhone and the car is via Bluetooth, but even then there are occasional failures to pair. I had it happen yesterday, as a matter of fact. Bluetooth always seems to pair the iPhone as an iPod using MyLink, not CarPlay.
There is a good question as to whether or not audio sounds better using MyLink playing files versus using my iPhone as media player. I give a slight nod to my iPhone, but at speed, everything sounds a bit muddled.
After 18 months of fiddling around, my best solution is using CarPlay. I keep a USB flash drive in the car as a backup, but if you can get a device to connect via CarPlay, and if CarPlay and MyLink decide to get along, it seems quickest to set the iPod/iPhone running and leave it. If you want to use MyLink as a player (using the car's menus to select music), then I recommend getting a known highly compatible USB 3.0 flash drive.
Sometimes I wish there was a cassette or CD player in my car—they are much easier to use with 99% consistent results!
