Media player settings?

[ShadesOfBloo]

I have a 2020 Mustang GT with the 301A package (so no CD player). I’m looking for a way to make the media player do what I want. I’ve tried browsing topics here, and I’ve tried a search, and it looks like I have to start a new topic for my specific question.
I hope someone can bear with me, and help me out.

Two of my cars have CD players that read MP3 files. (The older one also reads WMA.) Hundreds of songs on one disk; No fumbling required. The CD player can switch folders with the click of a button.

Now that I have a new car with no CD player I thought "OK, I can work with this. It could be pretty cool once I sort it out." Adapting even gave me an excuse to buy a thumb drive in the shape of a 1970 Mustang.

I've put about 3 GB of music on it so far. 3GB versus a CD's 700 MB...
I had high hopes for this being pretty awesome.

...But the stereo's default way to read the drive is that it picks songs at random.
Picking a folder for the mood I'm in takes many touches of the touchscreen AND I have to be parked to do it.
Once I pick a folder and start driving, the player just stays in that folder. When it runs out of songs in that folder, it starts over.
If I’m driving, it won’t let me override and pick a new folder.
(My only remedy so far is to put more songs in each folder. Now that I'm up to 70 songs in a folder, that's still about a 1.5 hour loop and it won't do for long trips.)

I like how a CD player will play all the music in one folder, then move on to another folder. If I’m in the mood for something in particular, I can pick which folder to start with.
Is there a setting to make my Mustang’s media player do that?

Also, one menu in particular annoys the **** out of me because I have to scroll all the way to the bottom to find the “explore device” option. That’s the only option I ever use off that menu. Is there a way to put that option at the top?

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[ShadesOfBloo]

Nothing? No ideas? Do I just have to trade up to a car with a CD player?

 

[The Demon]

Nothing? No ideas? Do I just have to trade up to a car with a CD player?

I am assuming you burned all of that music onto the CD. If you did burn the CD onto a better 1TB USB drive in FLAC files.

 

[StangTime]

Nothing? No ideas? Do I just have to trade up to a car with a CD player?

If it's playing songs at random you have shuffle turned on. The symbol looks like a X. Turn it off.
Do you have all your music tagged properly? As in, all the artists names, genres, track name, etc ? If so, you can hit the voice command button when you are driving and tell Sync to "Play artist XYZ" there are many commands and all documented online.
You can select "Play all" and it will go through every track. I think it will do that in order unless you have shuffle turned on.

Explore device is stuck at the bottom. I wish I could move it to the top as well.

 

[ShadesOfBloo]

I am assuming you burned all of that music onto the CD. If you did burn the CD onto a better 1TB USB drive in FLAC files.

I've been using CDs this way for years.
I still want to know how to get my Mustang to read the USB the way I want. Does FLAC format change the way the media player picks a song?

 

[The Demon]

I've been using CDs this way for years.
I still want to know how to get my Mustang to read the USB the way I want. Does FLAC format change the way the media player picks a song?

It should because everything will be a FLAC file which is the best file and no longer be an MP3 or a WMA file. Not only will you have the best sound quality but everything will be the same type of file.

 

[ShadesOfBloo]

...you can hit the voice command button when you are driving and tell Sync to "Play artist XYZ"

I don't think I have a voice command button, but I've seen the option to "Play Artist" or whatever...
I've saved the songs with numbers in the file names, to put them in the order I want to hear them, because that's what my CD players have responded to for 20 years.

You can select "Play all" and it will go through every track. I think it will do that in order unless you have shuffle turned on.

Yes, if I tell select "Play All" it will play every music file on the USB (which is how I know it doesn't have shuffle turned on). It will do it in the order I put the files, which is what gave me hope it could do the other things I wanted.
The thing is that it doesn't "Play All" by default, and I don't know how to make it start on a particular folder.

Explore device is stuck at the bottom. I wish I could move it to the top as well.

Dammit, Ford.

 

[ShadesOfBloo]

...everything will be the same type of file.

Everything is already the same type of file. Is that relevant to making the media player start with the folder I want and read from there? Have I missed something?

 

[The Demon]

Everything is already the same type of file. Is that relevant to making the media player start with the folder I want and read from there? Have I missed something?

Technically no but I was holding this until last. Get rid of the POS car USB and buy a real good one. I think you’ll have better results.

 

[StangTime]

There is a way to make playlists using Windows Media Player or itunes. Not sure what the format is. I never played with that function. But if that works, you can create a playlist with all your albums (and album tracks) in a particular order that you like. Try this forum for more info: https://www.f150forum.com/f118/playlists-sync3-usb-jump-drive-351129/#post5267206

 

[StangTime]

If you select "play all" and shuffle is off. Sync will play everything in alpha-numeric order based on the track name until it hits the end of your track list. Then if you have repeat on, it will start over. You could theoretically rename all your tracks 001-trackname, 002-trackname 003-trackname etc. But that's a huge pain in arse. Playlists are likely an easier way to manage it.

 

[ShadesOfBloo]

You could theoretically rename all your tracks 001-trackname, 002-trackname 003-trackname etc.

Yes, that's exactly what I've done.

 

[The Demon]

Yes, that's exactly what I've done.

I actually tried that in a different way. When I recorded an album onto the USB as an example the artist name is John Mayer. I changed them all which took a lot of time in this example to read Mayer, John so it would pop up under M when I was searching by artist. When I plugged in the USB my car completely ignored it and put it under J anyway. So I just left it.

 

[Vlad Soare]

Sadly, Sync 3 isn't so smart when it comes to browsing and playing music from folders. I miss my old Mk4 Mondeo, where I could see the folders and their content on the instrument panel and use the steering wheel buttons for browsing.
The way I go around this limitation is by using playlists.
On my thumb drive, besides the various folders holding MP3 files, there's one folder called "Playlists". And in this folder I store playlist files in standard M3U format. An M3U file is simply a text file containing a list of paths and filenames. For instance, I have a playlist file called Queen Greatest Hits.m3u, whose contents looks like this:

I've also made playlists that mimic the contents of my music CDs. For instance:

And now I use the voice control to switch between playlists. Press the voice control button on the steering wheel and say "play playlist Queen Greatest Hits", or "play playlist CD 3", etc. The name of the playlist, as seen and understood by Sync, is the filename without the M3U extension.

If your MP3 files have the metadata well defined, then you can use the voice control to play certain albums, or artists, and so on. When you're in the mood for Pink Floyd, for instance, but your Pink Floyd songs happen to be scattered over several folders, all you have to say is "play artist Pink Floyd", and it will search for MP3 files with this tag in all folders. It's quite neat, actually.

I still miss the ability to browse music files with the steering wheel buttons, but the voice control can be a reasonably good substitute if you give it a chance.

 

[StangTime]

I just set up a bunch of playlists using Windows Media Player. Playlist extension .wpl work on Sync too. So much easier.

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