Opinion
Ford's Sync brochure boasting the latest in modern gadgetry -- from 2008
Sixteen-year-old computers might seem old, but not really: I bought my desktop in 2010, and it's still purring along. Tech doesn't have to be self-obsoleting, and the tech industry needs to understand that it's now as mature as the automotive industry.
The 16-year-old computer I'm taking about is, in fact, a car. Or rather, in a car. Last week, I bought my latest car, a 2009 Ford Escape hybrid -- in the very rare color ice blue metallic --, which was built in the summer of 2008.
Not only was the Escape hybrid the very first hybrid SUV, but it featured Sync from Microsoft, a kind-of-computer interface between the car and Bluetooth, USB drives, phones, voice commands, and so on. It even has a 10GB hard drive on which to store music.
What fascinated me was the USB port. From the owner's manual, I learned that I could plug in an external hard drive filled with MP3 files, and it would play them back. Although, it puzzled me where I'd park the drive, especially a large 2009-size one, as there isn't much free space in the Escape's console area.
Sync can also play directly from a music player, like from the long discontinued Zune, although I did not try that.
Also, Sync can read in music files from the external drive, and then store them on its own 10GB drive. As this car was second-hand, I enjoyed listening to the previous owner's music -- Coldplay and so on --until it got to his favorite country music selections.
Oh, and it also charges USB devices, like phones.
- - -
Well, this is 2024, and big hard drive problem has long been solved. I could use a USB thumb drive. I had a couple of very short ones laying around, that stick out a mere quarter-inch. See figure at left.
TIP Don't lose these tiny drives! I began with a 16GB USB drive, but in my back-and-forths between house and car, I managed to misplace the tiny thing. So I started over with a 32GB one.
I liked the idea of a near-invisible music device playing back a ton of songs. I got to work to set it up, figuring I would be hearing my tunes in a short while -- plug'n play, right? Little did I know that it would take me two days to plug, and plug, and plug before I could play, as I encountered two biggish problems:
- Sync is very picky about how the USB drive is set up.
- Each time I found a problem at the car end, I'd have to go back into my house to fix the problem with my computer, return to the car, and then try again, repeatedly
Lots of back and forth. Still, it felt pretty darn good when I met success. Here is what I found.
USB Format
Sync requires that the USB drive be formatted for FAT or FAT32. Most new drives are probably pre-formatted for NTFS or whatever it is that Macs use, so you'll need to use the Format command to change it to FAT32 as the preferred format, because FAT is limited to just 4GB maximum drive size.
FAT32 has no particular limitations in the real world, as drives can be up to 8TB in partition size and individual files up to 4GB each. Not the sort of limits we come across in the MP3 world.
Song Format
Music file formats supported by Sync "include WMA, MP3, WAV and AAC."
- MP3 files is a no-brainer; of course Sync supports it
- AAC is the important one for iTunes lovers, the format Apple uses for songs it sells you
- WAV is the format used by CDs
- WMA is Microsoft's music format nobody uses
No modern, lossless formats, such as FLAC, are supported. I tested it.
TIP The CD player also plays back discs with songs in MP3 format. The benefit is that you get about ten times more songs on a CD, so about 13 hours' worth. You'd have to burn these yourself.
It is a bit disconcerting that the official Sync guide, which comes with the car, uses phrases like "such as" and "including" referring to file formats, then lists syncmyride.com for more info. The site no longer exists.
Playlist Format
I normally can't be bothered with playlists, as constructing them takes time. I use music players (and MP3 software on my Android phone) that can play back folders. No need for playlists.
Ford Sync, however, does not play back folders. So, I had to create a playlist, as I am picky about the order in which songs are played. This proved to be the biggest challenge.
Officially, Sync supports playlist formats "such as .ASX, .M3U, .WPL, .MTP."
- M3U was invented by Winamp and is supported by a lot of software
- WPL is Microsoft's Windows Play List format created by Windows Media Player
- MTP is Microsoft's Media Transfer Protocol used to transfer music on devices connected to Windows computers and Android phones; this is probably what Sync uses to playback music direct from your phone or music player
- ASX is Microsoft's Advanced Stream Redirector that nobody uses
All this is new to me, as I have never constructed a playlist. So, this was the long tedious part where I worked my way through one problem after another. I picked M3U format, as that appeared to be the universal one.
I needed software to create the playlist from a folder of songs residing on my computer. I tried Windows Media Player, but couldn't get it to work. I found a different program online, but it didn't seem to work with Sync.
So, I did the normal thing, and began perusing forums. From this one (Focus Fanatics), I read of and downloaded the recommended playlist construction program: Playlist Creator. Ignore the download link listed in the forum; it no longer works. I found Playlist Creator at software download sites, such as from here (SourceForge).
To create a playlist, drag one or more folders of music into the PlayList Creator software, as shown below.
Dragging music files into Playlist Creator
In the lower part of the program, select the location for the playlist (Save Location) and give the playlist a name (Name and Type). Choose ".m3u", then click Create Playlist.
Specifying the destination and name of the playlist
Sync complained about the first M3U playlist I created with the software. So, I read the forum some more, and found that I needed to change a setting, as described by spudhead:
- In Playlist Creator, select the Settings tab
- Choose Playlist details.
- Under Saving Playlist Entries click the Do you want to save the playlist absolute or relative? droplist
- The default is "Relative"; change it to "Absolute" -- do not select "Absolute without drive." See figure below.
Then, there was one more thing I had to learn about constructing playlists for Sync. A playlist is simply the names of the music files listed in the order in which the player is supposed to play them. For Sync to find them, the music filenames have to have the correct folder prefix.
Because it works with "Absolute" mode, I had to construct the playlist with the songs on the USB drive -- not with the songs stored on my computer. This, of course, took another couple of trips back and forth between the car and the computer.
Maximum # of Songs
From what I read on forums, Sync can index 15,000 songs at most. "Index" means that when you plug in the USB drive for the first time, Sync scans it for song info, so that it can let you play songs by artist, by genre, etc. Fifteen thousand is a lot, like about 1,000 CDs worth.
I planned to have 2,500 MP3 files on the USB drive, about 12GB worth, good for eight days of non-stop listening -- or about a half-year at an hour-a-day of listening.
Using the USB Drive in the Car
When you first plug the USB drive into the car, Sync takes a few seconds or minutes to index the songs.
Accessing the USB drive to start playing the music is a couple of levels deep in the car's interface, and it differs depending on whether your Ford has the touchscreen or not.
I find the easiest way to get to the USB device is to use voice input: tap the Voice Input button (in the steering wheel) and say, "USB." The car switches to USB playback mode and immediately starts playing the music. Nice!
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