iPod Classic & Mach-e: Can they ever be compatible?

[azerik]

Something like this wouldn't work?

But ideally something much more Janky than moswag. Perhaps eyehappyphonie direct from Alibaba

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[Jerrytball]

Something like this wouldn't work?

But ideally something much more Janky than moswag. Perhaps eyehappyphonie direct from Alibaba

I’ve actually got the cord that plugs into the bottom which is like the old iPad like 1 inch plug and I’ve got that cord. You’ve got when you plug it into the USB it says on the screen of the iPod not supported and it won’t come up on the screen as a USB drive.

 

[devmach-e]

While I get the urge to keep an old piece of technology running, especially if it has certain nostalgic appeal/memories, there's a point where you just have to cut the cord and move on. Trying to get a 20-year-old iPod to work with a modern car is just not worth it to me.

 

[Jerrytball]

While I get the urge to keep an old piece of technology running, especially if it has certain nostalgic appeal/memories, there's a point where you just have to cut the cord and move on. Trying to get a 20-year-old iPod to work with a modern car is just not worth it to me.

The funny part is while this thing was working years ago. I transferred everything on it to a thumb drive which I have a 2 TB thumb drive plugged into my car right now with 50 albums on it and it works just fine. Just trying to get it going was just a test lol

 

[devmach-e]

The funny part is while this thing was working years ago. I transferred everything on it to a thumb drive which I have a 2 TB thumb drive plugged into my car right now with 50 albums on it and it works just fine. Just trying to get it going was just a test lol

Oh, I love the "hack it until it works" puzzle solving challenge here. I truly do.

Way back in the day, we used a cassette adapter to listen to music from our iPod in our 2004 Sienna. No aux input, and certainly no digital interface. I finally did track down a device (GTA Car kit) that could be plugged into the back of the car's audio head-unit that mimic'd a CD changer, but you had to use playlists-as-CDs to listen to the music. I seem to recall that the radio display would actually show you the song title. It was pretty slick and made for a much better interface, especially since I could use the steering wheel controls to advance tracks/playllists. Much better audio quality, too. About 3 years later, we would replace the car with one that could wireless stream directly from our iPhones. But for a while, this was a great way to get better audio quality and a better interface.

 

[ArthurDOB]

@azerik @Jerrytball @devmach-e
@Herbknowsit
Thanks for bringing this thread back from the dead. The iPod with it's cord will not work. I tried everything I could think of to get it to work, but no-go. It has something to do with the 16 pin connection. It will not work with Sync 4. I was not interested in a Bluetooth transmitter. I wanted to be able to control the iPod through the sync screen. That clearly is impossible. The disappointing thing is that my wife's 2020 Edge with Sync 3 works fine and will control the iPod through its screen.

I ended up using a 256 GB USB mini flash drive. You can either transfer your files directly onto it and create playlists with a program like MP3.tag or you can clone your iPod by getting into the music folder and copying the "F" folders that contain the music files onto your flash drive. It will not transfer your playlists as they are not compatible outside of the iPod. You can play a variety of files through Sync 4, including Flac files.

I have only recently added Flac files, and when I only had a handful they worked just fine. It may be a coincidence, but since I added a whole lot more Flacs, Sync 4 has crashed on me a few times (*see below) as it begins to load. Eventually it will play, but I have yet to figure out what exactly the issue is. Having nearly 30,000 audio files may be part of the problem. Most are MP3 with a handful of M4a and WAV files. Certain Flac file albums are also not displaying in the correct order and are sometimes missing tracks. Once I have a little more time to really dig in to what the issue is, I'll come back and post something for anyone who might be interested, assuming I find a solution or a cause.

*The crashing manifests by Sync 4 putting itself back to whatever the previous display was (radio, trip, navigation, whatever it was last displaying). I can go into the home page and put it back, and sometimes it loads smoothly, other times not. Sometimes the song display will scroll with each song as it should, other times it won't move unless I scroll it manually, and even then it will begin to jump around to a random groupsl of songs on the playlist and then not move again. I may make a video of this behavior as it is hard to explain.

 

[Jerrytball]

@azerik @Jerrytball @devmach-e
@Herbknowsit
Thanks for bringing this thread back from the dead. The iPod with it's cord will not work. I tried everything I could think of to get it to work, but no-go. It has something to do with the 16 pin connection. It will not work with Sync 4. I was not interested in a Bluetooth transmitter. I wanted to be able to control the iPod through the sync screen. That clearly is impossible. The disappointing thing is that my wife's 2020 Edge with Sync 3 works fine and will control the iPod through its screen.

I ended up using a 256 GB USB mini flash drive. You can either transfer your files directly onto it and create playlists with a program like MP3.tag or you can clone your iPod by getting into the music folder and copying the "F" folders that contain the music files onto your flash drive. It will not transfer your playlists as they are not compatible outside of the iPod. You can play a variety of files through Sync 4, including Flac files.

I have only recently added Flac files, and when I only had a handful they worked just fine. It may be a coincidence, but since I added a whole lot more Flacs, Sync 4 has crashed on me a few times (*see below) as it begins to load. Eventually it will play, but I have yet to figure out what exactly the issue is. Having nearly 30,000 audio files may be part of the problem. Most are MP3 with a handful of M4a and WAV files. Certain Flac file albums are also not displaying in the correct order and are sometimes missing tracks. Once I have a little more time to really dig in to what the issue is, I'll come back and post something for anyone who might be interested, assuming I find a solution or a cause.

*The crashing manifests by Sync 4 putting itself back to whatever the previous display was (radio, trip, navigation, whatever it was last displaying). I can go into the home page and put it back, and sometimes it loads smoothly, other times not. Sometimes the song display will scroll with each song as it should, other times it won't move unless I scroll it manually, and even then it will begin to jump around to a random groupsl of songs on the playlist and then not move again. I may make a video of this behavior as it is hard to explain.

The other thing that disappoints me very much even with my past gas powered mustangs, Ford won’t let you plug in something that will allow you to plug-in multiple USB sticks. They’ll give you a USB drive in the front for music, then they’ll give you one in the back, which is just for charging or you could put a light stick in there. Now Nissan was even worse. They won’t even let you plug in a USB drive and have extra music.

 

[areacode413]

The iPhone still syncs to iTunes. I can put my whole Napster collection on it if I want to. There’s a few old CDs I do sync to my phone that way because they aren’t on the streaming services.

What is Napster? Is it an App to help you sleep?

 

[HuntingPudel]

Something like this wouldn't work?

But ideally something much more Janky than moswag. Perhaps eyehappyphonie direct from Alibaba

I don’t think that will work. What would work is plugging the iPod’s analog auto into a BT converter that’s tethered to the car’s audio. I have a couple of old iPod Nanos that I could do this with, but everything on them is already on my phone so it’d be a worthless exercise for me.

 

[ArthurDOB]

I don’t think that will work. What would work is plugging the iPod’s analog auto into a BT converter that’s tethered to the car’s audio. I have a couple of old iPod Nanos that I could do this with, but everything on them is already on my phone so it’d be a worthless exercise for me.

I think there would also be a reduction in audio quality with a Bluetooth transmitter, and with mp3s you definitely don't want even more lossy sound than you already have. Also, no FLAC!

 

[HuntingPudel]

I think there would also be a reduction in audio quality with a Bluetooth transmitter, and with mp3s you definitely don't want even more lossy sound than you already have. Also, no FLAC!

True. BT sound is low res, but if you’re going through all the machinations to connect an out of date iPod without simply transferring to data to a more up to date platform, you have to take what you can get.

 

[devmach-e]

The other thing that disappoints me very much even with my past gas powered mustangs, Ford won’t let you plug in something that will allow you to plug-in multiple USB sticks. They’ll give you a USB drive in the front for music, then they’ll give you one in the back, which is just for charging or you could put a light stick in there. Now Nissan was even worse. They won’t even let you plug in a USB drive and have extra music.

Pretty much all cars with multiple USB ports won't allow you to use multiple USB sticks simultaneously. It's a programming challenge to access multiple drives and present them to the user within a simplified interface (the head-unit). Same for having multiple iPhones plugged in and deciding which iPhone gets to be treated as the CarPlay device and which is treated just as an iPod device.

 

[ArthurDOB]

True. BT sound is low res, but if you’re going through all the machinations to connect an out of date iPod without simply transferring to data to a more up to date platform, you have to take what you can get.

I gave up on connecting it long ago. I transferred everything to a USB drive and now only use the iPod in a dock I have at work.

 

[ArthurDOB]

I posted my sorting solution in a separate thread:
https://www.macheforum.com/site/threads/solved-usb-audio-track-sorting-issue-album-view.36367/

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