Comprehensive USB Bug List

[BertL]

While there are many things that need correcting especially if I expanded my list to include all of Infotainment (e.g. what about alt routes and waypoints in Nav?), IMHO, these 3 items would reduce the highest impact problems for the greatest number of owners, and get MP USB back to a place where "refinements that would improve our listening experience" would be a lot more of what we'd talk about:

1. Correct Sort Order used for track display and playback across the UI at the lowest level:
   • Songs, Artists, Albums, & Genre View access should use DISCNUMBER+TRACKNUMBER; not mix-in the use of FILENAME with ID3 tag usage as it does with some views today
   • Folder View should use only directory and FILENAME; not mix file structure naming with ID3 tag data
2. Distinguish unique albums by using ALBUM+ALBUMARTIST throughout the interface
3. Impose & publicly document hard limits in the Owners Manual for supported Media Player USB physical device types and formatting, directory depth, max number of tracks, encoding methods and bit depths, album art (formats, size, type of art within the tag), general ID3 tag usage (which ones, max length) and known limitations

... and yes I'd love shuffle to be shuffle, not a limited-random-something-or-other like it is today, but it would be lower on my wish list than these three things if I put on my hat for both myself and the greater good. I'm also assuming, hopefully not incorrectly, that 8.1 will include improved device error recovery such that Tesla will officially support having a USB device plugged-in at MS power-on time (unlike today) and some of us will have less CID hang/reboots that we currently encounter.​

IMHO if these 3 "fixes" were implemented completely and correctly, (two of which are really architectural from a design-perspective,) it:

• Fixes inconsistent track display and playback sequencing, so all views can be used by everyone
• Instills consistency allowing Folder View to be a true RYO environment by using only directory/file naming to sort and playback in a user-defined sequence (not mixing-in limited tag usage that causes problems for many -- but not all)
  
• Adds multi-disc correct-track-sequence album support
• Fixes tracks on a single (compilation) album incorrectly being displayed as multiple albums in some views
  • (Artists View will still have the issue when TRACKARTIST is different than ALBUMARTIST for some/all tracks in the same album, but IMHO, that's the users choice. Yes, I'd personally love to have Tesla use ALBUMARTIST in lieu of TRACKARTIST for several reasons, but for some that would be problematic unless it were an MP user-selectable option.)
• Fixes the wrong album art being displayed when multiple album titles are the same but ALBUMARTIST is different (e.g. "Greatest Hits")
• (I believe should) fix Compilation issues for most owners without forcing usage of the problematic non-standard PARTOFCOMPILATION tag a few people are so vocal about upthread
• Likely less unexpected unexpected CID reboots and USB device rescans for some owners with excessive tracks and/or tag data
• Owners would have a baseline to know what should and should not work with MP USB, just as they do with every other auto mfgr

 

[RichardL]

1) shuffle
2) rescan every time
3) restarting last track from beginning
I.e. Pretty much what everyone else listed!

The shuffle is so annoying - yes you can have as many songs as you want, but you must always play the same few in the same sequence.

 

[supratachophobia]

I think the issue here is FLAC playback. MP3 resumes just fine but FLAC starts from the beginning when returning to your car. I converted one of my FLAC songs, that was over an hour, to MP3 because of that issue.

I have hundreds of audio books on mp3 that restart. I would, however, buy the idea that there is something in the encoding that might trigger a restart. But we just don't know, too many variables.

 

[supratachophobia]

Btw, thanks for the quick replies. I needed the top 10 or so most vocal users to chime in, and you kids did great.

 

[bmah]

Btw, thanks for the quick replies. I needed the top 10 or so most vocal users to chime in, and you kids did great.

Ummm..."most vocal users"? Ex-squeeze me?

Bruce.

 

[supratachophobia]

So compiling everyone's feedback thus far, here is what I came up with for the 3 most needed bug fixes:

1. SHUFFLE!!!

2. Restarting tracks from beginning (streaming, audiobooks, podcasts, normal songs, etc); triggers seem many and varied: it can happen overnight, possible file types, when randomly returning to vehicle after certain periods of time, and opening certain doors in certain orders

3. Sorting/Display

a. Correct Sort Order used for track display and playback across the UI at the lowest level. Songs, Artists, Albums, & Genre View access should use DISCNUMBER+TRACKNUMBER; not mix-in the use of FILENAME with ID3 tag usage as it does with some views today
b. Folder View should use only directory and FILENAME; not mix file structure naming with ID3 tag data
c. Distinguish unique albums by using ALBUM+ALBUMARTIST throughout the interface
d. Fix compilation albums on USB media to properly use album artist tags for grouping (was actually working in December).​

Bonus: Document the requirements and/or limits of the media system (e.g. "how many tracks can you really put on a USB stick?") and other parts of the software system that affect the normal day-to-day operation of the vehicle ("do you really need to clear trip meters to fix a memory leak?"). Impose & publicly document hard limits in the Owners Manual for supported Media Player USB physical device types and formatting, directory depth, max number of tracks, encoding methods and bit depths, album art (formats, size, type of art within the tag), general ID3 tag usage (which ones, max length) and known limitations at the time of the release. This one might actually save Tesla some headaches in dealing with owners since everyone will be on the same page as to "why" something doesn't work so they can stop complaining about it.

Thanks again for your help everyone.

 

[thecloud]

d. Fix compilation albums on USB media to properly use album artist tags for grouping (was actually working in December).

Or, you know, actually use the de facto standard compilation tags!

MP3 = 'YTCP' (for ID3v2.2) or 'TCMP' is used to specify that a track is part of a compilation.
FLAC = 'COMPILATION' with some value that isn't 0

 

[f-stop]

lots of good things already pointed out by everyone.

Under "sorting/display", this might already be implied by "correct sort order" above, but I'd add:
- when sorting by Artists, strip off leading "The..." from the name, e.g. so Artists like "The Beach Boys", "The Beatles etc sort under the letter "B", rather than with the dozens of other "The..." artists currently sorted under "T"

Meanwhile, included in generally fixing "Shuffle" and it's non-randomness, you currently cannot shuffle all songs across all albums of an artist. For me this is probably the thing I want to do most often with my USB collection.

Finally I think this was recently mentioned - If you do a search, eg search by Artist - then select the artist result on USB, the media player will ONLY play the first song on the first album listed by that artist - no other songs can be played (e.g. by pressing FF or after that 1 song completes, and then playback stops). You are forced to then manually navigate to another selection or re-do a search. Combined with above point about shuffling all songs of an artist, to me these really makes the media player a big distraction if I'm driving and want to play something from my USB collection.

 

[supratachophobia]

lots of good things already pointed out by everyone.

Under "sorting/display", this might already be implied by "correct sort order" above, but I'd add:
- when sorting by Artists, strip off leading "The..." from the name, e.g. so Artists like "The Beach Boys", "The Beatles etc sort under the letter "B", rather than with the dozens of other "The..." artists currently sorted under "T"

Meanwhile, included in generally fixing "Shuffle" and it's non-randomness, you currently cannot shuffle all songs across all albums of an artist. For me this is probably the thing I want to do most often with my USB collection.

Finally I think this was recently mentioned - If you do a search, eg search by Artist - then select the artist result on USB, the media player will ONLY play the first song on the first album listed by that artist - no other songs can be played (e.g. by pressing FF or after that 1 song completes, and then playback stops). You are forced to then manually navigate to another selection or re-do a search. Combined with above point about shuffling all songs of an artist, to me these really makes the media player a big distraction if I'm driving and want to play something from my USB collection.

This would theoretically be fixed by doing a USB search for artist and allowing it to play ALL songs by that artist in it's own on-the-fly "playlist". Currently, as it stands, only one song will play, with nothing after it despite being more results.

 

[Alkettory]

1) Rescans.
2) Shuffle.
3) Everything else comes in a distant 3rd for me. 1 & 2 are MAJOR pain points.

 

[AWDtsla]

In this thread late, but not sure it matters. I suspect the last 55 pages have done better than going in the trash bin.

Why doesn't someone open a public bugtracker on Tesla's behalf? Hmmm.

 

[msnow]

Fix Nav, it's a basic driving tool and needs to be trusted. Even with the garmin update it's still taking people on circuitous routes. After that add waypoints then fix USB. That would be my prioritized "general" list.

 

[gsmith63]

#1 – For God’s sake, fix it so that the player remembers what USB track it was playing when switching from USB, to some other source, and then back to USB! This would have the added benefit of making the shuffle bug less annoying, because one would rarely need to start shuffle over again and be repeatedly subjected to the same songs. Kills 1 ½ big birds with one stone.

#2 – Fix Shuffle.

#3 - Fix Restarting Tracks from Beginning.

 

[thecloud]

Oh, that reminds me of one more thing.

The Dolby Surround option sometimes gets disabled after switching sources. I haven't narrowed down exact reproducible steps yet. The general rule is that if I leave the source set to USB, everything is fine and Dolby Surround stays enabled indefinitely. But if I switch to some combination of listening to the radio and/or low-quality streams, then back to USB, I'll notice the difference in sound right away... and sure enough, Dolby is off. (Firmware 2.52.22.)

 

[BertL]

...just wonderin':

Of all the folks that have USB/Nav/Infotainment problems reported here, how many of you have formally reported the issues when you go to the SvC and have it recorded as part of your permanent Service Record? Do you bring up new/continued issues with each SvC visit? Or do you email TeslaNA or some personal Tesla contact, hoping there will be a connection of your concern to your vehicle? Or perhaps you have given up and just occassionally vocalize here, hoping improvements miraculously appear one day?

Me? My latest 2.52.22 Tesla Twilight Zone / CID Hang/Reboot issues are already on my list for my SvC Appt next Wednesday, along with detailed dates/time when the problems occurred. As much as I know at least one of the SAs hate me doing it, I feel strongly about documenting new problems even if the SvC can't fix firmware themselves -- even though I have this sneaking suspicion I may just be told again that the problems are related to my USB device and it should be unplugged when my MS is turned on each and every time. (Of course 8.1 could come out before my appt, and likely negate the concern until some new variation happens again! )​

 

[George Jetson]

...just wonderin':

Of all the folks that have USB/Nav/Infotainment problems reported here, how many of you have formally reported the issues when you go to the SvC and have it recorded as part of your permanent Service Record? Do you bring up new/continued issues with each SvC visit? Or do you email TeslaNA or some personal Tesla contact, hoping there will be a connection of your concern to your vehicle? Or perhaps you have given up and just occassionally vocalize here, hoping improvements miraculously appear one day?

Me? My latest 2.52.22 Tesla Twilight Zone / CID Hang/Reboot issues are already on my list for my SvC Appt next Wednesday, along with detailed dates/time when the problems occurred. As much as I know at least one of the SAs hate me doing it, I feel strongly about documenting new problems even if the SvC can't fix firmware themselves -- even though I have this sneaking suspicion I may just be told again that the problems are related to my USB device and it should be unplugged when my MS is turned on each and every time. (Of course 8.1 could come out before my appt, and likely negate the concern until some new variation happens again! )​

I started a thread to see if my reboot frequency and pattern was typical or unusual. If it turned out this was just the way it is with Model S, then I was just going to grin and bear it. It wasn't group therapy, I just wanted to see if it rose to an actionable level. Based on the small sample size, it appears that my problems are not typical, so I've started a log book pre-8.1 to document the issues. If the post-8.1 problems persist, then I'll make the appointment with the SC with clear documentation of the problem(s). I feel sorry for the SA's because they are so often used as punching bags for the frustrations that owners have with all sorts issues related to Tesla as a company.

 

[msnow]

...just wonderin':

Of all the folks that have USB/Nav/Infotainment problems reported here, how many of you have formally reported the issues when you go to the SvC and have it recorded as part of your permanent Service Record? Do you bring up new/continued issues with each SvC visit? Or do you email TeslaNA or some personal Tesla contact, hoping there will be a connection of your concern to your vehicle? Or perhaps you have given up and just occassionally vocalize here, hoping improvements miraculously appear one day?

Me? My latest 2.52.22 Tesla Twilight Zone / CID Hang/Reboot issues are already on my list for my SvC Appt next Wednesday, along with detailed dates/time when the problems occurred. As much as I know at least one of the SAs hate me doing it, I feel strongly about documenting new problems even if the SvC can't fix firmware themselves -- even though I have this sneaking suspicion I may just be told again that the problems are related to my USB device and it should be unplugged when my MS is turned on each and every time. (Of course 8.1 could come out before my appt, and likely negate the concern until some new variation happens again! )​

I gave up reporting my Nav, USB issues.

 

[BertL]

...I feel sorry for the SA's because they are so often used as punching bags for the frustrations that owners have with all sorts issues related to Tesla as a company.

Agree. Customer facing jobs where the "back-end" supporting them isn't responsive, or does not provide appropriate tools to get the job done, can be difficult positions at best. Since I was in those sort of roles all of my professional life, I am careful to remain factual and business-like, never raise my voice or go crazy with SvC personnel, try to only bring up the most pervasive new issues from my POV, provide documentation that may assist isolating the issue, and always say thank you to the personnel attempting to assist me.

 

[f-stop]

I thought my car was finally freed of USB rescans forever - ever since 2.50.114 update back in Dec. Well today I had my first random rescan since then (currently on 17.6.15)

 

[thecloud]

Oh, that reminds me of one more thing.

The Dolby Surround option sometimes gets disabled after switching sources. I haven't narrowed down exact reproducible steps yet. The general rule is that if I leave the source set to USB, everything is fine and Dolby Surround stays enabled indefinitely. But if I switch to some combination of listening to the radio and/or low-quality streams, then back to USB, I'll notice the difference in sound right away... and sure enough, Dolby is off. (Firmware 2.52.22.)

Here's how I reproduced it this morning.
1. Was listening to the USB source as usual yesterday. Verified that Dolby Surround was on.
2. Switched to the radio to hear the Sharks game on 98.5 FM.
3. Left the car overnight with the audio source still set to Radio.
4. Came back to the car this morning, switched from Radio to USB, and started playing a song.
5. Opened the equalizer panel to check its status, and sure enough, Dolby Surround was off.