Comprehensive USB Bug List

[BertL]

Not directly related to the Media Player bugs (I've seen no change in reported bugs over the past several software updates), but has anybody had problems with a USB flash drive containing music just by being plugged in causing the 17" touchscreen to crash or become unresponsive after the car powers down? sometimes getting a "Touchscreen unresponsive" warning on the instrument cluster and a message to reboot the screen by holding the scroll wheels?

I've been getting the "Touchscreen unresponsive" warnings more and more frequently when returning to the car after it's been parked for several hours or overnight, but it's intermittent - sometimes daily, other times several days apart. Sometimes no dash warning message just an unresponsive screen. I'm using the same 64GB (Sandisk Ultra Fit) USB flash drive for more than a year, no recent additions/changes to the music stored, but only in the past few months have I been having this problem (thinking it maybe started since one of the last few software updates?)

The service center suggested something plugged into the USB ports could be causing it. So I unplugged my USB flash drive for the past couple weeks, and I've only had to reboot the screen once although that time the problem didn't happen exactly the same (no "Touchscreen unresponsive" warning on dash, just the 17" was blank and needed reboot). Then last night I plugged the USB back in and this morning the problem reappeared. Since the problem was intermittent to begin with, I can't say for sure, but it's looking like there may be something to the USB flash drive triggering it. But curious since the same USB flash worked for a year or more without trouble....

I've now reformatted the USB flash drive and am now in the process of reloading my library. I guess the other thing to try is a completely different USB flash device. but in the meantime wondering if anybody else has seen their USB flash drive causing touchscreen unresponsive/reboot issues?

I've never seen an actual message of "Touchscreen unresponsive", but as reported upthread several times in my Twilight Zone episodes, I've had the 17" be physically unresponsive to touch after I get into my MS, even through it seems to be operating (maps move, subsystems like AirCon work, etc.) My SvC could find no record of the incidents in my logs, even after my providing date/time when they happened. In late March, they applied the latest firmware update saying that should fix it (I think that was simply to close the problem on a hope, vs something they really ID'd in the new firmware that may fix it), and they would have to inspect further if the problem still occurs.

I have had the same failure at least 3 additional times since the last time I reported here and took it into my SvC back in March. A forced 17" reboot cleared the situation up each time. I have kept the dates/times of when the problems occurred to report it again when I take my MS in for it's next service appt when a different backordered part becomes available (waiting now at week 10).

I do suspect having an active USB device has something to do with this. I keep my latest USB SSD plugged-in 100% of the time. "Tesla recommends nothing be plugged-in to a USB port at power-on" (my words) was something Tesla documented to me soon after I took delivery in 2015, when I first began reporting some of these problems to them. I tried that for awhile like you (but using multiple different USB devices to rule one stick out over another), and do believe I had less odd issues when no USB device was left in my MS after it powered-off -- but honestly just couldn't pull-out and put-in my USB device every time I start/stop my car like Tesla recommends, as the time to rescan my 7K tracks is generally longer than the time it takes between errand stops and I wouldn't have any of my own USB music to listen to except on longer trips. It's when I began believing Tesla had a lot more underlying firmware issues, including perhaps outdated device support and error recovery that were permeating through the rest of the vehicle. It's the only reason I care about a kernel update (not the browser as gets all the hype), that may help us with problems like this if Elon ever delivers on his well-overdue and delayed promise.

Rant ON (Sorry, it's been awhile, and you awoke my beast):

I have no issues like this in any other USB media device I own where I CAN leave a USB stick plugged-in 7x24x365, from an ancient $30 boom box, to devices that cost hundreds/thousands of dollars like my AVR, 4K UHD Blu-ray player, PS4 Pro, TV, iMac and PC laptop. Tesla's lack of caring to resolve these sort of problems in a somewhat timely manner is a primary reason I'll have a tough decision to make replacing my MS with another Tesla when the day comes -- even as much as I L-O-V-E this car. Another Tesla is no longer a shoe-in for me because of poor service and continued MP problems. Yes, it's that important to me, especially after continued nagging issues for such a long time. I'm going to be amazed at MS/MX owners that have reported continued issues like this and complained about it and other things in this forum, then turn-around and still buy a M3. They will be the ones confirming Elon's focus on only producing more cars is the most important goal; not truly caring as much about customer satisfaction and demonstrating service with the detail as other mfgrs do with vehicles that cost even half as much.​

Rant OFF:

 

[supratachophobia]

Rant ON (Sorry, it's been awhile, and you awoke my beast):

I have no issues like this in any other USB media device I own where I CAN leave a USB stick plugged-in 7x24x365, from an ancient $30 boom box, to devices that cost hundreds/thousands of dollars like my AVR, 4K UHD Blu-ray player, PS4 Pro, TV, iMac and PC laptop. Tesla's lack of caring to resolve these sort of problems in a somewhat timely manner is a primary reason I'll have a tough decision to make replacing my MS with another Tesla when the day comes -- even as much as I L-O-V-E this car. Another Tesla is no longer a shoe-in for me because of poor service and continued MP problems. Yes, it's that important to me, especially after continued nagging issues for such a long time. I'm going to be amazed at MS/MX owners that have reported continued issues like this and complained about it and other things in this forum, then turn-around and still buy a M3. They will be the ones confirming Elon's focus on only producing more cars is the most important goal; not truly caring as much about customer satisfaction and demonstrating service with the detail as other mfgrs do with vehicles that cost even half as much.​

Rant OFF:

So I had a conversation with a family member about getting a Tesla. Unlike the rest of us, money is completely a non-issue in the discussion. But in his particular usage scenario he is traveling between homes 12-15 times per year so the electric/autopilot is very attractive from a environmental/tiredness standpoint. So with these long trips comes a lot of audiobook usage. We got to talking about how Tesla handles audiobooks and audio in general. Conversation goes something like this:

Me: "I use a solid state drive and take my entire collection with me."
Him: "Cool, so I could take all of my books with me?"
Me: "Well, yeah, sort of."
Him: "What do you mean sort of?"
Me: I outlined a couple of the bugs, scan counts off, random scans (hardly ever anymore), album art, file scan issues, now playing screen changes to phone from USB, and restarting of audio tracks to the beginning if you get out and back in.
Him: Wait, so if I stop for a diet coke, go around to the other side of the car to get my wallet, then the book resets?"
Me: "Yep. Well, sometimes. It depends."
Him: "I'm sure there is some workaround, if not, Tesla can just easily fix that."
Me: "Well, it's been 4 years, so I'm guessing not."
Him: "They can't keep a place in a book in a $100k car???"

So I was honest with him and told him that if that is a really important feature to him, he might want to hold off and keep his current Lexus LS. Now, will that guy eventually get a Tesla? Probably. But for sure it's a lost sale at this moment. I can't help but wonder how many of these bugs do prohibit sales, or at least sap the enjoyment of the car after purchase and therefore sour other potential sales....

 

[CuriousG]

So I was honest with him and told him that if that is a really important feature to him, he might want to hold off and keep his current Lexus LS. Now, will that guy eventually get a Tesla? Probably. But for sure it's a lost sale at this moment. I can't help but wonder how many of these bugs do prohibit sales, or at least sap the enjoyment of the car after purchase and therefore sour other potential sales....

So it didn't occur to you to mention just playing it on their smartphone over Bluetooth instead?

 

[TEG]

Probably the most important thing for me isn't on your list though. When I get back to my car it should keep playing where I left off. This is especially annoying for audio books that I have on a USB drive.

It doesn't do that now? Yikes. The media player in my LEAF and the cheap aftermarket media player radio in my MR2 both resume right where it left off when I start the car up again. I expect that.
And not just back to the start of the last song played, but to the part in the middle of the song when I shut things down last time.

 

[thecloud]

It was pointed out somewhere upthread that the format of your audio files makes a difference. The media player can remember its place in MP3 files, but not FLAC. (Those are the two formats I've personally tried; not sure about others.)

 

[TEG]

Ah... OK.

 

[supratachophobia]

So it didn't occur to you to mention just playing it on their smartphone over Bluetooth instead?

He's still he kind of guy that wants to to phone far away from him while driving to avoid the distraction.

 

[supratachophobia]

It was pointed out somewhere upthread that the format of your audio files makes a difference. The media player can remember its place in MP3 files, but not FLAC. (Those are the two formats I've personally tried; not sure about others.)

My experience has shown that's false. All my books are in mp3 and not a one can pick up where it left off.

 

[thecloud]

My experience has shown that's false. All my books are in mp3 and not a one can pick up where it left off.

Well, I've had a consistently different experience so it's not false, there's just some variable that we aren't accounting for.

When I come back to the car and it has remembered its place in the current MP3 file (and can resume play from that spot, which is the important point), I have been away for a minimum of several hours and the car is fully asleep. Sometimes I only open the driver's door; other times I open the passenger door first to put my bag on the front seat before going around to the driver's side. I don't have range mode on. I do have energy saving mode on, so the instrument panel takes a few seconds to wake up.

FLAC files appear to remember their place visually, but as soon as I hit the play button, they restart at the beginning of the track. MP3 files actually do resume playback from where they were paused.

The MP3s are constant bit rate, 320 kbps files. Not sure if VBR encoding would behave differently, will have to experiment.

 

[supratachophobia]

Well, I've had a consistently different experience so it's not false, there's just some variable that we aren't accounting for.

When I come back to the car and it has remembered its place in the current MP3 file (and can resume play from that spot, which is the important point), I have been away for a minimum of several hours and the car is fully asleep. Sometimes I only open the driver's door; other times I open the passenger door first to put my bag on the front seat before going around to the driver's side. I don't have range mode on. I do have energy saving mode on, so the instrument panel takes a few seconds to wake up.

FLAC files appear to remember their place visually, but as soon as I hit the play button, they restart at the beginning of the track. MP3 files actually do resume playback from where they were paused.

The MP3s are constant bit rate, 320 kbps files. Not sure if VBR encoding would behave differently, will have to experiment.

Correct, false for me, not for you. The fact we have such difference experiences speaks volumes just how screwed up the media player is. I just made a connection that the Bluetooth pairing might have something to do with it as well. So certainly a variable(s) we don't know yet.

 

[thecloud]

Correct, false for me, not for you. The fact we have such difference experiences speaks volumes just how screwed up the media player is. I just made a connection that the Bluetooth pairing might have something to do with it as well. So certainly a variable(s) we don't know yet.

Bluetooth vs. USB could certainly be a factor. My tracks are on a 64GB Kingston low-profile USB stick that I leave plugged in most of the time. If your tracks are on your phone then perhaps there's a bug where state isn't maintained for Bluetooth sources. (I do have my phone paired with the car and it shows up as a Bluetooth source, but I almost never listen to content from that source.)

 

[supratachophobia]

Bluetooth vs. USB could certainly be a factor. My tracks are on a 64GB Kingston low-profile USB stick that I leave plugged in most of the time. If your tracks are on your phone then perhaps there's a bug where state isn't maintained for Bluetooth sources. (I do have my phone paired with the car and it shows up as a Bluetooth source, but I almost never listen to content from that source.)

Close, I'm still using USB as the source though. But I noticed that during a couple weeks when I wasn't pairing my phone, the restarts of the tracks were far less. I didn't think to collect exact data at the time.

I still need to correlate my time-to-return-to-vehicle data with the which-door-did-I-open data. I think it's those 3 items for me (is your phone paired and capable of playing bluetooth audio, regardless of it was selected to play at the time) that dictate track restarts. Then again, we could have another variable with the track formats, VBR/CBR, bitrate, etc.

 

[CuriousG]

He's still he kind of guy that wants to to phone far away from him while driving to avoid the distraction.

That makes even less sense since you are listening over Bluetooth with the screen off, not looking at Navigation app.

 

[CuriousG]

Well, I've had a consistently different experience so it's not false, there's just some variable that we aren't accounting for.

My experience has been the same where it only remembers MP3 for me although I don't have any audio books although I don't see how that matters since it's only looking at the audio format. This was problematic for me when I played an hour long FLAC and it would restart every time from the beginning and annoying to try to remember where I left off. So I ended up converting it to MP3 just so it would remember where I left off.

 

[iffatall]

I always have my phone connected via Bluetooth. Yet, I have seen random music resets - sometimes reset when I step out for 5 mins, sometimes the position remains even across deep sleep. Talking about MP3 files on USB.

 

[BertL]

Another Excursion in the Tesla Twilight Zone

My MS had been sitting overnight in my garage. I had my iPhone 7 with latest iOS (10.3.2) in my pocket as it always is when I am driving, then open the door to get in.

Odd... No USB Music is playing, so I think, well, the CID must be in another of it's unresponsive-to-touch conditions. Nope, it's responsive, but oddly, all MP controls are greyed-out, with a full-color album art being displayed. I touch various things to see if my USB device is there and it, or at least it's scanned data in memory, seems to be, but I also can't turn on FM Radio. Hmmm. I look at the IC, and strangely, it looks like a phone call is in session from "My Phone" with a number of "000". I try to end the odd call via the right steering wheel button. NO response, but I can move up/down the in-progress phone options, but none perform any action when selected. The rest of the IC is working fine as is my CID.

I back out of my garage and driveway to get on my way, and reboot the CID. As the reboot is underway and the CID comes back to life, the same "fake call" shows again on my IC, and my USB SSD begins rescan as I expect. I can't get rid of the supposed call, so I pull off the freeway to see what's going on with the phone. My iPhone does not show any call in progress, so I powered it off. As it started to shutdown, the "fake call" disappeared from the IC as if the call had ended. A couple minutes later my USB rescan completed, and while I got the infamous "Loading Error" as I often do in this situation (described upthread), I got myself out of that situation and USB music began playing again. I powered my iPhone back on; it automatically connected to my MS as it should, and all was well with the rest of the ride to my destination, and then back home.

Net: Seems like there was a Bluetooth issue of some sort going on when I entered my MS, that was not apparent from my iPhone and could not be cleared-up by rebooting the CID, only by terminating the Bluetooth connection from my iPhone. As others have also suspected, perhaps there is some correlation to this with our intermittent USB media failures at startup. I always have my iPhone in my pocket when I'm going to drive, ready to connect with my MS, so it has always been a silent participant in this equation until today.

Sighhh. I'm exhausted dealing with persistent Tesla Infotainment bugs as I know you can tell.

 

[CuriousG]

Sighhh. I'm exhausted dealing with persistent Tesla Infotainment bugs as I know you can tell.

So you say yet you keep coming back like that abused spouse.

 

[BertL]

So you say yet you keep coming back like that abused spouse.

This is after all the "Comprehensive USB Bug List" and I believe this post is another unique example in some of our attempts at figuring out a pattern to theses sort of issues if there is any; trying to create our own workarounds for persistent bugs; and providing documentation that some of this community may also find beneficial.

Before I go to my own User Control Panel, I'll just say, Ignore lists and Unsubscribe are wonderful things for people that don't appreciate what others have to say.

 

[Alkettory]

IMHO, Tesla should either fix the USB player, or delete the feature.

I feel that I was mislead into thinking I would be able to play my music on USB, and so far that just has not been the case. I even paid for the upgraded sound system, which I never would have done if I had know I was going to spend so much time listening to the sound of "Loading..."

 

[wdolson]

IMHO, Tesla should either fix the USB player, or delete the feature.

I feel that I was mislead into thinking I would be able to play my music on USB, and so far that just has not been the case. I even paid for the upgraded sound system, which I never would have done if I had know I was going to spend so much time listening to the sound of "Loading..."

I am in agreement with everyone here the player has bugs that Tesla should fix (or they should put the code out there open source and let the Tesla community with programming skills fix it). But they shouldn't delete the feature.

I use it and it works OK, not terrifically, but OK. I tried putting a whole bunch of stuff on one 32GB USB drive and that scanned forever. Since then I have had much better luck with smaller drives. I do have one 32 GB SansDisk drive that works, but all the other drives I use are 8 GB and I haven't had any issues with them. I only use USB 2 drives, only name brands, and I don't reformat them. Most drives come with FAT32 as the format. Another thing that might mess things up would be to use a drive with some kind of encryption.

I forget all the brands of drives I have, but the one I'm using now is a Kingston 8 GB. The only issues I've had are with the player occasionally forgetting it's place. Most often when I switch to the radio and then come back to the USB. I had it switch to the radio spontaneously when I opened a door other than the driver's door.

To get around the resetting the track to the beginning when listening to an audio book, I just memorized where I was in the book before getting out of the car and reset the player to that spot when i continued. I was on a road trip and only stopping every 2-3 hours, so it wasn't that big a problem. It would be far more annoying if I was running around town and driving much shorter legs (over the course of a day or multiple days).

The bugs are frustrating, but there are worse things in this world, like driving an ICE...