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Peeve with audio system: Source is non-persistent

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Being an old fossil, I prefer playing my music from MP3 files stored on the SSD tucked away in the car's console. The car's infotainment system can do that, but, exasperatingly, it fails to retain the audio source selection and sequencing preferences (play randomly, repeat, etc..) between "audio-playing sessions", I have several hundred music files on the drive; enough so that the "random play" feature presents a nice variety. What I want to be able to do is to pull into a store's parking spot with tune ABC by artist XYZ playing, shut the car off, hop out, buy some sardines and yogurt, climb back in the car, and have tune ABC resume playing when the audio system is turned back ON. And when that tune finishes, I want the next tune to be randomly selected, too.

The car's infotainment system doesn't work that way, though, and its misbehavior has gone uncorrected through the two years' worth of updates I've experienced. Instead, it forgets that it was playing from USB memory altogether, so that turning on the audio system brings up some sort of infuriating "select source " prompt. It used to be possible to pick "USB" as a source directly, but the later "improved" interfaces made it necessary to rummage more deeply in the menus. And when USB source IS finally selected, it still won't play - not until a song title from a presented list is explicitly selected. So much for the "random selection" feature; I wind up always having to listen to one of the eight or so songs with a title at the top of the alphabetically-sorted list. And so much for being able to just click the left scroll-wheel for "Music ON" without taking eyes off the road.

At least, that's how the system misbehaves most of the time. Sometimes, the car does remember and restore the audio settings after a temporary shutdown. The duration of shutdown seems to be a factor; I don't think I've seen them last more than a quarter hour.
 
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Happens all the time when the car goes into 'deep sleep. It does not retain the USB info, and need to reload it upon waking up. It's awful, but they don't care. All they care about is streaming, and having people pay for those premium internet subscriptions.
 
Use the voice command "USB" or "switch to USB" - for me, this always picks up exactly where it left off. Selecting USB via the touchscreen does exactly what you describe, so I try not to do that.

You can also do this with voice commands "Spotify", "switch to Spotify", "Slacker", "switch to Slacker" - and those should also pick up where they left off. (Unless you listened to Spotify from another device, then it will probably pick up where that other device left off if you're using the same account).
 
Thanks for the suggestion; it hadn't occurred to me that commanding "USB" by voice would be different than pressing the "USB" icon in one of the menus. Possibly I tried it once, but unluckily did so at one of those (thankfully) infrequent times when the car loses access to its USB-connected SSD. In any case, I tried the voice command just now, and it worked as SkyDog describes!
 
I've been digging into old posts about this - USB music auto-resume related to allocation unit size showed up in the search suggesting some combination of small allocation units on the drive, very fast drive and (historically at least) preferring MP3 over flac may help. Using the voice command is also an interesting idea I'll try.

It happening because after deep sleep the USB is waking up slightly slower than the rest of the car - this is why getting out, closing the door then re-opening it works. You let the USB get started with the first open, then the second syncs everything up so the USB looks likes its there and mounted at wake time and the music player sees it and resumes.

Anyway, I've just re-formatted my SSD with 8kb allocation units and will see how that goes.
 
The usb audio is working much better for me with version 2022.16.1.1. I think they may have fixed the problem with mounting usb devices. The "usb" button on the screen is sure to lose your place but the "switch to usb" voice command works well now.

Also, I've been using exfat instead of fat32.
 
The usb audio is working much better for me with version 2022.16.1.1. I think they may have fixed the problem with mounting usb devices. The "usb" button on the screen is sure to lose your place but the "switch to usb" voice command works well now.

Also, I've been using exfat instead of fat32.
Ah, I'm currently on 12.3.2.

Just to document some other frustrations that may help people:
  • In album view, albums are seen as unique from a combo of album title and artist; if some tracks have a variation on a spelling (CaSe sensitive btw) or have a 'x ft y' listing, that track will show up as an album on its own.
  • Fixing tags needs you to change at least a folder re-name in the hierarchy. Even then old tags sometimes stick around.
  • Punctuation and 'The' at the start of albums are ignored for sort order, and the # at the bottom of the alphabet means numbers, not a literal # at be more obvious the people in the US. I tried to use it to ID our kids audio books, just reverted to using 99 instead.
Hope that helps some. Amy other tagging hints?
 
Being an old fossil, I prefer playing my music from MP3 files stored on the SSD tucked away in the car's console. The car's infotainment system can do that, but, exasperatingly, it fails to retain the audio source selection and sequencing preferences (play randomly, repeat, etc..) between "audio-playing sessions", I have several hundred music files on the drive; enough so that the "random play" feature presents a nice variety. What I want to be able to do is to pull into a store's parking spot with tune ABC by artist XYZ playing, shut the car off, hop out, buy some sardines and yogurt, climb back in the car, and have tune ABC resume playing when the audio system is turned back ON. And when that tune finishes, I want the next tune to be randomly selected, too.

The car's infotainment system doesn't work that way, though, and its misbehavior has gone uncorrected through the two years' worth of updates I've experienced. Instead, it forgets that it was playing from USB memory altogether, so that turning on the audio system brings up some sort of infuriating "select source " prompt. It used to be possible to pick "USB" as a source directly, but the later "improved" interfaces made it necessary to rummage more deeply in the menus. And when USB source IS finally selected, it still won't play - not until a song title from a presented list is explicitly selected. So much for the "random selection" feature; I wind up always having to listen to one of the eight or so songs with a title at the top of the alphabetically-sorted list. And so much for being able to just click the left scroll-wheel for "Music ON" without taking eyes off the road.

At least, that's how the system misbehaves most of the time. Sometimes, the car does remember and restore the audio settings after a temporary shutdown. The duration of shutdown seems to be a factor; I don't think I've seen them last more than a quarter hour.
Ya, it sucks they haven't fixed it and have even made it worse over time.
 
Thanks for the suggestion; it hadn't occurred to me that commanding "USB" by voice would be different than pressing the "USB" icon in one of the menus. Possibly I tried it once, but unluckily did so at one of those (thankfully) infrequent times when the car loses access to its USB-connected SSD. In any case, I tried the voice command just now, and it worked as SkyDog describes!
Didn't work for me, instead I got some over the air streaming media band named usb, and no with way to rid of it.
 
Didn't work for me, instead I got some over the air streaming media band named usb, and no with way to rid of it.
The voice command "USB" does not work, as you have found out. But the voice command "switch to USB" does work. It switches to the usb source and picks up where it had previously stopped.

Any other tagging hints?
I organize my usb by folder and file names just like my grandad did back in the '90s. I already had the tools available so it was not a big deal. In addition, I keep only a small portion of my collection on the usb to avoid having to do a lot of scrolling around.
 
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The usb audio is working much better for me with version 2022.16.1.1. I think they may have fixed the problem with mounting usb devices. The "usb" button on the screen is sure to lose your place but the "switch to usb" voice command works well now.

Also, I've been using exfat instead of fat32.
being a Linux guy, I use ext4 and flac. Does anyone else see random streaming icons being displayed for their USB past history and favorites? Total crap for a UI
 
being a Linux guy, I use ext4 and flac. Does anyone else see random streaming icons being displayed for their USB past history and favorites? Total crap for a UI
Yes, upon re-entering the car, the streaming-service-du-jour is displayed instead of where your USB music player was when you left. I've seen this display with either a request to log in to the streaming service or a QR code for signing up. My opinion: this is an advertisement for the streaming service aimed at USB users. Perhaps Tesla is getting paid to do this.

I've been reporting this bad USB music player behavior for over three years. It should be repaired under warranty. One service technician showed me an internal memo that roughly said "we know about the problem but we're not fixing it." Later, a Tesla service employee (service manager?) claimed that Tesla couldn't repair this (and other software defects) because they had to address safety-related software issues first. This rings false. Does that mean that Tesla software is so riddled with unsafe code that they have no resources available to meet their obligations under the warranty? If so, please explain all the non-safety software improvements Tesla has released (e.g. more video gaming options and improved fart noises).

My recommendation: if your car is under warranty, report this defect (and other software defects*). Demand that it be repaired. Don't accept anything other than repair. The warranty covers defects, and makes no distinction between hardware and software.

I pointed out (over and over) that every other audio source in the car "stays put" when you leave and return. For example, you were playing a station on TuneIn, and it's right there when you return. Same for all of the other audio sources, except the USB music player. It makes sense for the audio source to remain the same until you change it. The fact that the USB music player is the exception clearly shows that it is a defect.

* Make sure that you are demanding repair only of actual defects. A lot of software can be improved, but that's not the same a defect. It's the difference between it-doesn't-work and I-would-prefer-it-if-it-worked-this-other-way.
 
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Yes, upon re-entering the car, the streaming-service-du-jour is displayed instead of where your USB music player was when you left. I've seen this display with either a request to log in to the streaming service or a QR code for signing up. My opinion: this is an advertisement for the streaming service aimed at USB users. Perhaps Tesla is getting paid to do this.

I've been reporting this bad USB music player behavior for over three years. It should be repaired under warranty. One service technician showed me an internal memo that roughly said "we know about the problem but we're not fixing it." Later, a Tesla service employee (service manager?) claimed that Tesla couldn't repair this (and other software defects) because they had to address safety-related software issues first. This rings false. Does that mean that Tesla software is so riddled with unsafe code that they have no resources available to meet their obligations under the warranty? If so, please explain all the non-safety software improvements Tesla has released (e.g. more video gaming options and improved fart noises).

My recommendation: if your car is under warranty, report this defect (and other software defects*). Demand that it be repaired. Don't accept anything other than repair. The warranty covers defects, and makes no distinction between hardware and software.

I pointed out (over and over) that every other audio source in the car "stays put" when you leave and return. For example, you were playing a station on TuneIn, and it's right there when you return. Same for all of the other audio sources, except the USB music player. It makes sense for the audio source to remain the same until you change it. The fact that the USB music player is the exception clearly shows that it is a defect.

* Make sure that you are demanding repair only of actual defects. A lot of software can be improved, but that's not the same a defect. It's the difference between it-doesn't-work and I-would-prefer-it-if-it-worked-this-other-way.
And it used to be that way. Originally USB media playback was persistent and restored when you returned, but it was completely lost with the MCU2 upgrade and software updates. As a longtime Linux software developer, I have offered and applied to Tesla to fix it but they declined and rejected my appilcation. I too have reported this bug and several others for the past 3 years and nothing has been done. Total bullshit for service for something so simple to fix.
 
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And it used to be that way. Originally USB media playback was persistent and restored when you returned, but it was completely lost with the MCU2 upgrade and software updates. As a longtime Linux software developer, I have offered and applied to Tesla to fix it but they declined and rejected my appilcation. I too have reported this bug and several others for the past 3 years and nothing has been done. Total bullshit for service for something so simple to fix.
I was unaware that it used to work. That's useful information: it used to work, then Tesla broke it, and now they won't repair it. That's the same story for sharing-a-contact-from-your-phone. It used to be that I could open a contact with an address on my phone, use the ubiquitous SHARE button, and have that address and its directions ready-to-go when I got into the car. It worked. For the last year, tapping the Tesla icon in the Sharing section immediately reports “Error - There was a problem sharing content with your vehicle. Please try again later.” I've been reporting this at each service visit and Tesla refuses to repair it.