So, I’m sitting in my car, setting stuff up, and have MORE questions, of course.

[Richard__G]

1. USB C ports: are the ones in the car different in some way? It appears so because the ones I have don’t go all the way in. I’d ordered a “Tesla” USB C cord from someplace, and that one does work. Comparing the 2, the Tesla plug seems a tad smaller. Why?

2. Spotify - I have an account I use on my phone and computer. When I bring it up in the car it tells me to log in using a QR code. Ok, I do that, and then the phone app comes up, momentarily displays a white X, indicates at the bottom it is playing through the Tesla, but nothing comes out on either the phone or car. I was able to connect to it on the phone through Bluetooth, but had to disable all other music sources in the car before it did. Can anyone tell me what I’m doing wrong? Do I need to contact Spotify?

BTW, I’m listening to the Talking Heads “Stop Making Sense” sound track at the moment and, wow, this sound system ROCKS! I am loving this car.

Tip, the movie is simply incredible. It’s the most amazing concert film I’ve ever seen. Unique and incredibly well produced. If you like this kind of music, you MUST see it.

- Richard

 

[jjrandorin]

For spotify, it only allows you to play music from one location at a time. The car is logging in as an additional connection. Try swiping the spotify app away on your phone (closing the spotify app) then going to the car, changing music sources away from spotify momentarily (like to USB music even if you dont have it connected), then selecting spotify again.

 

[Stirfry]

1. USB C ports: are the ones in the car different in some way? It appears so because the ones I have don’t go all the way in. I’d ordered a “Tesla” USB C cord from someplace, and that one does work. Comparing the 2, the Tesla plug seems a tad smaller. Why?

2. Spotify - I have an account I use on my phone and computer. When I bring it up in the car it tells me to log in using a QR code. Ok, I do that, and then the phone app comes up, momentarily displays a white X, indicates at the bottom it is playing through the Tesla, but nothing comes out on either the phone or car. I was able to connect to it on the phone through Bluetooth, but had to disable all other music sources in the car before it did. Can anyone tell me what I’m doing wrong? Do I need to contact Spotify?

1. Just to confirm, the USB type on the car are USB Type C, which is different from the older Type A:

2. To add to the above, (if I recall correctly) the free version of Spotify does not work on the Tesla as a direct log-in, only a paid-for account works. We have a family spotify account (5 accounts?) and I created a specific user being the Tesla vehicle and log in with those credentials. Streaming from your phone via bluetooth is different and the above does not apply.

 

[jjrandorin]

1. Just to confirm, the USB type on the car are USB Type C, which is different from the older Type A:
View attachment 993010

2. To add to the above, (if I recall correctly) the free version of Spotify does not work on the Tesla as a direct log-in, only a paid-for account works. We have a family spotify account (5 accounts?) and I created a specific user being the Tesla vehicle and log in with those credentials. Streaming from your phone via bluetooth is different and the above does not apply.

Yeah I didnt mention that but thats completely relevant. It has to be "paid for" spotify. I signed up for a paid for spotify account just to have it linked with the car for ease of playing through the car. Been pretty happy with it overall, but I know some people are really into things like music compression (or lack therof) etc.

 

[Tronguy]

Minor point about the USB ports.

First, there's a total of five of the suckers. There's two in the center console, not that easy to see. Open up the front center console and on the rear vertical side of the compartment you'll find two flush-mount Type C sockets. I believe that both are good for charging and playing media files.

Then, on the rear of the whole center console, facing the back seats, there's two more USB Type C sockets. Those provide charging only.

Finally, inside the glove box, there's a USB Type-A connector. When you got the car Tesla threw in a USB Drive stick, good for storing dashcam and Sentry videos. You can, if you desire, use that plug for media play-back as well as charging.

On older Model 3's (I used to have one) all the plugs were Type A. In fact, before there was a charging mat on the center console, Tesla provided this plastic thingy that had a couple of cables snapped into it. Both cables had Type A at one end and were meant to plug into the (at the time) Type A plugs that were on the forward side of the forward storage console. One of the cables had a right-angle Lightning connector on it (good for iPhones); the other cable had a Type C, and the general idea was that one would put one's phone on one side or the other of the phone rest and plug it into the appropriate cable there.

But there's a point to this: The cables so employed on those older Teslas were a bit specific, since the cable ends that fit into the phone rest on the console had right-angle connectors on them. (That is: The cable came in left or right, but the actual connector was straight back.) If you bought yourself a "Tesla Type C" cable I betcha you ended up with one of those: "Normal" Type A at one end, a right-angle Type C at the other, and the whole business relatively short, about a foot long.

Since the phone rest on modern Teslas has a wireless QI charger built in, you don't really need any of those cables, unless you've got a fairly old phone that doesn't have a wireless charger built in.

 

[Jerry Ham]

Minor point about the USB ports.

First, there's a total of five of the suckers. There's two in the center console, not that easy to see. Open up the front center console and on the rear vertical side of the compartment you'll find two flush-mount Type C sockets. I believe that both are good for charging and playing media files.

Then, on the rear of the whole center console, facing the back seats, there's two more USB Type C sockets. Those provide charging only.

Finally, inside the glove box, there's a USB Type-A connector. When you got the car Tesla threw in a USB Drive stick, good for storing dashcam and Sentry videos. You can, if you desire, use that plug for media play-back as well as charging.

On older Model 3's (I used to have one) all the plugs were Type A. In fact, before there was a charging mat on the center console, Tesla provided this plastic thingy that had a couple of cables snapped into it. Both cables had Type A at one end and were meant to plug into the (at the time) Type A plugs that were on the forward side of the forward storage console. One of the cables had a right-angle Lightning connector on it (good for iPhones); the other cable had a Type C, and the general idea was that one would put one's phone on one side or the other of the phone rest and plug it into the appropriate cable there.

But there's a point to this: The cables so employed on those older Teslas were a bit specific, since the cable ends that fit into the phone rest on the console had right-angle connectors on them. (That is: The cable came in left or right, but the actual connector was straight back.) If you bought yourself a "Tesla Type C" cable I betcha you ended up with one of those: "Normal" Type A at one end, a right-angle Type C at the other, and the whole business relatively short, about a foot long.

Since the phone rest on modern Teslas has a wireless QI charger built in, you don't really need any of those cables, unless you've got a fairly old phone that doesn't have a wireless charger built in.

Actually, since he got a brand new vehicle, the only port that allows you to access a drive (for media or for sentry mode videos) is the port in the glove box. This is why people that want to store videos from sentry mode or save dash cam video AND want to use USB media have to repartition the drive in a specific way to get the USB key to appear as two drives (with specific folder names). The USB C connections in the center console no longer do anything but charge. On older vehicles, they did allow accessing media files from those...

 

[Tronguy]

Actually, since he got a brand new vehicle, the only port that allows you to access a drive (for media or for sentry mode videos) is the port in the glove box. This is why people that want to store videos from sentry mode or save dash cam video AND want to use USB media have to repartition the drive in a specific way to get the USB key to appear as two drives (with specific folder names). The USB C connections in the center console no longer do anything but charge. On older vehicles, they did allow accessing media files from those...

Ah. Knew I missed something.

 

[larryk]

The two usb ports in the center console are charging only, no data... The only data usb port is in the glove box.

 

[Richard__G]

Huh, well I'll figure out Spotify later using what y'all have mentioned. Thanks!

As far as the USB C plug goes, please trust me, I am NOT trying to fit a type A into type C port.

Actually, since he got a brand new vehicle, the only port that allows you to access a drive (for media or for sentry mode videos) is the port in the glove box. This is why people that want to store videos from sentry mode or save dash cam video AND want to use USB media have to repartition the drive in a specific way to get the USB key to appear as two drives (with specific folder names). The USB C connections in the center console no longer do anything but charge. On older vehicles, they did allow accessing media files from those...SthaVery interesting, but confusing too. so, like, what’s the scoop? I don’t care about saving dash cam or sentry video.

Yow, I'm a bit confused now. Sorry folks, your help and advice appreciated SO much, but my old brain is overloaded.

I knew about the 4 ports but had forgotten about the glovebox. I have no interest in saving dashcam or sentry video. Can I use that port in any other way? Here’s what I'd like to do:

• I like the idea of being able to charge my iWatch. Got that covered! woo-hoo.
• I would like a way to input audio from a CD player mentioned in this thread as being compatible for the purpose. But now I'm not sure if I can do this in my car.

Thanks very much in advance,
Richard

 

[Richard__G]

Yeah I didnt mention that but thats completely relevant. It has to be "paid for" spotify. I signed up for a paid for spotify account just to have it linked with the car for ease of playing through the car. Been pretty happy with it overall, but I know some people are really into things like music compression (or lack therof) etc.

But I already HAVE an account. Shouldn't that cover it? It's kind of Catch 22 though that in order to sign in on my car, it requires the phone app to verify, but in verifying with the phone app, I can't turn it off to use the car app. This is making me crazy.

 

[fiehlsport]

You don't want video evidence of your driving to use in case of a hit and run, or other traffic incident where you are not at fault? The dashcam runs seamlessly in the background and saves to your glovebox USB stick - It's a great safety net to have if you ever need to prove something. Same with Sentry Mode - why would you not want it to activate if someone tries getting into your car? Or keys it, or worse?

 

[Richard__G]

You don't want video evidence of your driving to use in case of a hit and run, or other traffic incident where you are not at fault? The dashcam runs seamlessly in the background and saves to your glovebox USB stick - It's a great safety net to have if you ever need to prove something. Same with Sentry Mode - why would you not want it to activate if someone tries getting into your car? Or keys it, or worse?

Well, I've been pretty lucky in those ways, so that's why I'm not concerned. Have other folks needed this and used it?

 

[smogne41]

Well, I've been pretty lucky in those ways, so that's why I'm not concerned. Have other folks needed this and used it?

Just browse r/IdiotsInCars on reddit for a few minutes and you will never want to be without a dash-cam running all the time again. Incidentally a tone of the footage on there comes from Tesla dashcams.

You can also set up the glovebox drive to have your music collection on it if you have a large mp3/etc collection. You can have one drive do dashcam/sentry and music.

 

[SageBrush]

Since the phone rest on modern Teslas has a wireless QI charger built in, you don't really need any of those cables, unless you've got a fairly old phone that doesn't have a wireless charger built in.

My wife's phone agrees with you, but my phone in its card carrying case does not.

 

[jjrandorin]

But I already HAVE an account.

Do you have a PAID account? "Have an account" and "Have a paid account" are different statements. Its not clear that you are saying you have a spotify account that you are paying monthly for. If you dont, then you will not be able to play it directly through the cars interface.

 

[Richard__G]

Good Question. I'm embarrassed to say I'm not sure. i will definitely check. Thanks

 

[father_of_6]

I believe you'll also need premium connectivity to use Spotify. That's $10/month or $99/year. You might have received a free 90 days or even a year with the purchase of your car. I personally don't value it.

You can certainly also just use Spotify on your phone and hear it through the car speakers via Bluetooth. The left thumb wheel still allows you to pause/play, control volume, and skip forward/backward through songs. I'm not sure if any added benefits by logging into Spotify through the car, maybe someone else can chime in.

Regarding a CD player, I've got one of these at home for other devices:

Amazon.com

It works great. It's less than 2 inches square, very light, uses a rechargeable internal battery that lasts for like 18 hours, and it can work in both transmit or receive mode. It's basically a bridge between Bluetooth devices and auxiliary audio jacks. So you could use any CD player in the car, plugged into this thing, and then connect the car to this thing.

The obvious downside is that you can't Bluetooth connect your phone to the car at the same time, so calling/texting features in the car are lost.

My opinion (as well as 99.9% of the population) - CDs aren't worth the hassle. They were fantastic when that's the best we had, but today you can access bajillions of sings without carrying any physical media.

 

[Richard__G]

I hear ya and most everything IS available through streaming services. I have this set of CD's though, on the origin of the blues with OLD artists that I'd still like to be able to listen to. That device looks perfect and certainly gets around the lack of any audio inputs. A very clever solution, and letting my phone just be an unintegrated phone is fine by me. I lose nothing functionally, plus I won't be listening to those CDs ALL the time...

So thanks! That is the PERFECT solution for me.

 

[Richard__G]

I believe you'll also need premium connectivity to use Spotify. That's $10/month or $99/year. You might have received a free 90 days or even a year with the purchase of your car. I personally don't value it.

You can certainly also just use Spotify on your phone and hear it through the car speakers via Bluetooth. The left thumb wheel still allows you to pause/play, control volume, and skip forward/backward through songs. I'm not sure if any added benefits by logging into Spotify through the car, maybe someone else can chime in.

Regarding a CD player, I've got one of these at home for other devices:

Amazon.com

It works great. It's less than 2 inches square, very light, uses a rechargeable internal battery that lasts for like 18 hours, and it can work in both transmit or receive mode. It's basically a bridge between Bluetooth devices and auxiliary audio jacks. So you could use any CD player in the car, plugged into this thing, and then connect the car to this thing.

The obvious downside is that you can't Bluetooth connect your phone to the car at the same time, so calling/texting features in the car are lost.

My opinion (as well as 99.9% of the population) - CDs aren't worth the hassle. They were fantastic when that's the best we had, but today you can access bajillions of sings without carrying any physical media.

Turns out I DO have a premium membership. I'll reach out to Spotify when I can I guess. Meanwhile, I'm finding Apple music to be even better!

 

[Jerry Ham]

I hear ya and most everything IS available through streaming services. I have this set of CD's though, on the origin of the blues with OLD artists that I'd still like to be able to listen to. That device looks perfect and certainly gets around the lack of any audio inputs. A very clever solution, and letting my phone just be an unintegrated phone is fine by me. I lose nothing functionally, plus I won't be listening to those CDs ALL the time...

So thanks! That is the PERFECT solution for me.

No, really - rip the CD (or a bunch of CDs) to your computer as MP3 format. Then follow the instructions to repartition the USB key in the glovebox so it can do both dashcam and USB media, and copy the MP3 files from the CD to that. That is so much better than fiddling with physical CDs and then using a device connected to bluetooth so that you can no longer answer the phone on the car.