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V11 2022.4.5 doesn't remember USB source

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Just got 2022.4.5 today. I stupidly installed it because how could V11 get any worse? It can. The car now does not remember that it was playing USB music at all. It briefly displays the album thumbnail from the last song playing, then cuts to a nag message telling me premium connectivity has expired and to choose a music source. I have to choose USB again, then select a song to play, thus blowing any hope of continuity in my playlist out of the water and guaranteeing additional delay every time I get in the car.

This is such a blatant money grab from them! They don't want you playing your own music; they'd much rather charge you for premium connectivity and have you use streaming instead. In the two years I've owned the car they've systematically and continuously eroded and downgraded the USB music experience to the point where it's stupidly difficult to use and completely lacking in features. A $50 mp3 player from 10 years ago works better. Ooops, no aux jack; how convenient...

Screw you Tesla and screw you Elon. I'm so done with you now... 😡
 
Same thing is happening with Bluetooth music on phone. As soon as car goes into park and I leave the car for a minute, when I get back into the car I have to reconnect Bluetooth to phone’s music folder. I also have to reconnect Bluetooth to phone‘s music if I switch to radio station. But I think the Bluetooth connection remains linked for phone calls.
 
Yep, you can disable all but three sources (why?), but there's no way to set a default, so the nag screen is a given; making their desire for (even more of) your money very clear each time you get in the car.

If you have amassed your own music collection and actually want to listen to it, this is very definitely not the car for you. I predict ads in the UI are coming.
 
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This is an old problem, nothing new for v11.
Yes, there has always been the problem of the USB interface initializing late in the startup sequence and not auto-starting where it left off. But this could be circumvented by the moronic workaround of waiting for it to come up, lifting your butt off the seat, opening and closing the door, then sitting down again. Your USB music would then continue.

Now even this ridiculously annoying procedure doesn't work anymore. You have to choose your source and pick a random song to start. Every time...
 
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Yes, there has always been the problem of the USB interface initializing late in the startup sequence and not auto-starting where it left off. But this could be circumvented by the moronic workaround of waiting for it to come up, lifting your butt off the seat, opening and closing the door, then sitting down again. Your USB music would then continue.

Now even this ridiculously annoying procedure doesn't work anymore. You have to choose your source and pick a random song to start. Every time...
I never knew about that workaround, so I'm not missing anything in V11. 🙂
 
This is such a blatant money grab from them! They don't want you playing your own music; they'd much rather charge you for premium connectivity and have you use streaming instead. In the two years I've owned the car they've systematically and continuously eroded and downgraded the USB music experience to the point where it's stupidly difficult to use and completely lacking in features. A $50 mp3 player from 10 years ago works better. Ooops, no aux jack; how convenient...

Screw you Tesla and screw you Elon. I'm so done with you now... 😡
OR…just hear me out…this is just a bug. I have the same problem with Bluetooth or Tidal.
 
I'm seriously doubting it. The inability to select a default source is not a bug. It's a design choice by a company trying to maximize their income from existing customers.

If it really is a bug, then it's just a further indication that the software engineers at Tesla (if they can be called such) have their heads so far up their butts that they probably aren't coming up for air in my lifetime...
 
Same thing is happening with Bluetooth music on phone. As soon as car goes into park and I leave the car for a minute, when I get back into the car I have to reconnect Bluetooth to phone’s music folder. I also have to reconnect Bluetooth to phone‘s music if I switch to radio station. But I think the Bluetooth connection remains linked for phone calls.

On Android, if during that minute away from the car you start a phone call or a game with sounds, that will (AIUI) take the "audio focus" away from your music player app and not restore it when you end the call/game/Twitter. When the car later tries to resume bluetooth streaming, the phone didn't keep track of which app was sourcing the bluetooth audio. It's more complicated than I understand, and it's possible to mix multiple audio sources at least on Samsung devices with the SoundAssistant app, and in Android 12 the system changes the rules to enforce a cross-fade between apps. This case is Android's fault.

About the rest, Tesla's software team seems to be in over their heads. They have to support new vehicles, prototype vehicles, and new features; workaround supply chain problems by adapting to new microcontroller parts; and keep the growing breadth of models working across models, hardware options, years, countries, languages, cell system changes, charging system changes, driving law changes, software releases in the field, and legal recalls; while ever-chasing the "FSD this year" fantasy. They need more mature development, code review, QA, and usability testing processes. It would help to shed the games, toys, and easter eggs.

I bet the problem with USB audio is the software team doesn't use it. That'd be OK with QA. Customers are not testers even if we had a problem-report mechanism. Tesla could prioritize music playback over goofiness like "light show" and "colorizer," and prioritize safety-critical things like reading the speedometer and defrosting the windshield over all of that. </rant>
 
Yes, there has always been the problem of the USB interface initializing late in the startup sequence and not auto-starting where it left off. But this could be circumvented by the moronic workaround of waiting for it to come up, lifting your butt off the seat, opening and closing the door, then sitting down again. Your USB music would then continue.

Now even this ridiculously annoying procedure doesn't work anymore. You have to choose your source and pick a random song to start. Every time...

Yes, definite regression from Tesla on this release in the music subsystem.

There were a couple of simple workarounds for the previous problem, including putting on the climate control before heading to the car.

Nothing works anymore. We now have a hard failure.

Seriously, doesn't anyone in Tesla's QA group listen to music from a USB stick🤬
 
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I'm not one to go in for conspiracy theories. Do they make money from streaming? I'd like to see information about that.

But what concerns me is that for a few months now they have been shipping cars that don't support USB data, so for them USB music is irrelevant. Which doesn't bode well.

Prior to V11 I had it working acceptably, largely because I had adapted to its idiosyncrasies. Navigation was OK, resume was OK. Most of my driving is 5-10 minutes, so resume is important, but I leave sentry on during the day so resume just worked. But that was prior to V11.

I'm still hoping they fix it.
 
USB music has been hurting so badly for so long that one really has to wonder: where's the incentive to fix it when Tesla makes money from people streaming?

Draw your own conclusions...
I've seen data (not sure where…but I recall seeing it) that the vast majority of Tesla owners already pay for the premium data, so the conspiracy theory just doesn't make a lot of sense. The fact that Tidal can download music locally and play that and never stream also shows that's not a huge concern.

Finally, for $10 a month…I can almost guarantee they aren't making money on this.
 
Finally, for $10 a month…I can almost guarantee they aren't making money on this.

Streaming (apart from traffic visualizations) is the only thing of worth premium connectivity gives you. 10$\mo doesn't sound like a lot, but it's still $120\yr per car, and my guess is that adds up to a packet when you consider all the subscribers. They certainly aren't doing it out of the kindness of their heart, that's certain...

I'd like to believe they're not that evil, but then why the refusal to add such a basic level of functionality to their cars? Hmmm...
 
I'd like to believe they're not that evil, but then why the refusal to add such a basic level of functionality to their cars? Hmmm...
What exactly is Tesla not adding? You can playback music from USB even though the resume feature is flaky.

By the way, the USB playback issues existed long before Tesla started charging for Premium Connectivity, so your conspiracy theory has no basis in fact. Interestingly, when I got my first Tesla (S) in 2016, USB playback worked flawlessly. About a year later, it got really bad with frequent loading errors during playback, bad enough that I could no longer use it on road trips. Eventually the loading errors went away for the most part, but the failure to resume playback has persisted since then.

If you want to play your own music rather than use a streaming service, you can always stream from your phone via Bluetooth, which doesn’t require Premium Connectivity. That’s what I used to do when the USB loading errors were a problem.
 
What exactly is Tesla not adding? You can playback music from USB even though the resume feature is flaky.

The ability to play a user's personal music collection stored on a USB device as easily and painlessly as playing streaming music. That simple.

By the way, the USB playback issues existed long before Tesla started charging for Premium Connectivity, so your conspiracy theory has no basis in fact.

Sure they did. But instead of simply fixing the issue, they've progressively made the USB music experience worse over time, while beginning to charge for streaming (premium connectivity).

Believe what you want, but I don't think Tesla has generally garnered the reputation of being a company that cares about its customers and is interested in listening to their feedback.