I have an iPhone 6S that I have been using for a while, and it has always worked flawlessly with Sync (not Sync3, just the 4.2" centre stack version, although this whole fustercluck has me considering the $1999 Sync3 conversion...). It picks up the phone instantly, works with voice commands, and is quick and responsive.

Now, my previous phone was a Galaxy S5. I still have the phone and am trying to make it work as a media player, since Android Auto is a great thing to use in the car and Apple has no equivalent (CarPlay only works on a compatible car, while Android Auto works with the car, and as a standalone "driving mode" app for your phone).

The problem: SYNC always thinks my Android phone is a USB stick. It takes 10 minutes to for "Indexing..." then organizes all 1000 songs on my phone into one continuous playlist. This music can't be controlled from the phone; SYNC basically imports all the songs then plays them at its own discretion. To make matters worse, SYNC forgets everything whenever I unplug so every time I plug in, SYNC takes 10-20 minutes to "index".

In recent Android versions, connecting to another device whether a PC or a car, it gives you three options. One is MTP, which is the usual mount-as-a-media-volume option, and makes SYNC think my S5 is a USB stick. One is PTP, which doesn't work with cars. The last is charging-only, which obviously isn't helpful.

I've tried putting the songs on the external SD card, and on the internal NAND storage. No difference. I've tried different ROMs from stock all the way up to the LineageOS nightly (Android 7.1) that I'm running right now. No avail.

Has anyone made their Android phone work properly with basic SYNC? Or am I just going to have to give up and buy the Sync3 conversion?

 

Here’s a better idea. Take all your music on your galaxy, upload it to google music on your google account (assuming you still have one since at one time you had an android), download “play music� in the App Store onto your iPhone, stream said music through your stereo, winning

 

Thanks for the suggestion. I did use to do that when I had ~500 songs in my library. But now that I have over well over 2000, and many of them have been "upgraded" to 320kbps, I haven't returned to using their storage. I had enough hiccups with uploading/downloading from Google Play Music between my desktop, laptop and phone with a library of 500 - I don't want to see what that looks like with my current library.

Using it on my iPhone is definitely an option, but doesn't change the fact that Apple Carplay is not available as a standalone option like Android Auto. I prefer to use the S5 in the car not only because of Android Auto I often wear gloves ranging from running gloves to thick workgloves when I'm behind the wheel, and LineageOS offers an option for glove compatibility. Because the App Store is absolute garbage, there is a predictable lack of "driving mode" apps for the iPhone.

And USB is still preferable since BT audio is a noticeable downgrade in quality. And the stock audio setup in my truck is surprisingly balanced (windows up obviously, no boombox-on-wheels nonsense).

sigh. first world problems.

 

Why not connect it to bluetooth and use bluetooth audio?

The indexing is always going to happen because whether or not you view it as "usb storage" that is all the Galaxy is acting as when you plug it in through USB.

 

You already addressed my suggestion. Sorry, I don't see a way around the indexing. But I am not sure AA is going to help. From what I can tell, AA just lets you stream music from supporting services. I haven't tried playing locally stored music through AA.

 

Put your music on a USB stick, stick it in the slot, close the door. Indexes once.

 

If you want to control everything from the phone, use Bluetooth audio.

Better option (except streaming) is to copy all music to a USB thumb drive and stick it in and leave it.

 

Rick, are you sure? I was pretty sure when I had to drive my wife's 13 Fusion with MFT, it indexed every time I started the vehicle.

 

Apologies if my original post was worded badly. I only want AA for the ease of use as a "driving mode" app, and it's the only way since CarPlay doesn't work the same way without a compatible car.

AA has by default links to nav (google maps), phone, and music (google play music). I don't stream with GPM, I only use it as a music player for local music.

BT audio is, in my experience, inferior in quality. Sounds kinda tinny and USB is definitely richer. Varies from car to car; my old Explorer with MyFord Touch worked better with BT and this F-150 is the other way around.

I will have to see if that indexes only once or every time I start the vehicle. It is definitely doable, but control is a problem; with hundreds or thousands of songs, it is nigh impossible to get Sync to play what I want without a touchscreen. I have plenty of artists and albums with similar sounding names, and SYNC only ever gives me the "top 3" closest selections to what it thinks I'm saying, so if the artist is not one of those, there's no way to get to it.

SYNC does not like it when I ask for Die Apokalyptischen Reiter, or Мураками. Which is why using the iPhone is easy, as I can control it on the phone, while it is not so for Android.

I get the feeling that not many users on this forum are familiar with the Sync 1 system and don't appreciate the difficulty of navigating a music library without a touchscreen. Also there is no "door" because I have the 40/20/40 bench and no Sync 3.

As I said before, audio quality differences. It is doable, though, and I may have to resort to this, at least until I can get Sync 3 retrofitted.

I just wanted to know if anyone had any insider solutions to this problem.

 

My daily driver has Sync 1. However, most of the music I listen to is easily spoken, and understood by Sync.

"Play artist Motley Crue"
"Play track Master of Puppets"
"Play album Vulgar Display of Power"

I have had extremely good performance with the voice recognition of sync 1.