I have a 2013 with the touch screen and no navigation. I plugged a flash drive containing only music files into one of the USB ports in the console a couple of weeks ago. It has been running fine until yesterday.

Starting yesterday, when I start the truck, everything looks normal for about 30 seconds, then the screen goes totally black for about 5 minutes. During this time, back-up camera is inop along with all climate and radio functions.

After about 5 minutes, the message "SYNC is performing required system maintenance" shows up on the screen with a progress bar running across the bottom. About 30 seconds later, everything starts working as normal.

It did this three times in a row, I removed the flash drive and it started working normally. I put the flash drive back in, it worked normal once and the second time I started the truck the black screen returned. I'm now just driving with the flash drive removed.

I'm just wondering if anybody else has seen this behavior from the system.

 

Do you have the most currrent update on the MFT system? I believe 3.6.2 is the most current and it came out in August right after I bought mine. This update specifically changed things just like this issue and made sure it didn't happen anymore.

I've had a 32GB thumb drive plugged in since September and have never had an issue.

Make sure you have the most current software. You can do it yourself pretty easily if you don't.

 

What TJ says. You can check what yours is running by going to www.ford.com, and under ford owners. Just put your truck info in, and it will tell you. If you are current I suggest calling the SYNC people. They were very helpful when I called them for a problem I was having. Good luck.

 

The truck has the latest software update installed. Current version is Gen2 3.6.2. I'm wondering if it may be temperature related since it started acting up after it got down to 10 deg. here.

I'll give the SYNC people a call later today and I also plan to scan the flash drive to see if it may have developed a problem.

 

Hello Flyer,

This is a great approach. I'd also recommend connecting an alternative USB stick to rule out any device compatibility issues. Incompatible hardware can work for a while, but will fail at seemingly random points over time. Also ensure that the drive is formatted to FAT32 encryption.

Antonio

 

Does your usb drive have an autostart program on it?
Most, if not all do
I had to format my 250 gig portable drive in order to make it work because of the drives autostart program. The autostart programs on drives tend to screw with sync

 

Thought I would update this with a little factoid I discovered. The drive in question is a 32Gb model made my SanDisk. I found the specification for the drive on-line.

Operating temperature: 32ºF to 113ºF (0ºC to 45 ºC)
Storage temperature: 14ºF to 158ºF (-10ºC to 70ºC)

It started acting up following several days of below 0ºF weather.

I went ahead and reformatted the drive and reloaded the music. It's been working fine plugged in to my computer for a while now.

My plan now is to wait until the current cold snap is over and try the drive again. If it works ok, I may just have to remember to pull it out for the Winter months.

I also found that they manufacture USB drives that they claim will operate reliably in temperatures well below zero. If it bugs me that much, I may spring for one of them next year.