[poppyljg]

Nope. That's not it. All the ipods were charging in the car. My car was built in Nov 07', so when I took delivery, I already had the new cable and probably the new update.

I tested 4 ipods. The three I mentioned, plus my GF's 4gb nano. The nano never stopped working. Of course because it only had 4gb of music and not as many playlist loaded up as on the other ipods.

I reformated and even downgraded the firmware on the three ipods before I discovered that it was the playlist jam issue.

So charging was definitely not my issue. But thanks.

[rebirth24]

Originally Posted by poppyljg

I never paid attention to how many playlist I actually had, but I made every single album that I ripped or downloaded into a playlist. I will guess that I had somewhere close to 500 playlist.

500 Playlists?!? Are you nuts?!

[poppyljg]

Originally Posted by rebirth24

500 Playlists?!? Are you nuts?!

I didn't like how itunes would naturally organize my music. It was mostly the albums that I downloaded from various sites off the net. The variations in their tags would cause them to be ungrouped sometimes. So like I said before, I would put all my albums in playlist to keep them group. So 500 playlist meant 500 albums. That was my way of organization.

I later realized that after I imported an album, itunes needed a lil assistance from me in order to get a proper oragnization. And my itunes was already more than 10,000 songs deep once I figured that out.

So I recently went though all my albums on itunes and reorganized them proper and ditched the playlist idea.

[laurenty]

Originally Posted by Kb8jumpman

I have this same problem, only thing is is that it used to work before and it stopped out since I synced it with the newest Itunes. What can I do?
Its a 08 with 6FL and I have the "new" black Y-cable

My iPod Classic 80GB (firmware 1.1.1) has been working perfectly in my 2008 e90 for over 2 months. I updated to iTunes 7.6.1 a couple days ago and sync'd my iPod today. I no longer works, it gets stuck at "Loading data..."
Anyone else experiencing the same problem?
I tried rebooting the iPod, disconnected it several times, etc...

[MFL101]

OK...have a question.

I know it is better to use a USB drive with the audio system so it forms a digital connection...unlike the digital to analog signal you get if you use the ipod/phone.

My question is...all of my music is purchased off of Itunes...am I stuck with using the iphone to play the music in the car or can I use the usb drive? I have tried searching around for the answer.

[dmichael]

Only an Ipod can play music purchased on Itunes.

[MFL101]

Boy....I hate their closed system! I guess it makes sense for content protection....but it sucks for us who want to play digital music off the damn device!

[jeremynpross]

I have the same problem. Bump! Any fixes?

Originally Posted by laurenty

My iPod Classic 80GB (firmware 1.1.1) has been working perfectly in my 2008 e90 for over 2 months. I updated to iTunes 7.6.1 a couple days ago and sync'd my iPod today. I no longer works, it gets stuck at "Loading data..."
Anyone else experiencing the same problem?
I tried rebooting the iPod, disconnected it several times, etc...

[77si]

Likewise, 30gb iPod updated iTunes 7.6.1 when connected to the car I get the Do Not Disconnect screen - the iPod does not register with the car, only reads as USB device, and then makes up its own playlist of which I can access and read through the radio, as well as skipping tracks from the wheel, but cant be read on the ipod, and I cant choose the tracks.

Any suggestions?

[alantan]

1st, Hi Jonathan, thanks for your insight on to topics.
Do you still have that "extra" iPod connector cable or do you know anyone has one. My SA here in Canada does not have one even if I want to pay.

In US the Y cable is inlcuded, in other country, it is an Extra.
One side of it is iPod dock connector that you insert into your iPod;
the other side splits, one end is a USB the other end is a 3.5 mini line in plug.

Without this Y cable, your iPod is just an external USB drive for your Bimmer's radio -- the USB MP3 feature is the one who generate sound not your iPod.
Bimmer radio tried to emulate iPod way of categorize music, so it present "MP3 on USB drive" in a way very similar to how it shows iPod content.


For using normal USB cable with iPod -- the iPod can "work" with some limitations:
1) you iPod has to be synced to a Windows iTunes, Mac formated iPod won't work;
2) it actually is used by the Bimmer's MP3 player as an external USB storage -- the music is decoded by the Bimmer radio (the one that plays MP3 on CDs), not your iPod,
3) the Bimmer radio is capable of analyzing ID3 tags of MP3 files and display artist/gene/album/playlist, looks very similar to iPod but not exactly the same,
4) the Bimmer radio won't be able to display the correct song name if ID3 tag is empty (as iPod use cryptical file names),
5) I noticed the sound quality is worse than native iPod played through Aux In port (this is personal preferances though, I feel the sounds is more saturated and better reconstructed when it is played by iPod via Aux in)
6) the Bimmer radio needs to build play list(analyze ID3 tag for all MP3 files) this takes a while if your collection is big,
7) Bimmer radio won't be able to play AAC files those you purchased from iTunes.

So I would still consider the iPod integration valuable. Too bad Bimmer decided not to provide that as standard for 6FL out of US.

BTW,
a) if you use standard USB cable it seems the Radio Professional (my 328xi does not have iDrive) does not even show "iPod" as an Audio source in the list. (I only see Tune, CD, Aux, USB -- 4 options, I do not see iPod in the list at all, so the iPod can only work like a USB harddrive)
b) the Kenwood KCA-ip200 cable which does the same job for Kenwood will NOT work with 6FL, apparently the little black box in the middle of the 6FL iPod cable does something make the radio think there is an iPod. Normal USB/Aux split cables (like the KCA-ip200 and pocketdock) are not sufficiant for the 6FL to recognize iPod as anything other than a USB drive.
c) Don't worry to much about Aux is analog, I found sound quality is better using my iPod via Aux. You need to realize the air which the sound will travel through before it reaches your ear is not digital, so analog got to come to play some where. I found iPod does this better than the Bimmer Radio.

[I-Won-Today]

Originally Posted by alantan

1st, Hi Jonathan, thanks for your insight on to topics.
Do you still have that "extra" iPod connector cable or do you know anyone has one. My SA here in Canada does not have one even if I want to pay.

In US the Y cable is inlcuded, in other country, it is an Extra.
One side of it is iPod dock connector that you insert into your iPod;
the other side splits, one end is a USB the other end is a 3.5 mini line in plug.

Without this Y cable, your iPod is just an external USB drive for your Bimmer's radio -- the USB MP3 feature is the one who generate sound not your iPod.
Bimmer radio tried to emulate iPod way of categorize music, so it present "MP3 on USB drive" in a way very similar to how it shows iPod content.


For using normal USB cable with iPod -- the iPod can "work" with some limitations:
1) you iPod has to be synced to a Windows iTunes, Mac formated iPod won't work;
2) it actually is used by the Bimmer's MP3 player as an external USB storage -- the music is decoded by the Bimmer radio (the one that plays MP3 on CDs), not your iPod,
3) the Bimmer radio is capable of analyzing ID3 tags of MP3 files and display artist/gene/album/playlist, looks very similar to iPod but not exactly the same,
4) the Bimmer radio won't be able to display the correct song name if ID3 tag is empty (as iPod use cryptical file names),
5) I noticed the sound quality is worse than native iPod played through Aux In port (this is personal preferances though, I feel the sounds is more saturated and better reconstructed when it is played by iPod via Aux in)
6) the Bimmer radio needs to build play list(analyze ID3 tag for all MP3 files) this takes a while if your collection is big,
7) Bimmer radio won't be able to play AAC files those you purchased from iTunes.

So I would still consider the iPod integration valuable. Too bad Bimmer decided not to provide that as standard for 6FL out of US.

BTW,
a) if you use standard USB cable it seems the Radio Professional (my 328xi does not have iDrive) does not even show "iPod" as an Audio source in the list. (I only see Tune, CD, Aux, USB -- 4 options, I do not see iPod in the list at all, so the iPod can only work like a USB harddrive)
b) the Kenwood KCA-ip200 cable which does the same job for Kenwood will NOT work with 6FL, apparently the little black box in the middle of the 6FL iPod cable does something make the radio think there is an iPod. Normal USB/Aux split cables (like the KCA-ip200 and pocketdock) are not sufficiant for the 6FL to recognize iPod as anything other than a USB drive.
c) Don't worry to much about Aux is analog, I found sound quality is better using my iPod via Aux. You need to realize the air which the sound will travel through before it reaches your ear is not digital, so analog got to come to play some where. I found iPod does this better than the Bimmer Radio.

Unfortunatelly we do not have any of those cables now. The BMW "Y-Cable" is now put in any BMW containing the USB option when it is processed at the port. Unless they are still on backorder, you should be able to order that part # (somewhere in this thread) from any BMW parts department in the US (even other countries should have access to the cables using that part # as they ship from Germany I believe).

I honestly don't know why the other countries decided not to include the cable with the option It was either a decision made by that specific entity (BMW Canada, BMW AG, etc...) or a decission Apple made to only have that cable provided in the US.

The black box in the "Y-Cable" is what tells the radio that an ipod is connected and decodes the AAC files. Everything you described regarding the direct USB to Ipod operation is correct as it is basically thinking the ipod is a hard drive.

I hope you are able to find a cable to use

[jmonier]

[QUOTE=I-Won-Today;2331909]The black box in the "Y-Cable" is what tells the radio that an ipod is connected and decodes the AAC files./QUOTE]

That's not quite correct. The black box is actually a USB-to-serial converter to communicate (two-way) with the iPod via it's serial interface. The music files are decoded in the iPod and sent out to the Aux connector.

[laurenty]

[QUOTE=jmonier;2336361]

Originally Posted by I-Won-Today

The black box in the "Y-Cable" is what tells the radio that an ipod is connected and decodes the AAC files./QUOTE]

That's not quite correct. The black box is actually a USB-to-serial converter to communicate (two-way) with the iPod via it's serial interface. The music files are decoded in the iPod and sent out to the Aux connector.

USB-to-serial? Then how come the cable that connects your iPod to your computer USB port doesn't have a box too?

[I-Won-Today]

[QUOTE=jmonier;2336361]

Originally Posted by I-Won-Today

The black box in the "Y-Cable" is what tells the radio that an ipod is connected and decodes the AAC files./QUOTE]

That's not quite correct. The black box is actually a USB-to-serial converter to communicate (two-way) with the iPod via it's serial interface. The music files are decoded in the iPod and sent out to the Aux connector.

You are correct.

Instead of decoding I should have said allows you to see and access your AAC files and playlist from the radio. From my experience, if you just use the USB cable, it will show the folder but no AAC files that are contained in that folder.

[jmonier]

[QUOTE=laurenty;2336741]

Originally Posted by jmonier

USB-to-serial? Then how come the cable that connects your iPod to your computer USB port doesn't have a box too?

Because the USB port on the iPod basically accesses the hard drive in the IPod directly. So it can be used that way but not to control operation of the iPod directly.

The serial port allows complete control of the iPod in a manner similar to pressing the buttons on the iPod itself. So with the y-cable the BMW head unit tells the iPod to play the song. It's then decoded in the iPod and sent out to the Aux port.

With the straight USB iPod cable the BMW head unit accesses the iPod hard drive directly and decodes and plays the song itself.

[jmonier]

[QUOTE=I-Won-Today;2336755]

Originally Posted by jmonier

You are correct.

Instead of decoding I should have said allows you to see and access your AAC files and playlist from the radio. From my experience, if you just use the USB cable, it will show the folder but no AAC files that are contained in that folder.

Yes, that's because the head unit has only the capability to handle MP3 data. It has no AAC capability.

Incidentally, thanks again for the great experience I had at the PC last May.

[JustinZ]

I have a 2008 335xi with the USB audio

how can i play my Audible audio books with my ipod?

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by JustinZ

I have a 2008 335xi with the USB audio

how can i play my Audible audio books with my ipod?

If you don't have it already, you need to purchase the y-cable. (It costs extra in Canada although it's included in the US.)

[JustinZ]

Originally Posted by jmonier

If you don't have it already, you need to purchase the y-cable. (It costs extra in Canada although it's included in the US.)

what does the Y cable do?

[jmonier]

With the y-cable, the iPod itself decodes and plays the material so you can play protected material.

BTW, you just have to look at prior postings on this thread to get all this information.

[Mikecpa228]

Just got my 2008 328i coupe but the red "clown nose" for the alarm is not blinking. Does anyone have a solution for this? Thanks

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by Mikecpa228

Just got my 2008 328i coupe but the red "clown nose" for the alarm is not blinking. Does anyone have a solution for this? Thanks

What does this have to do with the iPod adapter?

Do you have the alarm installed? It is a dealer accessory.