Aggravating MyFord Touch issue with AV Inputs

[decker12]

I have this aggravating issue with the AV Input audio feature of Touch and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this?

 

I've posted a video of what happens here:

 

 

I listed to audio books in the car on the way home via BT Audio. Unfortunately, if I leave BT Audio selected when I exit the vehicle, the instant I start my car, it starts auto playing my book again (or if I had a music app open on my phone, it'll play that instead). There doesn't seem to be a way to disable this contrary to advice I've read - it will always auto play.

 

My fix is to always remember to select the AV Inputs before I turn off my car. Since I have nothing plugged into AV, I hear nothing when I get into my car, and my BT audio won't start playing until I specifically select BT Audio. It's been a solid workaround until this started happening. When I select AV In, everything else disappears from Touch and I can't get out of it. I have to use my steering wheel controls to navigate to another Entertainment source before Touch comes back up.

 

This does not happen all the time - it bugs out about 75% of the time and I can't figure why it happens and why it doesn't. When it doesn't happen, the AV Input works just like all the other options, meaning I get the full touch interface and I can use the corners and switch as normal.

 

Anyone know a solution to this? It's driving me nuts.

[Neil]

Yea, there are definitely a few bugs with the electronics.  Something that REALLY bugs me is the ALERT feature on the Sirius XM network.  I have it set to alert me when various artists or songs come on somewhere on Sirius.  It works pretty good, except for the artist "AC/DC".  For some reason, on the weekends only, it will alert me often (like every 10 minutes) that AC/DC  is playing on channel 90 (NASCAR Radio).  It's not.  I have tried to find some sort of correlation, like if they are going to a commercial break, playing intros or starting/finishing a race but I have not found a common variable.  it seems to happen randomly.  

Edited November 25, 2015 at 09:20 PM by Neil

[FordIVTteam]

I have this aggravating issue with the AV Input audio feature of Touch and I'm wondering if anyone else has experienced this?

 

I've posted a video of what happens here:

 

 

I listed to audio books in the car on the way home via BT Audio. Unfortunately, if I leave BT Audio selected when I exit the vehicle, the instant I start my car, it starts auto playing my book again (or if I had a music app open on my phone, it'll play that instead). There doesn't seem to be a way to disable this contrary to advice I've read - it will always auto play.

 

My fix is to always remember to select the AV Inputs before I turn off my car. Since I have nothing plugged into AV, I hear nothing when I get into my car, and my BT audio won't start playing until I specifically select BT Audio. It's been a solid workaround until this started happening. When I select AV In, everything else disappears from Touch and I can't get out of it. I have to use my steering wheel controls to navigate to another Entertainment source before Touch comes back up.

 

This does not happen all the time - it bugs out about 75% of the time and I can't figure why it happens and why it doesn't. When it doesn't happen, the AV Input works just like all the other options, meaning I get the full touch interface and I can use the corners and switch as normal.

 

Anyone know a solution to this? It's driving me nuts.

 

 

It looks to me like it's working properly, decker12. The system is going to look for the device connected to the A/V inputs, and after it sees there's nothing connected, it'll allow you to switch inputs on the touchscreen. Pressing all over the screen like in the video is not recommended since it can lock up the system.  

 

Yea, there are definitely a few bugs with the electronics.  Something that REALLY bugs me is the ALERT feature on the Sirius XM network.  I have it set to alert me when various artists or songs come on somewhere on Sirius.  It works pretty good, except for the artist "AC/DC".  For some reason, on the weekends only, it will alert me often (like every 10 minutes) that AC/DC  is playing on channel 90 (NASCAR Radio).  It's not.  I have tried to find some sort of correlation, like if they are going to a commercial break, playing intros or starting/finishing a race but I have not found a common variable.  it seems to happen randomly.  

 

Hey Neil, 

 

Please contact SiriusXM about this. The alert signals come from their satellites and they may need to resend/refresh your signal. Here's the link to their Contact Us page: 

 

http://www.siriusxm.com/contactus

 

Rebecca

[decker12]

Watch it again and you'll see that it is NOT working properly.

 

What you're saying is that if I push the AV input screen and don't have something plugged into it, the system should completely lock me out of the touch screen? That behavior does not exist for the SD card or USB input.

 

When I go to the AV input screen, there is NO way to get out of it unless I use the steering wheel controls to select another input. There is no auto sensing involved with the AV inputs, I have tested this and it doesn't matter what I plug into it - the bug still happens. Go ahead, test it on your own Energi, go to the AV Input screen and see if the touch screen still works and the other icons show up to allow you to switch to another input or go to climate/navigation/etc.

 

What if I had something plugged into my AV input like a DVD player and then I wanted to look at my navigation map? Or adjust my climate or change to Sirius? You can see from the video that I can't do that - all the other controls on the touch screen disappear when I select AV input. The buggy part is that this doesn't always happen. About 20% of the time, when I select AV input I'll still have all the options on the corners of the screen, just like when I select Sirius in the video.

 

I'm pushing all over the screen to demonstrate that there's no "hidden" button anywhere or any way at all to back out of the AV Input screen when this bug happens. It truly locks out the entire Touch screen unless I use the steering wheel controls to select another audio source. My Fusion was purchased in August and it's been doing this for about 2 months.

 

Again as I said it's random but it only happens with the AV input selection. It bugs out like this with the AV inputs about once a week and then sticks all bugged out for about three or four days. Then it starts to work properly - meaning the AV input selection screen doesn't disable the touch screen - for a couple of days. When the bug fixes itself next time, I'll video that and post it here so you can clearly see the bug.

Edited November 27, 2015 at 05:53 PM by decker12

[Russael]

What version of MyFord touch are you running?  I just updated to 3.8... but I haven't tried to see if I can replicate said bug yet.

 

There is a button on your center stack that says "source" on it to get yourself out of the AV input screen rather than using your right instrument cluster screen.

[Hybridbear]

I listed to audio books in the car on the way home via BT Audio. Unfortunately, if I leave BT Audio selected when I exit the vehicle, the instant I start my car, it starts auto playing my book again (or if I had a music app open on my phone, it'll play that instead). There doesn't seem to be a way to disable this contrary to advice I've read - it will always auto play.

 

Anyone know a solution to this? It's driving me nuts.

Maybe try turning off the radio instead of selecting A/V, would that get the desired result?

 

When I go to the AV input screen, there is NO way to get out of it unless I use the steering wheel controls to select another input. There is no auto sensing involved with the AV inputs, I have tested this and it doesn't matter what I plug into it - the bug still happens. Go ahead, test it on your own Energi, go to the AV Input screen and see if the touch screen still works and the other icons show up to allow you to switch to another input or go to climate/navigation/etc.

FYI - Rebecca is a Ford Corporate employee who is on the forum to help owners out. I don't believe that she has access to a specific vehicle to test this. What she can test is with the MFT units that are available in her office based on what she has previously told us. I would be curious to hear how her unit responds if she follows the steps that you do in your video. I'll try to remember to test this on our Energi. We are running MFT 3.6.2 still.

[decker12]

What version of MyFord touch are you running?  I just updated to 3.8... but I haven't tried to see if I can replicate said bug yet.

 

There is a button on your center stack that says "source" on it to get yourself out of the AV input screen rather than using your right instrument cluster screen.

 

I have no Source button on my center stack. Just an Eject button for the CD player I've never used :) The Titanium may have a Source button in it's center stack, but I don't have a Titanium. Also, what's the method for updating to 3.8? Is Ford supposed to tell me it's available or how to do it?

 

Maybe try turning off the radio instead of selecting A/V, would that get the desired result?

 

FYI - Rebecca is a Ford Corporate employee who is on the forum to help owners out. I don't believe that she has access to a specific vehicle to test this. What she can test is with the MFT units that are available in her office based on what she has previously told us. I would be curious to hear how her unit responds if she follows the steps that you do in your video. I'll try to remember to test this on our Energi. We are running MFT 3.6.2 still.

 

Turning off the radio unfortunately does not fix the problem - when you turn it back on, it will go back to the AV input and it'll blank itself out again like in my video.

 

While I can select a different input before turning off my car to avoid the auto-starting BlueTooth audio issue, the only other source I that works is my Sirius / Terrestrial radio. I don't have anything in the USB, I don't have anything in the CD player, etc so it won't let me choose those inputs so I can disable the BT Audio auto-start. The Sirius radio is MUCH louder than BT Audio, so it'll blast my speakers unless I also remember to turn down the radio.

 

While the core of the problem remains the BT Audio auto-start I've read enough of the complaining about this from several car vendors and touch screens and Apple and Android forums. It actually sounds like the MyFord touch screen is the "least" offender in how it handles BT Audio. I'm just aggravated that my work around doesn't seem to be a work around 75% of the time, and when it doesn't work it obviously fritzes out in a buggy fashion as per my video above.

 

I may try to put an empty USB drive in my USB port just to see if that offers a work around, so I can select USB instead of AV Input and hopefully the USB screen won't fritz out like the AV screen.

Edited November 30, 2015 at 10:42 PM by decker12

[Hybridbear]

Turning off the radio unfortunately does not fix the problem - when you turn it back on, it will go back to the AV input and it'll blank itself out again like in my video.

 

While I can select a different input before turning off my car to avoid the auto-starting BlueTooth audio issue, the only other source I that works is my Sirius / Terrestrial radio. I don't have anything in the USB, I don't have anything in the CD player, etc so it won't let me choose those inputs so I can disable the BT Audio auto-start. The Sirius radio is MUCH louder than BT Audio, so it'll blast my speakers unless I also remember to turn down the radio.

 

While the core of the problem remains the BT Audio auto-start I've read enough of the complaining about this from several car vendors and touch screens and Apple and Android forums. It actually sounds like the MyFord touch screen is the "least" offender in how it handles BT Audio. I'm just aggravated that my work around doesn't seem to be a work around 75% of the time, and when it doesn't work it obviously fritzes out in a buggy fashion as per my video above.

 

I may try to put an empty USB drive in my USB port just to see if that offers a work around, so I can select USB instead of AV Input and hopefully the USB screen won't fritz out like the AV screen.

I meant leave the selection on BT Audio & turn off radio. Then, don't turn the radio back on until you're ready to play BT Audio again or select another source. My wife uses BT Audio daily as well. She usually just turns the volume down to minimum & leaves the radio on when parking. This causes MFT to freeze when starting the car if her phone is no longer available for MFT to continue playing audio. I've been trying to get her to just turn off the radio instead, but she hasn't learned yet. If she turns the radio off when parking then there is no issue on the next trip.

Edited December 1, 2015 at 02:46 PM by Hybridbear

[FordIVTteam]

Shoot me your VIN in a private message and I'll see why you don't show the 3.8 update, decker12. 

Rebecca

[decker12]

I meant leave the selection on BT Audio & turn off radio. Then, don't turn the radio back on until you're ready to play BT Audio again or select another source. My wife uses BT Audio daily as well. She usually just turns the volume down to minimum & leaves the radio on when parking. This causes MFT to freeze when starting the car if her phone is no longer available for MFT to continue playing audio. I've been trying to get her to just turn off the radio instead, but she hasn't learned yet. If she turns the radio off when parking then there is no issue on the next trip.

 

You know, this is a pretty solid idea. I feel silly for not trying it out yet. I think the AV Input problem would still exist, but this solves the problem much more gracefully and with fewer button presses. I'll start using the Power button from now on.

[seadiel]

I currently use BT audio streaming via phone's spotify app 100% of the time. When I come back to the car it will attempt to auto play the spotify app and most of the times it will start playing. If it cannot auto play anything, MFT will auto switch to the radio station after about 10-20 secs of silence.

If I close the spotify app from running in the background I have to relaunch the app in order for the BT audio to play again. It would be to much of a pain in the butt to close all your apps every time you get out of your car if you wanted to prevent auto playing. But if you have an android you could setup some sort of tasks using "TASKER" to close apps/start apps in the background.

 

I will check the AVI input settings and see if I get any different results then your video.

[decker12]

Unfortunately, using the Power button doesn't work out any better. When I'm listening to BT Audio, and I'm ready to leave the car, I hit the Power button on the stereo. I come back later, push the Power button, and I'm blasted with the AM radio (at the same volume my BT Audio was set at). Meaning, it doesn't go back to BT Audio and start auto playing.

 

Now I have to push an equal amount of buttons to get back to my BT Audio and it actually doesn't even appear in the list of available sources via the MFT screen. have to find it using the steering wheel controls. Frustrating!

[Hybridbear]

Unfortunately, using the Power button doesn't work out any better. When I'm listening to BT Audio, and I'm ready to leave the car, I hit the Power button on the stereo. I come back later, push the Power button, and I'm blasted with the AM radio (at the same volume my BT Audio was set at). Meaning, it doesn't go back to BT Audio and start auto playing.

 

Now I have to push an equal amount of buttons to get back to my BT Audio and it actually doesn't even appear in the list of available sources via the MFT screen. have to find it using the steering wheel controls. Frustrating!

Did you turn on the radio before the phone showed as connected to MFT? If you try to turn the radio on before the phone is connected then this should happen because BT Audio isn't available.

[seadiel]

You don't need to turn the radio off.

You just need to set the volume using your phone when are streaming through BT. If you set the volume on the radio and you switch to AM/FM it will be crazy loud. When I enter/exit my car I leave my BT audio connected and it will also attempt to try auto play my spotify app, if I close the app from running in the background of my phone it wont work.

 

I can confirm when I click the AV in/out my screen does not show the same behavior as yours. I have all 4 corners available.

Edited December 3, 2015 at 05:45 PM by seadiel

[decker12]

You don't need to turn the radio off.

 

You just need to set the volume using your phone when are streaming through BT. If you set the volume on the radio and you switch to AM/FM it will be crazy loud. When I enter/exit my car I leave my BT audio connected and it will also attempt to try auto play my spotify app, if I close the app from running in the background of my phone it wont work.

 

I can confirm when I click the AV in/out my screen does not show the same behavior as yours. I have all 4 corners available.

 

This morning when I switched to AV Input before shutting off my car after my commute, the 4 corners for AV Input were back again. I suspect I'll get the 4 corners for the next 2 or 5 days and then they'll disappear again as per my video. As I said, it's just buggy behavior that I'd like to see fixed, but I'm not willing to bring my car in for servicing for five days to make it happen.

 

As a work around I am going to try putting an empty USB thumb drive in my car's USB port. That way I can select USB as my "getting out of the car" input and that should work the same as the AV Input, meaning it's a workaround for the BT Audio Auto Play behavior.

[seadiel]

Decker12,

 

Have you tried going into settings>media player and click auto play to off?

 

Media player I am assuming is blue tooth media player.

[decker12]

Yes, Settings > Media Player Auto Play to Off does nothing when it comes to Blue Tooth media. Probably effects USB, but definitely does nothing for BT. The Auto Play issue is not just a Ford thing, it happens to practically every car's audio system when it comes to streaming BT audio on iOS devices as well as various Android phones, and there's endless complaints about it on other forums.

 

It's part of the BT audio specification that sends the Auto Play signal. Ford seems to intercept this Auto Play signal better than other cars, however it's still sloppy as you'll notice if you go ahead and switch to BT Audio it'll simply auto play whatever music you have on your iPhone - it won't ask you for a song, a playlist, or anything, it'll just start playing away. I listed to Audible books so it will auto-resume the book as long as I haven't opened up my iPhone Music player or Pandora or Spotify.

 

My solution to avoid this auto-play issue as stated above is to switch to a new input before turning my car off, otherwise as soon as you turn the key, BT Audio starts playing whatever you have opened last. If you're in the habit of turning down your radio before leaving the car, my Audible book will play and play without me knowing it and then I have to screw around with my iOS device to rewind it, which I won't notice until I'm on the road and it's as dangerous as texting. By being able to switch to AV Inputs, that is effectively a "Stop Auto Play" button, so I can get in my car, set the temp, get situated and pay my tolls and get on the road before switching to BT Audio and actually starting up where I left off on my Audible book.

Edited December 24, 2015 at 12:35 AM by decker12

[seadiel]

Yes, Settings > Media Player Auto Play to Off does nothing when it comes to Blue Tooth media. Probably effects USB, but definitely does nothing for BT. The Auto Play issue is not just a Ford thing, it happens to practically every car's audio system when it comes to streaming BT audio on iOS devices as well as various Android phones, and there's endless complaints about it on other forums.

 

It's part of the BT audio specification that sends the Auto Play signal. Ford seems to intercept this Auto Play signal better than other cars, however it's still sloppy as you'll notice if you go ahead and switch to BT Audio it'll simply auto play whatever music you have on your iPhone - it won't ask you for a song, a playlist, or anything, it'll just start playing away. I listed to Audible books so it will auto-resume the book as long as I haven't opened up my iPhone Music player or Pandora or Spotify.

 

My solution to avoid this auto-play issue as stated above is to switch to a new input before turning my car off, otherwise as soon as you turn the key, BT Audio starts playing whatever you have opened last. If you're in the habit of turning down your radio before leaving the car, my Audible book will play and play without me knowing it and then I have to screw around with my iOS device to rewind it, which I won't notice until I'm on the road and it's as dangerous as texting. By being able to switch to AV Inputs, that is effectively a "Stop Auto Play" button, so I can get in my car, set the temp, get situated and pay my tolls and get on the road before switching to BT Audio and actually starting up where I left off on my Audible book.

 

Ah, I was playing around with it today on my car with my note 4 (android) and if I turned if off it would not auto play my spotify when I got back in the car.

 

When I switch to BT audio I have to use my phone to play something otherwise I have silence, regardless of the auto play settings UNLESS I have an app that has been loaded in the background of my phone such as spotify/amazon/pandora it will auto play one of those. If nothing is running in the background on my phone, nothing plays until I load an app on the phone manually. So cant you just double click your home button swipe up on the audiobook app and fix your problem every time you leave your car? When you come back it should be silence unless you have some other app that plays music running in the background on your phone loaded?

[decker12]

Ah, I was playing around with it today on my car with my note 4 (android) and if I turned if off it would not auto play my spotify when I got back in the car.

 

When I switch to BT audio I have to use my phone to play something otherwise I have silence, regardless of the auto play settings UNLESS I have an app that has been loaded in the background of my phone such as spotify/amazon/pandora it will auto play one of those. If nothing is running in the background on my phone, nothing plays until I load an app on the phone manually. So cant you just double click your home button swipe up on the audiobook app and fix your problem every time you leave your car? When you come back it should be silence unless you have some other app that plays music running in the background on your phone loaded?

 

No, if you have nothing selected anywhere on your IOS device, it will just pick a song/playlist that is in your Music library and start playing it. The only way to get true silence on your iOS device when you switch to BT Audio is to have nothing your Music library and have no audio related apps running on your device, background or not. BT audio will actually go into your music library and play a random song that you have no interest in hearing instead of giving you silence.

 

Apple's implementation of how it handles BT audio is aggravating sure, but the way that most car audio handles the BT Audio specification just aggravates it even more. As you said, it's not difficult to have your spotify/amazon/pandora app running in the background and have FMT auto play it even if you didn't want it to.

 

My solution to selecting the AV Input before leaving the car is the most effective way that I found to "cancel BT Audio auto play". Otherwise unless you jump through hoops on your phone, as soon as you hit BT Audio (or as soon as you start your car with it selected the last time you left your car), it will auto play. There doesn't seem any way to stop this except using the workaround with AV Audio, but as stated in my thread using that seems to freak out the MFT console as per my video that I posted.

Edited December 24, 2015 at 08:34 AM by decker12

[Hybridbear]

My solution to avoid this auto-play issue as stated above is to switch to a new input before turning my car off, otherwise as soon as you turn the key, BT Audio starts playing whatever you have opened last. If you're in the habit of turning down your radio before leaving the car, my Audible book will play and play without me knowing it and then I have to screw around with my iOS device to rewind it, which I won't notice until I'm on the road and it's as dangerous as texting. By being able to switch to AV Inputs, that is effectively a "Stop Auto Play" button, so I can get in my car, set the temp, get situated and pay my tolls and get on the road before switching to BT Audio and actually starting up where I left off on my Audible book.

Why can't you just turn the radio off completely before turning off the car? That should solve your issue & is much easier than selecting a new audio input.

[decker12]

Why can't you just turn the radio off completely before turning off the car? That should solve your issue & is much easier than selecting a new audio input.

 

I've already posted on this above - turning off the stereo doesn't fix the problem and actually adds more steps to the process of getting BT Audio playing again when I get in the car:

 

Unfortunately, using the Power button doesn't work out any better. When I'm listening to BT Audio, and I'm ready to leave the car, I hit the Power button on the stereo. I come back later, push the Power button, and I'm blasted with the AM radio (at the same volume my BT Audio was set at). Meaning, it doesn't go back to BT Audio and start auto playing.

 

Now I have to push an equal amount of buttons to get back to my BT Audio and it actually doesn't even appear in the list of available sources via the MFT screen. have to find it using the steering wheel controls. Frustrating!

 

Sure, all of this sounds nitpicky - but when you have to do it every time you get in the car, multiple times a day, just to listen to an audio book, and knowing that if some step isn't done in the right order you have to (possibly unsafely while driving) screw around with the console and/or your phone, it's actually pretty frustrating.

 

The A/V input workaround actually is a pretty solid fix for all of my issues, except if you watch my video posted above, it bugs out.

Edited December 27, 2015 at 10:32 PM by decker12

[Hybridbear]

I've already posted on this above - turning off the stereo doesn't fix the problem and actually adds more steps to the process of getting BT Audio playing again when I get in the car.

What about the question I posted back to you? If you do this before the car connects to the phone you will get radio blasting. Our car connects to BT Audio again if you do what I described.

[decker12]

What about the question I posted back to you? If you do this before the car connects to the phone you will get radio blasting. Our car connects to BT Audio again if you do what I described.

 

 

Doesn't seem to work for me at all. When I get back in my car and push the Power Button, I get blasted with the AM radio if BT Audio was the last thing on the radio before I left the car. Even so, I don't even have the BT Audio option until the radio has been powered on for a few minutes, even though my phone is connected immediately when I get into the car. BT Audio just doesn't even show up as a choice for me to change to if I enter the car with the radio turned off.

 

While I can make another video to show this goofy behavior, the core issue remains that the FMT AV Input screen has this bug in it which was what I showed in my original video. Sure, I'm only using the AV Input thing as a workaround for BT Audio auto play, but I'd be screwed if I was genuinely using AV audio with RCA plugs for some device in my car, because once I switch to it, all the corners disappear and I can't use FMT to get back to navigation/phone/climate.

[Hybridbear]

Doesn't seem to work for me at all. When I get back in my car and push the Power Button, I get blasted with the AM radio if BT Audio was the last thing on the radio before I left the car. Even so, I don't even have the BT Audio option until the radio has been powered on for a few minutes, even though my phone is connected immediately when I get into the car. BT Audio just doesn't even show up as a choice for me to change to if I enter the car with the radio turned off.

 

While I can make another video to show this goofy behavior, the core issue remains that the FMT AV Input screen has this bug in it which was what I showed in my original video. Sure, I'm only using the AV Input thing as a workaround for BT Audio auto play, but I'd be screwed if I was genuinely using AV audio with RCA plugs for some device in my car, because once I switch to it, all the corners disappear and I can't use FMT to get back to navigation/phone/climate.

I tested selecting AV input. It is slow, but doesn't do what you experience. Regarding BT Audio & turning the radio on/off: how many BT devices do you have paired with Sync? Is your phone labeled as the "primary phone"?

[decker12]

I tested selecting AV input. It is slow, but doesn't do what you experience. Regarding BT Audio & turning the radio on/off: how many BT devices do you have paired with Sync? Is your phone labeled as the "primary phone"?

 

I don't want to retype everything I've already typed in this thread but bottom line, the AV input problem that you see in my video doesn't happen all the time. Only most of the time. Again I'm less concerned with the BT Audio auto-play issue because it's a known problem with Auto Play on many devices and many different cars. It's part of how BT Audio works and it's been reported for cars, headphones, portable speakers, all sorts of things that stream BT audio. I have two cheap BT Audio portable speakers that do the exact thing - as soon as I turn it on it auto plays whatever it synced to it, even if I didn't want it to. I accept that BT Audio is a pain in the neck when it comes to autoplay.

 

What I'm trying to find a fix for is the AV Input issue. Forget BT audio altogether if that makes it easier. When I switch to AV Input, 85% of the time I lose the corners and MFT becomes completely unresponsive. The only way to get MFT back to normal is to use my steering wheel controls and switch to a new audio input. That's the crux of the problem.

Edited December 28, 2015 at 07:07 PM by decker12