Ford Bluetooth music skipping tracks with Jellybean

[etherboy12]

I just tried this with spotify and it's still skipping. :/

Same with Jango. Nice try though

edit: anyone with rooted phone running 4.2? I wonder if the additional BT features that are enabled in the rooted rom would fix this or is it the same?

 

[stridr69#AC]

Okay guys, here's my take.

This has EVERYTHING to do with MFT/MLT. Period.

I own a 2012 Fiesta with Sync. Nothing fancy, no touch screen, nav, or anything like that.
I also own a Razr Maxx HD running 4.1.2

I have no problems running pandora, iHeart radio, slacker, MYXM, Sync Destinations. No skips, dropouts at all thru Bluetooth.
This is a Ford problem. Period. MFT/MLT is very well known for its craptacular service. Go after FORD.
That is all.....

P.S. OTOH , I DO have to have Google Play running on the phone prior to using the Bluetooth Audio Stream(personal music). My previous phone(BB9700) I could just play my music from the get go. I.E. cold start. Working on THAT problem......

 

[revelated]

Sharing my experience. I would echo what stridr69#AC has said.

I have a RAZR MAXX HD. It is still running the first ICS because I will not drop Mass Storage Mode despite Google's insistence to do so. Troubleshooting is what I do.

The skip problem just happened today for me, with the Play Music subscription. It actually happened before with Dropbox music but I thought it was a network condition. Also happened with Amazon, so I know it's not the app.

Does not skip at all when Bluetooth is not engaged - i.e. if I use Y-cable AUX or just direct phone play. That means it's not the phone.

Does not skip when connected to my Logitech Bluetooth speaker at work nor my Vizio headphones. That means it's not the phone's Bluetooth stack.

Does not skip on non-skippables such as phone calls and whatnot. That means it's not the general Bluetooth of SYNC.

Other phones have the same issue. That means it's not just the RAZR MAXX HD nor the OS.

The one common factor here is the SYNC application. Based on the behavior, I think it's somehow triggering some sort of "seek" mode via Bluetooth when it shouldn't. I couldn't find a setting that would affect this. But it's the only thing that makes sense.

Also, I notice mine is on a different option every time I start the car. If I leave it on Sirius, I'll come back later and it's on AM radio. Or it'll try autoplaying my Bluetooth music even though I've turned that setting off. Or it'll try playing some news channel from Sirius.

I think it's SYNC.

To validate this, I'm going to pull my iPod Touch 5g from work, connect it and see if I can replicate the same behavior. If I can't, then I'll try one of my other tablets, like my Kindle Fire or Nexus 7. If they do it then it's definitely a SYNC issue but specific to Android devices. If the same thing happens then SYNC in general is screwed up.

 

[etherboy12]

So little update: using Google Music All Access: works fine, some minimal skipping if you change songs using Sync, but you can simply rewind to the start of the song and it streams OK (and keeps going).

 

[mike.s]

Another update: I did a factory reset on my razr maxx hd and the bluetooth skipping problem still happens in my ford f150 with mft. Then Verizon sent me a like new replacement and this new razr maxx hd does the exact same thing! One thing I have noticed is that the problem does not happen as much with google play music. With other apps like pandora, spotify, and rhapsody it happens all the time but with google play it only happens once in a while.

 

[seaner12]

Guys, this isn't just an Android problem. I've had this same problem using Bluetooth on my iPhone since day one. I have 2013 Ford Focus with MyFord Touch. Plays first song fine, then plays about 10 seconds of next song and then skips to song 3. Plays song 3 fine, then plays about 10 seconds of song 4 before skipping to the next song. Etc., etc., etc. I believe the problem lies with the Sync technology considering the same thing is happening across multiple devices and operating systems.

 

[mike.s]

That is interesting, although I never had this problem when my RAZR maxx HD was on ICS. It only started with Jellybean. It's a very strange problem for sure. I'm hoping we get an update to 4.2.2 which might fix the problem. Otherwise I'm just going to get the HTC One X or Moto X when they come out on Verizon.

 

[PowrDroid]

Sharing my experience. I would echo what stridr69#AC has said.

I have a RAZR MAXX HD. It is still running the first ICS because I will not drop Mass Storage Mode despite Google's insistence to do so. Troubleshooting is what I do.

The skip problem just happened today for me, with the Play Music subscription. It actually happened before with Dropbox music but I thought it was a network condition. Also happened with Amazon, so I know it's not the app.

Does not skip at all when Bluetooth is not engaged - i.e. if I use Y-cable AUX or just direct phone play. That means it's not the phone.

Does not skip when connected to my Logitech Bluetooth speaker at work nor my Vizio headphones. That means it's not the phone's Bluetooth stack.

Does not skip on non-skippables such as phone calls and whatnot. That means it's not the general Bluetooth of SYNC.

Other phones have the same issue. That means it's not just the RAZR MAXX HD nor the OS.

The one common factor here is the SYNC application. Based on the behavior, I think it's somehow triggering some sort of "seek" mode via Bluetooth when it shouldn't. I couldn't find a setting that would affect this. But it's the only thing that makes sense.

Also, I notice mine is on a different option every time I start the car. If I leave it on Sirius, I'll come back later and it's on AM radio. Or it'll try autoplaying my Bluetooth music even though I've turned that setting off. Or it'll try playing some news channel from Sirius.

I think it's SYNC.

To validate this, I'm going to pull my iPod Touch 5g from work, connect it and see if I can replicate the same behavior. If I can't, then I'll try one of my other tablets, like my Kindle Fire or Nexus 7. If they do it then it's definitely a SYNC issue but specific to Android devices. If the same thing happens then SYNC in general is screwed up.

Thanks for the data and nice work! I think that Seaner12's info that this happened with his iPhone points to Ford's SYNC being the problem. One would think of all the phones out there that SYNC would work with an iPhone but then again, SYNC is made by Microsoft.

 

[volaticus]

I had this issue when using the stock rom on a GS3. I flashed a custom rom and the issue magically resolved itself. Didn't matter which rom I used as long as it was custom.

Not sure if devs knows about this bluetooth thing and fix it while compiling new roms, all I know is that the issue was completely resolved. I recently upgraded to an S4 and most of the custom roms are still pretty experiemental so I kept my phone on the stock rom and bluetooth streaming is back to being crap. Skips every few seconds.

I flashed a custom rom to see if it would fix this and it did unfortunately custom roms at the moment for such a new phone are riddled with other bugs so I had to reflash stock on the GS4. It's either enjoy bluetooth audio without skipping on a buggy custom rom or enjoy a reliable cellular connection on a stock rom. Just waiting a few more weeks until devs can come up with more stable roms.

 

[Henry Webb]

I had the same issues with Pandora and Audible using Droid RAZR MAXX
Its not JB its the Ford SYNC's last update. Do a master reset of SYNC, it will fix the problem for a while until SYNC does another goofy thing, usually about a week or two later.

 

[mike.s]

The new update for my razr maxx hd has almost fixed the problem. It now only happens once in a while instead of most of the time. I also get track information from pandora and spotify on my screen in my f150, which I didn't get before.

 

[jhadad]

While I would like to completely blame ford, its really both Ford and Motorola's problem. I've looked through what I believe is the code for Motorola's implementation of AVRCP 1.3 (which sends the track info/track time to SYNC) and it is ridiculous when it comes to the track time. AVRCP 1.3 is not in Android (I think slated for the next release), but Motorola and Samsung have their own implementations. Even on my Parrot Bluetooth device the track time is always wrong, especially with apps other than Google Music. Fords problem is that they are sending the skip back to the phone when it thinks the track time is over. That is stupid. Its called Bluetooth Streaming, so just play whatever the phone is playing and leave it at that. Apparently SYNC thinks that your phone is too stupid to play the next track when the current one is over.

I have had success with rooting the phone, and modifying the the google music application always the send the total track time as 0. Then SYNC doesn't keep track of the time, and everything works well. But every time, the google music app is updated, I have to redo my hack, so its annoying.

I have the new MFT 3.6 upgrade and am going to install it tonight, so I am keeping my fingers crossed.

 

[mike.s]

I installed the latest update in my Ford truck about a week ago, and the problem is completely fixed for me! Haven't had one skipped track since the update!

 

[TapStrider]

Hi everyone, I drive a Ford Focus 2012 Titanium and I have an LG G Flex with 4.4.2 JB. I too am experiencing the horror of the skipping songs via bluetooth through my phone when I listen to it through my music player stock on my phone and it only happens to a select few of the songs I have on my phone. It happens real bad, so bad that I can't even enjoy the music that I have on phone, listening to it while driving in my car. Another thing I have noticed is that whenever I have recieved a phonecall before getting into my car, and when I do get into my car, the synce screen will read that I am on the phone, even when I'm not on it. It'll keep reading as tho I'm in a phone, counting the minutes continusely untill I reach my destonation. The crazy thing is that with sync still saying that I'm in a phone call, the music on my phone will still keep playing, even though it is reading that I've been on the phone, when I'm not on the phone at all. This is incredibly frustrating that this is happening and I don't know what the problem is. I will be taking my car back to Ford on Monday morning so that they can take a look at the system, but I won't to know if this really because on the JB O.S or because of sync. Either way the behavior is unexceptable.