DistortedEdge

Duplicate of a post I made in the FordSync forum site, but thought appropriate to add to this thread: I've had my 2011 Edge for 9 days, In those 9 days I've had to pull the fuse for the Sync system twice. This is really unaccetable, even if the fuse were actually easy to get at, which it's not. (I'm a big guy, with big hands, and it's a tight squeeze down into that footwell and to get to that bottom fuse row.) Anyways, third day of owning the car, Sync got all screwed up on BT connections (three phones were paired), it would not connect to the primary phone, even when all others were removed. Actually they weren't removed, because even though I'd delete them from the system and they'd disappear from the screen, once I'd go back into the phone settings screen they were back. Even Master Reset wouldn't clear the system, so had to pull the fuse. Much worse problem last night. Get in the car, turn it on, and the Sync screen is dead. Looks like no power to it, but there is to the panel below it. Backup camera won't even turn on, total lock out. Turn off the system, turn back on, no joy. Had to pull the fuse. How often have you who own the thing had to pull the fuse? Am I the proud owner of a lemon, or is the whole fleet just buggy as hell? To make matters worse for me last night, I dropped the stupid fuse behind the plastic panel the fuse box is in. Couldn't for the life of me find it by either site or feel, so at 10:00 at night I had to try to find a parts store to get a fuse. I found a gas station with mini fuses, and while it sort of fits, it doesn't seat in all the way, so I'm going to have to find the slightly smaller Ford one they're using. What a pain in the butt! An interesting side effect of no fuse in the Sync slot is that the A/C controls go out of communication with the car and so the car decides to go to MAX HEAT and MAX FAN! I had to drive with the sunroof and windows fully open to keep from getting cooked. Seriously. Needless to say, I am very disappointed in myself for getting a first generation Microsoft product. My friend warned me, and as a long time techy I should have known better, but with MyFord having been in testing since some time last year, you'd think they'd worked the bugs out. Apparently not.

Yeah, I knew that, but thanks for pointing it. I usually stream a PodCast player over bluetooth. With my Android phone, any app that outputs audio is supported over the BT stream, but of course you lose the ability to control over the Sync system.

Ah, thanks for the replies! I figured the salesman was full of it (or at least mistaken), but wanted to make sure. It's no big deal, I just figured that if the system had the storage, why not use it. I'm already using an old iPhone permanently plugged into one of the USB ports...if only that thing would sync with iTunes over the home WiFi, I'd be golden on updates. Re: the USB ports, the Sync system on 2008 Edge recognized a 250gb portable USB drive I have with 100gb of music files dumped to it; the new 2011 system says the device isn't compatible. That's an interesting step backwards in my opinion. Re: the SD card slot. I think it's misleading of Ford to advertise the SD card slot as a media feature, since there's only one, and it's required for the navigation system to work; that's a minor nitpick, though. Re: cloud storage; that's still going to be a while, in my opinion, until cellular networks vastly improve. I have phones with AT&T and T-Mobile here in Los Angeles, in many areas, no cell data, or Edge/GSM only, which isn't conducive to streaming, plus the caps on data might be problematic for some. Speaking of cloud though, where's the Pandora app they demo...that will be cool when it is released (or better yet Slacker). Overall, the new system is so much better than my original Edge, and the voice recognition actually works reliably and consistently.

My salesman and some of the articles about MyFord Touch I've read on the net describe a "jukebox" where you're able to save music into the Sync system off CD and other devices. I've read through the manual and played with all the buttons and just can't figure it out. Is this a real feature on the current version of MyFord on the 2011 Edge Limited? I've tried with regular CD, MP3 CD, and iPod, all with no luck. Google, forum and owner's guide pdf searches seem silent on this. What am I missing?

Or get an Android phone with Froyo and WiFi hotspot tethering is built right in. Currently connecting without issue with a Galaxy S. Very disappointed that none of the actual services on the MyFord or Sync take advantage of this. Makes it kind of pointless feature at this time for anyone whose phone acts as a tether by pretending to be a wifi hotspot. In my situation, why connect the car to the Android and then have friends in the car connect to the car, they could all just connect to the Android directly. I wonder if the Edge's hotspot broadcast reaches out further than the phone's would...might find some use case for that, but can't think of anything compelling right now.

Radiator boiled over circling in a parking lot with only 200+ miles and ten days on the car. The vehicle lost about 25% of its coolant, the temp gauge pegged on H, and a cloud of steam engulfed the vehicle leaving a water trail that didn't evaporate for 20 minutes. After two days in the shop, Ford determined the problem to be that the fan clutch electrical connector was not seated properly at the factory. Kind of a souring experience on an otherwise very nice vehicle. This is an '08 Edge Limited, all options, including trailer tow package and extra cooling. LOL.

Glad to see the moderators removed the non-problem related posts in this thread. I have not had a single problem with my iPhone getting the <USB_Removed> issue since switching to an Apple branded cable. My problem was clearly being caused by the less expensive 3rd party cable I had originally purchased. I really recommend those with this issue with an Apple product at least try using the white Apple provided cable that came with their device and post back here, instead of assuming that just because different people with different models are having the problem that the cable isn't the problem. Check back on my earlier posts...the black 3rd party cable I had worked flawlessly with my 5th Gen iPod, but intermittently with my iPhone, so the cable can be the problem on some devices and not on others. Consider that driving around in a car with a bouncing ride, vibrations, varying temperatures, etc, could easily cause a cheaper cable's contacts to momentarily unseat or something along those lines. I'd certainly give this a try before putting my car in the shop for a day or two to get the Sync Module replaced. Try a different cable and report results back here for the benefit of the group. Someone private messaged me and asked why I hadn't posted in a while - simple reason: my problem is resolved and I've been off enjoying my car with almost flawless (see footnote) Sync performance. Having posted I fixed my problem, figured nothing else of value to add here, but seeing many writing off even the possibility of the cable being the problem, glad to be back to suggest others "at least give swapping cables a try before saying it's not the solution". footnote: I say almost flawless because there is one minor usability issue I have. Apparently playing a song or podcast via Sync does not update the playcount for that item in the iPhone/iPod's metadata tags. For those who use Smart Playlists with a Playcount=0 rule, this is a minor issue as already listened to items aren't cleared from the device when re-syncing with iTunes. But that's a complaint for a different forum or thread. Good luck to all. Microsoft Sync has its issues, but it's a darn cool feature set.

Two days with the Apple branded USB cable that came with my iPod and I haven't had any of the static or <USB Removed> issues on multiple trips. Looks like the aftermarket cable I had isn't up to the task with iPhones for some reason; though I was mislead by it's proper functioning with my iPod. Other's experiencing this problem may want to try using the white Apple dock cable that came with the iPod instead of whatever they may have been using from Ford or other non-Apple providers. I'm not going to call the issue resolved until it's worked longer than it gave me probems, but I'm hopeful and would appreciate feedback from others if changing USB cable impacts their problem.

Interesting, my 5th Gen 60gb iPod works flawlessly, but the above suggested fixes for the iPhone aren't reliable. One complaint about the 60gb iPod is it takes SEVEN MINUTES to index. That's an eternity waiting for it to sync. If I don't sync with iTunes, it indexes in the Edge's SYNC very quickly, but every time after I dock the iPod, the next link with SYNC takes 7 minutes. I think it's a Microsoft plot to make you want to buy a Zune. (I actually considered a Zune 2 as solution to this..yikes. ^_^ )

Another update. Neither of the tricks above worked this morning. Sync gave <USB Removed> problem a couple of minutes down the road. What finally seemed to help and get me the rest of the way to work without the iPhone disconnecting was to lay the phone on the passenger seat instead of the of the console under the Nav unit. Probably just a fluke, though.

Wow, this is interesting stuff. I've been a computer hacker/upgrader all my life, and love tinkering with things to get better performance out of them, but I haven't messed around with tweaking a car's performance since the early 80's. I've only had my 2008 Edge Limited two days, and am very happy with it so far, but this thread intrigues me. I'll be hitting Google for more info on this kind of stuff, of course, but anyone have recommendations for good reading sites. Also, some basic questions for a real car-knowledge-challenged guy: How big a mileage hit would the "performance tunes" negatively affect fuel mileage? How much improvement in mileage does the "economy tune" provide? Are the tunes compatible with the 2008 FWD model, or does AWD impact the process? Would this void the vehicle warranty in any way? If I took the vehicle into the dealer for servicing, would they detect the tweaks, and would it be an issue?

As posted earlier, I am also experiencing this. I noticed this morning (this is only my second day with the new car) that it was happening just a few minutes after starting the iPhone/SYNC play, so I thought it might be related to the iPhone going to sleep. I went to Settings/General/Auto-lock and changed the setting from 2 minutes to Never and the SYNC system maintained the connection to the iPhone and played my Podcast the entire rest of the trip without disconnecting. I'm not sure if this is a SYNC or iPhone issue with that in mind. It could be the iPhone is disconnecting the USB connection itself, though not sure why it would do that...it doesn't do it when cabled up to a computer, and the music in the headphones will continue to play without problems after the screen powers down (sleeps). I wonder if the iPhone stops playing when the screen locks when it's inserted into one of those non-Apple clock radios or boom boxes designed for iPods. I'd encourage anyone with this problem to try turning the Auto-lock for the screen to never while in the car so we can get some feedback as to whether this actually fixes the problem or not. EDIT: Quick update...I also had no USB Removed problems driving home yesterday when I plugged the iPhone into the USB after the car was started and the iPhone was in sleep mode. I had been plugging it in while it was playing.

I am having the exact same issue with my iPhone (and a few more problems along the same lines). Very frustrating ride to work this morning with my otherwise sweet new ride ('08 Edge Limited) as the iPhone audio files sounded staticy, cut out, USB Removed, etc. The only update I saw available on syncmyride.com (for Edge vehicles anyways) had the specific disclaimer that this update only recommended for Lincoln vehicles with THX sound in French display mode. Not sure that will help me out.