DO YOU LEAVE iPOD (OR USB STICK) PLUGGED IN?

[boombots]

Leave my USB in all the time. My explorer had an iPod video plugged in for 5 years. Sub zero temps and 100+ temps no issues. Eventually stollen by a body shop monkey. The battery probably didn't work well after but it was old anyway.

 

[Capri to ST]

I just found this on the PNY site (maker of my USB drive) under Fast Facts-

USB Flash Drives
Operating Considerations and Precaution
Environmental Proofing*
Temperature Proof: Operating temperature range from -25?C to 85?C (-13?F to 185?F)-

*Based on the following independent test results:Temperature Proof, based on 95% relative humidity from -25? C to 85? C over 24 hours

 

[briandee]

I leave my 60gb solid state drive plugged in to the U.S. port all the time. No problems since November.

 

[Zissou]

NO BUT SOMETIMES I LEAVE CAPSLOCK ON

Jk nah I don't, but I have no idea why. I ought to load up my old iPod and leave it in there as it's just collecting dust anyways.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Sil3nt611]

I'm on Sync 3. I had an old 60GB SSD I threw in an external USB enclosure I wasn't using and connected it up after transferring music to it. Initially it works so much better than any of my iPods or the iPhone I've been using. The biggest issue with it is it takes a bit longer for it to load the music when you start the car. When everything else seems to work so far, I'll take that drawback.

 

[Capri to ST]

thanks everyone. i think i'm going to use a USB flash drive, not an ipod, no concern about temperature extremes or battery, and just leave it plugged in all the time. also, i doubt anyone would be interested in stealing one, but if someone steals it, my 16gb 3.0 USB drive was on sale for $7.

 

[Sil3nt611]

I need to just grab a USB flash drive I have and run a test to see if it starts playing music any faster than the SSD in an external I have in there now. Sometimes it takes up to 30 seconds for the music to even start playing and every now and then it gives up and switches to FM. Once it starts playing it works well. A few of the tracks don't quite retain the track, artist, or album name right. That won't change with a USB flash drive, but hopefully I can get the music to load faster plus the flash drive takes up less space in the console.

 

[Capri to ST]

i didn't experience that delay or the fm switching. please report what you find, that would be good to know.

 

[Sil3nt611]

i didn't experience that delay or the fm switching. please report what you find, that would be good to know.

What flash drive are you using? I have a couple flash drives I can give a try to and I'll probably buy a dedicated one of this solution works better.

 

[Capri to ST]

i got this PNY one-
http://www.bestbuy.com/site/pny-tur...id=8&ksaffcode=pg128&ksdevice=c&ref=212&loc=1

it was on sale for $7 when i bought it. i only have about 8 gb of music. it loaded onto the drive from my pc in about 15 minutes just fyi.

 

[Sil3nt611]

I have less than 8GB of music. Only have the 60GB SSD in there because that's what I had to try out at the time. I grabbed a generic usb drive we use at work to test out. If that works well enough I'll buy a better branded one. I don't really expect a generic USB drive to last too long in the Texas heat.

 

[Capri to ST]

i posted some info on temperature sensitivity of PNY USB drives from their website at my Post #22 above. they call them temperature proof,and show a very wide range of operating temperatures that they can withstand. i have not subjected mine to any extremes.

 

[Sil3nt611]

The generic one so far works good and starts playing music within a reasonable time. I'm hesitant on PNY because we had one for the shop at work and it didn't last more than a couple months indoors before it started acting up. I ordered this one: http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digi...psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00 Kingston has been a good brand for SSDs and ram we use in a lot of our computer builds and usb flash drives are the same basic principle. Wanted a small profile one too so it doesn't get hit and damaged. I'll see how it does. I wished the iPods would have worked out. They do have a bit more functionality if they did work properly but I'll survive.

 

[Capri to ST]

The generic one so far works good and starts playing music within a reasonable time. I'm hesitant on PNY because we had one for the shop at work and it didn't last more than a couple months indoors before it started acting up. I ordered this one: http://www.amazon.com/Kingston-Digi...psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=od_aui_detailpages00 Kingston has been a good brand for SSDs and ram we use in a lot of our computer builds and usb flash drives are the same basic principle. Wanted a small profile one too so it doesn't get hit and damaged. I'll see how it does. I wished the iPods would have worked out. They do have a bit more functionality if they did work properly but I'll survive.

How did that Kingston USB drive work out? Today for the first time while listening to a USB song it cut out in mid-song and started playing FM. Then it didn't recognize the USB stick. After unplugging it and plugging it back in, it worked normally. Don't know if the problem was with SYNC3, which has been working fine, or the USB drive.

 

[Sil3nt611]

I have had the radio spazz out on me where it would change to FM when I turn the car on even though I turned the car off with it playing from the USB drive. It would show on the screen that it was playing songs on the USB drive and I could even change tracks, but the sound out of the speakers was FM radio. I could switch to AM, but not back to USB. That's happened two times I think. Turning the car off and back on fixes that and I haven't done any further troubleshooting on that because I'm communing when it does happen so I don't have time to deal with it and I just listen to the radio. I think it's happened with the iPods and iPhone I used prior to that as well though. Haven't had your specific issue. I really hope they release that new update for Sync3 soon. I'm hoping that fixes the issues. Other than that my USB stick works fine. Much better than any of the Apple devices I used. I do have a couple songs in Apple format that it doesn't see, or at least I suspect so. I need to figure out what they are and convert them to mp3. I wish I could do playlists too, that's the main thing I miss about using the iPods.

It hasn't been taken out of the car in months and sits in there plugged in during the hot Texas summer days. So temperature wise I think it's fine.

 

[Intuit]

Never bought an Apple brand MP3 player though I've fixed a few and gave away one that was abandoned post repair

Did buy a SanDisk brand MP3 player (fraction of the price, small size, reliable and includes a Micro SD card slot in addition to the internal memory) many many years ago.

It has been through single-digit degree weather to being left in direct sunlight during peak hot Summer days and hasn't corrupted a single bit. It has crashed a few times over those years, (with no display,) meaning I only had to hold the power slide-switch to force it off and turn it back on. But that's it. Still works to this day. Never detected any issue with battery life.

To note, your whatever brand MP3 player is merely going to be treated like a file server. No reason to use that, versus a higher capacity USB Flash Drive or Bluetooth from phone.

 

[wolrah]

I've had a 64GB el-cheapo store generic USB3 drive plugged in pretty much non-stop since I got the car, only coming out to update the music and wallpaper folders on it. I mostly listen to music on Bluetooth but every time I've switched to USB as a fallback when my phone's acting up it's ready and works fine.

If it happened to die randomly I wouldn't care, it cost like $20.