Varilux

Okay, for its latest quirk, the SYNC in my '14 (v. 4.4) has stopped changing Pandora stations.


Half the time when I try to launch Pandora, SYNC reports it "has detected a problem with Pandora, and will no longer communicate." When I finally do get it working, the only buttons that work on the radio are "skip track." The numbered station buttons no longer function.


I've tried a master reset- same before and after. I can run Pandora through the phone, instead of syncing, so at least I can change the stations- but then I can't see the track info (and I have to look at my cell phone to change stations).


Anyone else experiencing this?

Slowb00st

I have about the same problem. Does yours display the track names? Mine does not and I think was after a Pandora update not after the sync update. Other music apps work fine.

Varilux

If I manage to get SYNC to run Pandora as a mobile app, it will show the track information- I just can't change stations with the button (or with the phone, because the app is supposed to be controlled through the radio).


If I run Pandora as just a Bluetooth stream, it will not show the track info- but at least I can change the station on the phone.

FordIVTteam

Hey Guys,

Thanks for reporting the issue with Pandora.

To resolve this, turn the vehicle off, open your driver's side door, lock the door, wait 2 minutes, soft reset your phone by removing the battery or powering it down, and then turn your vehicle back on.

I hope this helps; let me know how it goes.

Whitney

Varilux

I hope this helps; let me know how it goes.

Thanks for the assistance, but no dice (maybe I'm doing something incorrectly).

1. With the key in the "ON" position, I brought up Pandora as usual (and no ability to change stations).
2. I turned the key to "OFF," opened the door, and locked it.
3. Waited 2 minutes, during which time I powered down my phone and then started it back up.
4. Turned the key back to "ON," waited for "Samsung Connected" and "911 Enabled" to appear.
5. Accessed "Mobile Applications" and "Pandora."
6. Pandora starts, but still unable to use buttons to change stations (however, I can skip to the next track).

Did I do something incorrectly?

Thanks,
Pete

skramblr

I'm having a similar problem. Using the suggestion from Whitney above, sync will recognize the Pandora app on my phone and I can start Pandora. If I try to change stations, it loses communication and it toast - until I do Whitney's suggestion to get it working again. But will error out when I try to change stations again.

Even if I don't change stations, Pandora will stop being recognized by the sync system pretty much every day. Having to turn off the car and reset my phone is not a very friendly workaround.

Note - I had also tried a master reset and have the same problem.

So it seems we're in the same boat. New Sync not working correctly for Pandora.

glo106

The only thing I might suggest is pulling the fuse, which was touched upon in this thread: https://themustangsource.com/forums/...orking-537910/

This link I found has detailed instructions with pictures on how to pull the fuse. Pretty straightforward DIY: http://blog.k1dblitz.com/2015/06/how...c-mustang.html

Varilux

I've now tried every variation of these directions I can think of- the result is always the same. I can get Pandora to run on SYNC, but no control of the stations.

SYNC is just so frustrating. I already power my phone down every time I approach the car just to give SYNC an even chance of even finding Pandora on the phone.

It would be great to understand why SYNC suddenly can't change stations. My Samsung has a "Mirror Screen" feature that allows the phone to take over the car's navigation screen, but I don't suppose SYNC allows that (it would be great to just convert the touch screen to a mirror of my cell phone).

glo106

Are you able to change the station with voice commands, i.e. "play station ____"

Have you added or deleted any stations on your Pandora recently? Last week I updated some of my stations on my Pandora while on a computer, and it took a day or so of driving for Sync to recognize that my stations had been updated. After the updating of my stations, initially I wasn't able to change the stations by pushing the buttons on the console, but I was able to change them with voice command.

Varilux

Hmmm, occasionally, Pandora adds suggested stations. I'll try deleting them and see if that helps. However, the system was able to select stations after the last of these additional stations were added, so I'm not sure that's the problem.

I'll give it a go, however- can't hurt to try!

xtc.inc

Can i have pandora in my non nav car for free?

David Young

I don't like reading about this problem, just as i was going to tell Sirius to hit the road . I was thinking about streaming Pandora. I think we have enough 'data' on our cell phone plan. Maybe Sirius will give me a 'break' on the rate, i've been using them for 9 years

Varilux

I tried trimming down to 5 Pandora stations- still can't change between stations.


I don't like reading about this problem, just as i was going to tell Sirius to hit the road .
Don't get me wrong- Pandora rocks... it's SYNC that is causing the issue! I was just about to renew the trial subscription to Sirius when I discovered Pandora a couple years ago. The music through Pandora sounds better, allows me to customize to my own liking, and since I have unlimited data on my company phone, life is great.


Can I have Pandora in my non nav car for free?
As long as you have a phone capable of running Pandora that can connect via Bluetooth to your car, yep. We run Pandora in my wife's F150 (which does not have nav) all the time.


However, for just $4 / month, you can avoid commercials, and you also get slightly better audio quality and the ability to skip as many songs as you like. One thing- be sure to connect to your wifi when listening at home. I do a lot of work out in my garage and stream Pandora constantly. I had my wifi turned off one month and racked up 5+ gigs of data usage (no big deal on my plan, but if I were paying for usage it would have been expensive).


The only thing I might suggest is pulling the fuse...
Thanks, I'll give that a go today (after my stretching exercises... I'm convinced the fuse panel location was purposely designed as some sort of agility test).


Really, I should just stop griping and just run Pandora through the phone as a Bluetooth device. However, considering I paid something like $1,500 for an "electronics package," it would be nice if the thing just WORKED! Pandora only loads flawlessly about 25% of the time... most of the time, Samantha says "there are no applications running on your device, I will try to find some" or Pandora does load followed shortly by Samantha saying "SYNC has detected a problem with Pandora, and will stop communications...". Ironically, its easier to hook Pandora up in my 50 year old Mustang (I plug the analog jack from the aftermarket radio into the phone and go).


On the rare occasions SYNC works perfectly, its just awesome. I love seeing the track info on the screen, being able to thumb up or down or bookmark, and yes being able to change channels is great.

glo106

Bummer. I thought maybe the updating of stations might do the trick. The fuse may be the next step. And you're absolutely right--the location of the panel requires a tremendous amount of flexibility. I'm by no means a large person and even for me, it was a difficult area to open up and tinker with.

I'm hoping this isn't something any of us would have to do on a regular basis to make sync work properly. I'd had no issues with sync since getting this car. I was even recently just boasting to my friend who got a new Jeep Grand Cherokee Altitude that using Pandora in my car via sync was a major treat (he was telling me about all the electronic/touchscreen perks of his car).

Varilux

Are you able to change the station with voice commands, i.e. "play station ____"

YES! I finally remembered to try this, and- sure enough- the station will change with a voice command (of course, the first time I tried this, Samantha told me "SYNC has detected a problem with Pandora." However, I fired things back up, tried again, and I CAN change stations with voice commands.

I also tried pulling the fuse on SYNC (I will admit to muttering "Die, Samantha, die!" as I pulled fuse #3 )... Unfortunately, this seemed to do absolutely nothing. I expected my phone to unpair if I pulled SYNC's fuse, but it was still there after (along with the same problem). I even tried starting the car without fuse 3 in place... looks like the only thing that doesn't work is anything phone related. When you click the voice command button, Samantha still prompts you to talk- she just can't hear you (felt like we were married for a moment there ).

Hopefully, I'll be able to change stations with voice commands (I'll just have to remember what each station is called). SYNC was a wonderful concept that just doesn't seem to work in real life- kinda like socialism, I guess.

If anyone discovers a way to re-enable my buttons, please do post! POST NOTE: I just reinstalled Pandora on my phone and noticed the latest update to their software was 30 June (which would perfectly coincide with when the buttons stopped working on my SYNC). I am guessing something in the Pandora update might not be playing well with SYNC. Perhaps Pandora will realize the problem and come up with a fix.

glo106

Glad you can at least change stations with voice command! It's gonna be only a minor victory though if Samantha keeps telling you that she "detected a problem with Pandora" and disconnects.

glo106

So I am now in the same boat as you. I updated the Pandora software to the latest update on the Google Play store and then immediately tested out sync with Pandora and I no longer can change stations by pushing the buttons on the console. I can still change them via voice command at least. It definitely seems to be a bug issue with the latest Pandora update and not with the Sync software itself.

Varilux

So I am now in the same boat as you. I updated the Pandora software to the latest update on the Google Play store and then immediately tested out sync with Pandora and I no longer can change stations by pushing the buttons on the console.

Well, there is hope... Pandora is at least aware of the problem. I found a forum that is apparently run by Pandora for Ford SYNC owners. On a whim, I went ahead and submitted my (our) problem, and got an almost immediate response from a tech!

He asked me for a bunch of info (phone model, SYNC version, operating system versions for the phone and Pandora, etc.), and is passing them on to the engineers at Pandora. Last night, I received an email from him indicating they had just loaded a new version (6.2). He didn't believe it would fix the issue, but asked me to download it (I did, and it didn't fix the problem). However, he indicated they would be looking into what has happened.

I do notice I now see the station on my SYNC display (which I don't think was the case before- that's kinda nice). I will send an email to the fellow with a link to this thread (so they'll hopefully know the problem isn't limited to my particular vehicle). Fingers crossed!

glo106

I just remembered that the Pandora app is also available through the Amazon free app of the day application. So I uninstalled the Pandora app on my phone and then downloaded Pandora through Amazon. I did this knowing that Amazon usually gets their individual app updates later than the Google play store. Luckily I was right because after I reinstalled Pandora, I checked the version and it is 6.1. I'm gonna test it later on sync. If it works normally again, I'm just not updating Pandora until any future updates are known to not give sync issues.

Edit: I tried it out with the Pandora 6.1 version and unfortunately the console buttons not functioning is still an issue. I even did a master reset and opened up the kick panel again to pull that darn fuse and nothing worked. I guess once Sync has learned something new, it can't go backwards.

Varilux

Actually, the problem started with version 6.1 (the last version that allowed use of the buttons was 6.0). Pandora came out with 6.1 and 6.2 within a week (so I'm guessing there were some other issues with 6.1 as well). Hopefully, they can figure out what changed with 6.1 to cause the button functionality glitch.


My phone went through an AT&T upgrade process this morning, which seems to have changed the way some of my apps work. I don't imagine it will fix the problem, but I'll keep my fingers crossed next time I start up.