[jmelrose]

I don't know if anyone else is seeing this, but hopefully some outside experiences can help me out.

I have the 160GB ipod classic, and planned to have issues accessing all the artists on it, so I made playlists. I figured if I pick my favorite artists, make "best of" playlists, as well as a bunch of mix playlists, I should be fine. Sure enough, made 'em and had around 90 playlists, none in excess of 255 tracks. I figured I'd connect up and be good to go!

Well, surprise, surprise, only half the playlists showed up. I was getting around 55 instead, and weird thing is that the last playlist would cut off part-way through.

So, last Saturday I spend a lot of time running back and forth between my Mac and my car rearranging the lists and trying to find the rhyme and reason behind what I could access in the interface.

To backtrack, I have the Sat Nav, and just got Sirius installed last week as well. The software is definitely as up-to-date as it can get for now.

Anyway, to make a long process a shorter story: it turned out the playlist list (CD 1) is not solely based on items inside the folder. I don't have the exact number, but the number of playlists is based upon the number of tracks in them, up to around 5000. For example, if I added tracks to a playlist that appeared earlier alphabetically, it would cause the number of songs in that last playlist to decrease by the number of songs I added. If I shorted or removed lists from the top of the order, the number of lists added at the bottom was based not on the number of lists I deleted but the number of tracks in those lists.

Anyway, this wasn't what I expected, and so I give the warning to those with very large libraries that there really is no good way to access all your music without a great deal of advance planning, and even then the best you seem to be able to do is access 5000 of your tracks. Which is actually a ridiculously large amount of music, unless of course you have 11,000 on your iPod and got the interface expecting to be able to access just about everything. However, for most users, it is still a pretty great product.

So, to recap in hopefully a more succinct manner:

Of the 90 playlists, I can see 55ish. The 55th is cut off halfway through the tracks. I went and added up the number of tracks in the 55 playlists, and it is around 5000. If I add tracks to the first playlist, the last playlist ends that many tracks earlier.

Example: I have 90 playlists. The iPod interface shows 55 in the SatNav screen. Playlist 1 has 60 tracks, playlist 55 has 75 tracks, but in the SatNav I can only see the first 60 tracks. If I add 10 more songs to Playlist 1, Playlist 55 now only will have the first 50 songs visible in it.

I have not messed with Artists, since I know that there's no way I'll be able to see even close to all my artists in that directory. In fact, Playlists is the only one I need access to, and so it's obviously quite frustrating that one falls well short of displaying the advertised 255 items in its directory.

If anyone finds they have a different experience with their ipod adapter, I'd love to hear about it. I sure hope it's not a situation specific to my car. My Mini has had enough of those in its short life already.

[jmelrose]

Still haven't heard anything from MiniUSA or my dealership on this. Has ANYONE seen anything like this on the Mini OEM interface?

If anyone can check, maybe make a whole mess of dummy playlists with 255 random tracks in each and then see if you start seeing the playlists start to become unavailable in the SatNav Ipod interface, that would help me know if it's a bug with the way MY playlists are showing up, or a bug that the interface does not do what it is advertised as doing.

Thanks
JMelrose

[Boyderama]

Hi!

Just had the iPod kit installed and as yet have not used it. However, I have read the manual and it does state that 255 is the maximum per folder. I think a folder is Playlists, Artists, Albums etc...

Although not great, it's better than nothing.

Hope this helps you

[jmelrose]

Thanks Boyderama. As I mentioned, I am very aware of the 255 item limit. I set up my playlists with that in mind, as I have over 255 artists and so I knew I could not access my music collection that way. My problem is that the manual states 255 but I am getting around 55-57 depending on how many tracks are in the lists, and none of the lists max out the number of tracks so there should be no problem there.


Thanks for your help however.

[Boyderama]

Oh, sorry! Should have read fully first.

I don't use playlists and I have less than 255 albums so no problems with me accessing anything.

If I get time I'll try creating a few playlists with more than 255 tracks in them. If I were you I'd call someone within Mini and ask. Forget the dealers as they probably wouldn't know. You want to speak direct to the techie's who designed the iPod system.

[jmelrose]

Quote: Originally Posted by Boyderama (original)

Oh, sorry! Should have read fully first.

I don't use playlists and I have less than 255 albums so no problems with me accessing anything.

If I get time I'll try creating a few playlists with more than 255 tracks in them. If I were you I'd call someone within Mini and ask. Forget the dealers as they probably wouldn't know. You want to speak direct to the techie's who designed the iPod system.

Well, more than 255 tracks shouldn't show more than 255 in the interface. Again, my issue is that I have 90 playlists and the iPod interface only shows about 50 of them.

I went and re-did my iPod with 25 playlists, each labelled "Test 1" on up to "Test 25" and randomly put 250 tracks in each. I can see 20 of the playlists when i use the Mini iPod interface. (That's today's update.)

I'd LOVE to talk to a Mini tech, but as I said, my MA, a Mini Exec, and Mini USA all have pointed me to other people and none of them are Mini techs. I'd LOVE LOVE LOVE to be able to email them what I'm seeing to see if they can be of some help.

Thanks.

[Boyderama]

Tell you what then. If I have time this weekend, I'll attempt the same and I'll let you know the outcome

[jmelrose]

Thanks Boyderama! I hope time allows. I'm going to re-set up my iPod and hope that someday I'll get satisfaction on this, but I'm not holding my breath. Sigh. Maybe it's a sign from the heavens that I'm not meant to scroll through 90 playlists while driving. :-)

[jmelrose]

Well, no word from anyone else with this problem, nor does my dealership have any idea what is wrong. They've never heard of this issue before. Sigh...