Hi -

I bought my '03 Mini a few weeks ago. Peabody Mini threw in an iPod adapter for free (cool)...

...but here's the deal - I can't seem to navigate through any playlists or menus on my ipod. When I hook it up, it will play whatever playlist I was just listening to... but I can't get out of it, can't change it, can't navigate to artist lists, etc.

My workaround was to put everything on one playlist... but this doesn't seem right! Shouldn't it have more functionality?

Any ideas? Thanks!!

 

Nope...

You cannot navigate the Ipod when it is connected. This is a safety feature. You have to create 5 playlists and then use the buttons on your radio to select one to listen too. Is it a pain, yes, but they don't want to be sued when you have an accident because you were surfing your Ipod.

 

Thanks...I'll experiment with it. I had more than one playlist on my iPod the first time I hooked it up, and I couldn't change which one was playing through the radio controls. It kept showing "Track 7" for one playlist that it seemingly randomly selected, and no button I pushed on the radio or steering wheel seemed able to change it to any other playlist.

 

Yea, I have it on mine.

press "6" on the radio to use the full iPod library, which is sorted by artist, album, then track number.

To create playlists, do it in iTunes and call them: MINI1, MINI2, MINI3, MINI4 and MINI5, plus you can add anything else onto the name, for example: MINI1_jazz, or MINI2rock.

Then you can select the playlist by pressing the number button for that playlist, and activate or deactivate the random during any playlist.

Holding down the next track button will skip 10 tracks at a time when not on random. Your display should show track number as 1-99, even though you may be on track number 1286 in your library, it will show as 86. When in random, it will just let you know how many tracks in since you began random play.

You can't expect too much from this system, but if you use your iPod like I do (full iPod random everyday) then it's enough. There are other systems out there with more capability, but then your left to scroll through your iPod while your driving, which is a recipe for disaster.

Good luck-

-[[[S]]]

 

One tip that I thought was cool takes advantage of the fact that the iPod adaptor defaults to whatever's Now Playing when you connect the iPod. You can create an On-The-Go playlist and start playing it before you hook it up, or pick an artist, or an album. When you turn on the radio, it will play that list. Seemingly obvious in retrospect, but Gabe pointed that one out some time ago.

 

A "trick" around this would be to reboot the iPod and have it connected while the reboot process is in effect. You will not have steering wheel control, but you will have full access to the Clickwheel.

 

Good to remember...