Hey, I have a Clubman with the Comfort package (non-Navigation). It has the iPod adaptor that is under the center console in front of the shifter. I don't know if it works differently than the glove box unit.

I could have sworn that there was a big long thread on this already, but I couldn't find it.

Is there any fix to the slow scrolling. I have a 160GB iPod Classic with over 12,000 songs from over 1,000 artists. Every time I try to look up something by artist, album, or song it starts at the letter A and I can't go backwards to Z. Then I have to scroll through one by one in an extremely slow manor as the interface seems to have a problem scrolling more than one line at a time. There has to be a better way. It is glacial in it's operation.

I'm kind of pissed that they didn't think this though better. When using the Bluetooth and making a phone call with the phone's address book it lets me scroll first by starting letter, and then by names with that letter. Why couldn't they do this with the iPod? I, and most people I would guess, have more content to sort through than names in their phone's address book. It wouldn't fix the slow scroll speed, but I might get to the Z's before Christmas.

One thing I could almost use as a work around is if I could use the random function and skip through songs till I heard an artist that was near. It doesn't work like that though. In fact, I can't get it to go random on all song or artists at all. I can random a playlist or artist or album, but not all the songs. What is up with that?

Am I doing something wrong?

P.S. I paid for the option of controlling through the radio (I like using the steering wheel controls), I don't want to just use a mini-phono cable and use the iPod's interface.

 

I agree with most everything you said. The interface is very disappointing.

I also have the 160 gig..

I was able to complete randomize, but only when I first start the car. I don't select a genre, or album, or artist, I just hit the random button, and away it goes.

BUT.....the scrolling issue I have found a work around. Not really a work around, but if you spin the **** really fast 3, 4, 5 or however many times, it will scroll down a bunch of artists, albums, or genres......It took me about 30 seconds to go from A to S the other day. Yeah, still not the fastest thing in the world, but it beats one line at a time.

 

I gave up on using the iPod in this MINI. I just use a USB stick instead. It fits much better, and it's not as attractive to thieves.

 

I'm not surprised at how this works but I'm sure many are disappointed. The original glovebox option had similar problems. People could only get 256 items from their iPod to load into the Mini's system. That was because the iPod integration option more or less jerryrigged the CD changer input with some software to make it work with an iPod. This usb system probably has the same memory limitations to a degree. If you have 12k songs you're talking 50gb of music for the system to handle. And very few players can scroll from A backwards to Z (the ipod can't). The fact that it works completely is the best you can expect I think, even if it's slower than the iPod itself. Personally I prefer just using my iPod to find music quickly, choose one of many playlists, and drive on. I can skip tracks without looking. I don't like to mess with searching it while driving and I don't think I would like messing with it on the radio controls either, especially if it's slow. To each his own..........

 

It uses a different connection but the ultimate result is pretty much the same.

Not really a dedicated thread but here you go.
https://www.northamericanmotoring.co...d.php?t=128483

I agree 100%, seems as though mini figured people would be using the ipod or other USB devices primarily to play playlists and not skip around between songs.

Every mp3 headunit I've had could do this and I wish the mini could as well.

One thing you might want to try to get random to at least be more random like is to create a master playlist with all your music in it then unselect "Dir" and select the master "Playlist" and then "Random".

Nope, just the way the car is.

At least you have the option, I'm using a flash drive and it's still slow.

 

Well, after some more messing around I have been able to figure it out a little bit more. Also, I have noticed more about the system that puzzles me from a developer standpoint.

1. I can random the whole iPod. I can do it the way Desert_Sand said by just pressing the random when the radio turns on. Also, if I give it a bit of time to read all of the songs, it will random everything as well. I was being impatient.

2. The bluetooth and the iPod "black box" are the same box if you have the comfort package. It is called the ULF-SBX-H Module and is under the drivers seat in the Clubman.

Now, why if they are in the same box, why do the bluetooth and iPod search functions work differently? I doubt we will ever get an answer. It is like they had different teams working on the same interface, but they weren't allowed to talk to one another.

3. Making a bunch of **** turns like Desert_Sand said works somewhat. It isn't great, but it is better than the one at a time thing.

4. The radio programming team was a group of very strange people. Ones who have never operated another car radio before. I know this because every other radio I have ever owned has retained the settings that were last used when the car was turned off. That is not the case with this radio. The CD player loves to start the last track over from the beginning with ever start (well, actually it is a bit schitzo, sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't). The iPod amazingly doesn't start the track over, but can't remember that the random was on when it was last used or if it was listening to a playlist/genre/artist/album/whatever. It just keeps playing the song from the stop point it remembers, but forgets what limitations were set on what it was playing.

In response to TheBigNewt, I would have to disagree with the handling of the songs. While, when it was a modified CD changer interface that might have been correct, I have seen nothing to indicate that this is anything less than a true dedicated iPod interface. Also, this and every other iPod controller that I know of, deals only with a lookup database file on the iPod that has all of the songs/artist/genres listed in it. The system itself doesn't deal with the actual audio files at all other than to relay the audio output by the iPod to the speakers. The iPod does all the heavy lifting of format decoding and file retrieving. The Mini iPod interface just looks at the database file and tells the iPod to play a track from that database. In the end, while you may have 12,000 songs using over 50gb, the database that controls all of that will be 1-2mb tops, and I would think it would be even less than that in reality. Seeing that the Mini is using fiber optics and custom made electronics (that ain't no DIN unit ), I can't believe that the issue is a system speed limitation. I think in the end it is a poor programming/caching issue combined with little thought given to the UI that falls completely on BMW or their OEM supplier.

On the good side, with the MOST system and the electronics they are using, the fix should be as simple as a firmware update if enough pressure was placed on them to fix it.

 

I realize that the "tags" database isn't 50gb, it's much smaller of course. But obviously it's bigger than the Mini's revamped iPod retreival system can handle with any speed. I guess it's good that it will in fact handle all the songs/artists (which the CD changer idea couldn't). It just won't handle them as fast as the iPod itself. I have a pal with a new BMW and the iPod interfact but I don't think he's used it enough to see if it's similar.

 

i must have an entirely different system than what has been described above... My car is 03/08 MCS with comfort option, nav and hifi, sirius and HD.

With just under 13000 songs on a 160GB ipod i have no issues scrolling, if i spin the joystick as fast as i can continually, i will get ahead of the head unit and instead of seeing songs i see numbers which are grayed out but it takes less than a second for the names of the songs to fill in. This is definitely related to the time it takes to seek from the hard drive off of the iPod as you can hear the hard drives spinning away. Even choosing playlist or by artist never takes more than a second to load. If the iPod hasn't been used for a period of time maybe two second or three seconds go by for it to spin up but then it works just fine. The lag is even less with an iPhone but that is probably due the use of flash memory instead of a hard drive.

I do agree with the inability to go backwards or make it loop around sucks.

As far as settings go everything is saved. I have disconnected my ipod gotten out, went to work, came back to the car 8 hours later plugged in the ipod and it picked up right where it left off, right in mid song. If i turn the car off what ever i was listening to is what starts when i turn the car back on. the only exception is the following, if i was listening to the iPod when i left and start the car up with out plugging the iPod back in it defaults to FM radio. The other exception is if the station i am listening too in HD or the second HD channel on some stations it will start up in analog and then move to the HD, but never back to the second HD i have to manually select that.

I am willing to test any configuration out to help those with slow seek times try and find a fix for this. That would drive me up a wall if it didn't work.

let me know
~joe

 

Yes Joe, it does sound like your system is different! I guess you get a lot more than just a screen with that NAV option!!
I just got my car as well, and am the same build month as you were. I opted to go without the NAV, but now, knowing this, I would have got it for sure.
Mini really never offered any documentation on the NAV, or what it gets you, but now it seems clear that you get an all-round more media ready system.

I'm not impressed with my results so far, both with USB Flash Drive and iPod performance. Scrolling is awful.
I hope we can all figure out a fix for this, or better yet, get Mini to upgrade us out of this mess somehow!!

 

I have the same problems with my ipod. I've started picking the artist I want to listen to before plugging it in when I get in the car. My commute's only about half an hour... If I tried choosing the songs from the interface, I'd be home before I got to what I wanted to hear!

This is the only thing about the car that I find disappointing. It would be great if they'd fix it.

 

Can they fix something like this? Have you ever heard of them doing a audio firmware update in the past?? Would that be possible?
I REALLY hope so!!!!

 

Their is a bright side to these problems, it made me organize my music collection better. After creating playlists and categorizing my music into genres, the ipod interface isn't as much of a pain. My only complaint still is with how podcasts are organized. If i go to the podcast genre it shows me a list of the podcast artists, and not a list of the actual podcasts. It doesnt sound like a big deal, except some podcasters will change the artist name from show to show depending on guests.

 

hey guys. is there ANY condition in which the white cable that came with my iPod will work in my 08 MCS?
I have Bluetooth/USB, but no Mini iPod adapter. I am a Mac user, and read that FAT32 iPods (loaded from a PC) work without any need for a Mini iPod adapter. You just need the white cable and music and track info all work flawlessly.
Can anyone confirm that to be true?
Thanks!

 

Mine is mac formatted, and the white cable would not work . Someone else who has tried this with a pc ipod may be of more assistance, but i don't think it can be done. iPods hide the music that has been loaded through itunes, you can't access those files in disk mode.

 

The OEM white iPod cable to USB may well connect with the Mini USB but I think the audio has to go into the round Aux port. That's why they make the Y cable for the Mini. With the OEm you may be able to browse the iPod but not play anything. Maybe you could to a 3.5mm headphone wire for that I don't know. Try that puppy out!

 

There is something special about that Y cable when i plugged in the white cable it won't even recognize that the ipod is plugged in.

 

Sounds like a great idea. And it can't hurt to try, since you'll probably be running the iPod that way anyhow with the slow onboard menu navigation

 

On the iPod, you can highlight an artist or album, and then hit play and it plays every song of that artist or album. Does anybody know if there is a way to do that on the MINI interface? I find myself just pressing the button on the little joystick until I get all the way down to the song level and then picking a song. How do I play every song from a particular artist? Thanks!

 

I have the Navi, so I don't know if this is a fair reply.

But with it I select a playlist, and it plays every song in the play-list. Punching the button during a song pulls a menu where I can select random play, tone, etc.

It never stops after just one song, however. Again, I only use play-lists. I haven't looked for songs by title, album, genre, etc.

 

Thanks! I found it though. The very first thing in a list after you select artist, album, etc is "all." Works for me...