[malaki0612]

I'm having an issue when plugging my iphone in via USB and playing music. Most of the time, the music is playing and it just randomly disconnects (no longer shows connected in iDrive). If I switch to radio, then back to "media", most of the time it will come back, show connected and keep playing where it left off. In a 45 minute drive to work, this can happen 5-6 times or sometimes not at all.

This behavior doesn't occur in either my 2016 Grand Cherokee or my Rubicon - only the BMW.

Anyone else experience this or have any ideas? I have a 2015 m235i.

[c1pher]

Why not use Bluetooth? Cables are so 90s.

[malaki0612]

iPhone's with Intel chips have the disconnection issue with Bluetooth. Can't win. I think the fidelity is better on USB and I like that I'm charging my phone as well.

[Viffermike]

Originally Posted by MGM135is

Why not use Bluetooth? Cables are so 90s.

WTF?

First: Name me an audio device that worked wirelessly and delivered good sound in the year 2000. Hell: name me one that did this in 2005!

Second: Name me a mobile audio device that worked wirelessly and delivered good sound in the year 2010. (By then, Sonos was establishing the standard for in-home wireless networks.)

Lastly: If you like or prefer hi-resolution music, cables are still very much current tech -- particularly with Apple, which won't adopt the AptX compression codec for Bluetooth on its iOS devices, and doesn't even include a DAC in the iPhone7 because of the lack of an analog output (i.e., headphone jack).

Please take your statement back. Wireless still has a looooong way to go to be comparable to wired on mobile players.

[BEM-S4]

There's currently no elegant solution for what you are trying to accomplish, this is the path of least resistance but leaves something to be desired for sound quality and you have to control everything through the phone.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...FY-1wAods1IH6Q

[malaki0612]

Originally Posted by BEM-S4

There's currently no elegant solution for what you are trying to accomplish, this is the path of least resistance but leaves something to be desired for sound quality and you have to control everything through the phone.

https://www.ecstuning.com/b-genuine-...FY-1wAods1IH6Q

Bummer - thanks for the info, though! $90 for a lightning adapter... good lord.

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by malaki0612

Bummer - thanks for the info, though! $90 for a lightning adapter... good lord.

You're better off spending $100 on a FiiO but that's another thing to deal with in car.

There's no good way to get lossless out of your iPhone and charge it. Doing that and integrating it w BMW controls forget about it.

Purely from a audio perspective you're best off with a headphone amp but then you lose charge capability.

If audio quality is not of chief concern there are other options as well.

[c1pher]

Originally Posted by Viffermike

WTF?

First: Name me an audio device that worked wirelessly and delivered good sound in the year 2000. Hell: name me one that did this in 2005!

Second: Name me a mobile audio device that worked wirelessly and delivered good sound in the year 2010. (By then, Sonos was establishing the standard for in-home wireless networks.)

Lastly: If you like or prefer hi-resolution music, cables are still very much current tech -- particularly with Apple, which won't adopt the AptX compression codec for Bluetooth on its iOS devices, and doesn't even include a DAC in the iPhone7 because of the lack of an analog output (i.e., headphone jack).

Please take your statement back. Wireless still has a looooong way to go to be comparable to wired on mobile players.

Wow, so Bluetooth has the ability to transmit high quality audio. Highly doubtful the i cables are up to the challenge of exceeding quality of Bluetooth if the quality of the audio files used are not heavily compressed. You're not currently able to handle true lossless audio, but still can hear very good audio.

[Viffermike]

Originally Posted by MGM135is

Wow, so Bluetooth has the ability to transmit high quality audio. Highly doubtful the i cables are up to the challenge of exceeding quality of Bluetooth if the quality of the audio files used are not heavily compressed. You're not currently able to handle true lossless audio, but still can hear very good audio.

You're right about the iCables because of the points in my previous post: the iPhone 7 has no DAC and cannot take advantage of AptX, which is currently the highest-quality Bluetooth compression codec in wide use. Therefore, Bluetooth isn't going to sound great if one uses an iDevice in the 2 Series period.

It's widely known among us long-time 2 Series owners that our cars' audio options are quite poor -- particularly when it comes to digital music reproduction. Even the 'fixes' BMW instituted for 2017 models leave much to be desired. Now if you and the OP are OK with highly compressed audio, great. But many of us are not.

An option for the OP: high-resolution audio files on a USB 2.0 thumb drive. Though the 2 Series HU's DAC is average at best, it will play most lossless files at a significantly higher bitrate than is currently possible over Bluetooth. And voila!: No cables.

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by Viffermike

An option for the OP: high-resolution audio files on a USB 2.0 thumb drive. Though the 2 Series HU's DAC is average at best, it will play most lossless files at a significantly higher bitrate than is currently possible over Bluetooth. And voila!: No cables.

The nice thing about this option is that it's EASY. If you set up your playlists properly you can control everything through the car and it's super user friendly. Downside is you compromise on audio quality a bit versus a dedicated player.

I have upgraded speakers and subs (Bavsound) in my car and dad's car. Mine I have a FiiO X1, his is USB. Simply because it's a little easier and he likes the album artwork on the screen. He's also close to 70 so honestly doubt his hearing is good enough that it makes a damn bit of difference.

[c1pher]

Originally Posted by Viffermike

You're right about the iCables because of the points in my previous post: the iPhone 7 has no DAC and cannot take advantage of AptX, which is currently the highest-quality Bluetooth compression codec in wide use. Therefore, Bluetooth isn't going to sound great if one uses an iDevice in the 2 Series period.

It's widely known among us long-time 2 Series owners that our cars' audio options are quite poor -- particularly when it comes to digital music reproduction. Even the 'fixes' BMW instituted for 2017 models leave much to be desired. Now if you and the OP are OK with highly compressed audio, great. But many of us are not.

An option for the OP: high-resolution audio files on a USB 2.0 thumb drive. Though the 2 Series HU's DAC is average at best, it will play most lossless files at a significantly higher bitrate than is currently possible over Bluetooth. And voila!: No cables.

Yeah, I use a 128gb flash drive too, but the issue is keeping it up to date with my library. I just copy music over once a month or so to keep current.

[ElephantStone]

Originally Posted by BEM-S4

You're better off spending $100 on a FiiO but that's another thing to deal with in car.

There's no good way to get lossless out of your iPhone and charge it. Doing that and integrating it w BMW controls forget about it.

Purely from a audio perspective you're best off with a headphone amp but then you lose charge capability.

If audio quality is not of chief concern there are other options as well.

This guy fucking loves cables.

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by ElephantStone

This guy fucking loves cables.

I actually hate cables. I do, however, love making educated decisions about getting the most from my audio system. Ignorance or lack of effort is no excuse for leaving performance on the table.

[supsup]

Originally Posted by malaki0612

iPhone's with Intel chips have the disconnection issue with Bluetooth. Can't win. I think the fidelity is better on USB and I like that I'm charging my phone as well.

Is this speculation or do you have something to back this up?

Intel did not provide Bluetooth functionality for the iPhone. Their chips would not effect Bluetooth performance...only cellular.

[snaketh]

Originally Posted by Viffermike

WTF?
particularly with Apple, which won't adopt the AptX compression codec for Bluetooth on its iOS devices, and doesn't even include a DAC in the iPhone7 because of the lack of an analog output (i.e., headphone jack).

Not entirely true. The iPhone 7 has an internal DAC for the speakers. It has a DAC built into the lightening to 3.5mm connector.

It's a pity that they don't support the qualcomm tech. Having said that, the 128-256kbps currently supported is enough for me.

[mburg]

Originally Posted by BEM-S4

The nice thing about this option is that it's EASY. If you set up your playlists properly you can control everything through the car and it's super user friendly. Downside is you compromise on audio quality a bit versus a dedicated player.

I have upgraded speakers and subs (Bavsound) in my car and dad's car. Mine I have a FiiO X1, his is USB. Simply because it's a little easier and he likes the album artwork on the screen. He's also close to 70 so honestly doubt his hearing is good enough that it makes a damn bit of difference.

Hi BEM-S4
I use the usb approach, with both Apple lossless and Windows Media lossless files; did my whole CD library sometime ago and yes, should've done flac, but...

I find that the organization on the nav screen leaves much to be desired,, and there's no album art. Can you suggest a way to address these issues?

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by mburg

Hi BEM-S4
I use the usb approach, with both Apple lossless and Windows Media lossless files; did my whole CD library sometime ago and yes, should've done flac, but...

I find that the organization on the nav screen leaves much to be desired,, and there's no album art. Can you suggest a way to address these issues?

When you say USB approach, you mean you're using a USB drive not an iPhone plugged into the USB port right?

On the wagon where I use the USB drive, I have album art. I cannot speak specifically to your file formats but I burned all of my CDs to FLAC using dBpoweramp on my Macbook. When I did each CD I added the album art at that time (there's a button at the bottom to find it on the web).

I think from an organizational perspective you need to dig a little into how to make playlists that BMW will recognize. Sorry I can't be more helpful but for the wagon I was getting dad set up. He can barely use the infotainment system to begin with so we adopted a "jukebox" approach where all his music is set to random and if a song he doesn't like comes up he just hits next and is on to the next one.

So in essence I purposely set it up to function like Pandora and never investigated anything else since I didn't need to.

[mburg]

Originally Posted by BEM-S4

When you say USB approach, you mean you're using a USB drive not an iPhone plugged into the USB port right?

On the wagon where I use the USB drive, I have album art. I cannot speak specifically to your file formats but I burned all of my CDs to FLAC using dBpoweramp on my Macbook. When I did each CD I added the album art at that time (there's a button at the bottom to find it on the web).

I think from an organizational perspective you need to dig a little into how to make playlists that BMW will recognize. Sorry I can't be more helpful but for the wagon I was getting dad set up. He can barely use the infotainment system to begin with so we adopted a "jukebox" approach where all his music is set to random and if a song he doesn't like comes up he just hits next and is on to the next one.

So in essence I purposely set it up to function like Pandora and never investigated anything else since I didn't need to.

Thanks. Yes, I am using USB stick. Will dig deeper to see how better to do this, thanks!

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by mburg

Thanks. Yes, I am using USB stick. Will dig deeper to see how better to do this, thanks!

I know from the limited research that I did that if you set up your folders in a certain format and named in a specific convention (ie no spaces) life becomes wonderful and glorious and your music is at your finger tips as if sent from the heavens.

Whatever you need to do is not, if I recall correctly, complicated. It's just specific.

[bensanford]

thread on file setup:

http://f20.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=727778

[BEM-S4]

Originally Posted by bensanford

thread on file setup:

http://f20.1addicts.com/forums/showthread.php?t=727778

Good man!

[mburg]

Very helpful, thanks!