Turn any USB drive into a media player in 30 seconds Ford SYNC 3 & 4 Audio

How to turn any USB drive into a media player for use with Ford's SYNC 3 or 4 audio systems. It's a 20 second cheap and easy fix to problem that shouldn't exist.
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Thanks for watching and a HUGE thank you to my subscribers. It's nice when someone appreciates your work!

[@ManuaLiberty]

Ford could definitely go by the saying “if something isn’t broke don’t try to fix it” more often. Awesome vid!

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Thank you sir and thanks for watching!

[@srt10viper2]

Love how Get Down On It came on, perfect driving song

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I have a pretty wide variety of music on that drive. ;) Thanks for watching!

[@danielstamp3301]

Google search brought me here. My 2020 F-150 wasn't recognzing all my mp3's I had on my USB drive. Did as you directed and wallah! Thank you kind sir!

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Outstanding result! Gladd to be of service!

[@ianbromley639]

Thank you, my 2022 Ecosport would not recognise my own playlists. Formatted the drive as you said, reloaded my own playlist (stored in a folder under the playlist names). Put it in the car, go to the bottom of the menu and search, there they all are under their playlist names. Cheers.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I am glad this worked out for you! Thanks for watching!

[@mattcorley9811]

I had a 2010 F150 xlt with 6 disk CD and Sync. The radio crapped out a few years ago and I added a cheap Boss Audio touchscreen radio from Crutchfield. The cool thing was that the Boss radio had a slot for a micro SD card. I had my whole music library on there. I just bought a used 2019 F150 xlt and found this video looking for a way to add a jump drive or hard drive. Thanks for all the info!

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Thank you for watching!

[@ralfwinter2221]

Thank you for the very helpful video. The reformating on a Mac (of course) is just a little more complicated. More steps! Fun how Ford will only read XFAT while my Honda will read anything you plug into it! Thanks again.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Glad you liked it thanks for watching! It is odd isn't it. I know of no one that formats drives in XFAT. Maybe that's why they do it?

[@ralfwinter2221]

Well here is another twist, I drive a Ford 18 passenger bus and the radio does not use XFAT, WAV or AAC. My Honda doesn’t support XFAT either!

[@AJ55960299]

Just got a brand new car and couldn't believe it wouldn't play any of the mp3 thanks for the heads up!

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Thanks for watching and I hope this helps!

[@InfoRanker]

I've been using a thumb drive since I bought my car. It's formatted as NTFS, works fine. Video files don't work though, only audio.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I tried NTFS and it wouldn't read the media files on any of my drives. They now work in all my cars and my truck. Not sure how you made that happen but congrats!

[@jondonnelly4831]

Many headunits, especially aftermarket require exFAT, good advice to get usb working ! Good tip

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Thank you! It would be nice if Ford would tell their customers instead of pushing a subscription service.

[@mikev4755]

I copied my Windows Media Player directory to a USB drive. The top level directory is music and all albums are contained in directories under that. There is also a playlists directory containing WMP playlists. Since Sync is Windows it recognizes that format. I went one step further and wrote a C# program to create playlists. I then store them in the x:\music\playlists directory and it finds them just fine. Been using this since 2015.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

That's awesome thanks for sharing!

[@neneferreira-ce9in]

O Sync 2 funciona, como você pode me ajudar?

[@gkirozal4846]

Hot damn! I tried to get my Sony mp3 to work in my 2019 Escape. The car recognized it, and it tried to play but the mp3 would shut off and just charge. It has a speaker jack and usb port but the manual said the thing should play just with the usb port hooked up. And now I find out that it's another one of Ford's "great and helpful ideas" to mess it up so we're forced to subscribe to Apple/Pandora/SiriuxXM in order to hear our music. I love this idea of using an thumb drive and I'm gonna reformat one now and once it's playing in my Escape, laugh HA HA at Ford like Nelson! :~) Thank you sir!

[@Tatsukoa808]

Funny...the first thing I got rid of was the stock stereo. Great video!

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Thanks for watching! The last thing I wanted was another subscription. 😉

[@jeroendenny6430]

Thanks. It works for the FM transmitter USB after converted to exFAT.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Glad it worked out! Thanks for watching!

[@75novaguy73]

Awesome to the point video. Ive never used a usb in the car but have reasons to for a few things now and it would only play 1 track of the 15 which was a .wav file and the rest are .mp3. Will try this later

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Great to hear! Mine has over 1,500 MP3's on it and works well.

[@Iram008]

When I had the Ford Focus 3 in the manual the audio/sync section it is mention to format the USB stick as EXFAT. What it did not say is how to use playlist. I found on the internet how to do that with Playlist Creator 3.6.2 and the correct settings. It also works in my Ford Mondeo MK5 with sync 3.4.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Thanks for watching and for the tip!

[@gkirozal4846]

One question, is there a way I can organize the music on the USB drive so that I can play whole albums and not just random songs?

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

That I'm not sure of, I know I play all from an artist just by asking "play artist -----" and it will play all the songs by that artist but in no particular order. It's not perfect but the price is right.

[@BenCapili]

Thanks for the workaround! Do videos actually play? I wonder what format sync 3.4 supports.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Sorry I mentioned video in my video but I haven't attempted to play one. I have been told they will not work. This is fine for music and not much else.

[@90johndm]

Hey Tony! You saved my bacon!!!!😁👍

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Glad I could help! Thanks for watching!

[@Sly_Wolf_1]

Hey thanks from across the pond! I'm considering a mustang preferably a mach 1 and this is great to know otherwise I'd be really pissed! It really does amaze me thought (I'm a bit older than you) how everytime technology advances we seem to also take a step backwards in the simplicity of something, also we seem to lose our freedom of choice, such as ford pushes a over the air update and screws our preferences without even asking the customer who splashed their cash on the car, and ford no longer owns it so how dare they just remove what we like. All companies seem to be doing this now messing with my shit with permission! OK Rant over and counting to 100. Thanks for the video.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Thank you for watching! I just completed a 280 mile trip in the Mach 1 and listened to just my music on my $12 USB key. Which I will do again and again. No subscriptions required.

[@Sly_Wolf_1]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs that sounds epic, and of course the "one upmanship" makes victory taste a little sweeter.

[@Hussain350z]

That looks great! But I got one question, if I started using apple car play, will I be able to listen to media from the usb at the same time?

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I do but I can't use the media USB at the same time. In other word you would have pull your phone set up the media to play what you want and then plug the phone back in. Not an easy solution but I'm still not paying a subscription service.

[@greghicks5960]

I'm using a 128gb thumb drive, of which about 86gb is being used. When playing music in my Mach-E, it will randomly skip some songs in both playlists and if playing an album. It does this on every thumb drive I've tried, all formatted to exFAT. If I arrow back, it will play the song just fine. I've analyzed the playlists in Notepad and checked the files of songs that are skipped. Everything is fine there. Any ideas what is causing this to happen?

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I wish I could help you. I'm just happy to have my music rent free. When I say "play all" it puts the songs in alphabetical order. Which is a joke but at least I can narrow it down by artist so that's what I normally do. It plays all my songs in a playlist by artist as well.

[@richarddunkelberger981]

5/5/2024 I have a 2021 Ford Mustang GT with a Sync 4 Radio and it plays FAT32 format perfectly. Just have to wait about 30 seconds to index after you plug in. Maybe Ford changed it back.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Possibly I haven't checked. I'll need to do that.

[@richarddunkelberger981]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs yeah I was going to re format it but thought I would try the FAT32 and it worked.

[@Manari5]

Hi Tony, why does everytime I do format, the whole saved songs on my USB will be gone

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

You only have to format one time. Then load all your songs and you are done. If you format the drive again you are erasing it.

[@malabarspyder]

hey love your groups on your USB! Can I get your USB contents!?

[@isuckatgaming7225]

It's a long shot, but as of today does this method work on sync 3.3 ? Can it play video files like mp4?

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I know I said "video" in the video (sorry about that) but I haven't tried it as I don't play videos in the car. It works fine with MP3's. Sorry I wish I could be of more help.

[@isuckatgaming7225]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs Thank you very much for taking the time to answer me, no worry i will try it, and even if mp4 does not work, i'am glad to have learned a way to play mp3 from a usb stick. Thanks again

[@markyoungsmagic]

Wonderful informative video. Can you tell me if it will play M3U playlist files off the flash drive using voice command? I have a 2012 Ford Edge Limited and I can voice command songs, artists, playlists or albums. Looking for a replacement vehicle for my 2000 Alero but am spoiled by the flash drive functionality offered by Ford (but seemingly no one else). Any additional info would be GREATLY appreciated! Also interested in the Alexa functionality if you know anything about that. Thanks in advance.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I do use voice commands with my flash drive. I can't speak to Alexa. I unplug the one in the house the wife bought all the time as Bezos has enough of my info already :) Thanks for watching!

[@yustapuestokhueva500]

hey Tony! how it going, I like your information because it too specific to solve the problem, thanks. can you help me please Im try to connect one divice Z6 Pro 48GB HiFi MP3 Music Player with Bluetooth with sync 3 ford f150 2016.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I wish I could. Ford stopped supporting the MP3 players and made software changes so that they wouldn't work. This was my work around. I didn't try bluetooth as my players are too old and it wasn't a feature but that would be how I would attack it.

[@victorxavier9977]

Cool technology 😎

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Thank for watching and you do what you got to do not to pay for a subscription fee for music you have owned for years.

[@kenboydart]

Do I have this correct? just load up a USB thumb drive with music, format it correctly, plug it in and it will play AND it will download into the system ?

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

As long as they are MP3's and you format it correctly. It works in my 22 Mach 1 just fine. No Spotify for me. Thanks but no thanks.

[@Cybersin-vo6re]

My USB only recently stopped resuming song, now everytime i turn on car it starts at first song help!!!!!!

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Sorry that sounds awful. I have no idea why that's happening.

[@robertpacua873]

The main advantage of using Mach 1 is that you don't need a radio ;-)

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

You do have a point but for cross country trips having your music isn't a bad thing.

[@robertpacua873]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs Sometimes ;-)

[@munizvoolivre]

Hi Tony, my name is Antonio, I live in Brazil Rio de Janeiro, I just subscribed to your channel, well I don't know if you know anything else here in Brazil, everything is very difficult so I turn to you, I saw the audio video to play in sync 3 but I don't know where to get a cool playlist to put on the USB, and I would also like to put music videos, please could you guide me, thank you in advance, a big hug.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Welcome Antonio! I have a few friends in Brazil. Any playlist you create in MP3 format will work on a USB stick when the stick is correctly formatted first. I have yet to hear of anyone getting any video playback to work however the music from videos does play. I hope this helps.

[@marcuswilson2147]

Great tip. Thanks

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

No worries and I'm glad someone else can use it. Thanks for watching!

[@marcuswilson2147]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs I had a 1970 Mach 1 when I was 20, I'm 57 in April and have been looking at buying a 6 speed 2022 Mach 1, IV done all the paperwork, I just can't make up my mind on the colour, white, jet grey or cyber orange. I live in Spain so we don't get offered much in the way if new American performance cars, I'm really lucky they offered the Mach 1 here.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

@@marcuswilson2147 Congratulations! I would say 60% of the car here are Fighter Jet Grey so if you want something a bit different.. That said the FJG does look good.

[@jefferysteinborn]

You the MAN

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Thank you and I glad it worked out for you as well!

[@gregdineen1635]

I just bought a 2019 Ecoboost Premium and it plays music from a USB just fine. It has Sync 3 version 3.3. After seeing your video, I'm hesitant to do any upgrades. What was the update that you had problems with? Thanks

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

The newer sync 4 systems get over the air updates. You have no choice in the matter and cannot opt out. These updates are sent through satellite signal. I have no idea what Ford did but is was right before I made the video. Glad to hear you are good to go.

[@gregdineen1635]

Thanks. you think I'd be safe updating to 3.4?@@TonysFordsandMustangs

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

@@gregdineen1635 That's a question for Ford. I never would have thought that an update would remove functionality but it did.

[@trulyzen7083]

Curious for input. This worked great for kusic, but video just comes out as audio? Any tip or ideas?.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Sorry I can't help with that one as I haven't tried to do anything with video.

[@mikev4755]

It will play .wma (Windows Media Player) files also.

[@HeadBassVTEC]

hmm, I checked that my flashdrive is formatted to exFAT but my 2016 mustang with sync3 is not registering it

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Are you trying to play MP3's?

[@HeadBassVTEC]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs yes, there might be something wrong with my USB ports, they do not even charge my phone which I've read they should (both the one in the central compartment box and the front center console one)

[@stevenosanchuk8148]

I have a 2017 Explorer with Sync 3, which I formatted as you described. Put the USB drive into the USB port, but the display says the USB device is not compatible. Any ideas?

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

What type of music files did you load onto the drive? I have heard that IF they are not MP3 files this won't work. In other words Apple file formats will give you an error.

[@stubarnes1965]

Change the partition type from GPT to MBR. My sync 3 does not like GPT partitions.

[@andrewortiz3403]

Question, what if you would get a usb to hdmi converter and get a apple usb converter to plug in into your phone, will you be able to do mirror mode ? Would that be possible ?

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

If you plug your phone into the USB port you should be able to use Apple carplay.

[@andrewortiz3403]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs yes that it true but instead of using it regularly why not getting a adapter usb to hdmi, and another one hdmi to phone charger so you can mirror play KZbin videos or Netflix, you can’t do that for sync 3 and up

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

@@andrewortiz3403 I have no idea if that would work or not. I really just wanted my songs on a seperate device like I had with the MP3 players. Sorry

[@Slickheadhunter]

The new 2022 F-350 works with the usb and my iPod nano. Plug it in hit the little face on the steering wheel and say USB

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

That's awesome and mine worked for a while until I accepted an update. After that it could see the drive but wouldn't play MP3's. Mine was not an Apple player so perhaps you are using Apple's file format and not MP3's?

[@Slickheadhunter]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs to be honest I don’t have a clue, things were much simpler before all this tech.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

@@Slickheadhunter That's true but you would be toting around a case of CD's or a box of cassettes so...

[@Slickheadhunter]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs Ahhhh the good Ol days

[@NighthawkCarbine]

I have iTunes. Will this work under exFAT to allow me to download the songs from iTunes on my computer to play in my car?

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Apple itunes are a different type of media. If you can convert them into MP3's you would fine. That said "Apple Music" songs use the AAC format, they're protected by a special kind of DRM so you can't convert them to MP3. The DRM verifies that you have a valid Apple Music subscription. Apple (or any streaming-music company) doesn't want you to download a bunch of songs, convert them to MP3, cancel your subscription, and keep the music. So, there's no way to convert Apple Music to MP3. So you might be ok and you might not. It depends on where and how you acquired the files.

[@NighthawkCarbine]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs I created them by stripping them off my CD collection. What program to you recommend to again strip them off CD and pout them in an mp3 format?

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

@@NighthawkCarbine You could do that with windows media player. It's pretty simple minus the actual flipping of all the cd's.

[@guppy9713]

Can the songs be displayed as folder albums. I had a quick play around with it and all my songs came up as one folder(650 songs). I'd like to be able to have it organised in albums. Is this possible??

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I haven't tried that but I don't see why you wouldn't be able to organize it into sub folders. My voice prompts work. Such as play artist ---- or song ----

[@guppy9713]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs I got it. Above the artwork for the song, there's a tab called new search, open that, then another tab called browse appears, press that and a new menu appears. You can then select what why you want to search. Various options appear, 'explore device' and you can search by album/folder. Thanks.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

@@guppy9713 Awesome thank you!

[@prtzl8lgc460]

@@guppy9713 I have found that if you have your songs in subfolders, and you want to use the "random/shuffle" feature, it will default to the first sub folder only. i.e. it won't shuffle your entire thumb drive, only one folder. :+(

[@DcComplete]

How do you get it to play video on screen?

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Thanks for watching David. I have never attempted to do that but I would imagine you could through Apple car play. If that works let me know.

[@TBTRUGGY]

Google AA mirror

[@Jospapizunov]

Are videos working??

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

No sorry they are not. I can't edit a video on KZbin once it uploads or I would. This is an audio fix only.

[@Jospapizunov]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs thank you sir!

[@jimbennett1995]

And video works too???

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I have not tried a video but the MP3's display correctly with the album and artist's name.

[@jimbennett1995]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs thank you for your response, I’m hoping it will work, I’ll be give it a try at the weekend

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

@@jimbennett1995 Let me know. I own a 2022 Mach 1 and I'm typically watching where I'm going and not really looking at the screen all that often.

[@jimbennett1995]

So I’ve just tried it now, it reads the usb drive but when I click on a mp4 movie it just plays it as an audio 😢

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

@@jimbennett1995 Sorry brother.

[@MrGenedancingmachine]

Taking away something instead of just fucking leaving it alone.....is fucking mental.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I would agree.

[@swizlestick]

Amazon music works will too....

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Nice to know but I have all my songs and can add to them at anytime now so I'm good.

[@dimuborgir1987]

stupid multimedia cant watch videos from usb on mondeo 2016

[@tobeforgottenisworsethande8995]

Zune was the first competition apple really had

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I like my Zune. I picked it up for $40 12 years ago on eBay and she's still ticking. :)

[@jockwar]

I’m going to try this as soon as I have downloaded my must to a thumb drive apple stole all my music that was on iTunes & then told me to subscribe & pay $12.99 AU per month this will give me access to my music plus there’s what a joke it’s all above getting U to subscribe 🤬

[@brucekraft744]

On my 2020 Bullitt, all songs from all albums are played in alphabetical order which is ... moronic.

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Agreed you can put the songs into folders but the flooders will play in alphabetical order. I find myself telling it to play an artist and then switch artists from time to time.

[@dragac90]

right click, properties and add tag to the song like year release. second, throw mac and build windows bro

[@kevinthomson6324]

Until Spotify, Apple Music, prime music, and even KZbin music convince ford to push another update so they have a better chance of making money

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

Now that they have newer systems I'm hoping they leave these alone. :)

[@richt1907]

Doesn't do video also

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

I'm typically driving so I didn't check.

[@richt1907]

@@TonysFordsandMustangs no problem. Let me know when u get a chance

[@TonysFordsandMustangs]

@@richt1907 It's going to be spring till I dig the car out. Plus I wouldn't watch video in the car. I have had viewers report that it won't play video but like i said i didn't try it personally. Best of luck.

[@richt1907]

@TonysFordsandMustangs I wpuls watch a movie when I get kicked out of the house. Great option for a car while sitting in it NOT DRIVING.

[@RawFitChris]

They didn't share it with you when you called them because that particular person (like many) was one of those "essential worker" types who never exerts an ounce of effort to learn anything helpful to customers, unlike the millions of truly essential patriots that made America great.