Discussion
I've just had the official Ipod connection fitted to my E60. It replaces the autochanger and disappointingly, it is merely a cable in the glovebox. I was expecting a cradle. Dunno why, I just was.
The good part is that you can browse by playlist, artist, song, album, genre and podcast using MP3 1-6 which have replaced CD 1-6. It all works as it should. Except, and it's a big one, you cannot have more than 255 artists (or 1000 songs) in any idrive subfolder. Should you have more than this, then only the first 255 artists (or 1000 songs) will be shown. On my ipod this limited me to artists up to letter M only! And frustratingly, there seems to be no way to browse the next 255 artists.
I've temporarily reduced the number of artists and there are ways and means via playlists but it's far from ideal. There's a service query gone to BMW but the ipod kit manual confirms this as expected behaviour so I anticipate it's a limitation of the onboard computer. Not quite the access to my entire music library as sold to me by the nice guy on the parts desk...
The good part is that you can browse by playlist, artist, song, album, genre and podcast using MP3 1-6 which have replaced CD 1-6. It all works as it should. Except, and it's a big one, you cannot have more than 255 artists (or 1000 songs) in any idrive subfolder. Should you have more than this, then only the first 255 artists (or 1000 songs) will be shown. On my ipod this limited me to artists up to letter M only! And frustratingly, there seems to be no way to browse the next 255 artists.
I've temporarily reduced the number of artists and there are ways and means via playlists but it's far from ideal. There's a service query gone to BMW but the ipod kit manual confirms this as expected behaviour so I anticipate it's a limitation of the onboard computer. Not quite the access to my entire music library as sold to me by the nice guy on the parts desk...
I have no idea why BMW persist with this crappy setup when a guy working on his own is able to make stuff like this www.intravention.co.uk (with no help whatsoever from BMW/Alpine/Apple) - full album/track/playlist navigation using the standard kit
It was about 350 quid. You can see why I thought I was getting a cradle 
but no, all you get is a small box of tricks where the CD autochanger used to be, a big blanking plate and a wire to plug your ipod into. Having re-organised my music in itunes I'm happier but it is slightly clunky in operation. And there are a couple of strange choices for default behaviour which I know will become annoying with time.
but no, all you get is a small box of tricks where the CD autochanger used to be, a big blanking plate and a wire to plug your ipod into. Having re-organised my music in itunes I'm happier but it is slightly clunky in operation. And there are a couple of strange choices for default behaviour which I know will become annoying with time.I had the Ipod Kit fitted yesterday at a local dealer. Sadly it doesn't work on my particular ipod. It worked with the dealers own Ipod Nano and another ipod that a member of staff owned but reuses to see my own.. The dealer suggested that I should update the fireware via the Apple site. I have done that but it still doesn't work. It charges the Ipod so the connection is fine but there is no other recognition. I'm fairly unhappy having just paid £400 to get it fitted. Anyone have any ideas about resolving this?
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