2023 XC40 USB/Audiowagon woes

[maleus]

I picked up my 2023 XC40 in the summer. Beyond pleased with it, delighted with pretty much everything about it. Huge upgrade on my 12 year old Focus.

The only issue ive been having is the palaver around playing my mp3 collection and the lack of USB file support in the native player. Ive got a USB key and use Audiowagon, but I really have problems with it getting to recognise it.

I start the car up, i dismiss the "USB not supported" message (i know how to remove this too) and then allow Audiowagon access. Sometimes, rarely, thats enough, i can access the key and play my music.

The problem is that i often have to go through this routine up to half a dozen times before its recognised, each attempt I will need to remove and reinsert the usb key before it finally works. I know this isnt good in the long run and wondered if anyone else experiences this? I wonder if its the car, the socket or this particular usb key. There's a bit of left and right play in the socket and it doesnt fit tightly but dont fancy buying a new usb keys or new usb-c to usb-c connector or converter unless i know it works first time for everyone else and its not inherent to the new xc40s so I can pinpoint my problems on my particular hardware.

I also tried bluetoothing a mp3 player or my phone, but i couldnt browse to a tune by folder/artist/album/genre etc all i could do was control the music via the phone or player and could only choose random/next/back using the touchscreen. Am i doing anything wrong?

[Haldex]

I assume this is an AAOS infotainment?

[maleus]

Originally Posted by Haldex

I assume this is an AAOS infotainment?

Yeah, the google/android system.

Streaming services just dont work for my music collection or many of the genres and type of music i listen to.

[Haldex]

Sorry, can't help.. I know AAOS owners resource to using 3rd party apps for this, as it is not otherwise possible to play music from USB on AAOS directly. Maybe search the XC/S/V60-XC/S/V90 forum as I have seen discussions on this matter there.

[bomberfr0g]

Have you tried putting on your phone and bluetooth streaming from there with a selection of different apps instead?

[maleus]

A new USB stick seems to have done the trick. Just a sandisk usb 3.0 400mb/s dual go and it seems to fit better and is smaller and lighter so less movement.

[topofthestack]

Greetings Maleus,

I've just posted the text below in another thread in an effort to spark Volvo into doing something about the audio software in the XC40. I thought you might like to read it.

After ten years of enjoying playing our iPods in our 2014 Volvo XC60 D5, my wife and I decided to trade it in a couple of months ago for a smaller XC40 B4.
Lovely car to drive with some interesting features but we were shocked to find out that our iPods, both classic and Nano, can’t be played through the ‘new’ Google based system; a feature that’s been available on Volvo ‘Sensus’ systems for many years has been discarded! Not only that but I’ve had to fork out a load of money to convert my USB connectors to USB ‘C’ cables or buy a device to plug into the car to give me ‘old style’ USB inputs. Shame on you Volvo and Google!
I raised this with Volvo Support whilst trying to find a solution and it was suggested that I downloaded ‘Audio Wagon’. Useful suggestion but the only problem there is that, to quote the developer (‘Mole Man’), it doesn’t support the iPod!
Now the XC40 system also seems to rely on Bluetooth devices and searching around Amazon, I found a IBLU Bluetooth transmitter that was designed especially for the iPod. Great result I thought, only to find after buying and trying one that the XC40 system software doesn’t recognise this device!
I’d love to think that someone Volvo would urgently tackle this problem so us ‘ancient technology’ owners could list to their ‘old fashioned’ 60s to 90s music again, but, from experience of trying to get Volvo to change the mispronunciation of important towns in the ‘old’ Sensus navigation system over many years, I’m not very hopeful.

[topofthestack]

Well, I managed to get a memory stick working on Audio-Wagon! I'd rather have an option to directly connect my iPod to the XC40 but this will do for the time being!.

As noted in the requirements of Audio-Wagon, you need a USB stick formatted into FAT32. If the stick you're using is over 32gb then you have to use a program such as 'Rufus' (available as a download from the web rufus-4.4.exe) to achieve this. My stick is 64gb.

There is also a very useful video on 'YouTube' on how to do this. Here is a link. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0No8NzWSSXo

When running 'Rufus' (rufus-4.4.exe) you need to select the type of device you're using as 'Non-bootable', select FAT32 as the format, and then deselect the 'Create Extended Label & Icon Files' option. Finally, format the memory stick. Your USB should then formatted and you can copy your music files onto it. I'm using a memory stick plugged into a 'female' USB cable which has a USB 'C' connected below the dashboard.

Hope you find this useful; after hours of searching for a solution, here is one.

Regards,

TG