Thunderjet

Sometimes when I start the car the flash drive starts again on the 1st song.
Any suggestions or is this something I just have to live with?

2young2retire

That's the nature of the beast. If you want continunity you will have to use the bluetooth function and play your music through a music app on your phone or other device. A USB flash drive does not have the software to remember where you were.

Decker1

I have a fix. Using your cellphone, go in a super silent room. Record 3 mins of dead air. Name it (aaaaaaaaaa). This will always be you 1st song. When you enter your car
you will just hit the up track.

deanbrew

I'm listening to an audio book a loaded onto a USB stick and it has been keeping track of where I stopped listening. Having said that, I only started listening to the book yesterday and shut off and restarted the car about six times. If it's an intermittent problem, I haven't experienced it yet. I have shut the car off both with and without turning the audio system off.

It would be a huge pain if it went back to the beginning of the book every time I shut off the car. A deal-breaker, for sure.

Now, the problem I am having is that every time I start the car I get a message on the display screen asking me if I want to replace the voice recognition with data on the USB stick. I have to hit "No" every single time, as the message doesn't go away after a bit. This is a problem I need to resolve.

2young2retire

Please keep us abreast on how it is working for you. I'm a big audio book fan and I just gave up on trying to listen to one loaded on a usb drive. It would sometime take up where it left off but more often go back to the beginning. Really annoying.

deanbrew

I've been driving the car as usual over the past week or so, with many stops. It has retained my book stopping point every time just as it should. I haven't unplugged the thumb drive, as I suspect it would lose its place, but my wife plugged her phone in the #2 USB port. When I switched the audio source back to port #1, it was still in the spot where I stopped listening.

Thunderjet

Changed out both my flash drives to new ones. So far the issue has not repeated its self.

Fishlet

Hey ThunderJet

Is the new flash drives still working for you? If so, what brand and size did you get?

I'm experiencing that same problem now. It's intermittent for me, sometimes it remembers sometimes it don't. Not a problem I guess if I'm on a long trip but still it's getting on my nerves. Also sometimes it will automatically switch back to USB when I turn the car on, even if I was listening to satellite before turning off the car.

And on a slightly related topic to anyone else reading, can anyone recommend a "low profile" or 90 degree bent USB stick that I can fit in there with the cover closed?

Fishlet

Doh, forgot you traded in for a SS, never mind

unreal2k1

I have an ipod that is loaded with music and it always remembers where it was last but I have noticed with these 20 and below temps here in the NY area it will come up and tell me a new device is found and then it will play some random track. once it gets warm in the compartment and the ipod is warmed up also it will play fine if rebooted. I hate that the USB drives cannot stay in there and close the door unless you use a dongle. is anyone else notice this or is it just me???

awsho

I have a 2017 Maxima. I too am having the same issue as Thunderjet. Very frustrating. I am retired and no longer subscribe to Sirius because I am not in the vehicle as much as I used to be. I really enjoy listening to my own music on a USB flash drive. If the people that do not seem to have any problems, could let the group know what brand of flash drives you are using. That might help others out. I know it should not make a difference but also let us know if it is USB 2.0 or USB 3.0.
I have raised this issue with my local dealer. He did put in a service request to Nissan service. However it has been about six months with no news. Chances are it is not a large concern for Nissan. Which is sad! Every time I get a survey from Nissan or related to the vehicle I continue to mention this problem.
Just looking for some possibilities from other owners who do not seem to have a problem with their USB ports.

mikeq00

I bought this very small USB drive on Amazon. Monster Digital makes them, and there is also a dual-pack with one of the drives being OTG (both 16G capacity) if you like... this one is 32G. When inserted, it is about 1/2 inch external, very small, and works like a charm in my 16 Plat.

awsho

Thanks mikeg00. Will give them a try. Also going to try a Sansdisk drive also. Heard they are pretty good.
If anyone else has any suggestions, please let the group know.

Fishlet

I have a sansdisk USB, but I'm experiencing those issues with it forgetting the last track. It's the one with the retractable plug. Your mileage may vary, but those are not immune

awsho

Thanks "Fishlet" for the info. Such a frustrating problem. It should just be a software fix.

I had a 2014 Hyundai Azera and it worked perfectly. I could leave a flash drive in for weeks and it would always continue where it left off.
Hopefully someone has a sure fire fix. Maybe have to get back to burning cd's. UGH!

Fishlet

Nice to meet a fellow Azera driver. My older car is a 2007 Azera, I would have got another one but I really didn't care for the current design. I've had it for 10 years and it's the best all around car I've ever had. Time will tell how the Maxima stacks up against it.

awsho

I was dis-appointed when Hyundai decided to stop importing the Azera. They never did promote that car properly. The main reason I got a Maxima was the interior design. It is one of the few cars where it doesn't look like somebody stuck a tablet on top of the dash for a screen. I like the integrated look of the Maxima. I have had Nissan's in the past and they have always been reliable.
Now if we can just fix our audio problem the car would be perfect.

deanbrew

I just looked, and I am using a SanDisk Cruzer Blade 4GB, which looks like this: https://images-na.ssl-images-amazon....11nUnjz9eL.jpg

I just finished two audiobooks I loaded onto it, and neither lost stopping points. A plus is that this thumb drive is short enough that I can close the little door.

Hope this helps.

awsho

Thanks deanbrew. I will give that one a try. Will post with my results.

dknjain

Hi. I have a 2017.5 Maxima Platinum, and I am experiencing the same issue.

It is not consistent, but is intermittent. Sometimes when I start the car, I will see the message "Reading USB Memory" and the first song on my USB flash drive will start playing. I have seen this occur if I was in the middle of USB playback previously. I have also seen it if I was listening to the radio previously.

I have experienced this issue in both USB ports. I've also tried 3 different USB drives, both 2.0 & 3.0 and experienced the issue.

It is annoying, so it would be nice to find a solution. If anyone has any solutions please post them.

Before I bought my car, I had a rental car that was also a 2017.5 Maxima Platinum. I used the same flash drive that has shown problems in my car in that rental, and never experienced a problem in about 6 weeks of usage. So the problem seems to be car specific. I'm not sure if it is flash drive specific.

Any insight is appreciated.
Thanks.

denoose

here's a tiny SanDisk Ultra Fit 32GB USB 3.0 Flash Drive for 12.99, works well and is really small! Like the size of your pinky fingernail:

madmarcus1960

Use USB #2, it doesn't do this. I bought a '16 SL last August and figured this out in the first couple of weeks. USB1/Iphone is what the Source is referred to as a selection. This may be why it resets. It bothered me for a while but USB2 stays on whatever song you shut the car off at. I'm using a 128GB mini-stick(can be used as a usb or OTB on a cellphone) and other than taking a while to read the contents(I only have 50GB on it :>)), it works great.

Fishlet

Sorry madmarcus,

I had the same theory a while ago, that did not work for me

madmarcus1960

Well that sucks, no problems since I switched it over, ever. How about some consistency Nissan.
At least it is better than my 13 Civc Si. The files were read by first in first out with no way to sort alphabetically.

dknjain

I took my car in to have them look at this issue under warranty. They are basically saying they can't fix the issue, I think mostly because they have no idea on how to diagnose it, and what to swap out, other than the radio.

And they think it's too expensive to change the radio, so they don't want to do this.

So I was wondering if anyone else had brought their car in for this issue, and had any luck getting it fixed.

Thanks.

Fishlet

i haven't brought it in, and basically gave up trying to fix it. I tried 3 different brands of USB, all had the same issue.

I had an older IPod touch kicking around, so I plugged that in instead. So far that has been working pretty good, and has the added bonus of being able to sort songs by artist, albumn, an example playlist. So I'll probably just stick with that

dknjain

Thanks. I'll let you know if the dealer is able to do anything for me.

Lemonhawk

What software are you using to transfer the books (on CD's?) to the USB stick. Maybe that's the key.

dknjain

I'm just listening to music on my usb drive. So I am just taking mp3's and dragging them over to the usb drive.

Fishlet

Good luck figuring it out, but if not I'll say once again... getting a cheap ipod might be worth a look. It definitely works better for me than the USB stick, plus I can find songs by artist, album, and playlist. You can find used old iPods for as low as 20 bux on eBay. They may not have such good batteries, but they'll be plugged in to the port all the time so it doesn't matter.

robtroxel

Nice idea Fishman! Which USB port do you link to?

dknjain

Thanks. I might give the ipod a try. I am not normally an ipod user. I guess I would have to use itunes to get my music onto it.

The dealer just called and told me they haven't been able to find anything they could fix. I did go on the web and file an issue with Nissan Consumer Affairs. They have assigned a case number, but I'm not sure if they will really do anything.

Fishlet

I got it plugged into port #2. So far it's worked great. The only anomaly is that if you are at the end of a playlist (weren't playing anything before), it will start on the first song on the device next time its powered on. But that was normal 4th gen iPod behavior when plugging it into a dock anyway. If you are in the middle of a song/album... it always resumes in the correct spot (unlike the USB which would go to track 1 at least 50% of the time)

The iPod is pretty small so it fits nicely inside the compartment with the door shut. I think an iPod nano or shuffle might work even better since the touch screen isn't needed anyway. Apple doesn't make those new anymore but there's a ton of used ones on eBay. Mine is only 32 gb, so I might try to find a good 64 or 128 to hold my entire collection

Fishlet

I hear ya, I'm not a huge fan or apple or iTunes either. But it can be pretty easy to set up especially if that's all your using it for. You can configure it to put everything in your library on your iPod automatically every time you plug it in. So it should be almost as easy as dragging the files over to the USB. You can add files to iTunes by dragging files over the window. There is an option to "not consolidate" the files if you want to keep them in existing folders where you already have them organized. Setting up playlist in iTunes is quite good though... you can make a special "driving songs" list for when you need to chill

Option B would be to connect via Bluetooth, which can be done with android. That's handy if your using the other phone features like hands free calling. I think that stuff is neat, but don't like having to leave Bluetooth on all the time. However, like the iPod, you can start/stop/select tracks

mattislinx

I wouldn't mind having this problem compared to the USB problem that I have. I had a 2013 Maxima with an aftermarket Pioneer radio installed. I always used a USB drive to store and play my music. Now that same USB drive isn't working right in my 2018 Maxima. I even bought a new one (needed more space anyway) and moved my music on to it and I have the same problem with that one. Sometimes a song from the USB drive will be playing and it will stop or a song will end and the next song won't play. It makes the radio act really weird and I will have to unplug the USB drive. If I hit the audio button after this happens, I can click on USB 1, USB 2, bluetooth or anything else and nothing happens. It's like the radio freezes.

It just happens randomly. It will work fine for hours or days. Whatever it wants to do. It's really a pain. I moved all of my music to my phone to play over bluetooth for now, but I would rather see the music on the actual Maxima head unit using the USB drive. Not sure what to do about it honestly. If it were a format issue then I assume the USB drive wouldn't work at all.

TOE_CHEESE

Here is my post for a similar complaint. I hope it helps.
I have a 2017 SL. From the day I picked up my new max I have had an issue with my A/V unit having a problem reading my USB and ultimately landing on the first song in the first folder. Another problem I had was with the A/V unit starting automatically upon starting the car knowing I had previously turned it off. I wrote another post thinking it was related to it being a USBv2 vs. USBv3. That turned out to not be the problem. I contacted Nissan Consumer Affairs and complained. I was referred to the dealer. They needed evidence of the problem and eventually witnessed my complaint. They replaced the whole unit. Replacing the A/V unit didn't make the problem go away. The issue happened within an hour or two of picking the car up at the dealer. I began to think it could be related to the USB ports as it seemed to occur more with the usb drive in port 2. After about 6 months I decided to contact Nissan Consumer Affairs again to log another complaint. They referred me back to the dealer. I called the dealer again and they suggested I call Nissan to request a factory representative meet me at the dealer. I knew that would be useless if I didn't have evidence of the problem because chances are the issue wouldn't happen when the factory rep was watching. So now we get into the meat of why I am writing my post. My thought was I would use my android smartphone camera to videotape what was happening. So every time I got in my car I would unlock my phone and start my videotaping. I did this everyday for about 3 weeks and not once did the system start automatically or have a problem reading the USB. But, the first time I forgot to start up the video, the problem occurred. And it continued to occur the times I'd forget to start the videotaping. I thought that was one hell of a coincidence that when videotaping the problem didn't occur. So it occurred to me that it was the action of unlocking my phone. I have now been doing that for a couple weeks. I unlock my phone prior to starting the car and the A/V doesn't start automatically nor does it reset to the first song. However, the one time I forgot to unlock my phone before starting my car, it reset to the first song. My thought is in that the problem is related to the bluetooth as the A/V system needs to access the phone for contacts and text messages and the act of unlocking the phone gives access to bluetooth. So I would love to see others use my theory of unlocking your phones prior to starting the vehicle to see if the problem occurs. I plan on forwarding my findings to Nissan and would love to get confirmation.

Fishlet

Hi toe cheese?

Thanks for the detailed explanation. In my case, I hardly ever link my phone to the car, just when I'm going on a long trip. So the USB "reset to track one" issue seems to happen without any relation to my phone whatsoever. I ultimately gave up on this issue, and found that it works great with an IPod Touch instead, so that's what I'm using today

Buffalowings69

When you go to the screen that shows what is playing- tap the stop or pause on touch screen for that selection. Leave stick in, When you want to resume, return to that screen and "touch" the play icon. I listen to the Bible and it works for me every time.

2young2retire

Thanks for the update but I gave up on it. I use my phone via bluetooth to listen to my audio books. That way no matter which vehicle I am in it is always where I left off.