[ViperRT10Matt]

One of the things I really don't like about the Volt's interface is the iPod integration. There is no way to search or jump to a letter or anything, so if I have my iPhone plugged in (3,000 plus songs), and I want to hear a song that starts with "P", I need to scroll for a good 5 minutes to get there. This makes the Volt's iPod functionality totally useless in my opinion.

You also can't just use the iPhone's far superior interface when connected via USB, because you are locked out of it with the "Accessory connected" screen.

I initially figured I could just buy an app that would play music instead of the default one, and that would get around the Accessory Connected screen. No suck luck; while the popup wasn't there, the app wouldn't play a song, because it was just trying to force its way through the default music API anyway. (Note that also, if you issue a bluetooth command to "play music by... whoever", this does not work either when the Volt has control of the phone).

Turns out what you need is an app that plays music, but also does some sort of processing to the audio, so that it's the app outputting the song, not the default music API. I am using MyTunes Pro and it works like a charm.

Hope this helps other frustrated iPhone owners.

 

[Roadburner440]

Thanks for the heads up!

However you do not need to scroll for 5 minutes to get to a letter at the end of the alphabet.. The Volt will let you scroll backwards from A using the up arrow. You can also hold the down or up arrow pressed for a second or so and it will start scrolling fast, and then by A..B..C...D.. etc till you get to the letter that you wish and you let go of the arrow. Hope this helps you in the future. BTW maybe it only works that way on my 2012 base model without Nav. I know some stuff works differently between the 2 cars, but pretty sure what I said should work the same on yours.

 

[stephent]

I find it easier to scroll to a letter by spinning the "tune" wheel instead of using the touch screen.

 

[DonC]

I find it easier to scroll to a letter by spinning the "tune" wheel instead of using the touch screen.

OK. Why do the simplest solutions so often escape me? LOL Nice point.

 

[ViperRT10Matt]

Thanks for the heads up!

However you do not need to scroll for 5 minutes to get to a letter at the end of the alphabet.. The Volt will let you scroll backwards from A using the up arrow. You can also hold the down or up arrow pressed for a second or so and it will start scrolling fast, and then by A..B..C...D.. etc till you get to the letter that you wish and you let go of the arrow. Hope this helps you in the future. BTW maybe it only works that way on my 2012 base model without Nav. I know some stuff works differently between the 2 cars, but pretty sure what I said should work the same on yours.

I realize that you can scroll backwards "around the horn", which is why I used "P" as my example (middle-ish of the alphabet) and not "Z".

As for wheel vs touch screen, both are totally impractical when you have several thousand songs.

 

[MTN Ranger]

2012 base radio here. I always use the tune wheel to scroll - it is almost too fast! I don't have any problems navigating my iPod - just the problem of running into the song limit (I have over 10,000) and duplicate song issue.

 

[SpaceVolt]

The Pioneer head unit in my wife's car lets me switch between controlling song selection on the iPhone and through the car's UI; why wouldn't they put this same feature in the Volt? I'm sad to learn it isn't there.

My frustration comes when I try to shuffle a playlist. If you choose the playlist option, there is no "Shuffle all" option like on the iPhone, and when you pick a song it turns shuffle mode off! So my routine is, press menu, playlists, choose one, pick a song, go back into the menu, turn shuffle back on, press back button. Not exactly the quickest/safest thing in the world when driving down the road.

GM, please add iPhone control mode for music selection, and let the head unit retain shuffle when a new playlist/song is selected (and also have a "shuffle all" option within the playlist selection screen)!

 

[strangeengine]

The other thing that completely sucks is that Artists are not organized by Album. That is, if you click on an Artist, underneath is just a long list of every song they've ever done. You can't choose an album and play it through.

Who designed this?

- Mark

 

[soylentgreen]

Another hint. If you start the music/song/podcast playing on your iPhone BEFORE you plug it into USB, then that track will keep playing through the Volt's sound system.

 

[SpaceVolt]

Thanks for the tip! I'm getting closer to an iPhone-controlled music solution with this.

I bought MyTunes Pro and it does play the track through the stereo and let you control it, but has anyone else noticed that the song name and album art are either static or out of sync? My first song loaded, the album art popped up, and when I went to the next track the song name stayed, but the album art changed, and then after that I couldn't get the display to update anymore no matter how many I skipped or how long I waited.

Did anyone else notice this or find a fix to get around it?