SYNC and choosing music

[Deansy82]

Hi all,

I've recently took delivery of my Transit Custom and have successfully paired my phone with SYNC.

When I press the 'Media' button on the stereo I don't get any music playing. On the display it just says 'NO ARTIST, NO ALBUM ETC...)

To play the music I have to go into my phone open the music app and select the track or album manually. This then plays fine and the correct artist and album is shown on the display.

What I can't do and would like to be able to do is then use either voice control or the stereo itself to choose a new album or artist. The only way at the moment to select a new album is to manually do it on my phone which is obviously illegal when driving. Is it possible to do it using the steering or stereo controls?

I currently use Google Play as my music app and I'm running android version 8.0.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

[FJ111200]

This will probably be of no use to you but here goes,
i've got nearly 5000 tracks on my mobile phone, and adding all the time, and what i do is play the songs in alphabetical order, so in effect you'll never hear the same artist twice on the run unless by some far out chance their next song is alphabetical.
So instead of shouting out for some asswipe Kylie Minogue song just sit back and relax and listen to your songs and if you don't like one just turn it down till the next one comes on.
You can probably skip a track by using the controls on the steering wheel, i ain't tried.
It's got to be better than shouting for a song or artist and getting let down cos it's never as good as you expect when your foot is to the floor on the highway at night with the hellhounds on your tail with the wind in your hair that you probably ain't got any more if you get my drift.
My last three have turned out to be The Band, M People, The Faces,

[Deansy82]

Thanks for your reply.

This is a good idea on how to play music randomly and something I do sometimes. It obviously doesn't help if I do want to play a specific artist or album though.

I presume from your response that you can't select a new album either without going into your phone either?

[FJ111200]

That's right. But I find it makes listening to music better rather than listening to an album with a load of filler on it. Classic example of a band that use filler in my opinion is Texas. Jesus, how the fook do they get away with it? That just my opinion though all you Texas fans.
I'm sure there must be a way of doing what you are suggesting. There's always a way.

[richbee]

Have you tried google assistant - set it up to allow access when bluetooth connected and then shout 'ok google' 'play some decent music' or whatever takes your fancy
I've just started using it on mine, seems to work most of the time, takes a bit of getting used to.

Before that I was just starting off with a complete artist with several albums or gradually starring favourite tracks and then playing my starred playlist - that's with Poweramp on android.