[metrickid]

When I read on other forums and in some other threads here people claim to see the artist, album and cover art when playing through USB-cable and Spotify.

But I just get "Unknown album", "Unknown Artist" and "Unknown song" and no cover art. But sometimes if I restart the car I can get the current song to display all info, but when it ends and the next song starts the old info remains on screen. So the info seems to be there but doesn't show up.

What have you guys done to be able to see the cover art?
It didn't work under iOS 5.1.1 and not under iOS 6. I tried both my iPhone 4S and my iPod Touch. If I use bluetooth audio all the info is there and I can change songs with the controls in the car. But as soon as I use USB (that has to be connected to not drain the battery) it is not an option anymore.

Any ideas?
Do you have to use a cradle?

I also have the latest update for the car.

[ramonE90-NL]

I use spotify with my 4s and ios6. It sometimes displays album art and changes when i skip a track. But not always. I dont know what the problem is.

I'm using the original apple usb cable

[jsbmw87]

Having problems here too....

[metrickid]

At least I'm not the only one.

I wonder if the USB-cable doesn't support it and it's just glitches or if it is possible over USB to get all the album art. It says in the description for the cradle that it enables album art but I'm guessing it is just for iTunes and that it will show over USB too with iTunes/Music on the phone.

[NateDog07V]

This is the same problem with Pandora too... the album art usually pops up for the first song, but then gets stuck on that image even when new songs come on

[metrickid]

How hard could it be to get this right from the beginning? It's not like it's rocket science to show some album art.

[WilliCO]

I haven't used Spotify in an F30, but our Volvo XC70 does behave this same way with it. Sometimes it keeps up with song title and artist, sometimes it doesn't and sticks on one song. Not sure I can see a pattern, either.

My E60 is just an aux connection.

[reign528]

Im using spotify via bluetooth on iO6 and everything works except cover art. I will try via USB tomm to see if cover art works. I know at first I saw only unknown for titles but now randomly it shows all meta data except for cover art. Steering wheel controls seem to be working as well.

[metrickid]

Originally Posted by reign528

Im using spotify via bluetooth on iO6 and everything works except cover art. I will try via USB tomm to see if cover art works. I know at first I saw only unknown for titles but now randomly it shows all meta data except for cover art. Steering wheel controls seem to be working as well.

Yes, over BT everything except cover art works. But it drains the battery.
And it shows more tracks and albums now than it did a week ago. Maybe it is iOS 6. But it is maybe one out of ten. And an cover on one out of twenty.

Steering wheel controls and HUD display works great over BT. But won't work with USB.

[reign528]

Originally Posted by Rossifumi

Yes, over BT everything except cover art works. But it drains the battery.
And it shows more tracks and albums now than it did a week ago. Maybe it is iOS 6. But it is maybe one out of ten. And an cover on one out of twenty.

Steering wheel controls and HUD display works great over BT. But won't work with USB.

I leave Bluetooth on all day and my battery life is at about 40-50% at 6pm. Anyhow oddity songza works via USB with cover art and titles. Spotfy not so much. I totally prefer Bluetooth anyhow just wish cover art was supported

[ric124]

Originally Posted by NateDog07V

This is the same problem with Pandora too... the album art usually pops up for the first song, but then gets stuck on that image even when new songs come on

I haven't tried spotify but pandora works flawless via cradle. All functions and album arts.

[Stellvertreter]

I got my new car since yesterday. It is MY2014 which is only available in Europe so far. I got no NAV but the enhanced bluetooth and phone connectivity (now called 6NS).

I have the exact same problem with spotify (tried with iPhone 4 and ipod Touch 3G):

>> Via BT it works (track skipping, ...) but no cover art.

>> Via USB the cover for the first track started on the phone is shown but nothing else works. Can't skip/select tracks.


Anyone with a solution? Maybe it works with a snap-in adapter/cradle?

[metrickid]

I don't think anything will make this work before Spotify adds the BMW API... I sometimes get both the track title and cover art though so all the info is there. So it SHOULD be possible to solve this.

[335ny]

Same problem here. Connecting using the lightning cable, sometimes get album art and i can control thru steering wheel and from I drive. All of a sudden doesn't work anymore. No control and only album art on one song.

[Stellvertreter]

@335ny and others: Found a 'small' solution:

Connect via USB, select your iPhone/iPod and after it starts playing the first song go to options tick the box:

Random play (not sure how it's called exactly in English, in German it's 'Zufallswiedergabe').

(I put this on a favorite key)

Then you can select songs via iDrive Controller and Radio (not via steering wheel). Cover art is shown and it works fine. The songs are played in sequential order.

[ghettodefendant]

Also have the same issues with spotify. I think it's that it isn't the native music player for the iPhone, not sure about Android, windows etc.

[ad78]

i dont have any problems on pandora. im a paid subscriber, but my iphone 5 is jailbroken so i cracked the pandora unlimited skips. nonstop skip album art are showing flawlessly.

im on verizon LTE. sorry I'm no spotify user.

[ghettodefendant]

So, I'm pretty sure that when you use spotify, to get your cover art and titles to come up when plugged in via USB have spotify as your last used player ie play a song before you plug it in. Cover art and song details should come up.

Now, I've noticed that if a playlist has more than 51 tracks, anything after that won't be displayed.
I worked that out by culling a 60 track playlist with the last 9 not showing, down to 51 and those that weren't displaying are now showing correctly.

If anyone has time to verify, post here please and thank you.

[metrickid]

Originally Posted by ghettodefendant

So, I'm pretty sure that when you use spotify, to get your cover art and titles to come up when plugged in via USB have spotify as your last used player ie play a song before you plug it in. Cover art and song details should come up.

Now, I've noticed that if a playlist has more than 51 tracks, anything after that won't be displayed.
I worked that out by culling a 60 track playlist with the last 9 not showing, down to 51 and those that weren't displaying are now showing correctly.

If anyone has time to verify, post here please and thank you.

Yes, it always show the last played song when starting up the vehicle (I have an iPod Touch connected 24/7). Do you mean that a playlist of 51 songs ALWAYS show the correct album art, title and artist?

I'll will try that later today if that is the case.

[ghettodefendant]

In regards to the 51 track maximum playlist, it seems in my car even if a spotify playlist exceeds 51 tracks, it'll only display the number "51" and anything past that number would come up as "unknown" for artist and song.

Just interested to know if anyone else has experienced this or similar with spotify via USB.

[italoarmstrong]

As an iOS developer I can tell you, all F30's should pickup album art if the developer is using the API Apple provide to display the album artwork on the lock-screen of the iOS Device. No BMW API is required. (Have tested this will a little dummy test app of my own).

However... I've seen some integration issues with third-party software... iOS for example, requires an app, to in effect "Take control" of an audio "session". The iPod will have this by default, then Spotify will take over and maintain a session for an undefined period of time (OS chooses).

So if you plug in the phone to your car after not listening to music for a while, it'll pickup your Music/iPod app... and then if you open Spotify, you'll get some weird behaviour (likely a BMW bug)... What I tend to do is,

- Kill the Music app properly.
- Open spotify
- go into Offline mode
- Start playing a song
- Exit Spotify and lock your iPhone (song should continue to play)
- Now plug your phone into your car

This helps the situation for me... tested on iOS 6 and newer ... the only weird caveat is that sometimes the car thinks every single song is called "Spotify".

BMW could support this well with the right developer integrating this functionality...

[e92ben]

Pandora one does the same crap.