[ACCELCAR]

I just got a new 328i a few weeks ago, and at the time, the dealer mentioned that up to 40 stations could be programmed into the memory presets. There are only 8 buttons. Does anyone know how to access additional presets?

[Frogman]

Originally Posted by ACCELCAR

I just got a new 328i a few weeks ago, and at the time, the dealer mentioned that up to 40 stations could be programmed into the memory presets. There are only 8 buttons. Does anyone know how to access additional presets?

The 8 buttons can be programmed to just about any iDrive function, not just radio stations.

In the radio menu, there is a preset list; that's where the 40 stations are. You can program a button to bring up the preset list if you want.

[boltjames]

Originally Posted by Frogman

The 8 buttons can be programmed to just about any iDrive function, not just radio stations.

In the radio menu, there is a preset list; that's where to 40 stations are. You can program a button to bring up the preset list if you want.

Exactly.

If you go into Radio > Presets in iDrive you can scroll through the list of radio stations. If you have the Head Up Display, turning the dial in the steering wheel brings them up on the windshield. BMW did a great job in 'pushing' all the stations together as you don't have to choose AM or FM or Satellite first; the preset list mixes them all together.

The 1-8 buttons are shortcuts to anything in iDrive like calling home, turning on split-screen, etc. I have a 18- button programmed to my one favorite radio station because once I'm listening to it the 40 presets get called up on the HUD and I can access the rest from there.

BJ

[ACCELCAR]

Thanks! I'll be sitting in the driveway tonight playing around with the presets

[boltjames]

Originally Posted by ACCELCAR

Thanks! I'll be sitting in the driveway tonight playing around with the presets

There's a whole thread on the subject somewhere, but these are mine:

1: Split-screen off
2: Split-screen on, arrow mode
3: Split-screen on, entertainment details.
4: AM, Station WFAN
5: Sirius, Station 20 on 20
6: iPod, Play Last Position
7: Nav, Stop Guidance
8: Nav, Start Guidance Home

I use the nav a lot, so having the split-screen options as well as going Home and stopping guidance one touch away is a big deal to me. I listen to sports radio on AM and music on Sirius, so one button each to get me into each mode, use the thumbwheel to see all 40 radio presets thereafter. iPod right next to the radio presets to get me into my collection.

You can assign shortcuts to practically any menu or submenu item, telephone numbers too.

BJ

[boltjames]

Originally Posted by ACCELCAR

Thanks! I'll be sitting in the driveway tonight playing around with the presets

Helpful hint:

Navigate to the option you want with the iDrive controller, such as trip information, but don't click on it, just highlight it.

Now press and hold one of the 1-8 buttons on the dash for a couple of seconds, until you hear a beep. That button will now do whatever it is you were highlighting- from anywhere in the iDrive screens.

With your home address, for example, navigate to Recent Destinations, highlight your home address, and press/hold a 1-8 button.

For radio stations, navigate to Radio Presets and highlight the station on that list as it'll set your HUD in the Preset list.

Another Hint:

If you don't remeber what you assigned to number, just gently rest the finger on the number button, but don't press, it has touch sensor and it will show you assigned function in the top line of iDrive.

BJ

[RPM90]

I use button #1 to call up "sport mode configuration".
It's very handy if you have the adaptive suspension, as you can switch between modes by easily and quickly accessing the config screen.

#2 is radio/sat stations
#3 is tone/eq settings
#8 is the trip info
The rest are some random things.
I don't have NAV.

Great functionality to cut down on having to scroll and push a number of buttons just to get to what you use regularly..

The light touch to show function is very cool and handy.

[Frogman]

The buttons can also be programmed to one of the toggle functions.

I programmed a button to toggle "Traffic conditions/gray map".

I switch between "Traffic conditions/gray map" and "normal" as the traffic conditions are much easier to see in the gray map display. Unfortunately, that screen suppresses POI display and is generally ugly to look at.

One push and I can see traffic conditions, another push of the same button and I'm back to the normal nav screen display. Really neat!

[Elastino]

Really need to mention this.
After programming hot keys, if you don't remember where you programmed your favorite feature on, simply touch buttons without pressing it. Slide thru buttons will show you what you've programmed on those buttons.

Yes, I am telling those buttons are TOUCH SENSOR INTEGRATED BUTTONS!

[Nitz99]

Originally Posted by boltjames

There's a whole thread on the subject somewhere, but these are mine:

1: Split-screen off
2: Split-screen on, arrow mode
3: Split-screen on, entertainment details.
4: AM, Station WFAN
5: Sirius, Station 20 on 20
6: iPod, Play Last Position
7: Nav, Stop Guidance
8: Nav, Start Guidance Home

I use the nav a lot, so having the split-screen options as well as going Home and stopping guidance one touch away is a big deal to me. I listen to sports radio on AM and music on Sirius, so one button each to get me into each mode, use the thumbwheel to see all 40 radio presets thereafter. iPod right next to the radio presets to get me into my collection.

You can assign shortcuts to practically any menu or submenu item, telephone numbers too.

BJ

Thanks for this info, James. I was curious as to what "iPod, play last position" is? I use my iphone connected via the Apple cable to access the music collection on it so it sounds like that function would be of use for me.

[boltjames]

Originally Posted by Nitz99

Thanks for this info, James. I was curious as to what "iPod, play last position" is? I use my iphone connected via the Apple cable to access the music collection on it so it sounds like that function would be of use for me.

Sure.

Click the Media button > Hover over "Nitz iPhone" > Press and hold a 1-8 button.

Now any time you are listening to the Radio, just hit the new button and the iPhone will start playing music instantly without having to switch from Radio to Media and drilling down through menus.

For music, the best use of the 1-8 buttons is to get you through the different sources. Assign one button for your favorite radio station (important: hover over it on the Presets list to set it) and then you'll use the steering wheel scroll wheel to toggle through the Presets list which mixes together all the AM/FM/Satellite stations. Much easier than using the iDrive controller. By giving one preset to your iPhone and another preset to a single radio station, you never really have to use iDrive and all the complicated menus again.

If you do it right, you'll never have to use the iDrive controller buttons at all. All those different source buttons like menu, radio, media, navigation all can be accomplished more efficiently by setting the right shortcuts using the 1-8 buttons.

BJ

[Nitz99]

Originally Posted by boltjames

Sure.

Click the Media button > Hover over "Nitz iPhone" > Press and hold a 1-8 button.

Now any time you are listening to the Radio, just hit the new button and the iPhone will start playing music instantly without having to switch from Radio to Media and drilling down through menus.

For music, the best use of the 1-8 buttons is to get you through the different sources. Assign one button for your favorite radio station (important: hover over it on the Presets list to set it) and then you'll use the steering wheel scroll wheel to toggle through the Presets list which mixes together all the AM/FM/Satellite stations. Much easier than using the iDrive controller. By giving one preset to your iPhone and another preset to a single radio station, you never really have to use iDrive and all the complicated menus again.

If you do it right, you'll never have to use the iDrive controller buttons at all. All those different source buttons like menu, radio, media, navigation all can be accomplished more efficiently by setting the right shortcuts using the 1-8 buttons.

BJ

Thanks a lot, James! This is very helpful advice. Looking forward to getting in my car tonight and setting this up. Shortcut to the iPhone music will make things much easier. I still haven't figured out the best way to organize my music in a way that makes it easier to search using idrive. I've heard some folks talk about using playlists which I never really used before so maybe I'll try that. Does anyone here have any thoughts on this?

[boltjames]

Originally Posted by Nitz99

Thanks a lot, James! This is very helpful advice. Looking forward to getting in my car tonight and setting this up. Shortcut to the iPhone music will make things much easier. I still haven't figured out the best way to organize my music in a way that makes it easier to search using idrive. I've heard some folks talk about using playlists which I never really used before so maybe I'll try that. Does anyone here have any thoughts on this?

Playlists are where it's at, start making a bunch of them.

While I have every Beatles song ever recorded on my iPhone in my car, it's my 6 Beatles playlists I listen to, I never drill down through menus to Albums in iDrive. Examples:

Best of the Beatles (Early Years)
Best of the Beatles (Later Years)
Best of the Beatles (Solo)
Psychedelic Beatles
Beatles - White Album
Beatles - Abbey Road

These Playlists cover my Beatles nut for me. All the bad songs on the albums are gone, every cut that plays is a personal fave, they display in one-click in iDrive. Note that I have two complete albums as Playlists, again just easier to access them that way.

Note that an iTunes Playlist does not "double-up" your songs on your iPhone. Playlists are just shortcuts to the songs. So I can have "Hey Jude" on six different Playlists, but the song file only appears once on the iPhone, isn't hogging space.

Think of a Playlist as the old mix tape from your youth. I have about 100 of them. To get started, try this:

Create a Playlist called "High School Mix". Pick your 10 favorite groups. Pick the 5 best songs from each. Drag them into the Playlist folder. Hit Shuffle. Wham, you've now got your 50 favorite tracks from high school, shuffling away randomly for the next 4 hours.

"College Mix", "Best Of The Who", "Dance Tracks", "Summer 1982" you get the idea.

BJ

[Nitz99]

Originally Posted by boltjames

Playlists are where it's at, start making a bunch of them.

While I have every Beatles song ever recorded on my iPhone in my car, it's my 6 Beatles playlists I listen to, I never drill down through menus to Albums in iDrive. Examples:

Best of the Beatles (Early Years)
Best of the Beatles (Later Years)
Best of the Beatles (Solo)
Psychedelic Beatles
Beatles - White Album
Beatles - Abbey Road

These Playlists cover my Beatles nut for me. All the bad songs on the albums are gone, every cut that plays is a personal fave, they display in one-click in iDrive. Note that I have two complete albums as Playlists, again just easier to access them that way.

Note that an iTunes Playlist does not "double-up" your songs on your iPhone. Playlists are just shortcuts to the songs. So I can have "Hey Jude" on six different Playlists, but the song file only appears once on the iPhone, isn't hogging space.

Think of a Playlist as the old mix tape from your youth. I have about 100 of them. To get started, try this:

Create a Playlist called "High School Mix". Pick your 10 favorite groups. Pick the 5 best songs from each. Drag them into the Playlist folder. Hit Shuffle. Wham, you've now got your 50 favorite tracks from high school, shuffling away randomly for the next 4 hours.

"College Mix", "Best Of The Who", "Dance Tracks", "Summer 1982" you get the idea.

BJ

This is great info. I will definitely start making some playlists. Is there a way to toggle through playlists without going back into idrive and using the idrive controller or is that unavoidable? Thanks again for your help with this stuff. I set one of my shortcut buttons to play my iPod and it works great. Loving this car more and more everyday!

[boltjames]

Originally Posted by Nitz99

This is great info. I will definitely start making some playlists. Is there a way to toggle through playlists without going back into idrive and using the idrive controller or is that unavoidable? Thanks again for your help with this stuff. I set one of my shortcut buttons to play my iPod and it works great. Loving this car more and more everyday!

You have to go into iDrive to toggle through the Playlists with the iDrive controller, but you can make a shortcut to that list with the 1-8 buttons.

Once in a Playlist, you can scroll through the songs with the thumb wheel on the steering wheel and see the songs on the HUD.

BJ

[rjc32000]

Great info! Thanks boltjames!

[Nitz99]

Originally Posted by boltjames

Playlists are where it's at, start making a bunch of them.

While I have every Beatles song ever recorded on my iPhone in my car, it's my 6 Beatles playlists I listen to, I never drill down through menus to Albums in iDrive. Examples:

Best of the Beatles (Early Years)
Best of the Beatles (Later Years)
Best of the Beatles (Solo)
Psychedelic Beatles
Beatles - White Album
Beatles - Abbey Road

These Playlists cover my Beatles nut for me. All the bad songs on the albums are gone, every cut that plays is a personal fave, they display in one-click in iDrive. Note that I have two complete albums as Playlists, again just easier to access them that way.

Note that an iTunes Playlist does not "double-up" your songs on your iPhone. Playlists are just shortcuts to the songs. So I can have "Hey Jude" on six different Playlists, but the song file only appears once on the iPhone, isn't hogging space.

Think of a Playlist as the old mix tape from your youth. I have about 100 of them. To get started, try this:

Create a Playlist called "High School Mix". Pick your 10 favorite groups. Pick the 5 best songs from each. Drag them into the Playlist folder. Hit Shuffle. Wham, you've now got your 50 favorite tracks from high school, shuffling away randomly for the next 4 hours.

"College Mix", "Best Of The Who", "Dance Tracks", "Summer 1982" you get the idea.

BJ

So I've been experimenting with playlists and using my idrive shortcut buttons and so far so good. The one simple thing I can't seem to figure out is how to shuffle the songs in the playlist. I have my iphone on shuffle and tested this by listening to these playlists on the actual phone and it shuffles the music. Is there an idrive setting I need to toggle on of off somewhere in order to get the songs to shuffle? Right now if I hit skip track on idrive it will simply go to the next listed song in the playlist.

[boltjames]

Originally Posted by Nitz99

So I've been experimenting with playlists and using my idrive shortcut buttons and so far so good. The one simple thing I can't seem to figure out is how to shuffle the songs in the playlist. I have my iphone on shuffle and tested this by listening to these playlists on the actual phone and it shuffles the music. Is there an idrive setting I need to toggle on of off somewhere in order to get the songs to shuffle? Right now if I hit skip track on idrive it will simply go to the next listed song in the playlist.

One of the things that's not explained really well is the "Option" button on the iDrive controller. This acts like a computer's right-click button, brings up a submenu with options specific to the screen you're on.

So you navigate to any Media > iPhone list you like (album, all-by-artist, Playlist, etc.) select a song to start hearing music, and then hit the Option button on the iDrive controller.

Top of the menu, choose "Random".

So long as you remain on that list (album, all-by-artist, Playlist, etc.) the Random function will continue the next time you start the car. The moment you switch to another Playlist or Album, turns Random off.

As I said, beyond this example, practically every screen in iDrive that you wind up on has additional functionality once you hit the "Option" button on the iDrive controller. It's how you enable split screen when Navigating, how to change the view in Maps, and on and on.

BJ

[Nitz99]

Originally Posted by boltjames

One of the things that's not explained really well is the "Option" button on the iDrive controller. This acts like a computer's right-click button, brings up a submenu with options specific to the screen you're on.

So you navigate to any Media > iPhone list you like (album, all-by-artist, Playlist, etc.) select a song to start hearing music, and then hit the Option button on the iDrive controller.

Top of the menu, choose "Random".

So long as you remain on that list (album, all-by-artist, Playlist, etc.) the Random function will continue the next time you start the car. The moment you switch to another Playlist or Album, turns Random off.

As I said, beyond this example, practically every screen in iDrive that you wind up on has additional functionality once you hit the "Option" button on the iDrive controller. It's how you enable split screen when Navigating, how to change the view in Maps, and on and on.

BJ

Thanks, James! Tried this today, works like a charm.

[dzaborn]

I have some questions about the 40 radio station presets.

Can you sort these in order of your liking? I don't see a way to drag/move your stations from one slot to another. I guess you can only save them in the slot they are originally assigned? I guess when saving you could space you stations out leaving blank slots in between so if you wanted to add one in between you could.

Also, is there a way to get the station to display the band number (i.e. 107.3) or does it only display the call letters? I don't usually know my stations by call letter so it is a bit confusing until pay closer attention and learn them.