My ipod works fine and then I turn car off and when I get back in does not work. I have to unplug from ipod and plug back in. I have it selected in source and disc. Anyone experience ipod problems like this? Did same with both my ipods.

 

What sort of iPod? I had an 80GB (5G?) and recently got a new Classic 120GB and both of them work perfectly, although the Classic seems to sound much better in the 911.

Some of the newer iPods and iPhones need a new cable (from Porsche) or an adapter (http://cablejive.com/charge_converter.html) for them to work correctly. The new cable ties up both the USB and iPod port, whereas the adapter doesn't.

I have never used either, but those who have claim they work.

 

The new cable only addresses the charging issue with the changed iPod USB only 5v charging that Apple went to (dropping charging from the 12v IEEE1394 supplied pins).

I've had occasional issues where the iPod would lock up during playback, or not engage when starting the car. In my case, I've got an older iPod Photo from 4 years ago.

 

I had the exact same problem and when I plugged in the USB cable into the console all of my problems went away. This is the new cable that plugs into the din port and has a USB and Ipod dock connector. Plug the Ipod dock connector into your device and the USB back to the USB port in the console. Good luck!

 

Yeah, I think it is common for some iPod models. I have a nano (square model) and it locks up or turns itself off when I restart the car. I made my dealership aware of it and they said they would send it to Porsche.

An easy fix is when you start the car, wait 3-4 seconds, if it does not say "iPod Ready", quickly get to the iPod and press the play button once or twice....that will always get the system to recognize it!!

It seems that sometimes it takes the PCM a few too many seconds to initialize the iPod and the iPod does a shut down..

 

Yeah mine is a Nano and that is exactly what is happening. My ipod is on when I look at it. I guess it just is not communicating. I think the Porsche logo appears on face of ipod when it is.

Kind of a pain to have to hit play or disconnect every time. Works perfectly in my BMW.

 

BTW, love your car! Meteor grey is awesome!
Anyway, I agree that it is a pain to hit the button each time you start the car, but my service adviser thinks it is not such a big deal to do that. I wonder if he even alerted porsche.
Some of the members here noted that there is a new cable that has different interconnects. It is very possible that this could be a fix. But I doubt porsche will give it away for free. I am going to email my dealer about it and see if it is a fix for the problem.
The funny thing is that there are probably 4 or 5 lines of programming that could fix this!!!

 

Thanks I really like the Meteor Grey. After all of the Black cars I have owned like the change.

As for ipod I did not have USB portion of cord connected. It did work with just the ipod connect in. USB portion makes sense for the charging aspect. So I will see if that definitely solves problem.

Was just at dealer having radar detector hard wired in, feel a little more comfortable having it. Would be cool if that could interface with PCM and NAV to tell you where cops are.

 

Clearly your adviser is an idiot if thats his thought. Sure, its easier for his job not to have to deal with the problem, but its a huge problem, in my book, if you pay several hundred dollars for an integration feature, and then have to manually press a button each time on the iPod to get it to work. That is NOT integration in my book.

 

Yeah, I certainly agree! I just wonder if Porsche is going to make it any kind of priority to remedy. Certainly my wife, who does not get any of the porsche mystique, laughs her *** off each time she sees me fight with the iPod....her Acura which was 1/3 as costly has an outrageous electronics package.
Anyway, I also mentioned it to the porsche people who do the surveys and they did not seem too interested either!

 

May be one reason (not the only) Porsche sales are way down.

 

I've mentioned before...the ipod software is broken...Porsche's answer (not the dealer mind you, Porsche) is to plug and unplug the ipod every time you start and stop the car. Some of these issues extend to USB as well. If they acknowledged they knew of the various problems and were going to issue a fix most would likely be OK with waiting for a bit. All this is troubling since BMW fixed the issues (at least the ones I am having) years ago. Why a manufacturer wants to start at the very bottom of the learning curve at this point on the "consumer" side of the auto is beyond me. I understand things when Apple creates a bust due to a system software change or a pinout change but beyond that I just don't get it. At least they get the non-consumer - driving side of things about 110% correct.

 

If you have a 2009 car, you need the new cable form Porsche, a Y cable with 3 connectors. The USB that plugs back into the console is providing the 5V that charges new iPhone and iPod models. When I first test drove a 2009 in February, they still had the old single wire cable in the car. When I picked up my car in May, it came with the Y cable. I used it for a while without plugging in the USB and I had the same problems that the OP describes using a 2nd gen iPod nano - I had to unplug and plug in the iPod for the PCM to recognize it. When I plugged the USB into the console that problem went away. Now the iPod is ready every time the car starts and resumes at the point where it left off. Porsche has solved the problem, not in the most elegant way, but you need the new cable if it did not come with your car.

 

Thanx but not an issue with the cable. I have an older ipod and the single data/power cable. The ipod clearly shows it is charging while the car is on. However: (1) the car does not allow the ipod to sleep...ipod battery dies (deep sleep-- if I haven't driven the car in a while as the battery just drains); (2) PCM burps from time to time and the music location with either ipod OR usb is lost...ipod or usb starts over on song one, album one every time...this is random...can happen after five days, can happen going into a store and coming out five minutes later; (3) PCM rebuilds the USB folder structure and database every time you start the car...search capability is not available for up to twenty minutes at times. So, you can see Porsche's solution of plug/unplug on each start/stop is unbelieveably stupid for the ipod (BMW never had this problem with this ipod) and, while usb never "runs down", the database rebuild makes the function worthless for errand driving. Even when I resorted to the "random" function for usb, when pcm burps this checkbox becomes "unchecked" and everything starts over again..song one, album one. My point is other manufacturers got this right YEARS ago; why did P have to get it wrong and why is it taking them so long to fix now?

 

I think you guys need to either:

1) try the new cable or
2) see if there's an update for your PCM software (I know I saw where Suncoast was selling a CD).

My older 80GB iPod works perfectly as does my new iPod Classic 120GB - both with the original single cable and many other people have success as well using one or the other of the cables (or cable adapters).