Electronics » TFT and music playback

I am slowly coming to grips with the TFT operation for music. It is not going well for me.
My Nav V music has a conflict with the TFT, and I am not yet ready to ask a question on that. I still believe I can work out that issue.
I was unable to access any phone music tracks on the TFT
Last night I started the DoubleTwist app on my Samsung.
When I tried the TFT today, the album I had started on DoubleTwist played.
However I only have TFT controls to move a track forward or back. I cannot see or select other albums.
Is there another Android app that give more function to the TFT?
At this point I see the TFT being a "lite" version of the Nav V for music and the GPS. Too bad Garmin isn't concerned to fix the present errors in its software.

Ive had mixed operations with music on the TFT as well. It seems to only work when I have both my phone and my helmet paired to the TFT. If the helmet isnt paired, the music plays on the TFT(and phone) but I dont hear anything in the helmet. If only the helmet is paired to the TFT, I hear the music from my phone but cant see the songs on the TFT. Sometimes neither pair to the TFT when I start it up. I gave up trying to figure it out.

My experience has been patchy so far.

I’ve ditched the Nav for now and tried to get the TFT paired to phone and Sena U10. When both are paired (like last night) it all worked seamlessly for 2 plus hours.
Nav - very effective,
Media - songs albums, shuffle, skip, go back all fine, Phone call - 20 mins with excellent sound quality.

But my TFT is quite forgetful. It forgets the pairing and I’ve had to re-pair a number of times, which is a bore as it takes long enough to get going with ATGATT, earplugs, helmets, straps, bags and all the other stuff, without have to go into setting and connect everything up again.

Once I get my Nav V sorted I’ll pair that to the 2nd phone pairing on the helmet, but I don’t expect to use it that much as the Connected app had been perfectly adequate.

So a mixed review. Probably operator error. But I’m loving rest of the bike. the smooth power, clear dashboard, decent headlights and better suspension and gearbox.

Thanks Oscar Guitar.

Which music program are you using on your phone?

Just the iPhone music app. I have Amazon music but not sure how to access that from the TFT yet!

I was having lots of issues with Sena 10u and iPhone working together with the TFT and Nav5, with some experimenting this seems to work:
Pair helmet just to the TFT
Pair TFT to phone
So the helmet connects to the phone and navigator 5 through the TFT.
You need the BMW connected app (iPhone not sure about android) and you have to ensure phone is connected each time you switch on ignition.
The TFT displays all the music on the phone and any track/playlist can be selected.
Good luck 🏍👍

I have phone connected to TFT. Helmet connected to TFT. Nav V (which I now hardly ever use as the connected app is quite adequate) connected to second pairing on Sena. All seems to function seamlessly. (Famous last words?)

I had mine connected this way but couldn't hear the nav directions. I believe the nav needs to be connected to the helmet too.

Yes connect the NAV to helmet only. (In my case)

Yeah, I just gave up on the 'correct way' instructions and connected the phone to the Nav6. Instant success getting music to my Sena 30K where the TFT connection was an utter fail and a lost half day I will never get back.

This youtube video describes the sequence for connecting the TFT, Nav, Phone and Helmet.

I can summarise it as follows:

Reset all relevant connections on all devices (i.e. delete all connections TFT and Nav, delete helmet, TFT and Nav from phone, Reset bluetooth connections on Helmet).
Make sure everything running latest versions of firmware etc.
Pair in the following order:

1. Helmet to TFT
2. Helmet to Nav (using 2nd Bluetooth radio if available)
3. Phone to TFT
4. Phone to Nav (deactivating phone call functionality as that's handled by the TFT).

This worked for me, but I'm not entirely happy with it as it means I don't get the voice activated functions from my Cardo Packtalk Slim including Hey Siri, and can't use the Cardo app. I'm now going to try removing the helmet to TFT link and having the helmet pair to the phone instead. I won't get calls through the TFT or be able to answer using the clickwheel, but they'll hopefully come through the phone anyway which i have mounted to the handlebars, while the Nav should still give me turn by turn directions. Fingers crossed...

This all seems like a lot of bother.
I have the TFT-equipped bike and a Nav-6. I bought a fairly cheap set of bluetooth in-ear headphones from Amazon and they happily pair with both. Not sure they could pair with both at the same time, but I don't really need that. I have gotten away without turn-by-turn audible nav instructions for years with no bother - I just look down at the unit briefly when I need to. At least with in-ear phones they also provide some isolation from road noise.
It would be nice to have music playback at times to relieve boredom on long journeys. So far I haven't come up with a good solution for that. Playing music from the Nav-6 it has to be in MP3 format and if you want to know what's playing, it has to be tagged with metadata. Sadly my collection is in the more modern AAC/MP4 format and I don't want to have to rip it all again just to put in the Nav-6. Playing it through the TFT I haven't worked out yet, but I'm guessing the reason I see no music is the BMW connected app is looking at the native storage folder for music on my Android phone, when it's kept on the external storage micro-SD card. I suppose I could move some of it over to try.
I'm an electronics engineer by day and I love my gadgets, but they have to work the way I want them to work. And I have almost zero patience for things that only-sort-of work.

I've given up trying to involve the TFT in my setup, and think BMW are taking the wrong approach to this. The problem is that they are using a custom written smartphone app to provide the smarts to the otherwise fairly dumb TFT display. As a result they will always be playing catch-up in compatibility with phones and BT headsets, and I doubt they have the capacity or expertise to stay on top of this

I think the approach Honda have taken with the new Africa Twin is much better. They have a secondary display for key info like speed which means the main display can be completely taken over by a smartphone using the screen sharing capability of the Apple Carplay system, though hopefully they will add Android Auto at some point, as I believe they have done with the Goldwing.

Doing it that way means that all the clever stuff is entirely contained within the phone and the apps you use on it, and all Honda have to do is maintain compatibility with the screen sharing technology.

This also means that the complicated and unreliable three way connectivity required by the BWW system (TFT, phone, headset) is reduced to basically just headset to phone, as the TFT is reduced to a fairly dumb display that the user has no direct connectivity with.

I predict that BMW will change to such a system at some point. In the meantime I just use the backup smartphone I take on trips as my satnav, music player, etc, with only that connected to my headset. That leaves the TFT to just act as the instrument panel for the bike which is the only thing it is any good for!

I don't know about that Fred. I mean, it's a lot easier for BMW to update the connected app than for me to take the bike in to a dealer to get the firmware updated. Perhaps the problem is in having the app done right and kept updated, I'm assuming they outsource this.
Triumph seem to have had _problems_ in getting their equivalent up and running.

I don’t seem to be having these problems.
iPhone 11 paired to TFT
Helmet (Sena u10) paired to TFT
NAV 5 paired to helmet via 2nd pairing

Open connected app - start bike.
Switch on helmet sena (as I always forget to do it before)
Music/Calls from iphone displayed on TFT and sent to helmet
Phone book and music selection via TFT and click wheel
Basic navigation via phone and TFT sent to helmet
Sophisticated navigation via Nav V (missing out the TFT) sent to helmet.

Apart from the TFT forgetting the pairing a couple of times its been good.