Infotainment Issue on Playlists

[Classic-Chevy-Guy]

I am very disappointed by the Infotainment system in the 2025 Equinox.

On my 6 Corvettes from 2011 thru 2023, a 2024 Camaro, and a 2019 Equinox, I have a Thumb Drive with songs contained in folders. It works great

The new system on the 2025 Equinox does not support Folders but supports Playlists.

So I needed to convert all my Folders to Playlists.

Now, when I find the Playlist that I want to hear, I go merrily down the road and get to my destination, and Park the car and turn off the vehicle.

When I get back into the vehicle and start the engine, the Infotainment systems shows "Indexing" and then it starts playing a random song.

I would have thought the Infotainment system would have started where it left off.

Are there others which have the same issue and is there a solution to this issue?

Thanks

 

[Lazy Bones]

The ramdon selection is common. How do I create a "playlist" vs folders?

 

[Classic-Chevy-Guy]

You need to move all your songs to the thumb drive. You need to select the songs for windows media player and create a playlist and save it. Once saved, you need to move the playlist to the thumb drive.

 

[electricdiver]

On my '13 Volt playlists on a thumbdrive worked great. Play the list, stop, get out & do whatever, start the vehicle and the playlist started right where it left off. My '19 Equinox the playlist starts fine but the next time you start the vehicle the list is "empty"; go to a different list and that one plays fine. Start the vehicle again, the 2nd list is "empty" but the 1st list is playable again. Can demonstrate without fail to the dealer and they say there must be a problem with the drive. It's the EXACT SAME DRIVE I used in the Volt!

In my '24 EquinoxEV (traded the Volt) with the GoogleOS all the songs on the drive get sorted alphabetically into a "default playlist" which will start everytime the usb is selected as the source. My custom playlists will index and play fine, but the next time the vehicle starts the song that was playing will finish and the next song played will be the 'next' song in the default list. The system always wants to go back to the 'default' list. Plus, the system 'limits scrolling while driving' so if you want to get to the middle of a 100 song playlist you need to hope for a long stoplight so you can 'scroll'. Same behavior if I select a specific album - album plays in order but the next time the vehicle is started the next song played is from the default list.

What method are you using to move the playlist from windows media player to the drive? Typically I use SyncPlaylist. Not sure if there are other tried&true methods or not; I've had mixed results trying other things so I keep going back to the syncplaylist utiity.

 

[Lazy Bones]

I was just using folders on my flash drive, and of course I had all those problems because Chevy can’t handle that sword format. So I did the playlist thing, and I hate it. For some of my albums it shows I only have one or two songs. They are actually between 12 and 15. I can select an album and it will start to play it, often it will play right on through that album. Then it selects whatever album it thinks is the flavor of the day and starts playing that one. And the next time I get in the car, I have no idea on God‘s green earth. What number is gonna play this time. I tell you Google should ask Honda how they did it because Honda did it right.

 

[Autoworker 74]

I am very disappointed by the Infotainment system in the 2025 Equinox.

On my 6 Corvettes from 2011 thru 2023, a 2024 Camaro, and a 2019 Equinox, I have a Thumb Drive with songs contained in folders. It works great

The new system on the 2025 Equinox does not support Folders but supports Playlists.

So I needed to convert all my Folders to Playlists.

Now, when I find the Playlist that I want to hear, I go merrily down the road and get to my destination, and Park the car and turn off the vehicle.

When I get back into the vehicle and start the engine, the Infotainment systems shows "Indexing" and then it starts playing a random song.

I would have thought the Infotainment system would have started where it left off.

Are there others which have the same issue and is there a solution to this issue?

Thanks

I was given a MP3 player 12 or 13 years ago which worked great in my 03 Impala and my 2014 Equinox. It was a big disappointment when I plugged it into my 2025 and it wouldn't work. I went on my Amazon music APP and created playlists which are easily accessible on the infotainment system. The only issue is that sometimes it starts at the beginning and sometimes it starts where I left off. I haven't really looked into it yet and at this moment I'm thinking that in between starts I may switch to a broadcast station or XM and that is the problem. I gotta check that. If you have Amazon and depending on you level of Amazon music you can probably duplicate your old playlist.

 

[ChrisnmiC]

I am very disappointed by the Infotainment system in the 2025 Equinox.

On my 6 Corvettes from 2011 thru 2023, a 2024 Camaro, and a 2019 Equinox, I have a Thumb Drive with songs contained in folders. It works great

The new system on the 2025 Equinox does not support Folders but supports Playlists.

So I needed to convert all my Folders to Playlists.

Now, when I find the Playlist that I want to hear, I go merrily down the road and get to my destination, and Park the car and turn off the vehicle.

When I get back into the vehicle and start the engine, the Infotainment systems shows "Indexing" and then it starts playing a random song.

I would have thought the Infotainment system would have started where it left off.

Are there others which have the same issue and is there a solution to this issue?

Thanks

The easiest solution I have found is to turn the radio off, before exiting the car. When you restart the car, turn the radio back on and you should avoid the unnecessary re-indexing.

 

[ChrisnmiC]

On my '13 Volt playlists on a thumbdrive worked great. Play the list, stop, get out & do whatever, start the vehicle and the playlist started right where it left off. My '19 Equinox the playlist starts fine but the next time you start the vehicle the list is "empty"; go to a different list and that one plays fine. Start the vehicle again, the 2nd list is "empty" but the 1st list is playable again. Can demonstrate without fail to the dealer and they say there must be a problem with the drive. It's the EXACT SAME DRIVE I used in the Volt!

In my '24 EquinoxEV (traded the Volt) with the GoogleOS all the songs on the drive get sorted alphabetically into a "default playlist" which will start everytime the usb is selected as the source. My custom playlists will index and play fine, but the next time the vehicle starts the song that was playing will finish and the next song played will be the 'next' song in the default list. The system always wants to go back to the 'default' list. Plus, the system 'limits scrolling while driving' so if you want to get to the middle of a 100 song playlist you need to hope for a long stoplight so you can 'scroll'. Same behavior if I select a specific album - album plays in order but the next time the vehicle is started the next song played is from the default list.

What method are you using to move the playlist from windows media player to the drive? Typically I use SyncPlaylist. Not sure if there are other tried&true methods or not; I've had mixed results trying other things so I keep going back to the syncplaylist utiity.

Had a 2013 Equinox & 2019 Volt, currently driving a 2020 Traverse. I use Windows software to copy music to flash drive. Folder for Artist, subfolder for album(s), then corresponding files. Open a new "Notepad" file and make a list of songs you want by writing file's path.
D:/folder/subfolder/filename.fileextension
(Repeat for each song on a new line)
Example-
D:/Mark Knopfler, Chet Atkins/Neck and Neck/So Soft My Goodbye.mp3

And so on for all the songs you want in the playlist. When you're done, save the file but change the Notepad file extension from "txt" to "m3u". Save the "playlist" file to the flash drive, (I put them in a folder named Playlist), and unless the Infotainment program has been changed, the playlist will be selectable from the menu. The songs will play in the order you listed them, or shuffled if you choose.

 

[ChrisnmiC]

The ramdon selection is common. How do I create a "playlist" vs folders?

See below in this thread for my method

 

[Lazy Bones]

I made a playlist using instructions on this forum, much like what Chrisnmic did, However, my car ignores the folders and lists ALL the songs in alphabetic order. If I just put folders, minus the playlist thing, the car recognizes the folders, and SOME of the songs in the folder.