I have this function as I ordered it specially on my 10 year old Mk3 Octy. It's a special "Media In" socket on the dash that uses a special cable to connect to the old iPod 30 pin (I think).

 

Does anyone know if the same setup is available on the Mk4? If not is there any way to enable an old iPod to play via the car stereo? Wouldnt be overly keen on Bluetooth, would much prefer a wired connection.

18 minutes ago, chelon said:

I have this function as I ordered it specially on my 10 year old Mk3 Octy. It's a special "Media In" socket on the dash that uses a special cable to connect to the old iPod 30 pin (I think).

 

Does anyone know if the same setup is available on the Mk4? If not is there any way to enable an old iPod to play via the car stereo? Wouldnt be overly keen on Bluetooth, would much prefer a wired connection.

That's old technology, its all done wireless now, so you can do it via Bluetooth, or what i do is put the tracks on a SD card and then just plug in the usb socket 

Could this work?

https://www.smarthomesounds.co.uk/sonos-era-line-in-adapter

17 hours ago, SteveTheElder said:

Could this work?

https://www.smarthomesounds.co.uk/sonos-era-line-in-adapter

Possibly but you wouldnt get all the album info and full control via the car stereo?

17 hours ago, RADIOTWO said:

That's old technology, its all done wireless now, so you can do it via Bluetooth, or what i do is put the tracks on a SD card and then just plug in the usb socket 

Not a fan of wireless, would much prefer a cable. I did actually put all my music on an SD card before and plugged it into the SD slot on the car - but I found when playing music the first second or two of the track would be silent, pretty annoying. The car was brand new and I reported it to the dealer....you can imagine their response lol.

 

If I got a 30 pin - USB adapter, would that work? Does the new Octavian have a "USB in" function?

My 71 plate has a USB data source which I have used to access music stored on my files (as data and not played by the phone).  The 30 pin to USB cable should allow access to the iPod if it can see the music as stored files.

42 minutes ago, RobL50 said:

My 71 plate has a USB data source which I have used to access music stored on my files (as data and not played by the phone).  The 30 pin to USB cable should allow access to the iPod if it can see the music as stored files.

Sounds exactly what I'm looking for thanks

4 hours ago, chelon said:

Not a fan of wireless, would much prefer a cable. I did actually put all my music on an SD card before and plugged it into the SD slot on the car - but I found when playing music the first second or two of the track would be silent, pretty annoying. The car was brand new and I reported it to the dealer....you can imagine their response lol.

 

If I got a 30 pin - USB adapter, would that work? Does the new Octavian have a "USB in" function?

What is your concern about Bluetooth ?

I plugged my iPod classic in to one of the usb ports and it didn’t recognise any music on it, i think you’ll need to put it all on a usb pen instead. 
 

you can use software like media monkey to write all the album covers etc and titles to the USB stick, then you can browse it perfectly well on the media display much like the iPod would have. 
 

i tend to use the genre as a shortcut, if you make all artists beginning with an “a” as genre “a” and all artists beginning with “b” as genre “b” and so on, it can make looking for what you want a bit quicker, as you just pick the genre search function,  otherwise you have to search from the beginning artist every time and scroll all the way down. 
 

it’s pretty good system when you work around it’s quirks, voice commands even works on it. 

 

or just get Spotify.

18 hours ago, Benjybobs said:

I plugged my iPod classic in to one of the usb ports and it didn’t recognise any music on it, i think you’ll need to put it all on a usb pen instead. 
 

you can use software like media monkey to write all the album covers etc and titles to the USB stick, then you can browse it perfectly well on the media display much like the iPod would have. 
 

i tend to use the genre as a shortcut, if you make all artists beginning with an “a” as genre “a” and all artists beginning with “b” as genre “b” and so on, it can make looking for what you want a bit quicker, as you just pick the genre search function,  otherwise you have to search from the beginning artist every time and scroll all the way down. 
 

it’s pretty good system when you work around it’s quirks, voice commands even works on it. 

 

or just get Spotify.

Seems feasible but for me I'm adding to the music on the iPod all the time so would need more housekeeping - ideal solution would be to get the existing iPod working as it does now but I may need to go down the USB or SD card route.

 

My current car has as Sd slot - does the Mk4?

19 hours ago, RADIOTWO said:

What is your concern about Bluetooth ?

Basically I'm old school 😁

 

But seriously I just don't trust bluetooth in general,eg:-

pairing issues

connections dropping

various issues when using my iphone via bluetooth in the car, eg you're listening to some content on eg facebook and out of the blue a podcast or tunein radio will jump in and start playing, even though they're not even showing as open on the phone

 

I accept that the last issue may be more an iphone issue rather than BT but all I can say is it only happens when I'm in the car on BT and never happens anywhere else.

 

I just like to minimise potential stuff that could go wrong and a cable connection seems nice and simple

4 hours ago, chelon said:

My current car has as Sd slot - does the Mk4?

 

Nope.

Just USB-C ports; the two in the front console are for charging and media, any in the rear and the one by the mirror for charging only. A simple USB-C - USB-A adapter may well be enough, depends on whether the car sees the iPod as a media source (which IIRC, the iPod can be setup to emulate a USB drive so should work OK).

On 20/01/2025 at 17:02, SteveTheElder said:

 

Nope.

Just USB-C ports; the two in the front console are for charging and media, any in the rear and the one by the mirror for charging only. A simple USB-C - USB-A adapter may well be enough, depends on whether the car sees the iPod as a media source (which IIRC, the iPod can be setup to emulate a USB drive so should work OK).

Sounds like a plan thanks Steve

That’s a shame - I think this must be the first car I’ve had where the USB ports don’t support the iPod, even over the USB to 30pin. I was dead pleased our current model Volvo still supports it. 
 

That said, BT and CarPlay have been rock solid for me, and I’ve ended up using PlexAmp to play all the iPod library stored at home, which works fantastically. 

On 19/01/2025 at 17:11, RADIOTWO said:

What is your concern about Bluetooth ?

I've got the new car now and when I play video from my iPhone 11 via Bluetooth the audio is about 1/2 a second behind the video - just another reason for me to dislike BT as well as the reasons already stated

Got the new Mk4 Octy now, findings:-

Wont pair with the old iPod via bluetooth - iPod runs v2.1 and car needs 4.1 I believe.

I then got a usb-c to usb-A converter and plugged the iPod into a media socket. Result☠️

Sorry, USB device is not supported.

I see this https://www.rockbox.org/

Which seems to present the iPod as media - anyone know if this will make it visible to the car?

Alternatively I think I'm looking at a usb-c stick and Media Monkey as mentioned above

On 07/03/2025 at 14:50, chelon said:

Got the new Mk4 Octy now, findings:-

Wont pair with the old iPod via bluetooth - iPod runs v2.1 and car needs 4.1 I believe.

I then got a usb-c to usb-A converter and plugged the iPod into a media socket. Result☠️

Sorry, USB device is not supported.

I see this https://www.rockbox.org/

Which seems to present the iPod as media - anyone know if this will make it visible to the car?

Alternatively I think I'm looking at a usb-c stick and Media Monkey as mentioned above

I believe rockbox will display as mass storage which the car should read - although at that stage you may as well just put it on a cheap USB stick and save the cycles on the ageing iPods battery.

Sorry, why don’t you just put the music in your phone, and use CarPlay. It will work perfectly.

My old Subaru had a 30pin to hardwired input and my wife still has an iPod nano plugged into a media port in the glovebox of her Polo GTI.

In the end you can only resist the march of progress so much. Get Apple Music or Spotify and excellent wireless CarPlay system. Or if you have a large amount of hand curated tracks, put them on your iPhone.

Edited 11 March, 20251 yr by whippersnapper

On 11/03/2025 at 19:06, whippersnapper said:

Sorry, why don’t you just put the music in your phone, and use CarPlay. It will work perfectly.

My old Subaru had a 30pin to hardwired input and my wife still has an iPod nano plugged into a media port in the glovebox of her Polo GTI.

In the end you can only resist the march of progress so much. Get Apple Music or Spotify and excellent wireless CarPlay system. Or if you have a large amount of hand curated tracks, put them on your iPhone.

My 64GB phone is quite full and I've got about 45GB of music on the iPod - I tried Spotify in the car today and was quite impressed by the sound quality.

But I do have a lot of "curated" stuff on the ipod lol. So what I will probably do is dump it on a USB stick and also use Spotify etc when needed.

8 minutes ago, chelon said:

My 64GB phone is quite full and I've got about 45GB of music on the iPod - I tried Spotify in the car today and was quite impressed by the sound quality.

But I do have a lot of "curated" stuff on the ipod lol. So what I will probably do is dump it on a USB stick and also use Spotify etc when needed.

I’d give Apple Music a try too as the audio quality is higher than Spotify

Edited 13 March, 20251 yr by whippersnapper

So I've found that the usb-c port does indeed work if I put all my music on a stick.

Now, next problem lol. I need to get a new stick as my biggest is only 32GB and I'm gonna need double that. Also as I see it a traditional usb stick (ie long and thin) is pretty vulnerable plugged into a tiny usb-c socket next to an area that passengers are gonna throw keys etc into.

So I'll be looking for a flatter squarer shape hopefully that will be more robust.

Can see this one but it's not usb-c and Sandisk don't do one yet, anyone suggest anything? Double ended usb-c and a would be ideal

https://www.amazon.co.uk/SanDisk-reversible-connectors-smartphones-computers/dp/B01M0QR22B?th=1

I got one of these USB-C card reader adaptors and a 128Gb MicroSD card. It takes up little space and works!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Integral-Reader-Adapter-microSDHC-microSDXC/dp/B07RY36LB4

Edited 19 March, 20251 yr by jay982bea
Added wrong link initially

17 hours ago, chelon said:

Can see this one but it's not usb-c and Sandisk don't do one yet

Keep searching, there's definitely a usb-C & usb-A version - since I have it in my car - also a Sandisk IIRC. Unfortunately I don't have a link for you, since I have it from a local online seller, more than 2 years ago.

L.E.:
I was wrong, it's actually a Kingston. I love the shape - very compact for a double connector; here it is:
https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-microduo-3c-g3

Edited 20 March, 20251 yr by SkOmk4

16 hours ago, jay982bea said:

I got one of these USB-C card reader adaptors and a 128Gb MicroSD card. It takes up little space and works!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Integral-Reader-Adapter-microSDHC-microSDXC/dp/B07RY36LB4

That's interesting, as I already have a 64GB card that I used in the old car - but it's still the long skinny shape - if anyone knocked it getting into the car etc it could well wreck the connector and even worse the socket - maybe I'm worrying too much but the older mini and micro USB sockets were murder for withstanding knocks, I'm not sure if usb-c is any better, it certainly looks fragile enough

6 hours ago, SkOmk4 said:

Keep searching, there's definitely a usb-C & usb-A version - since I have it in my car - also a Sandisk IIRC. Unfortunately I don't have a link for you, since I have it from a local online seller, more than 2 years ago.

L.E.:
I was wrong, it's actually a Kingston. I love the shape - very compact for a double connector; here it is:
https://www.kingston.com/en/usb-flash-drives/datatraveler-microduo-3c-g3

Thanks that's a bit more like what I'm after - is that a female usb-a though? I'd ideally like a male so I could plug into the old pc for copying the music across