2018 CX-5 - USB - playing music problem
 

Searched the forums, can't find a definitive answer.

5 years with ZERO problems playing music in my 2018 CX-5. Using two thumdbrives, one in each USB port. Haven't touched them in months. No issues at all. Suddenly, two days ago, every time you shut the car off and turn it back on, the music does NOT start from the last track played, it starts playing the first song in the library, and it's not even a song in any playlist folder. Also, the REPEAT gets turned on and the SHUFFLE turned off, exactly the opposite of how I always have it. Happens every time.

After starting the car, I now have to select a playlist, drill down to a folder, select a song, turn off REPEAT, turn on SHUFFLE, but as soon as the car is shut off and restarted, it begins at Track 1 again, REPEAT is on, SHUFFLE off, and you have to go through the whole ordeal again. Just started happening out of the clear blue. I did the "reset" thing of holding down three buttons, the system rebooted, but did not fix the problem. I did the system refresh (Gracenote) and it says there are no updates.

Very annoying. The infotainment system was SO reliable until now. After doing some research I found this was a "known" issue with Mazdas that would rear its ugly head after so many years.

Does anyone have a solution please?

I have had a similar issue on other cars. I could reformat the USB drive and reload the music to make it work again.

Unfortunately it's not the formatting. I put in a completely different thumbdrive I had never used before, loaded it with just 20 songs, same problem.

A few things you can try.

Disconnect (for several minutes) and reconnect the 12V battery.
Update the infotainment firmware.

I'm suddenly having the same issue with my 2017 CX-5. I've had different issues with it in the past and I've reinstalled the firmware. That might fix this issue for you. It did for me. Follow the instructions here.

Things to try for USB stick issues 2020 CX-5
 

I found two things to try when deal with Infotain Center and USB stick playing issues. Discovered these while fixing my USB stick where when shut off car and then restart it always starts playing first tune in first folder:
1. It resolved when I inserted the stick into my number 1 port (on 2020 this is also the "data" port where they recommend plugging in phone if going to interact with the phone and infotain system rather than just charging/powering it). As soon as I switched my stick from port 2 to port1 my system remembered what song left off at upon restarting car. I guess it makes sense since the card is relaying music data files? Try it. Not sure why there was no issue when you used 2 sticks plugged in. You may have to just use 1 stick.

2. I researched and found that on these 6th gen infotain centers that if you press Back/Nav/Mute buttons together for 10 secs it will do a soft reboot of info system with car running. This helped with laggy performance issues. Some say it doesnt work on 2020 but it did on mine.

Thanks for the feedback. The Back/Nav/Mute buttons soft reset does nothing, I've tried that a few times. I do not have a data port, just two USB ports.

Really hate to pay $$$ to have the dealer "fix" this glitch. We have an extended warranty, but that has a $100 deductible. Not sure if this is something that should be a no-charge fix or something all Mazda owners just have to endure.

How is the firmware updated, and does that too cost $$$ too? I watched a video and it looked like it was $300 for a firmware update.

We don't want Apple Play, we just want our USB sticks to play the way they did for the past 5 years.

I followed the link, did the update as per instructions, everything went perfectly. The database updated, took about 8 minutes.

Unfortunately it did nothing for my problem. Same issue. As soon as I access either USB stick, the Repeat button is automatically on, the Shuffle button is automatically off, and it plays the first track.

Darn! I was sure that was going to help. I always follow the instructions for disabling Gracenote because that's the only way to get it to show the metadata on my tracks. That probably wouldn't solve your problem, but who knows? Did you try reformatting the stick? Sometimes something as minor as that can help.

The infotainment system is clearly flakey. And they're not going to make any more updates because they've moved on to a whole new system on the newer cars. There's no money in improving it for older customers.

Yes, I've cleared both USB sticks twice, reformatted them, and reloaded with different songs. I've tried creating different folders, playlists, nothing seems to work. Even tried a completely different stick with just 15 songs.

As soon as you access it, the Repeat button comes on, the Shuffle button is off, and it plays track 1.

My OS is 59.00.546, and now my Music Database is 12.00.003.