I've got an iPod classic that holds my entire music library, and always stays connected in my car. Been doing this with the last 10+ cars I've owned.

When I was shopping for a head unit for my current car, I called Pioneer to ensure I wouldn't have a conflict leaving the iPod classic connected via USB, while my iPhone is connected via BT. Was told it would be no issue, so I bought the NEX5000. (Note that I have no interest in using any of the apps in the car.....the phone is only connected to place / receive calls.)

After I first installed it, everything was fine, aside from having to replace my iPod classic with a later model. The one I was using was an "unsupported" version, which worked for the most part. The only issue was that every time I played it, it would start at a random song. It eventually annoyed me enough to buy a newer model.

I've recently started having an issue with this set up. When I start the car, it doesn't recognize the iPod at all. Not only does the NEX not connect to the iPod, it completely freezes it up. I have to disconnect the iPod and do a hard reset on it. After doing that and reconnecting it, it will work fine. (With my phone still connected via BT)

This MAY have started happening with the 8.3 update on the iPhone. I'm not 100% sure when it started, but it was within the last week or two.

I called Pioneer tech support yesterday, and their answer was just short of "too bad, live with it." The guy I spoke to told me that the NEX can't try and connect to two Apple devices at the same time, and that this wasn't new with 8.3. I explained that it had been working for a few months, which he didn't seem to care about. He told me that the only option was to disconnect the iPod every time I shut off the car, and reconnect it after the NEX powers up when I start the car.

This obviously isn't a good option, and really annoys me, since I specifically confirmed this would work before buying the NEX. I couldn't care less about car play or other apps. All I want to do is have navigation, BT for phone calls, and be able to play my iPod.

Anyone else run into this issue? Any ideas on what to try?

I had something similar happen with a different HU a few year ago.  It had nothing whatsoever to do with what phone I was connecting via BT.  It turned out that the ipod was dying...

Try taking your ipod out of the car, and just leaving it unplugged from anything for a couple of hours.  Then go back and see if pressing on control buttons (menu, whatever) to "wake up" the ipod works properly.  If not, it's the iPod.

In my case, it would bring up the ipod in either a "battery is too low" state, or with a message saying I had to plug it into a computer to restore the ipod s/w.

Good luck,

Gary

Thanks - the thought did cross my mind that this iPod could be dying, since I bought it used. I did a restore on it today, and will leave it out of the car and mess around with it over the next day or two to see if acts up. In the meantime, I plugged a Nano into the car to see if that has any of the issues that the classic did.