How to play songs from phones through Android car stereo?

February 15, 2019 2:56 PM

Today my husband installed a new 'Xtrons Android 7.1' car stereo, which he bought on ebay, in his car. The stereo came with a user manual, but it's very short on actual instructions. The stereo plays radio stations ok. It is mostly ignoring our phones.

We've gone through the process of pairing each of our phones with the stereo and it seems to work - the car unit shows the names of the phones, and the phones recognise the stereo, calling it carKit_blink.
At this point the manual just says 'After the Bluetooth connection is established, you can play music stored in your Bluetooth device on this unit.'
'At first, you need to operate the music playback on your Bluetooth device. Then you can operate the Bluetooth music on the unit.'

The manual has no more instructions to offer.

My phone is a Nokia. It will play music stored on it through its own speaker while Bluetooth paired to the car stereo. Nothing happens on the 'Music' screen on the car stereo.

My husband's phone is an Iphone. Nothing even comes out of its own speakers when he tries to play it through the car stereo (the phone screen looks as though music is playing), and again nothing happens on the Xtrons.

The 'Music' screen on the Xtrons has options - Playlist, USB, iNand. Nothing happens whichever one you choose (I have tried attaching my phone to the stereo with USB and it did download my contacts (eventually, after enabling 'Developer options' in the phone) - but it still wouldn't play music).

The Xtrons is also supposed to play music from SD cards but we haven't tried that yet.


I hope someone can tell us what embarassingly obvious thing we aren't doing!

posted by tulipwool to Technology (4 answers total)

Embarrassingly obvious question #1: What’s the volume setting on the phone, and on the stereo? In my car each is controlled separately, so I turn the phone volume all the way up (this does not affect its volume for other configurations).
posted by Huffy Puffy at 4:44 PM on February 15, 2019

Came in to say what Huffy Puffy said. Are you sure the volume is turned up? I assume so, since you say the radio is working, but just in case, check the volume on your phone.

Also, some Android phones (all?) can only be connected to one bluetooth thing at a time, even though all will appear in the list. Is it possible the signal is being sent to something else -- like a speaker in the house if the car is close enough, etc?

I will say that on my own phone, which is a Samsung, music does not come out of the phone's speaker when it's connected to something else on Bluetooth. Are you sure they're paired? (If you go into the bluetooth settings of the phone, you should see a list of bluetooth devices. Click on the car stereo text and see what happens.)
posted by dobbs at 7:30 PM on February 15, 2019

Also: Youtube.
posted by dobbs at 7:34 PM on February 15, 2019

On my Android phone, when I access the Bluetooth screen, it lists the devices it's been paired with, and tells me if it's actively connected to one of them. (Yes, it only does one at a time.) If the list doesn't say it's connected to my car, then it isn't, and won't send music to it. If your phone lists the radio, but doesn't say it's connected, try clicking on the radio in the list. It should then say "Connecting," and try to connect. If it doesn't connect, then you probably have to set up the connection with a password on either the phone or the radio. (Usually, it's the radio password you have to enter in the phone.) Delete the radio ftom the list, and pair it again, watching for any password prompts.

Have you searched online for a user guide for the radio? Often device makers put all the useful information in such a document, but they don't always tell you it exists on the stuff in the box.
posted by Kirth Gerson at 4:22 AM on February 16, 2019