Help me get out of Bluetooth purgatory
November 28, 2022 10:16 PM Subscribe
My iphone's Bluetooth connection with my car has been mostly fine over the years. Every so often it did something weird, where the two things seemed to have some kind of miscommunication, but a few days later sorted itself out without me having to do anything. Now it seems to have gone totally buggy and I don't know what else to try.
The normal sequence of events would be:
1. Start car
2. Car detects my phone
3. Playlist is displayed on the screen in the console
4. Music starts playing automatically
5. I can select or skip songs using the car's audio controls
Now it goes like this:
1. Start car
2. Car detects my phone
3. Playlist is displayed on the screen in the console
4. Music does not start playing
5. None of the car's audio controls work, the only way I can play songs or navigate through my playlist is from my phone's music app
Or variations where it goes wrong at different points, such as:
3. Playlist takes forever to load on the screen in the console
4. Music does not start playing
5. I can scroll through the playlist using my car's audio controls, but when I try to select a song to start playing or skip to the next song, nothing happens
Or:
3. Playlist does not display at all
4. I cannot get any music to play, not even using my phone's music app
The bizarre thing is that I can consistently get Google Maps to work via the Bluetooth interface. I start the navigation on my phone and the audio comes through the car's speakers just fine.
I've tried disconnecting the Bluetooth, telling my phone to "Forget this device (my car)" and reconnecting, restarting my phone, etc. Any ideas what might be causing this or how I can further troubleshoot?
Bonus points for anyone who can explain to me why this technology is so goddamn fickle. How does it work fine one day and suddenly stop working the next?
The normal sequence of events would be:
1. Start car
2. Car detects my phone
3. Playlist is displayed on the screen in the console
4. Music starts playing automatically
5. I can select or skip songs using the car's audio controls
Now it goes like this:
1. Start car
2. Car detects my phone
3. Playlist is displayed on the screen in the console
4. Music does not start playing
5. None of the car's audio controls work, the only way I can play songs or navigate through my playlist is from my phone's music app
Or variations where it goes wrong at different points, such as:
3. Playlist takes forever to load on the screen in the console
4. Music does not start playing
5. I can scroll through the playlist using my car's audio controls, but when I try to select a song to start playing or skip to the next song, nothing happens
Or:
3. Playlist does not display at all
4. I cannot get any music to play, not even using my phone's music app
The bizarre thing is that I can consistently get Google Maps to work via the Bluetooth interface. I start the navigation on my phone and the audio comes through the car's speakers just fine.
I've tried disconnecting the Bluetooth, telling my phone to "Forget this device (my car)" and reconnecting, restarting my phone, etc. Any ideas what might be causing this or how I can further troubleshoot?
Bonus points for anyone who can explain to me why this technology is so goddamn fickle. How does it work fine one day and suddenly stop working the next?
Do you have another Bluetooth device (like wireless earbuds) that might be trying to connect to the phone at the same time?
posted by aught at 8:40 AM on November 29, 2022
posted by aught at 8:40 AM on November 29, 2022
This thread is closed to new comments.
Sometimes I can fix it by just syncing the phone Bluetooth again -- just pressing the car's Bluetooth ID. (My kingdom for the ability to rename the Bluetooth identification!!)
Other times, I've had to turn the car on and off again to reset CarPlay.
As a ditch effort, I delete the car and reconnect. However, I thought I would have to do that just yesterday but then when I got back in the car, it was fine. I really think it's gremlins.
There has only been one episode where I had to do a hard reboot on my phone AND delete the car to get it to work, but that is when I switched the phones over. I think that it was just an issue with weird tech glitchiness.
FWIW, I have an iPhone 14 Pro and a 2020 Mini Cooper S.
I've noticed this is happening a lot less often with the iPhone 14 than when I had the iPhone XR.
posted by dancinglamb at 3:20 AM on November 29, 2022