bluetooth music issues after iOS6 update

Missing the point. AVRCP is a protocol with requirements, one of which is backward compatibility. When a provider moves to the next iteration of the standard, they must maintain backward compatibility. That means it is apple's fault, not Mazda. Why is that so hard to understand? Mazda can certainly update there firmware to work on 1.4, but they would be soon that out of the goodness of their hearts for their customers, not because it is their fault.

Time will tell. The device manufacturers and Apple should have more thoroughly tested the device and OS compatibility. The betas have been available for awhile. We may, honestly, never know where the technical fault lies. It may be that both messed up in some way. Or one or the other. Bottom line, they are working on it and it'll almost definitely get fixed.

Backwards compatibility isn't quite as simple as simply supporting the older tech. Sometimes the handshake fails because one or the other doesn't allow for the logic of a *newer* version of the tech. So the steps then required to fall back to older versions fail as well. I don't know - only the engineers specifically involved can know what's happening.

It's not unheard of (actually, it occurs more than I would like) for Apple's updates (or anyone else's) to expose a previously unrecognized flaw or bug in someone else's system. It's almost guaranteed to happen somewhere somehow. And despite this, there are car stereo systems that are working fine with iOS 6. What's the difference? I don't know. We won't know until updates are out, and maybe not even then.

Yes, the feature broke when Apple updated to iOS 6. With a new OS version, there are always bugs. Some will get you, some will get someone else. This is a very frustrating one, since it was a feature that worked fine. I haven't updated my iPad to iOS 6 for this specific reason, but I will be. My iPhone 5 however, is a problem, and I don't know what stereo to install in my car yet.

It shouldn't have happened. I think we can all agree on that. All we can do is push all parties to fix it.

So I do some pushing:

Same thing here with a iPhone 4s, iOS6 using either a Logitech Wireless Speaker Adapter and a Plantronics Backbeat 903+.

Apart from many other disimprovements at iOS6, this is by far the one that ***** on a daily basis!

It sounds like I have the least of the problems. My only issues are the meta tags gone and control gone. I have not been affected on the call function, it will connect fine and have audio and I can get my address book, which doubled in size after iOS 6 and facebook. I don have any issues with drops, weird sounds, or anything else. Of course, I have disconnected the connection and deleted it on both the phone and unit, then reconnected from the phone, I don't know if there was any other problems before doing that, I did not test that.

I know what you mean by everything just working, I have dealt with many used or dirt cheap new electronics for years which were terrible. Recently I have replaced most of it with expensive new electronics, so much better, last thing to go is my TV.

Dr Agonlord wrote:

so what have we gained with the upgrade?

For AVRCP 1.4, the standard provides for browsing of multiple media players and basic search capabilities - but it's unknown whether iOS uses those capabilities.

Quoting Wikipedia:

Audio/Video Remote Control Profile (AVRCP)

This profile is designed to provide a standard interface to control TVs, Hi-fi equipment, etc. to allow a single remote control (or other device) to control all of the A/V equipment to which a user has access. It may be used in concert with A2DP or VDP.

It has the possibility for vendor-dependent extensions.

AVRCP has several versions with significantly increasing functionality:

• 1.0—Basic remote control commands (play/pause/stop, etc.)
• 1.3—all of 1.0 plus metadata and media-player state support
  • The status of the music source (playing, stopped, etc.)
  • Metadata information on the track itself (artist, track name, etc.).
• 1.4—all of 1.0, 1.3, plus media browsing capabilities for multiple media players
  • Browsing and manipulation of multiple players
  • Browsing of media metadata per media player, including a "Now Playing" list
  • Basic search capabilities

F this. wrote:

I hate to say it, but Apple is really being a bully with their products! They are not playing nicely together at ALL since this latest update...no google maps, no YouTube, and now--no Alpine Bluetooth control! iOS5 works fine with my brand new Alpine CDE-hd138--but iOS6 completely blows.

I'm guessing that you only hate to say it because this is just the first time you've been affected by it. But Apple screws over large portions of their customer base all the time. Sometimes the breaking change is more justified than others, like when a new OS is fundamentally incompatible with old hardware but the OS is significantly better because of the new hardware. In this case with Bluetooth compatibility I haven't yet seen any evidence that the breaking change was necessary in order to support enhanced functionality. And for what it's worth, I don't consider "being up to date with the current standard" to be an example of enhanced functionality. In fact, in my case and many others it's quite the opposite.

The standard is backwards compatible.

However the vendor's implementation may not be.

That's one reason why many newer headends are having no issues compared to those that have been out for a few years.

clsebrown wrote:

I dont think anybody is asking apple to go backwards, but backwards compatability is expected for current 2012 HU's!

For most, they already are, or firmware updates are in progress by the headend vendors.

For example, iOS 6 devices have no issues with current Microsoft SYNC systems in Ford products, for better or worse.

All, really sorry about this, but please ignore my post above (made on Oct 26 @ 9:48 am). It turns out the 'set up as new' process did not improve the behaviour of my iPhone 5 with the Parrot. The behaviour is really odd. If I turn on my car stereo and pair for the first time in hours, I won't get a proper connection with controls and track info. I can then disconnect the bluetooth connection and reconnect and it will resume with proper functioning. If I then turn my stereo off (turn the car off) and turn it back on, I'll get proper functioning from the get go. This will happen no matter how many times I turn it off and back on. However, if I then leave my car for hours, do a bunch of things with my iPhone and come back to the car and turn turn the stereo on and connect, the control and track info are missing again and I have to disconnect the bluetooth connection and reconnect to get proper functioning. I guess this is a lesson in what can happen when you rely on devices for fringe uses, i.e. those of us that rely on the iPhone for bluetooth car stereo music streaming are by far the minority of iPhone users (probably less than 5%) and Apple can afford to make us unhappy to accomodate their own agenda regarding other features. The rumous is that the bluetooth chip they're using is not a standard bluetooth chip but rather a new chip that better suits Apple's needs for airstream. Lesson learned. Perhaps a future jailbreak app will deal with this.

In case some of you haven't, please let Apple know how you feel about this issue via their feedback page. They don't always pay attention to these boards. At least if they get flooded with feedback (officially) they 'may' pay attention.

www.apple.com/feedback

Good news for one piece of hardware.

My Kenwood KDC-X696 works beautifully with an iPhone 4 (iOS 5 and iOS 6), iPad 3 (iOS 5), and iPhone 5 on iOS6.

This includes the USB jack via my USB to Lightning adapter and also by Bluetooth. Placing calls (from phone or stereo), receiving calls (from phone or stereo), looking up the address book on the stereo, Bluetooth audio for music (with track information and the head controls the playlist fine), music via the USB jack (controlled by the head) with track information, and other audio over USB or Bluetooth which includes map guidance by Apple's Maps and Navigon. It also charges over USB to the 30 pin adapter or the Lightning adapter.

I recently chose this stereo for an older car because Kenwood's site specifically lists it as compatible with iPhone 4 and iPhone 5 and iOS 6 over USB and Bluetooth. Some of Kenwood's stereos are listed as incompatible, and most of those are described as relying on Parrot for Bluetooth connectivity (The KDC-X696 is described on Kenwood's site as using their own firmware, not Parrot). I think that's an underlying theme with other manufacturers and car companies.

Anyway, I wish all of the stereos worked, but this one is working fine if anyone is looking for one that works as expected. Pioneer's site also lists which stereos are compatible, and I would like to assume it's accurate.

I have a similar problem with Alpine CDE-133BT and iPhone 4s and 5 since iOS 6.0.1:

the specification in the Alpine CDE-133BT user manual regarding iPhone are NOT respected.

Only the "Pause and Playback" botton on the Alpine CDE-133BT is able control the iPhone.

The other bottons (Selecting the desired song, Random Play Shuffle and Repeat Play) are NOT able to control the iPhone.

It is very difficult and dangerous to use the system while driving!

Contrary to popular belief, the problem is apparently known in the wider community:

http://www.t3.com/news/apple-users-experience-bluetooth-problems-with-ios-6

I reckon the problem is that there are a lot of different threads.

I'll try to put a link to this discussion into the others I might find.

Contacting someome at an Apple blog might also be a good idea.

Message was edited by: Saphod

I understand AVRCP. What you don't understand is that Apple didn't implement it correctly. That is why it doesn't work reliably and/or consistently with brand-new devices, which you seem to have overlooked. I'm getting the same inconsistent pairing and song choppiness that everyone else is seeing. Sometimes it refuses to pair at all, for days, then it magically re-appears. This is 2012. That shouldn't happen.

A fanboy is a fanboy. People don't complain because they're "doing something wrong". Bluetooth either works reliably, or it doesn't. A user isn't "doing something wrong" when an iPhone won't pair with a brand-new Bluetooth headset or audio system, especially when any new Android device will. Blaming the user makes you look like a fanboy - or, worse, an Apple employee who a) refuses to believe anything is wrong, or b) actually do something about it and admit (GASP) guilt.

But thank you for your rock-solid refusal to listen to the complaints objectively. You're right. My next phone will be a Sansung Galaxy SIII or a Motorola Razr Maxx, since my neighbor's Galaxy SIII connects and works perfectly in both of our Fords, every time they get in the car. *Perfectly*.

iOS 6.0.1 is filled with Bluetooth bugs. End of story. But I let's revisit this thread when (and if) Apple does quietly release a fix, shall we?

deepcover wrote:

Based on Apples statement, it seems like the fault lies with the manufacturers, although I agree with you that the fact that the stereo engineers are fixing it is not proof that it's their fault.

True, but by the same token Apple does fix bugs, so manufacturers wouldn't develop firmware updates to work around things Apple may have fixed by the time they ever released their software fix.