bluetooth music issues after iOS6 update

Hi People,

Last night I found that Clarion has released updates for their NX702, NX702E, NX702A navigation units.

At this stage I can only see that the NX702(E/A) shows the following:

"5) A2DP and AVRCP behavior with iOS6"

I'm sure they will release updates for their other products soon.

Go to their web page (for your local country) and click on support. You'll see software updates NX702(E/A) on the lower right hand side.

I updated my NX702A (Australia) last night. The process wasn't the easiest as it took about 30mins all up. Note: you need a blank microSD + blank USB drive

Now I have all of my Bluetooth functions back including all track information & control from the unit!

Thank you Clarion!!!!!

This whole thread is so laughable. Fanboys insisting that the manufactures have not kept up. All BS.

Sorry Apple implemented a non standard bluetooth protocol. Plain and simple. Some Car manufacturers and radio units are buckeling to Apple and releasing firmware updates because they dont want their owners to be left out while others see it as it is Apples problem. How can I say this?

As a developer I tested iOS 6 with my Ford Sync system and it worked flawlessly all the way through Beta 2. The day I updated to iOS6 release it stopped working completely. So even if a car or stereo manufacturer had the code "months in advance" it would have done them no good because there was a fundamental change in the bluetooth protocol in the release version.

Add to this that both Ford and Dodge both have determined that is due to Apples use of a non standard bluetooth protocol through their own testing.

Oh and after sending an email to Tim Cooks office I have had several phone calls from engineers wanting logs from my phone or wanting me to try certain things to get it to work and give them resulting screen shots of errors not only on my iPhone but my car unit as well...sooo Going by anotheer posters comment that manufacturers wouldnt be putting time into it if it wasnt their fault, explain why Apple is putting time into little ol me, if they dont see it as at least somewhat their problem....Fanboy William???

List of Pioneer units and the upgrades available for EU devices:

http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/support/software/tax/946/page.html

IOS6 Compatability updates were released from the following units:

4th time is the charm I guess. Used a bluetooth USB on my old laptop with Windows XP. The 1st time using this method, the Pioneer unit got hung up (more than 10 minutes). Tried it again, and it finally worked! The unit will say "Updating". When it worked it only took less than a minute, and said "Completed".

Now I get autoconnect, and the unit will display the song information. Unlike the previously when I basically had to start playing the song via iPhone and the unit couldn't read the song info.

Thanks to concreteBAMF for the help!

really a couple of weeks does not mean much, I talked to pioneer days after the release of iOS 6, the said it would be a few weeks for the firmware update for me to fix the issue, here we are 5 months later they released it for europe, and US is a month or 2 away. I wish they would have told me straight up it would take a long time, I would have returned the less then 2 week old stereo and paid more for the new 2013 model that works perfectly and works with iPhone 5.

So just to bring everyone up to speed so they don't have to go through hundreds of replys, the issue is that when Apple released the IOS 6 they built the bluetooth to be 4.0 compliant, however they did not build it backwards compatable, so any device that is not 4.0 compatible is subjetc to expeprience any number of problems. This is not just iPhone 5 it covers the 3/4 series as well.

Some of the things that are being seen is:

1. unable to connect to bluetooth devices (headsest, car head units earhones etc... not limited to any particular brand, my issue is with a 4s and a oioneer head unit.)

2. if it does connect then it stops playing or "Skips"

3. very poor sound quality

4. on partial functionality (in my case it will connect but when streaming music i can play the song but have no controls to play/pause skip forward/backward or any music ID tagging display like name or artist of the song)

Currently Apple refuses to even acknowledge there is a problem (this has been going on since IOS 6 was released in September)

Apple response is you need to update your devie to be 4.0 compliant, even if that means that your 2012 BWM does not work, I gues you need to buy a new BWM again the issue is all over the place with many different vendors.

For me personally the bluetooth phone part works better than the streaming audio I have to about twice a week delte the pairing from both the iPhone and the head unit for the blue tooth to finally connect for phone part. I dont even try the audion streaming any more. The head unit i have is a pioneer 2012 model pioneer avh-p8400bh and poineer is working on updates from thier side although that seems to have stopped as well.

I have opened a case back in September and have called several times and each time I am told that they (apple) are not seeing hardly any problems with the bluetooth audio and that it is most likely my device.

I know this is not a comforting response but may help some of the new people on here. Several people have suggested that we go to W.A.T.C.D.O.G and report it there to see if they added pressue will help out casue. I personally have done so.

Thanks for the help all. I can say that I have successfully upgraded my Pioneer AVH-2400BT using the european firmware and my macbook air. Here's my procedure:

Clear bluetooth settings in AVH

Pair Macbook air with AVH

Under the bluetooth dropdown on the mac select the AVH>"Browse device"

You'll get a window that has the "upgrade" folder in it. Navigate to the folder

***Important step here***

I kept getting failed uploads here when I'd drag and drop into the upgrade folder. The key is to now go back to the AVH>Home>Settings>Upgrade bluetooth firmware. Click "ok" and it will now say "Waiting for Data" or something like that. Drag and drop the firmware file now into the upgrade folder.

****

Upload takes a few seconds and then about 2-3 minutes for the firmware to update.

Cycle power on the AVH

Repair your iPhone now.

I had to go into bluetooth devices under the AVH settings and reclick my iPhone device to get the audio working right. After that, I'm getting all metadata and streaming with itunes app and Pandora.

Adding in -

Just got off the phone with Pioneer customer support and they are planning on releasing updates "by this spring" for all units that remaing effected" and are listed on this compatibility report.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/StaticFiles/PUSA/Images/In-Content%20Images/Ap ple/Pioneeriphonecompatibilitychart.pdf

And now we wait....

darrelm_1967 wrote:

So just to bring everyone up to speed so they don't have to go through hundreds of replys, the issue is that when Apple released the IOS 6 they built the bluetooth to be 4.0 compliant, however they did not build it backwards compatable, so any device that is not 4.0 compatible is subjetc to expeprience any number of problems. This is not just iPhone 5 it covers the 3/4 series as well.

This is incorrect. The BT 4.0 standard is backward compatible with BT 2.1 if the BT 2.1 handler is truly compliant with the BT 2.1 standard. Unfortunately, some, but certainly not all, BT 2.1 implementations did not fully adhere to the 2.1 standard. This causes problems when they are used with any BT 4.0 implementation. Note thatt many BT 2.1 implementations have no problem with iOS 6 and BT 4.0. Clearly users in this state with no problems aren't posting on this forum.

Note also that iOS 6 only uses BT 4.0 on iDevices which have BT 4.0 hardware: iPhone 4S, iPhone 5, iPad 3, iPad 4, iPad Mini, and iPod Touch 5.

Some vendors are well aware that they have a problem with BT 2.1 vs BT 4.0 and are, slowly, correcting this.

OK So it looks like Pioneer has finally released the Bluetooth Firmware Update for 2012 Headunits to fix the bluetooth issues with iPhone 5 and iOS6 devices. I have yet to test this out myself since I'm at work. But when I get home I'm going to install the firmware update.

http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/PUSA/Car/DVD-Receivers/AVH-P2400BT?tab=firmwar e

deepcover wrote:

Using iOS 6.1, I followed Pioneer's instructions to the letter, except they required Windows 7 for the file transfer and I was able to do it with Mountain Lion instead. It worked for me.

I also made sure that I deleted my Bluetooth profiles on the Pioneer stereo and the the Pioneer profile on my phone prior to starting.

I just want to confirm that you are in fact using iOS 6.1 and not 6.01 (the previous version, I guess there was a 6.02 as well that my phone (4S) never got flagged for) before I update my phone from 6.01 (which now works perfectly with my Pioneer AVH-P4400B head unit after applying the European fix) to 6.1 which was just released a day or two ago.

Thanks.

iPhone 4S / iOS 6.0.1 / MacBook Pro w Mountain Lion / Pioneer AVH-P2400BT

I am impatient and did the EU update.

According to the EU instructions, I was to ignore a particular error at the end. I experienced the error and ignored it. Before that, when I connected my MBP to the head unit via bluetooth, a folder opened up with 2 subfolders. I tried to drag the update file and got a permission issue. It's possible that I missed the 'release' folder or whatever it was named. But I just opened that folder and dragged the update over.

I was lucky (or incredibly skilled) enough that it worked on the first try. I'm not motivated to try again and install the US update at this point. Others have posted its the same update. I'm not sure if there are any compelling reasons one way or the other to bother. I imagine it would be fine, but wouldn't make a difference because everythings working pretty well as it is.

So I was still having the issue where my iphone wasnt pairing after upgrading the firmware on my AVH-P4400BH. After waiting on hold for 30mins waiting for a Pioneer rep, I finally got through to tech support. We went through 10 different troubleshooting points with no success. According to him, I was doing everything right and that as a last ditch, I should grab a friends iPhone and try to pair it with my head unit. The theory being, if it would not pair, there may be something wrong with the hardware in my head unit, if the second phone did pair, it would suggest an issue with the hardware or OS on my iPhone.

Well, after work, we tried out the theory. My coworker tried pairing to my stereo and bam, it paired immediately! We could make calls, stream music flawlessly. I tried with my iPhone 4S running OS6.1 and nothing. The Pioneer tech said to make sure I click the arrow to the right of the head unit in the iPhone blue tooth and forget the device but I HAVE NO ARROW and NO OPTION TO DO SO!!! Since the ugrade to OS6.1, this arrow has disappeared! Im also no longer able to connect to any secured wifi networks.

Has anyone else experienced this????

3 days later.....FINALLY GOT IT WORKING (upgrade firmware to 1.27)

I want to thank everyone that posted to this forum as I wouldnt have been able to do it without reading these posts. Below is the hardware I used and how I was finally able to update.

Headunit: Alpine CDE-HD137BT (v1.14.00)

Location: Chicago, IL

Device used: Macbook Pro

Device to play audio: iPhone 5 (iOS 7.0.5)

I followed the instructions from alpine, meaning remove all paired devices, and checking the settings listed in guide. I then tried to use my iphone and ipad to transfer the file using the jailbroken app called iFile as it supports bluetooth file transfer. Of course that didnt work.

Next day I borrowed my friends Microsoft Surface Pro with windows 8.1 and also couldnt transfer the file to the head unit.

Next day I reformatted my PC to Windows version 8.1 and installed a new bluetooth adapter, still no luck, I wasnt even able to find the 'update' folder on the head unit. The computer would only think the head unit was for audio, in the instructions it says to go to services and uncheck the Handsfree service but leave all others checked. When I went to do that step, there were only 3 services listed instead of the 6 or so that are pictured in the Alpine guide.

Next day I borrowed a friends Macbook pro (2012) as I heard some people here had some luck with that. I did as the people on this forum said to do....meaning try to connect, disconnect, reconnect, turn off the head unit, and so on and so on. I felt I made some progress when on the macbook pro I could actually SEE the update and record folders however when I went to drag the firmware file from the laptop to the headunit I kept getting the error message (on the MBP) 'you do not have permission to write files'. I kept at it for a good 20 minutes trying to transfer the file over and I also noticed that when you say update firmware YES then the screen goes to "waiting..." as soon as you try to connect to the headunit after that, it automatically goes to the screen that says "updating firmware do no touch buttons".

In the 20 minutes with the macbook pro, I never saw the file actually get transferred to the update folder and I never saw the head unit read "UPDATE COMPLETE". However, right after I had given up, I went to view the current firmware version and it magicaly said v1.27!! So somehow some way, the file actually did transfer even though I always got the "you dont have permission" from the macbook and never got further than the "updating firmware do not touch".

Now the update is working and I'm happy because I can now see the song names on the screen.

Thanks agin

For those of us with european Pioneer units, they have released the European Compatability Chart:

http://www.pioneer.eu/eur/landing/products/update/car-io6.html