bluetooth music issues after iOS6 update

If you're compelled to blame Apple that's fine, but I gave you a concrete example of a recent time where compatibility was broken by Mazda, plain and simple.

This is what Apple had to say in that case:

We discussed this issue with the manufacturer. They acknowledged there is a critical bug on their platform, as they require the phone to support no more than AVRCP 1.3. Because iOS supports AVRCP 1.4 since 5.0, they do not enable & use any AVRCP 1.3 feature. The bug has been fixed on their newer platforms.

I have also seen reports of headphones and headsets not working, as well as cars where the phone doesn't work (not cars that stream music, display metadata, etc). A perusal of the comments on The Verge's article on this issue alone will show that this is not isolated to just head units and is also affecting handsfree, A2DP, etc, in some cases.

I can break the handsfree in my car and my friend's car, and my friend's car doesn't support streaming, avrcp, a2dp, etc, it's just the handsfree protocol for making calls.

Edthered007 wrote:

Im too having the same problems with the pioneer DEH-6400BT

I mailed pioneer and had this response

We are aware of the changes Apple have put in place on the iOS6 but they
only came to light when the update was released. Everyone else is using
v1.3 for Bluetooth Audio control so Apple decided to change to 1.4!

Given AVRCP v1.5 was ratified a month ago…

Just found this online: http://voxxintlcorp.com/downloads/BT-Update-iOS6/. For those that don't want to follow the link, here's an excerpt from the page:

"This update will address the issue of the iPhone 5 and or Apple devices running iOS 6 not working correctly with A2DP controls (AVRCP). The iPhone 5 and iOS 6 is not backward compatible with older versions of Bluetooth software in some models. This update has been released by Parrot especially for Advent OE radios ONLY to address this issue."

I'm guessing this page was very recently put up. Looks like Parrot might be prioritizing it's third-party vendors above its own customers. As far as I know this is the first firmware update relating to the iOS 6 issue that has been released. Be careful as Advent makes it clear that this update is intended for their radios only.

kz5fhz wrote:

Util the next upgrade, of corse that will be the vendors fault as well. Obserd notion thinking that it could be Apple, Forgive us for even bringing up the idea.

I know you're trying to be funny, but you're correct; if the next update breaks headends, that too will be the vendor's fault as the standard is backwards-compatible.

By the way, just as a reminder, Apple changed to AVRCP 1.4 back in iOS 5.0, so the current iOS 6 issue is something entirely different than that.

At the time this broke some Mazda headends as such:

10-Jul-2012 02:19 PM Apple Developer Bug Reporting Team :

Engineering has provided the following feedback regarding this issue:

We discussed this issue with the manufacturer. They acknowledged there is a critical bug on their platform, as they require the phone to support no more than AVRCP 1.3. Because iOS supports AVRCP 1.4 since 5.0, they do not enable & use any AVRCP 1.3 feature. The bug has been fixed on their newer platforms.

Thanks Spanks. Also, for those interested, here is a response I received from Parrot support this morning (after emailing them twice with no response):

"The engineering team is currently working on this issue. Unfortunately this was a result of a last second change in the public release of iOS 6 by Apple that led to this."

We all knew something was up with the vendors being caught off guard by this, and this confirms it.

All, this posting is specifically for those with a Parrot device and might also be relevant for those with third-party devices that license Parrot's bluetooth technology. I had read a couple of quick postings (one in this thread and one in another thread) that mentioned that the bluetooth control and track info issue was resolved after they restored their device and set up as a new iPhone, and then synced apps and music. This is in contrast to the typical method of upgrading to iOS6 (which also goes for those that have purchased an iPhone 5), which is restoring the device from backup. Anyway, last night I restored the device and set up as a new iPhone, etc. I'm pleased to say that this has improved my bluetooth experience with the iPhone 5 and Parrot device, but it's not 100%. Let me explain: when I first purchased the Parrot device a couple of years ago and was using it with my iPhone 3GS, the track info and controls wouldn't kick in every time the devices paired and I started music. Once in a while (I'd say one out of every 6 times) I would start music and wouldn't have these features. This was subsequently fixed by either a Parrot firmware update or an iOS update, I'm not sure which one, but it eventually stopped happening and I didn't notice right away to be able to identify the fix. Anyway, I'm am now again experiencing this same issue with the iPhone 5 on the latest Parrot mki firmware 2.11. That said, this restore and set up as new device was a big improvement for me as I at least get the features working 80% of the time. I encourage people to try it - the sync really doesn't take that long, in fact it's the same time as restoring. The downside is that you have to apply your custom settings again, but interestingly when I entered my iCloud username/password a lot of my custom settings were applied automatically (I guess iCloud stores this info).

FWIW, my iOS 6 iPhone 4S and now my new iPhone 5 have worked beautifully with Microsoft Sync in multiple Ford rental cars.

As a first debugging step, I've found it's critical that you both tell the phone to "Forget This Device" for the car head end and delete the phone from the car's list of devices, then re-pair.

I had a number of strange glitches with my personal vehicle when I upgraded phones that were all solved by doing this.

So, it looks like some of the car radio manufacturers implemented AVRCP 1.4 incorrectly, the way this document reads. My car stereo is listed on Apple's document. Now I'm waiting on Pioneer. I'm glad that Apple at least officially addressed the issue. I would think that Apple would work a little closer with the car radio engineers, but you have to put more of the blame on the car radio guys for not testing this while it was in beta if you want to toss blame one way or the other.

deepcover wrote:

If the stereo manufacturers had different issues resulting in the Bluetooth problems, then there's no way for Apple to fix this unless they give the user a way to default to AVRCP 1.3, which may not be feasible.

Or the OS could detect whether it's connected to a known-incompatible device (either by checking a list of known devices or by "feature sniffing") and fall back to 1.3 if appropriate. This may also not be feasible, but it's false to say they can't fix it if they were so inclined.

It's very similar to what Microsoft did when it introduced Internet Explorer 8 -- they wanted IE to comply with modern web standards, but knew that doing so would break many sites that incorrectly relied on prior versions' non-compliant page rendering. But instead of just shrugging and saying "sorry all your favorite sites are broken now, but we're adhering to published standards and you'll just have to wait for your sites to adhere to them too," they allowed the new version to fall back to prior rendering behavior, automatically in some cases, or at the user's request.

It's irritating I'm sure for companies to have to do this sort of thing, but many do it anyway for the sake of keeping their customers happy.

Edit: Added IE example

Apple updated the bluetooth standard on their devices and left the third party suppliers behind. Apple is no more likely to change this than they are going to go back to the 30 pin connector. It's called "progress" or planned obsolesence. Whichever you prefer. I am waiting for a firmware update for my Pioneer AVH-P3400BH which Pioneer says is forthcoming.

CWHOTH wrote:

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...

If this is true then Apple's behavior on this issue is worse than I thought. I was at least giving Apple the benefit of the doubt, conceding that maybe the faulty implementation was on the stereo OEM side, but maintaining that it was still irresponsible and customer-unfriendly of Apple to release the update knowing that so many devices would stop working properly.

But this (again, assuming it's true) is downright reprehensible: breaking their implementation at the last minute AND having the gall to imply that the fault lies with stereo manufacturers?

Delete the profiles on your Bluetooth devices and pair with them again. You may have an issue with your phone. My Jambox and other Bluetooth devices work fine with iOS 6. The issues on this forum are related mostly to the radio controls and metadata used in car stereos.

Did you follow the instructions for the dongle?

I used a my macbook so the "Built in" instructions didnt work for me. With the source off go to home/system/bluetooth update, then upload the file. The radio will say waiting for update or something like that until it is uploaded.

Sorry if it doesnt work for you maybe I just got lucky. I am glad to have it back to normal.

I was able to update my US version AVH-4400BT with my iMac today took 3 tries before it worked . At the end i didn't get the "completed" message instead it said "updating" for about 2-3 min i then just exited the screen and tested it out and was happy to see all was back to "normal" . Thanks all for your help.