Spotify + Car Bluetooth + Car Charger = No Music

Question

shad0wAzn Author

Level 1

5 points

Spotify + Car Bluetooth + Car Charger = No Music

The info:

iPhone 6

iOS 8.0.2

Spotify 1.7.1.7

Car: 2013 Lexus GS350

Type of Charger - USB (embedded in the center console of car)

Potential confounding variable: Bluetooth is always on for my Jawbone UP24 band

What happens:

I will be happily playing music through the bluetooth connection with my car, then look down and realize that i'm running low on battery. I take my official lightning cable and plug it into my phone and then silence. No music. Spotify shows that it's still playing the track, but no music is playing through the car speakers. When I unplug the charger, stop and then resume Spotify I get music again.

I know it's not the car because I literally just switched over from an HTC One that had no problems w/ simultaneously playing Spotify via bluetooth and charging via micro-usb and the car jack. I switched from the HTC to an iPhone because of the bluetooth issues I was having in general with HTC, now that those bluetooth issues are fixed seems like new ones are cropping up with the iPhone.

Any guidance is much appreciated.

iPhone 6, iOS 8

Posted on Oct 3, 2014 1:18 PM

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Answer 1

Oct 7, 2014 10:14 AM in response to shad0wAzn

It appears this is an issue with Bluetooth on iOS 8 in general. I drive a 2014 Dodge Journey and ran into the exact same issue. The fix I have found is to do the following:

1. Ensure there is no music on the phone via the native Music App (use iTunes to remove all tracks).

2. Make sure the Bluetooth connection is set prior to plugging in the USB cable from my USB 3.0 port in the vehicle.

3. Plug the USB in; this causes my dash to switch to the "iPod Device".

4. Quickly hit the "Source" button on the dash and select "Bluetooth".

5. If done in time you'll be streaming via Bluetooth on Spotify again while your USB cable is charging.

If this fails, I typically have to unpair the iPhone and run through the pairing process prior to repeating the above steps.

So, this means that this has to be an iOS 8 issue losing communication with the receiving Bluetooth device (in-car stereo in this case). As we're already on iOS 8.0.2 and this is unresolved; it'll probably be a while before this is actually fixed. I skipped iOS 7 as I was on an Galaxy Note 3, but I remember iOS 5 and 6 having major Bluetooth issues with my old Audi's Pioneer AppRadio 2 that were eventually resolved.

They ("Apple") break Bluetooth with every major OS update. Sigh...

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