Samsung Galaxy S6 / Bluetooth / AVRCP & Metadata

[muzicman82]

Hi all,

Does ANYONE have an S6 (or any other similar device) with Bluetooth Metadata and AVRCP working with Spotify? It used to work just fine with my Galaxy S4, but I was using AOSP ROMs with that. Since I got the S6 months ago, I have yet to see it work. 

My Sprint Galaxy S6 build is OGA, Android 5.1.1, and Spotify is 3.5.0.963. 

My head unit is a Pioneer AVH-P4400BH, but I'm not convinced it is a head unit issue. 

[Seanfrisbey]

I have the same issue.

Samsung Galaxy S6, T-Mobile, 5.1.1

2015 Honda Civic, stock stereo

This phone works with a friend's car, and other phones work with my car.  Strangely enough, the Built-in Samsung Music app (NOT Milk) works just fine.  Maybe it is an issue with how the app handles the new AVRCP with the phone?

[j935033]

Same problem

Samsung Galaxy s6 and Honda City 2016, worked fine with s4, Iphone, even with Lg L50 but Galaxy s6

I tried lots of stuff without success.

[Seanfrisbey]

Well, this sucks.  Spotify, is there a chance that this is an issue on your end?  I've contacted Samsung several times, and they insist that the issue is with the music player (however, this issue is present with ALL third-party players, aside from the built-in Samsung Music app).  It's very frustrating having a brand new car, and brand new phone, they don't work together, and none of the parties involved even want to LOOK at the issue.  I have a Bluetooth packet log that shows the problem, I just don't know exactly what I'm looking at to diagnose where the issue stems from.  Can I provide this, in hopes that it may help you help us?

[muzicman82]

Does anyone have any info on what head units, cars, or apps metadata seems to work with? Is anyone using Android 5.xx and have it working?

[Seanfrisbey]

I'm on a T-Mobile S6 running 5.1.1. It doesn't work with my 2015 Honda Civic, but it does work with a friend's 2013 Ford Fusion.

[muzicman82]

Well that makes this problem complicated....

[Seanfrisbey]

Quite...and Samsung claims no part in it.

[j935033]

Is there any chance to update bluetooth codec with some custom rom? Does anyone tried?

[Seanfrisbey]

I think this issue is on a kernel level. As far as I know, all custom kernels and ROMs are derived from stock. Even so, while switching to a non-stock-based kernel or ROM would probably fix this problem, switching to a ROM NOT derived from stock would render aptX unusable...which is more important to me. Not to mention, we shouldn't have to do that just to get a basic feature working.

I think to get Sammy's attention, we are going to have to convince a bigger player, such as Spotify, to be a middle man. I've tried many times, and Samsung plays ignorant and insists this is a problem with the app. I think it is an issue with how Samsung handles AVRCP 1.4.

[Seanfrisbey]

In fact, Sammy insists that the problem is with ALL of the music apps (this does happen with every app EXCEPT the stock music app).

[muzicman82]

Well, can we get Spotify to comment on whether they believe they are
handling the protocol correctly?

[Seanfrisbey]

Well, I'm going so. That's why I keep bringing them up. I've got detailed
Bluetooth logs that show where the error is occurring when using Spotify
and other apps, as well as where it IS working with the stock music app.
However, I don't understand it well enough to be able to try and narrow
down the culprit, and so far, Samsung and Google (Google Play Music) REFUSE
to even LOOK at it, as neither of them see it is their problem.

[Seanfrisbey]

Weird formatting on that one...I replied to that one from my mail 😜

[j935033]

In my opinion, spotify does not support s6 codecs whatever it is, my s6 works fine with the native player, that shows me is not a samsung issue

[Seanfrisbey]

But that's the weird thing about this. The Spotify app (and every other app) works with this phone on another stereo. So...now what's going on?

[j935033]

Did you e mail this to spotify support? My english is not as good as I need to explain the issue as I would like to do it 😕

[Seanfrisbey]

I haven't emailed them yet. I've been trying to get a good discussion going, then I was going to point the email to this topic, if a Spotify rep hadn't chimed in by then. 

[Seanfrisbey]

I emailed them. Hopefully, they can chime in.

[j935033]

Great!