[Car Thing] Setup & troubleshooting guide

[Katerina]

Hey folks, glad to see you here!

We've put together this guide to help you out along your Car Thing journey.

Getting a Car Thing

Spoiler

If you haven't already, you can register for one here. 

When you successfully register, you'll receive an email confirmation to your inbox chosen during the signup. If you've logged in with the wrong account, you can always select Change User or Change email.

Once one is available for you, you should receive an email with more info.

Keep in mind that this is available to Premium subscribers in the US only at the moment. There's more info about the requirements here.

 

Setting up Car Thing

Spoiler

You've received your Car Thing, congrats!

The first thing you'll need to do is setup your Car Thing with your mobile device. We have a dedicated support site to get you started here.

Once you've set up the two, you can mount Car Thing to your car. 

We also have some helpful video tutorials on how you can use Car Thing.

Troubleshooting Car Thing

Spoiler

No need to panic!
The first thing to do is perform some basic troubleshooting. Don't forget to start with some often overlooked steps like rebooting your device. If that doesn't do the trick, check out our support site.

If you can't find an answer to your issue listed there, we recommend starting a new thread in this board. That way, other Community users, Stars or Moderators can help out. Don't forget to include helpful details like how you're setting up Car Thing, at what point you're having troubles, etc. An image is a thousand words so you can also consider attaching any helpful images to better point out what's happening.

We'll be updating this thread with new tips and FAQs, so we recommend checking back often. You can also subscribe to this thread to stay in the loop automatically when this happens.

[johnkhigginson]

I love my Car Thing, but it doesn't turn off when my car is off. The previous image bled into the background of my screen and I'm worried it'll drain my battery. 

Any ideas besides having to plug/unplug each car ride?

[MattSuda]

Hey @johnkhigginson 

Sorry to hear about this!

I found this in the following support article which may explain why this is happening:

https://support.spotify.com/article/car-thing-not-working/

"Note: If your car powers your 12V or 24V outlet when the ignition’s off, unplug Car Thing when you turn your car off to avoid draining your car battery."

I suggest to read your car manual to see if this is the case. Some cars might have an outlet that is always powered and an outlet that is not always powered.

The easiest way would be to unplug the USB cable from the car outlet, instead of unplugging the cable end that's plugged into Car Thing.

[bridgbridg]

I cannot connect via bluetooth! it says the accessory is not supported. Has anyone else gotten this issue? I have Honda CRV

[MattSuda]

Hey @bridgbridg 

You should be able to connect your phone to your car via Bluetooth and the Car Thing to your phone via Bluetooth. The Car Thing is not supposed to be connected to the car, only your phone. The phone is sending the audio to the car.

This is how the setup works:

• Car Thing connected to phone via Bluetooth
• Phone connected to car via Bluetooth

[bridgbridg]

Yea. I can’t connect my phone to car thing via bluetooth

[MattSuda]

Hey @bridgbridg 

I see an employee was able to direct you to contact support in your thread here:

https://community.spotify.com/t5/Car-Thing/Accessory-Not-Supported/m-p/5287334#M237

I hope that works out for you.

[JRomega]

Just received my Car Thing. I've set it up, Bluetooth sees it and it shows it playing, but I'm not hearing any music. For some reason my phone stopped playing music through my Bluetooth connection once I set up Car Thing, even though it shows it playing. I disconnected (unplugged) Car Thing and I'm still not getting music playback. Not sure what is going on 🤷🏼‍

[JRomega]

I wanted to add that my phone Bluetooth is working, I can talk on the phone, but all music audio has stopped. Spotify app shows music is playing, but I'm getting no audio output via Bluetooth since I set up Car Thing. I can only get audio with an AUX cable now. The audio Bluetooth from my phone to my car has stopped working even though it shows it working 🤦🏼‍

New day, new update: I was able to figure out what was happening 🙌🏻 I got it working now. You can ignore this post and the one above. Love Car Thing now that it's working properly 🧡

[MattSuda]

@JRomega 

Glad to hear you got it working! 🙂

[Gordo2040]

Hi 

For the most part it's working, only a few things that really make the experience not great. 

#1  the device automatically plays the last thing that it was on when the car is turned on regardless if I was playing it or not, it just starts playing. Kind of annoying when playing songs, but really annoying when i'm listening to podcasts because I have to go back and find my spot. Normally it's not a big deal, but I have a remote starter in my car so it's a pain to remember to go into my phone to pause whatever is playing. 

#2 No obvious way to sort playlists? I can't sort my favorite playlist by date added. Instead it defaults to the custom order which is the order in which the song was added. If you are like me some playlists have 300 songs on them so having to scroll through on a small screen is deal breaker.  I haven't found anything in the documentation or support online that say how to sort playlists if at all. 

I wanted to really like this device, but these 2 issues have really led me to dislike it more and more to the point where I'm barely using it at all. 

[sadastronaut]

You may try another outlet. For me, I have an outlet that is only on when the car is on, but I have another outlet that is on all the time.

[Benlee12123b]

Thanks For Trying to help a Fellow Spotify User out! Car thing is new to the Spotify Family and we’re all learning how to figure it out! Any tips and Help are appreciated! 

Hey there, I’m trying to become a Spotify rockstar I would highly appreciate it if you would take a moment to like this! 

helping one user at a time 

cheers 

Ben! 

[gAggiNgcactUS]

My truck is the same. Every 12v outlet (even cigarette lighter) have constant power.

 Here are two options for you, the second being by far the easiest and least obtrusive. It does, however, require an extra step be performed at each end of your journey in order to function. In my case, there is a third option, but that would depend on your vehicle’s audio component features.

Option #!. Have a car electrical professional - or yourself if you’re comfortable in these things, rewire one of your outlet’s 12 positive leads (before your fusebox, or instead use a new in-line fuse holder with a fuse of your manufacturer’s amperage rating for that outlet. Kind of a lot of trouble and/or expense, but the definite option that would provide operation exactly as intended.

• Option #2 Get something like the item is in the search “USB Car charger with on off switch” - it’ll require you having to push a button when you embark and again when you arrive at your destination. If you can remember to do it, it’s not very difficult and provides your desired result. 
  
  

Option #3. In the event that you maybe didn’t know or simply had forgotten, Check your vehicle stereo deck for a possible USB input. This should turn on and off with the vehicle’s ignition. 

Now to my issue. I just set up car thing today.

I wasn’t sure whether I should go through Bluetooth or through the USB cable because I use each with my phone at different times, and on occasion, both simultaneously. .
Here’s where I’m confused. Your product sales page reads “Car Thing is its own thing

Let your phone do phone stuff. Car Thing has one job and does it awesomely.”

No I understand that car thing needs the phone for Internet access. But I wasn’t aware that the Spotify App needs to be open and running on the phone the entire time. Maybe I just haven’t spent enough time with it, and am missing something? Because the statement doesn’t really jive if what I’m saying is the case. In my opinion, borferline misleading. I’m hoping that you tell me I’m totally not correct and I’m doing something incorrectly. 

Thanks, and sorry for the typos - Doing this from my phone and I’m late for bed

[Cmcdona4]

I’ve had my car thing for about 2 months and I love it. But now, all of the sudden, it disconnects from my phone all the time. On my phone, I turn on and off the Bluetooth on my phone, forget the device, and restart it. On car thing, i restart it, factory reset, and add a new phone. This takes several tries to get it to reconnect it from my phone and car thing. But then in a day or two, it happens all over again. For the first month or so, I had no connectivity issues, so I can’t figure out why this keeps happening. I have the iPhone 13 pro max. Any ideas on why the connection keeps getting lost and why it takes so long to reconnect?

[gAggiNgcactUS]

I’m having the same issue. I have no solution. Another thing when it is connected and not experiencing the above issue, Car thing takes sometimes minutes to update its screen to the current song. I’ll attach a photo of this phenomenon. You can tell by the progress bar how far into the song it can go. Annoying. 

 

[sabeasey]

Just got my car thing and it does not boot.  It just shows the Sigma Connectivity splash screen. Nothing else.

[Kiril]

Hi folks, 

Thanks for your posts here and sorry for our delayed response.

Just wanted to give you folks some more info about what might be causing connectivity issues. When using Bluetooth technology, keep in mind that this connection type is prone to interferences. Any metal phone cases or stands and any other magnetic material in proximity to the Car Thing might be obscuring the performance of Bluetooth. Best way to test this theory out is to take the Car Thing out of the car/truck and run some connection tests in another environment, like just at your desk or similar. If the Car Thing doesn't have any issues connecting then it's worth looking into what could be causing the interference in your vehicle, again focusing on any magnetic holders, stands, etc.

@gAggiNgcactUS, does your issue happen only in the vehicle or outside of it as well. Could be some lag due to interference too. If not, you might want to reach out to the Support team here to look into other causes and a possible replacement.
 

@sabeasey, we're not very sure what could be the issue with your device. Have you tried any troubleshooting yourself? Maybe our Star @MattSuda could have some troubleshooting tips for you here, otherwise we'd suggest to contact the dedicated Support team as well, as they can take a better look at this.

Hope you find this useful. Keep us posted if you have any other questions.

[gAggiNgcactUS]

I will try it outside of the vehicle and report back. That brings up another question. Both my head unit and car thing connect via bluetooth to my phone  when the key is turned to the on position. It appears very much like a battle. What would happen if I forgot the phone on the head unit and vice versa? Would phone functions still work on my head unit including contacts sync? Doesn’t seem to me that they would, so probably not  a viable trade off. Just thinking out loud. I’ll let you know the external test results.

[Evan25]

Hi,

The screen on my car thing randomly stopped working the other day, inputs that I make still work, but the screen is not on. Any help would be great