[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.

[NeoNichole9]

My presets keep disappearing. I've had to reset them to the buttons like 3 times now. 

[jbamm19]

I just got mine and tried to set it up. First issue I come across is that it doesn’t recognize it’s using the correct power adapter. It says use the one provided in the box. I did that and still has the same error message. I only have one port in my car for this adapter. How do I make it recognize it?

[pdbutch]

I had the same problem.  I fixed it by using another cord and making sure it plugged completely into the car thing.  The original cord for some reason will not plug all the way into Car thing or at least that was my problem.  As soon as I changed it out, it worked.

[AlexVG]

Hi, so I got my car thing and it doesn't play any music on the device and just my phone. When I press the play button on car thing it just plays music on my phone speakers.

[kxmilleee]

Hey!
I am having the same problem. How did you got it working? 

[jarayon]

Hello,

Currently having issues with my Car Thing. For some reason my car thing is stuck on the loading screen tried multiple ways like unplugging and plugging it uninstalling the app had it since January never faced an issue like that before. Any ways to resolve these issue? Thank you in advance! 

[DonnaBella]

Hey! I’m having the same issue currently, what did you figure out was the problem?

[JesseNewsom]

Having the same issue. I am using the supplied Cig adapter with two USB ports and the supplied cord. I have tried the Cig port in the console and the one below the dash (2017 Acura). I have even tried the USB port. I have tried both USB ports in the adapter, I've plugged the adapter in multiple times (N, S, E, W). 

I suspect this is why the Car Thing does not show up on my phone to be paired. Spotify Model number is YXH6679. The specific error message is white background (really bright at night) with bold red letters, "Use Adapter. To power CarThing, use the adapter provided with your device." 

[JesseNewsom]

Thanks to all the clues provided here by contributors, I tried a different cord, and that did the trick. Spotify should review the poor quality cables that they include with the CarThing, but getting a standard cable worked. It became obvious that the new cord clicked into the back of the unit fully, while the standard-issue cable did not. From that point, the unit powered up, no error message was displayed, and the CarThing appeared in the phone for pairing, and everything seems to work now.