Car Thing Stuck in Boot loop

[Alucard0rJok3r]

I've had my car thing since December of last year, and minus some small short comings I really enjoy it. I work in appliance repair and I tend to drive for 4 to 5 hours a day in a 2012 Chevy express van, with that said the car thing has been a nice addition to the van. It allows me to change podcasts without fiddling with my phone. 2 weeks ago I was in a customers house, I had paused whatever podcast I was listening to and when I returned to my van the cat thing was stuck in a boot loop. All I get is the greyish Spotify slash screen and after initialization it goes black and does it again. I believe it may have have taken an update while I was out of the van. I use the car brick that came with it and my phone is running android 10. Is there a way to download a previous version of the firmware and put the car thing into a "DFU" mode and flash the firmware via a PC? Factory reset didn't work for the 2 minutes I can get into the actually settings before it starts its boot loop process. I wasn't in the van to verify if an OTA update was pushed. That has happened from time to time and the car thing just resets and picks up where it left off. My unit isn't even a year old and there seems to be no way to contact the Spotify devs directly. I understand that Spotify have EOLed the product but it's within its one year manufacturer warranty. I really need help with this situation. 

[Toomanybarts]

Having the exact same issue - was working fine, left the device plugged in at my desk and now it is stuck booting up!

[Toomanybarts]

OK support just solved my issue:

1. Unplug the power cable to make sure Car Thing is turned off

2. Power on Car Thing by connecting it to the power source

3. As soon as possible after connecting the power source, press and hold both the PRESET 2 and BACK buttons at the same time.

Make sure this is done before the Spotify logo is shown. The screen stays black for about 4 to 6 seconds

4. Release the button when the Spotify logo is shown

5. Wait for the device to boot up. The Spotify logo might stay on the screen for about 10 seconds.

6. The pink “Welcome to Car Thing” screen is then shown

If you don’t see the pink ‘Welcome to Car Thing’ screen, repeat steps 1 to 5 a few more times.

I hadnt used my car thing for months and they think it may have been stuck trying to update firmware.

Anyway hopes this help some people

[xbudd]

@Toomanybarts - thank you! That worked perfectly for my device which was also on an infinite logo/blank screen reboot.

[Tezjnr]

On your phone choose Bluetooth and forget the device. This worked for me. The screen immediately went back to normal and I reconnected Bluetooth 

[LoudMouth1202]

When mine got stuck I plugged it into a PC USB instead of the AC Adapter and it gave me a warning about using the correct power source but I just clicked past it and it booted fine

[v0vf_-gzx2sme]

Did you ever find a fix for this cuz I'm having the same issue except mine was sitting in a box since I got it cuz the vehicle I purchased it for the engine blew up in and I now have another vehicle I could use it in but I can't get it to go past the gray Spotify screen

[ButtermilkTom]

OK so your car thing is in a boot loop and won't start up long enough for you to factory reset in the settings? Here's how you hardware factory reset, super easy Idk why they don't post it in their own documentation:

1. unplug the car thing
2. hold down the power button
3. then plug it back it while holding down the power button and
4. keep holding it until the start up screen comes on with the QR code to connect
5. Then you'll maybe have to also unpair the car thing from your phone's know Bluetooth devices.

This will factory reset the car thing though, but it usually works for me when mine gets in a bootloop.