Car bluetooth controls not working through Android Auto.

[MythicSuns]

So my car has a stereo with a remote that attaches to the steering wheel, so I don't have to reach down to the stereo or my phone's screen just to skip a song, and I used to use it to control spotify through Android Auto which I prefer because Android Auto forces the google assistant to behave in a more driver friendly manner (for example: when the assistant isn't running through Android auto it tends to cover up the map screen instead of autohiding, and sometimes it even minimizes the map screen, or it'll stop the music altogether when you ask it to do something simple like favouriting a song, whilst on Android Auto it just behaves more like you're driving a car and can't afford to spend too much attention on the screen), but recently my stereo's playback contols haven't been working at all with Spotify through Android Auto yet strangely seem to work fine with the other audio apps on my phone. My temporary solution for now has been to just use driving mode on Google Maps which partially solves the problem at the cost of the Google Assistant being less driver friendly, is there any way to fix this issue or should I just quit my complaining and deal with it?

[Barrettl88]

Plan

Premium

Country

United Kingdom

Device

Samsung Galaxy 10e

Operating System

Android

My Question or Issue

I use Android Auto directly on my phone through Bluetooth as my car doesn’t support it on the screen, my Bluetooth controls have been working perfectly up until recently, i can’t control Spotify on Android Auto at all and when I change to the Spotify app, it works some times and some times can’t control Spotify at all, I’ve tried restarting my phone and reinstalling the apps which helps temporarily (doesn’t help Android Auto)

[Novy]

Hey there @Barrettl88, 

Welcome to the Community, thanks for reaching out about this. 

We'd first recommend performing a clean reinstall of each app. You'll find the steps for Spotify here. This is different than simply reinstalling, as it can help clearing any corrupted files that might be causing issues.

If this doesn't do the trick, could you let us know if the same thing happens with a different connection?

Keep us posted. We'll be on the lookout for your reply. 

[Ver]

Hey @MythicSuns,

Thanks for reaching out to us and welcome to the Community 🙂

We'd suggest you restart the device and log out and log back in again.

If that doesn't help, it's a good idea to give these steps a go and run a clean reinstall. That way you can make sure the app is up-to-date and the cache is not causing any issues.

It's also important to make sure that the Android Auto is up-to-date. 

Keep us in the loop! We'll be right here if you have any questions.

[Korvo]

In the last few months I haven't been able to control Spotify through Android Auto on my Samsung Galaxy S10 using my 2013 Ford Fiesta's steering wheel controls.

However if I use Google maps for navigation, then I can control Spotify using the steering wheel controls just fine. I thought I was going insane, as I was sure it had worked before with AA!

I finally stumbled onto this thread on a Google help forum https://support.google.com/androidauto/thread/88247235?hl=en where it seems many other people are having the same issue.

I tried the suggested fix of rolling back Spotify to version 8.5.85.0, and voila steering wheel controls now work for Spotify through Android Auto!

So it seems like subsequent versions of Spotify aren't playing nice with Android Auto any more. Please could you look into what's gone wrong?

[CarlosE]

Hi there @Korvo,

Thanks for reaching out to the Community and welcome!

Just to confirm, did you try running a clean reinstall with the steps in the article @Ver sent above?

If that didn't help, could you try using a different account, like a friend's or relative's? That's to check if this is account-related.

If there's no difference, we recommend keeping an eye on the Google Support post you sent, as they're already looking into it.

Lastly, we recommend keeping your Spotify app up to date and running the latest version to ensure optimal performance.

If you have any questions, we're just a post away.

Cheers!

[Korvo]

Hi @CarlosE ,

Thanks for getting back to me.

So in conclusion I've tried:

Clean install version 8.5.85.0, my account: works with Android Auto button control over Bluetooth.

Clean install 8.5.94.839, my account: doesn't work with Android Auto button control over Bluetooth.

Clean install version 8.5.85.0, friend's account: works with Android Auto button control over Bluetooth.

Clean install 8.5.94.839, friend's account: doesn't work with Android Auto button control over Bluetooth.

Reinstall of version 8.5.85.0, my account: works with Android Auto button control over Bluetooth again.

Also of note all other music apps I have on my phone work just fine in their latest versions with Bluetooth button control in Android Auto.

It's not a car specific thing either, I've tried with other Bluetooth buttons and likewise they work to skip music for Spotify 8.5.85.0 with Android Auto open but not for the latest version of Spotify.

So it does appear to specifically be something in the latest app versions of Spotify which has broken this functionality. As it seems to be a Spotify side as opposed to Android Auto side issue I though it was better to post it in this forum, since it seems like the Spotify app developers have a better chance of fixing this.

Skipping songs in Spotify whilst keeping my hands on the wheel is something I many times each day, therefore this is a big enough issue for me to not upgrade to the latest Spotify version.

[MythicSuns]

Thanks everyone. I think I'm going to try downgrading to 8.5.85.0 as that seems to be the best solution going from what I've read. I'll let you know how that goes. 

[MythicSuns]

I can confirm that downgrading to 8.5.85.0 worked and I can now use the the stereo controls through Android Auto again :). I'll let you all know if anything changes but for now this seems to be the perfect solution.

[Madkatt]

Hi,

Plan

Premium

Device

Samsung Galaxy Note 4

Operating System

Android 6.0.1

when trying to use Spotify with Android Auto, the buttons (play/skip/etc.) don't work and I cannot start the music. I can browse through the app, through playlists, etc., but again, when I try to choose a song it doesn't start playing. This happens even when running Android Auto without being connected to the car. When the phone is connected to the car, it doesn't work either (e.g. the steering wheel controls, etc.).

After searching the web, I found other people with the same problem, and there are some similar problem reports in this forum too. The problem seems to be in the Spotify app since mid November 2020. If I downgrade to version 8.5.85.0, as others have suggested, the issue is gone.

Just before I downgraded the app, I captured logs with adb while running the current (defective) version of the Spotify app. And every time I pressed one of the buttons (e.g. play/skip forward/skip back/etc.) this stack trace got printed:

01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify : [main] Failed to resolve MediaSessionCallbackHandler
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify : java.lang.Throwable: Couldn't resolve callback handler for package name android.media.session.MediaController
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at com.spotify.music.libs.mediabrowserservice.z2.a(SourceFile:1)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at com.spotify.music.libs.mediabrowserservice.v2.a(SourceFile:7)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at com.spotify.music.libs.mediabrowserservice.a3.a(SourceFile:4)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at com.spotify.music.libs.mediabrowserservice.q0.subscribe(SourceFile)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at io.reactivex.internal.operators.single.SingleCreate.G(SourceFile:3)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at io.reactivex.z.subscribe(SourceFile:12)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at io.reactivex.internal.operators.single.m.G(SourceFile:1)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at io.reactivex.z.subscribe(SourceFile:12)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at io.reactivex.z.subscribe(SourceFile:7)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at com.spotify.music.libs.mediabrowserservice.x2.f(SourceFile:4)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at android.support.v4.media.session.MediaSessionCompat$a$b.onPlay(SourceFile:2)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at android.media.session.MediaSession$CallbackMessageHandler.handleMessage(MediaSession.java:1207)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at android.os.Handler.dispatchMessage(Handler.java:102)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at android.os.Looper.loop(Looper.java:158)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at android.app.ActivityThread.main(ActivityThread.java:7225)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at java.lang.reflect.Method.invoke(Native Method)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit$MethodAndArgsCaller.run(ZygoteInit.java:1230)
01-24 15:10:09.583 13696 13696 E Spotify :      at com.android.internal.os.ZygoteInit.main(ZygoteInit.java:1120)

Could you please forward this information to the developers? I think it will help to get the problem fixed, and it would make a lot of people happy (me too), if this could get fixed soon! 😀

Feel free to contact me, if you need more information, or further debugging is needed, that I can help with!

Thanks!

[Mihail]

Hey @Madkatt,

Thanks for reaching out and for the provided info.

We're going to make sure that it reaches the right team 🙂 In the meantime we would like to do some troubleshooting. Could you let us know if the app works properly in Car Mode after a clean reinstall? This removes damaged files that might be causing such issues.

If you have the options to test your account on a different device and borrow a friends account to try out with your smartphone, that would be great. That way we can narrow down the root cause to either the account or device set up. Please include in your reply the make, model, OS version and Spotify version of all  devices you experience this on. 

We'd also appreciate it if you upload a recording of the issue. You can use the Insert Video option in the post editor, just make sure to hide any private or sensitive info.

Keep us posted. We'll be on the lookout for your reply.