Connection issues with car stereo receivers

[MafeG]

Hi everyone,

We've received reports about car receivers (mainly Pioneer) having connectivity issues. Bluetooth connection usually works fine, but when trying to use Connect it fails. 

The team in charge is already looking into this, so we've merged a few threads here to keep you all in the loop.

[evawildflower]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany 

Device

Samsung Galaxy S10 Lite 

Kenwood KDC BT530U

Operating System

Android 12

My Question or Issue

I don't know if this is the right place to ask this, so I'm apologizing if I'm in the wrong place with this issue. My car radio has a built-in function to connect to Spotify when my Android phone is connected via Bluetooth so I can control spotify on my car radio (next/prev. track, shuffle on/off, etc. ).

It has been working for the past couple of years up until today. I still have a stable Bluetooth Connection between my smartphone and my car radio (can take calls, etc.) but Spotify won't connect anymore (display keeps saying "CONNECTING"). I noticed that the "Spotify Connect" push notification won't show up anymore either.

I already tried restarting my phone, restarting my car radio, deleting Spotify cache, reinstalling Spotify, checking for updates (app + device), disconnecting & reconnecting phone and car radio). Nothing helped.

Has anyone had a similar issue and can maybe help me out with this? 

Thank you so much in advance. 

[xvut-okd_1vfp]

Hey,

I just got the same issues developed on my side with my S10. Seems like another silent update on spotify end that results in stupid things not working. Nothing new for spotify, just hope they fix it, and hopefully soon!

[melaw]

Same issue on my Pioneer, did a couple of things to fix it, but it's clearly connected to yesterdays app update. It worked perfectly fine last week.

Connection failed is all I get from the device, and on the phone it happily offers to play via regular bluetooth audio, which still works.

A quick fix would be nice.

[Vivo_GT]

Same issue on my pioneer. I even seriously started looking to buy a new head unit for the car. This isn't the first time it happened. My spotify connect only works over BT and not through USB when i connect the phone to the radio. 

[eyeguy]

Same issue here, Excelor aftermarket radio, Pixel 3 phone.  Wouldn't connect.  Finally opened Spotify app and turned on "car mode".  Now, at least, audio plays, but radio still says "connecting".

[user-removed]

So I have a Pioneer Avh-600ex. My phone is a Google pixel 2 xl. I have Pandora and Spotify and some other music apps. When I start my car the radio comes on and everything works fine. I can play Pandora and make calls and I used to have no problem with spotify. That was the app I used most often. Never had a problem but 3 days ago I started the car and Spotify didn't come up. The radio displays "No device connected. When safe, please connect one and reselect Spotify." I have had this before but usually I shut the car off and restart and it works. But now It won't do anything but display that message. I have tried everything to make it work. Completely reset the Bluetooth. Uninstalled the app on my phone and reinstalled. Checked all settings. Nothing. I did discover that if I'm in the car and open Spotify on my phone and play music it comes through the radio but nothing is displayed on the radio. I have looked everywhere for a solution but there is nothing like this that I've found. Any help would be appreciated.

[akemmer]

Same Problem

Samsung Huawei P10 Lite Android 8.0.0

Spotify 8.7.0.1154

JVC KD-X472DBT

Playing via Bluetooth

The bluetooth connection works and I can hear the music from the app but it just says "Connecting" constantly so I can't use any of the additional Spotify controls from the radio. This is really annoying as it was one of the reasons I picked this radio over some other options. PLS HELP

[akemmer]

Thank you Youri for your work...  Tried it last night (at 2am xD) with some help of this thread  Click and it works with the Version 8.6.98.900 from Jan 19th, 2022 like you said... Great summary by Youri that should help any Android user with this current problem 🙂 If it not work directly restart your phone...

Kind Regards

A. Kemmer

From Germany

[Eni]

Hey there @user-removed,

Thanks for reaching out about this here in the Community. 

Great troubleshooting so far, we can add a few more steps to make sure we've covered all bases.

Would you mind giving it a try using a different phone to see if the issue persists?

On another note, we'd like to know if this started happening after a specific event such as an update. 

Keep us posted.

[user-removed]

Unfortunately yes I did try other things. A newer tablet. Same issue. An
old Samsung S5 same issue. Funny thing is I got it to work the other day. I
was logged out of Spotify on my phone and when I turned my car on it
connected and said sign in to use Spotify. I opened the app. Signed in and
boom it started playing. Then I shut the car off. Restarted it and it
worked. Even shut the car off and closed the open app on my car and it
worked. But then this morning I started my car and it said connect a
device. I picked the only option on there and it said no device connected
again!😡 This is crazy.