Car view suddenly stopped working

[RO55]

Plan

Premium

Country

Germany

Device

iPhone 11 Pro

Operating System

Latest iOS

I've been using Spotify car view in my car for years now. The iPhone is connected to an aftermarket BT receiver, which is connected to the car stereo. This setup has been working flawlessly for years. Spotify would automatically switch to car view when the connection to the BT receiver was made and - the main reason for using car view - the iPhone would not go into standby!

Today this stopped. I can't get Spotify to switch to car view anymore, no matter what I try. Car view is obviously enabled in settings. I rebooted the iPhone. May this be related to a recent Spotify app update? Is anyone else experiencing this issue?

Any help is greatly appreciated!

Thanks,

RO55

[Jsandul]

I’m having the exact same problem. If I hear a solution I’ll come back here and reply. As of two days ago it just stopped working. It must be from a new update or something. If you hear any solutions let me know.

[Dian]

Hey @RO55,

Thanks for posting in the Community.

The Car Mode function was discontinued a while ago and this is why you're not seeing it as a toggle.

We're currently exploring different options for a worthy user experience on our platform while in a car and hope to see new implementations available soon.

But in the meantime you can use a Bluetooth connection or an AUX/USB cable to connect to your car radio. 

Hope this helps,

Cheers!

[RO55]

@dian, you did not read my message carefully enough. As I said, I DO have the toggle. This is an iPhone, you only discontinued car view on Android, as fas as I know. So I still have the toggle and it does not work despite having it enabled.

Of course I can use BT to connect to my car stereo, that's what I've been doing the whole time. That has nothign to do with car view. But without car view, the iPhone will go to sleep every 30 seconds. That's the main reason for me to use car view.

I don't really understand how you can retire such a feature without having a replacement in place. Makes no sense at all...

[Vasil]

Hey @RO55,

Would you mind sending us a screenshot of your app settings so that we can see how the option looks on your end :?
In the meantime, we'll check if there's anything we can find on ours 🙂
Much appreciated!

[RO55]

Sure, screenshot is attached. It's in German, though...

Thanks for looking into this!

[Jsandul]

When the solution to this is known let me know, I loved carplay and it randomly just stopped happening.

[Eni]

Hey folks, 

Thanks for getting back to us. 

 We can confirm that this option wasn't officially released for iOS, so you might have it as part of a test. At Spotify, we’re always testing possible improvements and new features, so you might see something on the app that other users don't, or get a brand-new feature for only a temporary period.

On another note, you could try connecting your phone directly to the car stereo instead of the receiver, as the app might not be recognizing the receiver as a 'car' anymore. 

However, keep in mind that this feature was deprecated, so we can't guarantee it'll work anymore, even if you see the toggle in the app.

We appreciate you taking the time to share your feedback with us and will make sure to pass it onto the right team, as we always strive to improve your experience.

You can obtain more info about how to use Spotify in the car here.

If you need a hand with anything else, the Community is here for you. 

[Jsandul]

Will you guys ever bring this back in the future? I loved this feature as most of the time I’m listening to music is in the car and this was so beneficial so I’d love to see it added back.

[RO55]

I don't really believe that Car View was never officially released for iOS. Everyone I know was using it on iOS for at least the last two years...

I can't connect my phone directly to my car stereo. It's an older car and that's why I installed the BT receiver in the first place. Why would Spotify stop recognizing it as a car? Nothing changed in the car or with the receiver, not even firmware upgrades or anything. So this is clearly a Spotify issue!

For the time being I am using the 'iCarMode' app now. Not as nice as having car view integrated into the Spotify app, but at least my iPhone stays awake and I have some big buttons.

Please bring back some kind of way to safely use Spotify in the car! I would even buy a Car Thing if you sold it in Germany...

[Jsandul]

Thanks for bringing up ICarMode I’ll definitely try that out until Spotify let’s me use car play again

[DrDane]

RO55 and Jsandul,

you both have been very informative because I was having the exact issues and was losing my mind trying to figure out why the toggle wasn’t working.  Hopefully they bring it back. 

[1262598712]

I am having the exact same issue. Can anyone please solve this? This is/was one of the best features of Spotify for me.

How can I make Spotify recognize a Bluetooth connection as a “Car.” I set the connection to be a “Car Stereo” in my Bluetooth settings (iOS), but that doesn’t seem to work.

[RO55]

Strangely Car View started working again for me yesterday. I just gave it another try and it did work! So maybe this was just a bug that was fixed in the latest app release?

[Jsandul]

I haven’t tried it again but I’ll check and see if it works. Hopefully it does!

[DrDane]

Lucky lol, I just tried and still no dice.

[RO55]

I tried it again today and it DID NOT work, either. Spotify, what's going on here? I will stick with iCarMode for the time being...

[RH31]

There is a new option in iOS to categorize your Bluetooth device as headphones, car, etc. I hit “Forget this device” for my car stereo, then added it again and categorized it as a car stereo. The Spotify car view immediately came back after that. Hopefully this works for others. 

[DrDane]

I found the best fix! Just spend a tens of thousands of dollars on a new car with CarPlay or the android equivalent…. 

[BlouShe]

I used this feature as well for so long, i don’t understand either why they’d remove it, because i think there’s quite a lot of people that actually found it useful, to me it was an amazing update to use it, because i always put on spotify whenever i’m driving,.. and car mode made such a big difference! i hope they’ll fully bring it back within the next update or whenever, it sure helps out a lot of people and gives them a much smoother experience within their travel time! it hasn’t worked for me yet to this day, but i sure hope that’ll change someday!

best regards.