**Spotify on iPhone 5S, IOS 8.1 using A2DP**

[johntaylor5]

Took the plunge today and upgraded to IOS 8.1. I am rarely an early adopter any more (been stung by that before, thanks) but it'd been out a bit and recent patches solved a lot of the intial issues, apparently.

I really, really wish I'd not bothered now.

Everything appeared fine and correct after the upgrade, spotify plays using headphones and speaker on the phone. Other phone features seemed fine too.

Later, I jumped in the car, expecting it to automatically connect and start playing, like it usually does. Instead I am now presented with a message that says 'there are no files on the device' and silence.

The setup in quesiton is the Audi MMI 2G head unit with an A2DP bluetooth module connecting into the ipod cable in the glovebox.

I have had problems in the past getting spotify to work fully with the MMI system before, i.e. playback is fine but the skip fwd/back buttons just pause spotify, rather than what they are meant to do. But usually I leave it on random and as it's bluetooth I can always just use the on-screen buttons. I would get track info on the central screen.

I don't know quite where the fault lies here - it /used/ to work before the upgrade. It could be either:

Audi - the MMI seemingly only supports pretty basic ipod controls and given the age of the unit (2009) - many things will have changed in the last 5 years.

Apple - again, they may well have 'upgraded' the bluetooth stack within IOS 8.1 - and may no longer support the correct ipod controls any more (given they are not making ipod classics any more)

Spotify - less likely, but again maybe there are some ipod API changes that mean it can't talk to external audio bridge devices. Long shot, and this is an unusual setup, but...

Anyone else have experience with this.. or any workarounds? I bet this is but a patch away..

[Peter__]

Spotify on in-car systems on iOS has always been a pain. There is a huge bugs topic about it:
http://community.spotify.com/t5/Spotify-Bugs/iOS-Spotify-on-car-stereo/idi-p/538260

[johntaylor5]

Yeah it's not exactly been a smooth ride 🙂

I am going to take my phone to an apple store next chance I get and see if they can roll it back. Because I went from 7.1.2 to 8.1 directly there is no rollback path other than go see one of the 'geniuses' - so am screwed if I want to fix it myself.

In meantime I have my old iphone 5 which is still on 7.1.2 and works just fine. Well, /mostly/ fine. As in back to having no controls via the dash or steering wheel but at least it plays!

[johntaylor5]

Further to this I decided to call my local garage about MMI software upgrades to see if that was another avenue to look into.

I was told that in the last several weeks they have had an increasing number of calls from VW/Audi owners with MMI systems where bluetooth is either a) cutting out intermittently, b) connecting but no functionality (like I am) or c) have stopped working altogether.

I'm waiting on a call from them on prices for software updates to my MMI but they say they are doing another car with similar setup today so they can be guinea pig 😉

Seems Apple are indeed to blame here.