Using spotify in car with USB cord

[sdrhythm]

I'm trying to play Spotify through the USB cord on my iPhone 5 in my 2012 jeep grand cherokee (RES 130 stereo with UConnect). When I plug it in it automatically starts playing music through the native iPhone music app. If i go to Spotify and press play it will play the song for 3-4 seconds then go back to the native music app. I've gotten it to play one song in full and then it will go back to iphone native music. I've gotten it to play 3 songs, sliding forward to the next song after playing for 10 seconds, and then it goes back to the native music app and wont go back. This has to have something to do with iOS 6 and spotify. I know it's worked before. Is there any way to override the native iPhone music app and play spotify? Is anyone else having luck playing spotify on their iphone through the USB of their car? Any help would be much appreciated!

Note: I can play Spotify with bluetooth turned off thru AUX, but that renders my bluetooth phone options useless. I can stream the audio through bluetooth but the audio is unbearably terrible.

[mjatk]

I am trying to do the same in the 2010 Honda Insight... It worked with my iPhone 4 & iPhone 4s, but now with my iphone 5 it has stopped working via USB, so I am back to AUX input.

Anyone know of any tricks to get this working??

[mjatk · Accepted solution]

sdrhythm Try to force quit the music app before playing Spotify. To do this, open the Native Music App, press the home button, then press the home button 2 times quickly, press and hold the music icon until the red (-) icon shows up and it will close it then open Spotify.

[sdrhythm]

Thanks mjatk. One question. I've force quit the music app and can get spotify running for one song. But after the first song it reverts back to the native iphone music app. Are you experiencing the same? Any work arounds?

Thank you!

[mjatk]

I was able to get this to work on my 4s with iOS6, after I would force quit and start spotify, I would exit the spotify app and it would keep playing. If i would try to use my car to change a song though it would resume the Music App. So I would try to press the sleep wake button once spotify begins playing, then it should go through the rest of the playlist.

[sdrhythm]

mjatk Awesome! I'll try it today at lunch. For clarification, when you say you'd hit the sleep/wake button, so you would leave the phone on? or you would just hit the sleep/wake button occasionally? Is it a one time thing?

Thanks!

[mjatk]

I would just tap it to sleep/lock the screen. For some reason if i was in the app when the song changed it would start the music app, but if the phone was locked it would continue to play through the playlist?

[sdrhythm]

Got it. Thanks for your help mjatk I'll report back after i test it.

[Pyleitonthere]

I have the same problem in my 2012 Jeep... Did you ever find a solution?

[sdrhythm]

No. The suggested solution didnt really work. I got it to work by force quiting the music app. But then spotify plays one song and stops after and remains unresponsive. It says its playing the song but there is no sound. This is with bluetooth off so it cant be that. Tried force quitting spotify and it does the same thing over and over. My resolution has just been the headphone jack with bluetooth off. It's a pain and not streamlined in the slightest, but hopefully one of them will fix the issue. Seems more of an apple issue with making the native music app the default when plugged in. Let me know if you come up with anything tho. Would love to have my phone plugged in and use bluetooth via USB than headphone jack and no bluetooth.

[BeatCrazy]

Found this thread after I experienced the exact same problem with my iPhone 5 and new BMW.  I can get Spotify and other music streaming apps to play for 1 second, before the internal iPod feature overrides them.

Please tell me someone has found a solution to this!

[sdrhythm]

Still no solution. I even jailbroke my phone and downloaded a tweak which sets the default music player to spotify. Still didn't work. Jeep still plays spotify for one second then switches. I have a feeling this isn't a spotify issue, it's the carmaker who should update their stereo system to read multiple players, not just one. Should be spotify's perogative to get something in motion with the car radio manufacturers tho, it's in their best interest. I'm sure it could be solved with a relatively simple software update.

[Sebdr]

Hi,

I've the same issue (driving a BMW 3 series). I've managed to get it work while removing all music in the standard music app. However after 10-15 minutes it stops playing & I've to reselect the Iphone as the music player.

Which app did you use to have spotify as the default music player, want to try this as well on top deleting all music on the iphone.

[BeatCrazy]

I did find a solution to my iPhone-iPod-music-overriding-streaming-streaming-services-while-connected-to-USB problem  Although, this solution is likely only applicable to BMW owners with the BMW Apps feature aka 6NR.

There may be other/simpler ways, but this seems to work:

1) Launch Pandora (or could be Mog, or other BMW Apps app) BEFORE you start iPhone/iPod playback
2) Start playback of Pandora via ConnectedDrive/BMW Apps.
3) Press Home button on iPhone, launch your streaming app.

The car still seems to think it's in the ConnectedDrive audio menu, as evidenced by the Entertainment details screen. You can now consistently play back any other audio service via your iPhone without the iPod audio overriding what you're doing. Good times! The only drawback so far is lack of ability to skip tracks via the steering wheel.

As long as you haven't started iPhone/iPod playback when you get in the car, you can often skip steps #1 and #2, and go straight into the ConnectedDrive menu, then go to step #3.  Either way, following steps #1-3 works everytime.

[sidetalker]

anyone found a solution yet? have the same thing happen with my ipod touch IOS4 and a mercedes c class.

reverts back to standard music player after 3 seconds.

should I delete all music on the ipod?

[jnitta]

I recently upgraded to the iPhone 5 from a 4S. When I had the 4S and a premium Spotify account, it seemed to work fine. I had to start playing the song first on my phone and then connect to the USB cable but it immediately would start playing. But once I switched to the Lightening cord, for some reason, my in-dash doesn't recognize Spotify and won't play any songs. Any suggestions? 

[Vercauterenn]

hi, i have the same problem.. after 10minutes my spotify just stops playing and i have to select the BMW Media again to continue.

Does anyone have a solution for that?

[squonk]

I've also had this problem with my 4s. Just installed ios7 and I can now get Spotify via the USB cable. Can't control it with the car's touch screen but I don't care for now. Improvement in sound quality over Bluetooth is so dramatic - I'm in heaven!

[blairgoforth]

I downloaded ios7 and the exact opposite happened for me. Aside from having to make sure the app was already playing music before i connected the USB, it worked just fine.  Now it'll play music for a second or so and say that there was a connection error and that I need to reconnect.  Really really frustrating. 

[squonk]

That did actually happen to me the second time I tried it - I thought I was losing my mind. Ihaven't figured out exactly what I did to get it to work consistently - I did however, notice that the album cover was displayed on the iPhone screen the time it didn't work. When I switched to the playlist screen then it started to work again. I'll mess around a bit to see if I can recreate the problem and the solution. I can tell you without a doubt though that I do have it working.