Android Auto worked...for about 2 weeks

[cgparsons1983]

Bought my Badlands 3 weeks ago, had my Galaxy S10 setup and working great with Sync 3. It did have moments where I would connect it and nothing would happen and I would have to unplug it or try a different cable and eventually got it working. Yesterday, it just stopped working entirely. I tried multiple cables, I tried resetting the master controls in the Badlands, I deleted the bluetooth pairing, I tried to uninstall Android Auto on my phone but realized it's not uninstallable on S10's. Then I tried my work phone which is another android...it worked right away, so it has something to do with my phone, but I can't figure out what, and unless I pressed something on accident, I didn't change any settings. One thing I notice when I plug in my phone is that it pops up with something saying there is a USB device connected and when I open that it gives me options as to what is connected, you can actually select "file transfer/android auto", then it has the option to switch between which device is controlling everything, either the Sync 3 or the phone itself. When I click on the Sync 3 it just tells me it failed to connect.

Has anyone gone through something similar and do you have any tips? I know the USB ports are working because the other phone works, so any suggestions on things to try on the phone? I'm all ears...

Sponsored

 

[Warpious]

Change the usb setting on your phone, and then change it back again. Also, and I know this is silly, but restart your phone. Had to do that with my wife's phone and its worked fine since.

 

[cgparsons1983]

Change the usb setting on your phone, and then change it back again. Also, and I know this is silly, but restart your phone. Had to do that with my wife's phone and its worked fine since.

Definitely tried restarting the phone multiple times, but I'll try using some of the other USB settings. Thanks for the suggestion.

 

[Warpious]

Definitely tried restarting the phone multiple times, but I'll try using some of the other USB settings. Thanks for the suggestion.

Also I just remembered before I restarted her phone I removed both phones from the system and turned the car off, then added them back in like a new pairing. Sounds like you did that but just wanted to clarify.

 

[cgparsons1983]

Also I just remembered before I restarted her phone I removed both phones from the system and turned the car off, then added them back in like a new pairing. Sounds like you did that but just wanted to clarify.

I'll make sure to do it in that order, thanks again I appreciate the extra detail.

 

[JerryC]

FWIW, I have to let Sync fully boot up before connecting my phone.
Then I have to unlock my phone, a few seconds later AA will come up on Sync.
The cable/phone connection is iffy unless I put my phone in the cubby directly under the screen. Otherwise the cable bumps the console and loses the connection to Sync.

I have an old phone, moto 6g.

 

[cgparsons1983]

FWIW, I have to let Sync fully boot up before connecting my phone.
Then I have to unlock my phone, a few seconds later AA will come up on Sync.
The cable/phone connection is iffy unless I put my phone in the cubby directly under the screen. Otherwise the cable bumps the console and loses the connection to Sync.

I have an old phone, moto 6g.

Thanks for the info. From what I've read, it seems like the cable you use matters too and you should use the shortest cable possible.

 

[Mark S.]

We've owned vehicles with Sync 3 for more than five years. Almost all of the issues we've experienced resulted from the cable. Sync 3 and Android Auto are particularly persnickety about the quality of your cable. The cables that work best are the ones that come with the phone (this is true of both Samsung and LG phones). Cable quality is such an issue for Android Auto that new releases will include a USB connection quality module.

That's not to say ALL issue are cable-related. We've solved all other Sync 3 problems by performing a master reset of the Sync system along with uninstall/reinstall Android Auto on the phones. To ensure none of your prior settings remain, make sure you delete the cache partition on your phone before reinstalling Android Auto. Also make sure you connect the phone via Bluetooth prior to connecting with the cable and enabling Android Auto.

 

[cgparsons1983]

We've owned vehicles with Sync 3 for more than five years. Almost all of the issues we've experienced resulted from the cable. Sync 3 and Android Auto are particularly persnickety about the quality of your cable. The cables that work best are the ones that come with the phone (this is true of both Samsung and LG phones). Cable quality is such an issue for Android Auto that new releases will include a USB connection quality module.

That's not to say ALL issue are cable-related. We've solved all other Sync 3 problems by performing a master reset of the Sync system along with uninstall/reinstall Android Auto on the phones. To ensure none of your prior settings remain, make sure you delete the cache partition on your phone before reinstalling Android Auto. Also make sure you connect the phone via Bluetooth prior to connecting with the cable and enabling Android Auto.

I have a Galaxy S10 and Android Auto comes pre-installed and cannot be deleted from the phone unfortunately.

 

[Bron Swanson]

"One thing I notice when I plug in my phone is that it pops up with something saying there is a USB device connected and when I open that it gives me options as to what is connected, you can actually select "file transfer/android auto", then it has the option to switch between which device is controlling everything, either the Sync 3 or the phone itself. When I click on the Sync 3 it just tells me it failed to connect."

I switched from an S8 to an S21 FE just a few days ago and had the file transfer / sync failed issues as well (among other issues).

On my S8, AA was an app that I could download and see on my screen. On my S21, AA is built-in, but I never saw an app icon. Rather, I had to type in "Android Auto" in my phone settings search bar so that it would give me the option to load into the AA menu/settings.

Eventually I got everything working, but I have no clue how. I know it involved me deleting my phone from my vehicle, as well as clearing the cache within AA itself via my phone. I then re-paired my phone to the vehicle, and had to fiddle with various notification settings inside AA on my vehicle and AA on my phone (there is an option in AA on your dash screen to throw your settings screen back to your phone screen so you have more options).

My assumption is that part of the issue has to do with Sync connecting via Bluetooth to my phone FIRST, followed by AA then trying to connect to my phone as well. Maybe this sequence makes Sync view my phone as a hard drive instead of a phone? (The issue doesn't happen for me anymore since I managed to get everything up and running.) I honestly have no clue if this is correct in any way. For what it is worth, my current working setup involves the wireless AA option being turned off in the AA settings, and me using a short cord to directly connect my phone to the USB port.

It can be rather complicated to suss out the right procedure in this area. For example, when I first started messing with it all, I think my Galaxy Watch was somehow getting involved between my car and my phone. Setting up the phone in my vehicle automatically paired my phone via Bluetooth, however, I could find no way to activate AA without it kicking on my Bluetooth and force pairing the phone. Because of this, there seems to be a fight between my phone and watch about which one connected "first", and which settings should apply. I had to go into menus in my vehicle, on my phone, and in my watch app, to make it where my phone wasn't trying to route AA messages to my watch first. All of this, in turn, affected how my phone was treating message alerts in terms of what it sent to my vehicle screen.

I wish I could tell you the exact steps to take, but it took me a good few hours of sitting out in vehicle and seeing what happened when I tried x, y, or z, and then moved the sequence order around. Good luck!

- Additional update: Be aware that for the S21 at least, you can everything "working", but AA still doesn't react. For example, when I first got the vehicle to treat the phone like a phone, my vehicle would not notify me of new texts via the stock messaging app. While researching that I saw that apparently there is an AA bug that directly affects phone using the Samsung Messages default app.

So...I switched to a non-stock messaging app to get around this. However, I had to give my non-stock messaging app permission to send alerts to my phone. Then, I had to go into my phone and give AA permission to receive specific app notifications from my phone. On top of that, it would react differently if it was a wireless Bluetooth connection, or a wired connection. The same issues applied to Google assistant, Spotify, etc.

 

[Mark S.]

I have a Galaxy S10 and Android Auto comes pre-installed and cannot be deleted from the phone unfortunately.

I believe you can.

Click Settings > Apps > Android Auto > Storage > Clear cache & Clear data. Then touch the back button and select "Disable." I'm pretty sure for that phone Android will ask if you want to revert to factory version of the app. Select yes and all app updates will be deleted. Either way, you have deleted all the app data from your phone at that point. All you need to do then is wipe the cache partition. If your phone reverted the app to the factory-installed version it should automatically update to the latest version after you reenable it. Make sure before you try to reconnect your phone that you perform a master reset on Sync.

 

[cgparsons1983]

"One thing I notice when I plug in my phone is that it pops up with something saying there is a USB device connected and when I open that it gives me options as to what is connected, you can actually select "file transfer/android auto", then it has the option to switch between which device is controlling everything, either the Sync 3 or the phone itself. When I click on the Sync 3 it just tells me it failed to connect."

I switched from an S8 to an S21 FE just a few days ago and had the file transfer / sync failed issues as well (among other issues).

On my S8, AA was an app that I could download and see on my screen. On my S21, AA is built-in, but I never saw an app icon. Rather, I had to type in "Android Auto" in my phone settings search bar so that it would give me the option to load into the AA menu/settings.

Eventually I got everything working, but I have no clue how. I know it involved me deleting my phone from my vehicle, as well as clearing the cache within AA itself via my phone. I then re-paired my phone to the vehicle, and had to fiddle with various notification settings inside AA on my vehicle and AA on my phone (there is an option in AA on your dash screen to throw your settings screen back to your phone screen so you have more options).

My assumption is that part of the issue has to do with Sync connecting via Bluetooth to my phone FIRST, followed by AA then trying to connect to my phone as well. Maybe this sequence makes Sync view my phone as a hard drive instead of a phone? (The issue doesn't happen for me anymore since I managed to get everything up and running.) I honestly have no clue if this is correct in any way. For what it is worth, my current working setup involves the wireless AA option being turned off in the AA settings, and me using a short cord to directly connect my phone to the USB port.

It can be rather complicated to suss out the right procedure in this area. For example, when I first started messing with it all, I think my Galaxy Watch was somehow getting involved between my car and my phone. Setting up the phone in my vehicle automatically paired my phone via Bluetooth, however, I could find no way to activate AA without it kicking on my Bluetooth and force pairing the phone. Because of this, there seems to be a fight between my phone and watch about which one connected "first", and which settings should apply. I had to go into menus in my vehicle, on my phone, and in my watch app, to make it where my phone wasn't trying to route AA messages to my watch first. All of this, in turn, affected how my phone was treating message alerts in terms of what it sent to my vehicle screen.

I wish I could tell you the exact steps to take, but it took me a good few hours of sitting out in vehicle and seeing what happened when I tried x, y, or z, and then moved the sequence order around. Good luck!

- Additional update: Be aware that for the S21 at least, you can everything "working", but AA still doesn't react. For example, when I first got the vehicle to treat the phone like a phone, my vehicle would not notify me of new texts via the stock messaging app. While researching that I saw that apparently there is an AA bug that directly affects phone using the Samsung Messages default app.

So...I switched to a non-stock messaging app to get around this. However, I had to give my non-stock messaging app permission to send alerts to my phone. Then, I had to go into my phone and give AA permission to receive specific app notifications from my phone. On top of that, it would react differently if it was a wireless Bluetooth connection, or a wired connection. The same issues applied to Google assistant, Spotify, etc.

Some useful info in there, thanks. I also have a Samsung watch so I wonder if that's part of the issue.

 

[cgparsons1983]

I believe you can.

Click Settings > Apps > Android Auto > Storage > Clear cache & Clear data. Then touch the back button and select "Disable." I'm pretty sure for that phone Android will ask if you want to revert to factory version of the app. Select yes and all app updates will be deleted. Either way, you have deleted all the app data from your phone at that point. All you need to do then is wipe the cache partition. If your phone reverted the app to the factory-installed version it should automatically update to the latest version after you reenable it. Make sure before you try to reconnect your phone that you perform a master reset on Sync.

Awesome, thank you. Will give that a shot and will report back later.

 

[cgparsons1983]

So I got it working again. Like Bron Swanson said, I have no idea what actually worked, but it did involve resetting the master settings on the vehicle itself, deleting the cache from the Android Auto app, and deleting all paired bluetooth devices from the vehicle and phone. I also uninstalled the latest Android Auto updates on the app itself. The weird thing was I had already tried everything and basically had given up, then a couple of hours later I went back to the vehicle and turned it on, plugged in the phone, and it went through the Android Auto setup again and since then it has been working. I'm not going to hold my breath though, it seems like a very finicky system.

 

[Juliet]

I got frustrated fighting with cord issues so I got the Motorola MA1. So far, the phone connects everytime, no need to even take it out of my bag. Totally recommend it.

Sponsored