6 ms·

> For many iPhone and iTunes users, there’s a nagging issue that has plagued their daily commute whenever plugging in their device to their in-car sound system

by M4v3R 9y ago

> For many iPhone and iTunes users, there’s a nagging issue that has plagued their daily commute whenever plugging in their device to their in-car sound system via aux. For most of these users, there’s a really good chance that they’ve had to bear the same song automatically playing every time their device is plugged in. Oh my God, so that's why I always hear "Andrea Bocelli" when I plug my phone into my car. That was always bugging me, but not so much to actually look it up. Turns out many people have the same problem and this 'song', cleverly named "A a a a a Very Good Song" somewhat solves the problem, "effectively giving users 9 minutes and 58 seconds to choose their desired playlist and songs before starting their journey by car". Simple, yet brilliant.

Xylakant 9y ago
Worse even, some cars do not allow you to stop the audio player while still accepting audio from apps such as google maps. So a playlist with actual silence looped is a neat workaround.
- daveFNbuck 9y ago
  I put a flic in my car so I can easily control my phone when the car's UI isn't being cooperative.
deleted 9y ago
[deleted]
11thEarlOfMar 9y ago
It gets better. My wife's iPhone 6 would not play music at all through the car aux system. 3 other family phones worked fine. We took the phone to Apple, they couldn't find anything wrong, updated the OS and other stuff and sent us away. The problem persisted, we went back. They replaced the phone. The problem persisted. Finally in the middle of a mind-wandering commute daze it occurred to me that my wife's phone had no songs in iTunes . She only listens to music via YouTube (don't ask). "You don't suppose...". Yup. I put one song in her iTunes library and problem solved.
- X86BSD 9y ago
  Two things. Im surprised no one at the apple store caught this. Surely they tried to use said phone to stream to a bluetooth speaker or something to verify audio was working and would notice it had NO songs to play? Second, I wonder how much PEBKAC issues like this cost apple per year in replacement devices?
  - function_seven 9y ago
    This isn’t a PEBKAC issue the way I’m reading it. Sounds like the ~~phone~~ (EDIT: the car) wouldn’t play audio from any source if the phone had an empty iTunes library.
    - kbenson 9y ago
      Yeah, that's how I read it as well. The likely explanation in my mind is that the process of making sure the phone is synced properly includes playing the first iTunes song, but since that fails as there is no song, the whole "sync for audio playback" is registering as failing.
    - ethbro 9y ago
      Less rare than you might think. One of the Left for Dead games on the XBox (forget which and which) wouldn't display any LAN network connectivity unless a memory card was present. No memory card inserted? No UI difference between "No Ethernet plugged into XBox" and "XBox connected correctly to LAN". Insert memory card? Network magically appears. (I may have almost taken a sledgehammer to the hardware after I stumbling across this issue while setting up a PAX game room. And no, the memory card is not used for LAN play.)
- chrismbarr 9y ago
  I recently deleted all my iTunes music since I listen to everything on Spotify or my podcast app (Downcast) now. I also updated to the iOS 11 public beta. Around the same time my car stopped playing anything via the USB cable, the car just said "no song" so I assumed it was an issue with the beta. Literally yesterday I read about this "fix", so i re-downloaded the Music app and put just one song on it... yep it works! Car players apparently assume you will only ever play music from the "default" library/app so when you connect it and it sees an empty library index, it assumes nothing can ever be played and just stops you there. Very dumb.
superted 9y ago
I have the very same issue, but always assumed it was my Toyota to blame. I actually ended up deleting "that" song having been through its first 10 seconds or so while desperately trying to switch over to spotify countless of times. This hack is indeed a weirdly delightful solution
jfktrey 9y ago
I never had music on my iPhone (only Spotify) until 2014, when Apple had its U2 album debacle. I used the removal tool, but it failed for one song: "Raised By Wolves". To this day it echoes horribly in my head, as when I went to start my car in the morning, it automatically played the aforementioned song, the only one in my library. I was eventually able to remove it, but for a few weeks, auto-play music (and Bono) were the bane of my existence.
- daleco 9y ago
  That was so frustrating. 2 months ago, for no reason, iTunes decided to download the free U2 album and play it each time I started my car... I never use iTunes :x why did they decided that it was a good idea to auto download and auto play the album is quite a mystery...
nfriedly 9y ago
I have a 2010 Honda Fit, and for me it's even worse than that: the stereo will not let you not play music when an iPhone is connected. If you pause it, the car immediately resumes. So you can't charge your phone in peace or use the car stereo for turn-by-turn navigation or anything else without also playing some music in the background. It's absurdly frustrating, and I've joked with my wife about sticking a long silent track on her iPhone more than once. (I have an Android that the car just refuses to connect to at all.) I'm going to send her this article.

by M4v3R 9y ago

Xylakant 9y ago

Worse even, some cars do not allow you to stop the audio player while still accepting audio from apps such as google maps. So a playlist with actual silence looped is a neat workaround.

daveFNbuck 9y ago
I put a flic in my car so I can easily control my phone when the car's UI isn't being cooperative.

deleted 9y ago

[deleted]

11thEarlOfMar 9y ago

It gets better. My wife's iPhone 6 would not play music at all through the car aux system. 3 other family phones worked fine. We took the phone to Apple, they couldn't find anything wrong, updated the OS and other stuff and sent us away. The problem persisted, we went back. They replaced the phone. The problem persisted. Finally in the middle of a mind-wandering commute daze it occurred to me that my wife's phone had no songs in iTunes . She only listens to music via YouTube (don't ask). "You don't suppose...". Yup. I put one song in her iTunes library and problem solved.

X86BSD 9y ago
Two things. Im surprised no one at the apple store caught this. Surely they tried to use said phone to stream to a bluetooth speaker or something to verify audio was working and would notice it had NO songs to play? Second, I wonder how much PEBKAC issues like this cost apple per year in replacement devices?
- function_seven 9y ago
  This isn’t a PEBKAC issue the way I’m reading it. Sounds like the ~~phone~~ (EDIT: the car) wouldn’t play audio from any source if the phone had an empty iTunes library.
  - kbenson 9y ago
    Yeah, that's how I read it as well. The likely explanation in my mind is that the process of making sure the phone is synced properly includes playing the first iTunes song, but since that fails as there is no song, the whole "sync for audio playback" is registering as failing.
  - ethbro 9y ago
    Less rare than you might think. One of the Left for Dead games on the XBox (forget which and which) wouldn't display any LAN network connectivity unless a memory card was present. No memory card inserted? No UI difference between "No Ethernet plugged into XBox" and "XBox connected correctly to LAN". Insert memory card? Network magically appears. (I may have almost taken a sledgehammer to the hardware after I stumbling across this issue while setting up a PAX game room. And no, the memory card is not used for LAN play.)
chrismbarr 9y ago
I recently deleted all my iTunes music since I listen to everything on Spotify or my podcast app (Downcast) now. I also updated to the iOS 11 public beta. Around the same time my car stopped playing anything via the USB cable, the car just said "no song" so I assumed it was an issue with the beta. Literally yesterday I read about this "fix", so i re-downloaded the Music app and put just one song on it... yep it works! Car players apparently assume you will only ever play music from the "default" library/app so when you connect it and it sees an empty library index, it assumes nothing can ever be played and just stops you there. Very dumb.

superted 9y ago

I have the very same issue, but always assumed it was my Toyota to blame. I actually ended up deleting "that" song having been through its first 10 seconds or so while desperately trying to switch over to spotify countless of times. This hack is indeed a weirdly delightful solution

jfktrey 9y ago

I never had music on my iPhone (only Spotify) until 2014, when Apple had its U2 album debacle. I used the removal tool, but it failed for one song: "Raised By Wolves". To this day it echoes horribly in my head, as when I went to start my car in the morning, it automatically played the aforementioned song, the only one in my library. I was eventually able to remove it, but for a few weeks, auto-play music (and Bono) were the bane of my existence.

daleco 9y ago
That was so frustrating. 2 months ago, for no reason, iTunes decided to download the free U2 album and play it each time I started my car... I never use iTunes :x why did they decided that it was a good idea to auto download and auto play the album is quite a mystery...

nfriedly 9y ago

I have a 2010 Honda Fit, and for me it's even worse than that: the stereo will not let you not play music when an iPhone is connected. If you pause it, the car immediately resumes. So you can't charge your phone in peace or use the car stereo for turn-by-turn navigation or anything else without also playing some music in the background. It's absurdly frustrating, and I've joked with my wife about sticking a long silent track on her iPhone more than once. (I have an Android that the car just refuses to connect to at all.) I'm going to send her this article.