3 ms·

Yes and no. We're finally able to get it to work somehow, but nowhere near as smooth and reliably as cables used to work before. For instance: In my car I have

Yes and no. We're finally able to get it to work somehow, but nowhere near as smooth and reliably as cables used to work before. For instance: In my car I have to turn BT audio on and off around 3 times before it manages to establish a link between my phone and my car and can play music. And only I am able to do this. My wife has long given up. You know how she manages if I give her a cable? She inserts the cable and it just works, because that's what cables do. Bluetooth has miles to go before it reaches the same kind of user friendliness and reliability.

dr-smooth 6y ago
I feel your pain. I have NEVER had a phone that quickly and easily pairs with our car stereos. I'm pretty sure it's because I use android phones. I'm convinced the manufacturers test with iphones and say "yep, works perfect" and call it a day. In one car, we have an aftermarket JBL stereo; it typically takes about 30-45 seconds to pair. Unacceptable, but better than the stereo in the CX-9 -- with that one, it's typically about 3-4 minutes before I can hear any audio. 30 seconds of searching for the phone, and then like 2-3 minutes of limbo where it's doing god-knows-what telling me it can't play audio while it transfers phone data. Surely my contact list doesn't take that long to sync? Quite often, I get a "ghost" connection, where the phone indicates it's connnected, and the car stereo does, too. Audio applications are playing, and the time is advancing, but no audio is coming out. Usually takes about 2-3 disconnect/reconnect cycles to correct it. Paired to an Amazon Echo, my phone disconnects every time the music pauses; this is a new problem. For a while, my Sony STR-DN1050 connected so well that I could just select it on my phone, and it would power up the receiver, select the Bluetooth input, and connect within 3 seconds. Then one day, it just stopped working that way, and I have to power up the receiver and manually select the Bluetooth input before trying to connect. About once every couple of months, I have to REBOOT the phone in order to get pairing to work. I've seen this erratic and pitiful performance on a wide variety of android phones, from low-end to high end: Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy S8, Pixel 3, Pixel 4, Moto G6, Moto G7. Over nearly a decade, it just never gets better.

dr-smooth 6y ago

I feel your pain. I have NEVER had a phone that quickly and easily pairs with our car stereos. I'm pretty sure it's because I use android phones. I'm convinced the manufacturers test with iphones and say "yep, works perfect" and call it a day. In one car, we have an aftermarket JBL stereo; it typically takes about 30-45 seconds to pair. Unacceptable, but better than the stereo in the CX-9 -- with that one, it's typically about 3-4 minutes before I can hear any audio. 30 seconds of searching for the phone, and then like 2-3 minutes of limbo where it's doing god-knows-what telling me it can't play audio while it transfers phone data. Surely my contact list doesn't take that long to sync? Quite often, I get a "ghost" connection, where the phone indicates it's connnected, and the car stereo does, too. Audio applications are playing, and the time is advancing, but no audio is coming out. Usually takes about 2-3 disconnect/reconnect cycles to correct it. Paired to an Amazon Echo, my phone disconnects every time the music pauses; this is a new problem. For a while, my Sony STR-DN1050 connected so well that I could just select it on my phone, and it would power up the receiver, select the Bluetooth input, and connect within 3 seconds. Then one day, it just stopped working that way, and I have to power up the receiver and manually select the Bluetooth input before trying to connect. About once every couple of months, I have to REBOOT the phone in order to get pairing to work. I've seen this erratic and pitiful performance on a wide variety of android phones, from low-end to high end: Galaxy S3, Galaxy S4, Galaxy S8, Pixel 3, Pixel 4, Moto G6, Moto G7. Over nearly a decade, it just never gets better.