Of cars and phones (and music)

[Kraken]

I have a Samsung S4 loaded with MP3s. It's a Verizon phone. I use the Samsung Music player that came with the phone. I connect via Bluetooth to the Mazda Infotainment system in my car. That has worked swimmingly for nearly a year and a half...until a few days ago.

The music still plays just fine, but the car's display no longer updates with the song info (meta data). It will display the first song played, and then get stuck on that as subsequent songs come up. If I stop and restart the music player app on my phone, it sends the meta data for the current song...and gets stuck again. If I use the car's controls to restart a song, it refreshes the meta data...and then gets stuck again. If I exit Bluetooth, go to radio, then go back to Bluetooth, it refreshes...and gets stuck again.

Most of the complaints that I found about this involve streaming from Pandora, which I do not use. The best explanation I found was this:

[SOLVED] The issue is your AVRCP version. Most likely you will need to downgrade it. First, you'll need developer options enabled on your Android (Settings>About Phone> then tap Build Number 7 times). After developer options are enabled, go to Settings>System>Developer Options>Bluetooth AVRCP Version. Try changing AVRCP version, restart the phone, and see if this fixes your problem. AVRCP is what controls the metadata that is sent to your bluetooth device.

I got as far as enabling developer options successfully, but I do not have an option for Bluetooth AVRCP Version.

I also found instructions to reset my infotainment center to its factory defaults, but I haven't tried that yet as I suspect that the phone is to blame, and I'm leery of screwing things up worse.

I don't have another phone that I can try in my car, nor do I have another car that I can use with my phone (I could hypothetically install a music player and some MP3s on Wife's S9, pair it with my car, and see if it has the same problem, but I'd rather avoid that time and inconvenience if somebody has a better idea.)

I did install a new app at about the time this started. An employer requires me to use Duo Mobile for their 2-factor authentication. Removing that app is not an option, but it's my primary suspect since it's the only thing I've changed recently. I'm unaware of any updates to Android (the last one listed is Jan. 2017), and I'm pretty sure my car's software can't be updated without a technician visit. I did restart the phone.

How can I pinpoint the fault? Duo app, music player, phone, or car?

Because all of my thousands of songs came from the annual SxSW downloads, I don't know their titles or artists, and rely on that display in my car to know what I'm listening to. This new bug is bugging me. Getting a new phone is not an option until Wife pays off her S9 in 15 months.

[Isgrimnur]

Any music streamed from your wife’s phone should help troubleshooting. Try Pandora from it.

[Kraken]

That will have to wait until the weekend. Is Pandora free?

I tried turning off the backup feature in the Duo app, which is the only setting it has. That didn't work. I might try uninstalling it, although that makes me nervous about screwing up my client's login. Can't afford to risk that. It is still my #1 suspect, although apps are constantly updating themselves, so who knows?

It's frustrating because the connectivity is obviously fine, and the data gets transmitted when a song is started manually (after a delay of a few seconds), whether from the phone or from the car's interface. Does the phone push that meta data, or does the car pull it? Or a little of both?

Gonna try doing a cold boot instead of just restarting the phone.

[Isgrimnur]

Pandora can be used for free, it's ad-supported.

[Kasey Chang]

It seems you need Android Oreo to get that BT options about AVRCP.

[Kraken]

Turned out to be the Samsung Music Player that came with my phone, and that I've been using for the past five years. Musicolet works fine. Naturally, Samsung won't let me uninstall their player, and I can't figure out how to change the default. (Settings > Default Applications ain't it.)

[Kasey Chang]

Can you disable the app, without uninstalling it?

[Isgrimnur]

Newer version, but might be worth a look.

[Kraken]

Can you disable the app, without uninstalling it?

No, only strip it back to the factory install. Suppose I could do that and see if it fixes my meta data complaint. Most likely a recent update broke that.

I kinda like Musicolet's interface better. Stupid name, though.

[MarisOrla]

Thanks for spamming.

[Jaymann]

I have also been digesting the information for two years.

[Kraken]

For posterity, the solution was "stop using an S4."