Bluetooth audio auto connect and play

[ReturnZero]

I searched around a bit and couldn't really find anything referencing this, so sorry if this has already been discussed.

I've got a loaner MS for a few days, and I'm listening to music through my iPhone connected via BT. Whenever I get in the car, there's no audio. I have to touch Media, then select the external devices tab, then pick my phone, and finally tap play. Once I do that everything plays normally, album artwork, and all is well - but I think it's weird I have to go through all these steps every time.

Is this normal? Is there a way to get around this, or is that it? Thanks!

 

[bob_p]

Yes - this is normal.

This is one of the features that surely Tesla could fix. If a smartphone is connected when the car is put into park and the driver leaves, and that same smartphone is present when the driver returns and takes the car out of park, surely the car could automatically re-select the smartphone and resume media playback...

I was surprised when I rented a much less expensive car on a trip last year, and the car didn't require me to re-select my phone every time I got back to the car...

 

[Pinarello]

There is one other VERY annoying feature of Bluetooth. When you park your car and open the driver's door to exit, the radio volume goes to near zero, but continues to play the connected Bluetooth audio. If you are listening to an audio book, then the book is continuing to play but you can't hear it. If you take a little while to unload your car, you could lose 30 seconds or more of your audio book. Now when you get back into your car, you have to rewind the book to see what you may have missed.

 

[ReturnZero]

Got it. Well that's sure annoying - good to hear that it wasn't just me though.

On a side note, after playing around with it more yesterday, it seems that if you disable the save energy mode (I don't remember exactly what it's called) it seems to auto connect and play most of the time. It seems like with that option disabled, the car's computers stay on and your audio selection is still selected when you get back to the car later.

 

[iffatall]

... Once I do that everything plays normally, album artwork, and all is well - but I think it's weird I have to go through all these steps every time ...

Are you sure about album art? Or do you mean album art from the useless web archive? I don't think it actually uses the art from the phone.

 

[bob_p]

Got it. Well that's sure annoying - good to hear that it wasn't just me though.

On a side note, after playing around with it more yesterday, it seems that if you disable the save energy mode (I don't remember exactly what it's called) it seems to auto connect and play most of the time. It seems like with that option disabled, the car's computers stay on and your audio selection is still selected when you get back to the car later.

Except when the car is parked somewhere overnight (without a charger), I always have the Display's "sleep mode" set to OFF - and "Always Connected" checked. I've never seen the car auto connect to my smartphone after I leave the car and return.

And when they changed the definitions of "OFF" in a late 6.x release to mean "OFF, except overnight", there isn't any way to completely disable sleep mode.

 

[ReturnZero]

Are you sure about album art? Or do you mean album art from the useless web archive? I don't think it actually uses the art from the phone.

Actually good point. I test drove a new BMW the other day and it did pull artwork from my phone over BT, but the Tesla must have been using a web service because some artwork was missing and some was just different. Most of it was showing up though at first so I thought it was pulling from my phone.

Except when the car is parked somewhere overnight (without a charger), I always have the Display's "sleep mode" set to OFF - and "Always Connected" checked. I've never seen the car auto connect to my smartphone after I leave the car and return.

And when they changed the definitions of "OFF" in a late 6.x release to mean "OFF, except overnight", there isn't any way to completely disable sleep mode.

Yes, it does eventually seem to timeout. Still - at least you don't have to reconnect EVERY time, only some times...

 

[FloridaGary]

I love everything about my Model S, but this Bluetooth/Phone issue which requires me to reestablish a connection every time I get into my car is annoying. It should be relatively easy to be able to select your own default.

 

[Todd Burch]

This never was a problem with the S on my iPhone 4, but on my iPhone 6S sometimes I have to toggle the phone's bluetooth off and then back on for the connection to get recognized.