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Model S (2016) constantly turns down Bluetooth volume

Discussion in 'Model S: User Interface' started by joyner.cn, Jan 22, 2020.

  1. joyner.cn

    joyner.cn Member

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    I thought this was more of a phone issue, but on a recent Reddit post two other Model S owners (on the Google Pixel subreddit, not a Tesla subreddit) noted that they experience the same thing.

    Essentially, whenever my phone is connected to my car via Bluetooth, after every chapter of an audiobook via Audible or after every track of music via Spotify, the car turns the volume on my phone down to almost 0. It happens every time. It doesn't do this to my wife's phone, nor does any other device do it to my phone.

    I figured the phone shouldn't allow this, but given that it's happening to other people, too (and specifically Model S owners), it strikes me as more of a Tesla problem.

    I've tried a couple solutions posted to solve it on the phone side (Disable Absolute Volume, AVRCP 1.6), but they haven't helped yet.

    Any thoughts?
     
  2. Ande

    Ande Member

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    Sounds crazy weird.
    Try to delete pairing on both phone and car, then re-pair
     
  3. paulk

    paulk Member

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    Same thing happens to me, MCU1/AP2.5 model S, iPhone 8 Plus. The volume gets turned down and I basically can’t hear the phone ring or any alerts after getting out of the car unless I manually turn it up again. I’ve got no solution.
     
  4. Doanster1

    Doanster1 Member

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    Def due to the recent s/w updates. In my case, the volume mostly fluctuates up. I can actually see the vol slider on my phone move real time when this happens. Will go up then down.
     
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  5. Ostrichsak

    Ostrichsak Active Member

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    There are threads discussing this and it's definitely a Tesla firmware issue and is not specific to any one operating system. Basically it will try to drop your phone's volume to 20% each time a new track plays or a new podcast episode and also seemingly for no reason at all at times. Quite annoying for those like us who use their phone to stream their audio via Bluetooth.
     
  6. joyner.cn

    joyner.cn Member

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    So it's a known issue? And there's no solution?
     
  7. Ostrichsak

    Ostrichsak Active Member

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    Welcome to Tesla ownership.
     
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  8. CaliMS

    CaliMS Member

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  9. SilverGS

    SilverGS Active Member

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    I have the same issue and now don't bother BT streaming music from my phone.
     
  10. Lasttoy

    Lasttoy Active Member

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    Everytime it shuts off, it comes back at 0 volume. I'm used to it after years.
     
  11. Ostrichsak

    Ostrichsak Active Member

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    What were discussing isn't the same thing. It's dropping volume on your streaming device (smart phone in my case) to 20% every time a track changes, a new episode on a podcast starts or sometimes just because it feels like it randomly between those two events. It's definitely a bug and it started a few weeks ago.
     
  12. CaliMS

    CaliMS Member

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    Agreed with @Ostrichsak - this issue is volume dropping between and during songs to a much lower volume.

    Wondering if anyone got the new update and if it fixed this yet? (2020.4.1 which is rolling out more broadly). I'm on 2019.4.2.1 and thats when it broke for me (mid Dec update)
     
  13. Ostrichsak

    Ostrichsak Active Member

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    Two of our three cars got that update. Of course the one I'm driving hasn't yet got it so I can't verify if this was addressed or not.
     
  14. SilverGS

    SilverGS Active Member

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    I can confirm this issue is fixed now with the latest 2020.4.1 update.
     
  15. gaswalla

    gaswalla Model S,3,X.. CT with Austin delivery

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    oh no.. if this is fixed, what did they break in the process
     
  16. SilverGS

    SilverGS Active Member

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    I guess we'll find out soon enough. :)
     
  17. Ostrichsak

    Ostrichsak Active Member

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    Awesome news! Have they also addressed the previous BT issue where when your phone connects but you're streaming music from the car's build in app it unpauses your music/podcast stream on your phone as it it's streaming from that but it's not actually playing audio over the car's speakers?

    Hopefully I explained that properly enough to understand if you've never experienced this. This caused me TONS of issues when I first discovered it months ago as my phone was constantly streaming podcasts on my phone on mobile data streaming to my car's MCU even though I wasn't even listening to it. This not only soaks up all of my our allotted mobile data but marks episodes as played even though I hadn't yet listened to them. Quite annoying.
     
  18. SilverGS

    SilverGS Active Member

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    Can't give you any feedback on that, sorry. I don't use my phone or the cars streaming function in that specific use case.
     
  19. Ostrichsak

    Ostrichsak Active Member

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    Maybe I didn't explain it properly....

    I know you stream music or podcasts from your phone because you had the same problem (volume dropping to 20%) I had when streaming.

    Do you also use your Tesla's native music (Slacker) or podcast (TuneIn) streaming function?

    If you do (while you're using one of these two rather than your phone) your phone will continue streaming silently in the background while you use one of those two. So your Tesla will signal to your phone that it's connected and to resume streaming of whatever you were listening to last even though the Tesla isn't playing the audio because it's streaming it's own music or podcast at the same time. Your phone just silently streams away w/o you noticing unless you happen to look at it and see it's unpaused and the timer is running.

    All three of our cars have demonstrated this behavior but it's intermittent which is even more frustrating.
     
  20. SilverGS

    SilverGS Active Member

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    #20 SilverGS, Jan 31, 2020
    Last edited: Jan 31, 2020
    I've never noticed this bug before in my car. My wife and I both drive the car, so even if I was streaming music from my phone when I get out of the car, when she gets in it defaults to her phone or the car.

    If I get back in after I've driven it and I was streaming from my phone when I got out, it picks up where it left off from my phone if I have Spotify open, otherwise it won't pick up where it left when I got out of the car earlier.

    I've never noticed it quietly streaming from my phone even though it may be streaming its own music.

    I'll test that tomorrow on my trip to Niagara Falls.
     

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