Model S (2016) constantly turns down Bluetooth volume

[joyner.cn]

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?

 

[Ande]

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

 

[paulk]

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.

 

[Doanster1]

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.

 

[Ostrichsak]

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.

 

[joyner.cn]

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.

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

 

[Ostrichsak]

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

Welcome to Tesla ownership.

 

[CaliMS]

Here is the other thread: Anyone Else Have Bluetooth Issues on the Newest Model S Update?

I have the same issue. Its VERY annoying!.

 

[SilverGS]

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

 

[Lasttoy]

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

 

[Ostrichsak]

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

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.

 

[CaliMS]

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)

 

[Ostrichsak]

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)

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.

 

[SilverGS]

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)

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

 

[gaswalla]

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

 

[SilverGS]

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

I guess we'll find out soon enough.

 

[Ostrichsak]

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

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.

 

[SilverGS]

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.

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.

 

[Ostrichsak]

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.

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.

 

[SilverGS]

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.

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.