Galaxy S4 Mini: Can't play music in my car from my phone... help please.

[tsn_drew]

Hi everyone,

I just got a Samsung Galaxy 4S mini and am loving it except I have one issue I cannot figure out. I'm having an issue playing music from my phone to my car. When i plug my phone in through the USB in my car I get a "check device" message on my car screen. I have tried going through every possible option in my phone settings but cant get it to connect properly.

I used to have a Samsung Ace and when I plugged in the usb i was given the option of connecting through mass storage on my phone. Once I did that, I was able to play music t was great. This phone doesnt seem to give me that option, therefore my I cant play music.

When I connect via USB with the S4 mini it says its connected as a media device but does not give me the option to connect via mass storage like my Ace did. It is just check marked as a media device or gives me the option to be connected as a camera.

Did anybody have any similar problems like this? Any input would be appreciated.

Thanks,

Andrew

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Cant play music in my car from my phone... help please.

Welcome to Android Central! Newer phones with newer versions of Android no longer have the USB Mass Storage option--it has to do with the fact that newer devices have unified storage, rather than separate partitions for apps and data. So the only options are typically MTP and PTP.

Does your car have a Bluetooth streaming audio function? If not, you could consider a Bluetooth receiver (like this one) to plug into the car, then broadcast your music via Bluetooth.

 

[Wm7Long]

Re: Cant play music in my car from my phone... help please.

Here are 2 more suggestions in addition to B. Diddy's, giving you 3 ways to think about. Sorry that I have not experienced your USB situation, because my car has no USB port! What I do have is a stereo mini-plug input. In other words, my car has essentially a multi-media sound system. So I connect from my phone's headphone jack into my car's like socket. Gives me great 4.1 stereo surround sound, with less battery drain that if bluetooth were also sucking juice. The other suggestion or way to think about going with is an app that I have found very useful for transfer of MP3s between my desktop and mobile device. It allows forcing my S4 Mini (model GT-I9190) to put the memory card into USB mass storage mode, or into MTP (media transfer protocol) mode. It's call'd SG USB Mass Storage Enabler. Here's a link to it on Play Store:

https://forums.androidcentral.com/e...g.samsungusbmassstorageenabler&token=2094TFb_

 

[B. Diddy]

Re: Cant play music in my car from my phone... help please.

Thanks for the input, and welcome to Android Central!

 

[mdawdy]

Re: Cant play music in my car from my phone... help please.

Have you enabled USB Debugging under Developer Options? I do not know if it will help, just that i was unable to connect from my S4 mini to Kies on my PC via USB until i set this option. So maybe.

And in case you need it, ...

To unlock the Dev Options menu, go to Settings -> About Device and scroll down to the "Build Number."
Now, tap on your "Build Number" five times, and you should see a toast notification pop up saying "Developer mode has been enabled."
Voil?! Back out of the About Device menu and you'll see Dev Options back where it belongs, so you can turn on USB Debugging and whatever else you want to.