Android Auto BUGS thread! Let's talk about the bugs...

[OliverK]

I felt like this thread would be helpful for anyone who is using AA or is considering it.

First of all, the bad news, as of right now Google don't seem to take AA support seriously. We can tweet at them and maybe if the stars align they might reply (and tell you to restart your phone). The support is terrible. Considering AA is going to be in most new cars from this year come on Google! We need proper support.

So I felt a little thread discussing bugs might be helpful.

Just so we are clear I absolutely LOVE AA. I think it's fantastic. I have an aftermarket EU Pioneer F77DAB and AA makes my life easier, my drive more fun and I can't wait to see what new features and apps will come to us this year (personally Waze is something I want and we know is coming). I am happy to overlook the bugs and wierdness as the benefits out weigh the negatives to me; but if I wasn't a gadget lover and wasn't on here I might feel differently.

These are the issues I have:

BUGS ON PIONEER HEAD UNITS WITH ANDROID AUTO

• Voice
  
  - Google voice search will not work; no reason given, just this annoying message:
  "If you just said something I can't hear you"
  Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be a way to resolve this issue. Sometimes reconnecting the phone works, sometimes it doesn't. Same with turning off the head unit, the car, restarting the phone etc. It just happens randomly and there doesn't seem to be a fix that works every time. Eventually it seems to sort itself out. Mostly.
  
  Sound
  
  - Pioneer features such as built in nav on some models reduce volume on phone calls and music through AA. Sometimes they return to normal after notification but most off the time they don't. I have to unplug the phone.
  
  Performance
  
  - AA doesn't launch or doesn't load Google Maps nav or music without a long delay or restart of the phone.
  Again this happens randomly; no idea what causes it. This is on a Nexus 6P.

Please feel free to add issues below and I can add them into this thread. I know there are many issues with built-in systems.

 

[daerik]

I am connecting a Galaxy S6 (SM-G920T1) on a T-Mobile Network to an AVH-4100NEX in a 2007 Mercury Grand Marquis. Here are the bugs I've noticed:

• Messages Stack Up - after receiving and listening to an SMS, if you get another one it will always read the first one first. This is quite annoying on long trips.
• Spotify Music Search Stopped Working - it worked beautifully the first couple of weeks and I loved to show it off. Unfortunately, no you'll get "Playing Music" if anything at all and it never loads the new music.
• Google Map Search Stopped Working - it worked for months, but now it has stopped working. If I say "Navigate to ABC Street, City, State, Zip" it just flashes the screen. If I say "Navigate to Wal-Mart off ABC Street" it does the same thing. However, if I say "Navigate to Wal-Mart" it says, "Which one?" and if I select one it will begin navigation.
• Google Maps Won't Load on Device if Connected - yes. I know. You're not suppose to use your device when connect to AA, but the Google Map on AA does not have "My Locations" which I use frequently. Also, see the problem above as I have to select a location manually sometimes. This of course can be correct if I unplug my device, select the place to navigate, plug the device back in, and look in my "Recent Places." Kind of annoying, right?
• Audio Books Skipping - I recently posted a thread about this issue and I think I've found the solution. When my audio books (listing on BeyondPod as it's the only one I know that allows me to play local content) are over 3 hours long, they tend to skip at random intervals and you must unplug and plug the device back in, however if they are less than, there are no problems at all.
• Bluetooth Not Selectable - Yes. I cannot select "Bluetooth" as an audio source. While it's not a biggie, it's kind of annoying when I wanted to listen to an Audio Book over 3 hours long (see above).
• Incomming Call Glitch - Sometimes when I have an incoming call, I'll select the green button and it will crash android auto. Forcing me to have to quickly pick up the device and answer it.

 

[Jake Kohl]

Contact lists! For the love of all that's holy, man. I tried to navigate 45 minutes to a friend's house who lives in a pretty remote location on "Boiter Rd." and is in my contact list. I typically have pretty good luck with voice recognition but no pronunciation I could come up with would result in AA recognizing the street or the city I was trying to get to. As AA is designed now, that's it - end of story. No navigation for you! There is simply no other way to enter the information through AA.

He is in my contact list but Android Auto can't access contacts. That seems really insane to me - it would be like buying a car without wheel bearings. I had to unplug the phone, go to contacts, find his name, click his address, get it to open in maps, set a pin on it, reboot, and then plug the phone back into the head unit (while barreling down the interstate). Only then did I get a google card that I could click and set the maps to navigate. (This is "safe"!?). I also understand that you might be able to set an appointment with that person and get a Google card to show up with the address information. I finally managed to get the map to lock in on his location about three minutes from arriving.

So two things: 1) AA not being able to access contacts is beyond ridiculous. and 2) not having any other input method than voice is a silly and actually forces someone to resort to this crazy process of entering information when the voice recognition just isn't getting it.

 

[Jake Kohl]

Ooo, one more. Spotify, Pandora, and DogCatcher all randomly stop playing. For spotify and Pandora it seems to happen right at the end of songs for some reason even though there is much more in a playlist or radio station. It just acts like I hit the stop button. DogCatcher will stop in the middle of a podcast and it seems like maybe it's related to the navigation unit where it would be giving a voice direction (even though I have voice guidance muted).

The stacked text message thing mentioned by daerik also really annoys me but I swear that is a new problem. I don't remember this happening when I first installed my head unit (Kenwood). It used to correctly mark text messages read and not read them all again every time.

The whole experience has me thinking of going back to an idevice and carplay. I'm testing with my wife's car to see if Apple takes this car integration thing more seriously than Android appears to.

 

[taxiron1]

Reduced volume on nav and music.

 

[Kwick6]

Yeah, what's the deal with the volume? My Accord goes to a max volume setting of 40. If I listen to nav or Pandora using Android Auto, I have to max the volume to 40 in order to achieve an almost acceptable volume level. Oh, and then switch back to FM or Sirius and the volume setting will blast you through the moonroof. So, what the hell is with the volume and how do I turn it up?

 

[anon(187199)]

My AA volume and FM radio volume are very similar on my Accord. I would try to adjust volume settings on your phone.

 

[anon(187199)]

My stacked message issue has apparently gone away. I change roms fairly often so its difficult to pinpoint what fixed it. My guess would be latest gapps and play services.

 

[Deputy1]

My Android Auto is inconsistent. Today, it was working, except for Google Voice commands. When I got in the car, no audio! I think it was because it was still playing on my Note 5. I couldn't get Siriusxm, am/fm. Zero. This needs to be fixed ASAP. I've found this feature to be very inconsistent.

Posted via the Android Central App

 

[Ja5onG]

Haven't had the chance to use this much. But the issue I was having was I had to have my htc M8 connected before I powered up the headunit for it to recognise it (more likely a selection error on my part maybe??) and then on the odd occasion AA on the headunit would freeze and not work. Didn't seem to be a set reason why it happened.

I did notice the same happened with my wife's iPhone 6 on car play. Looking that up it seems to be a iOS issue, newer version just doesn't work.

 

[Jake Kohl]

I have found that startup issues seem to go away if I unlock the phone before I plug it into the car. My message stack issue just went away as well. While it doesn't keep reading the same messages over each time, it still doesn't mark them as read - but at least I don't have to hear them again each time.

 

[taxiron1]

Volume on phone and AA is up to max volume.The sound is probably only 60% - 70% of what it should be.

 

[ecr80]

I have found that startup issues seem to go away if I unlock the phone before I plug it into the car. My message stack issue just went away as well. While it doesn't keep reading the same messages over each time, it still doesn't mark them as read - but at least I don't have to hear them again each time.

Yeah I'm finding that I have to do that to avoid problems which is annoying.

 

[jstew182]

I just installed the 4100nex and when using voice commands android auto seems to be working but won't actually respond to my request until I unlock my phone (nexus 6p). Anyone know of a fix? Seems absurd and dangerous.

 

[Jake Kohl]

Listening to a previously downloaded podcast this morning on dogcatcher, playback just randomly stopped 5, maybe 6, times on my 9 mile 12 minute drive. I have to click play to get it going again each time.

 

[technicallygeniussj]

New to this forum, can't believe I didn't join years ago! I have a Pioneer AVH-NEX4100 and a Samsung Galaxy S6 Edge+. Not sure if anybody else has had this experience (haven't been able to locate any instances of this online) but sometimes the screen on my AVH-NEX4100 (while Android Auto is in use) will go black when my phone's screen locks. It is so odd, and INCREDIBLY IRRITATING! Any advice would make me a human again, thanks!

 

[mhettrich]

Using an 8100-NEX with a Note 5. In the middle of being connected the screen will go black. When it comes back there are no more nav buttons and I have to unplug and replug the phone to get theme back.

 

[Cant Miss]

Contact lists! For the love of all that's holy, man. I tried to navigate 45 minutes to a friend's house who lives in a pretty remote location on "Boiter Rd." and is in my contact list. I typically have pretty good luck with voice recognition but no pronunciation I could come up with would result in AA recognizing the street or the city I was trying to get to. As AA is designed now, that's it - end of story. No navigation for you! There is simply no other way to enter the information through AA.

He is in my contact list but Android Auto can't access contacts. That seems really insane to me - it would be like buying a car without wheel bearings. I had to unplug the phone, go to contacts, find his name, click his address, get it to open in maps, set a pin on it, reboot, and then plug the phone back into the head unit (while barreling down the interstate). Only then did I get a google card that I could click and set the maps to navigate. (This is "safe"!?). I also understand that you might be able to set an appointment with that person and get a Google card to show up with the address information. I finally managed to get the map to lock in on his location about three minutes from arriving.

So two things: 1) AA not being able to access contacts is beyond ridiculous. and 2) not having any other input method than voice is a silly and actually forces someone to resort to this crazy process of entering information when the voice recognition just isn't getting it.

To navigate to a contact, bring up the map screen, tap the Google search field, and start typing the contact name. Then tap the contact you want to nav to.

Agreed its odd that "navigate to Steve Smith" doesn't work, but it doesn't work on the phone either.

 

[Cant Miss]

I know it ain't all that helpful to just say "mine works fine", but I am not experiencing any of the above issues. 4100NEX running latest firmware; stock, unrooted Nexus 6P.

I usually listen to Pocket Casts, and have no other AA compatible apps installed.

Now back when I was using a Moto X, I had the very occasional issue of playback not resuming after being interrupted by voice. In this case it took either selecting another podcast, disconnecting/reconnecting phone, or reboot head unit... but since using the 6P it has been rock solid.

 

[Jake Kohl]

Performance on my Kenwood and Samsung S5 has noticeably improved over the last few days particularly with the mysterious start/stopping of any playback.

Does anyone know of a glossary of voice commands that are available?