Newbie question about Android Auto automatically restarting another application.

[Moondoggy]

I purchased a new car and setup Android Auto and also transferred my SiriusXM subscription over as well. What I want, is to play tunes from SiriusXM from my car's favorites radio screen not from within Android Auto when I start the car. Last night everything was working like I wanted up to the point where I launched Amazon Music from within Android Auto and played a song of mine. Although the song played was just a test and I stopped the song and closed Amazon Music on my phone thinking it would stop. What happened today was that each time I would start my car, it would start playing tunes from SiriusXM as expected but when Android Auto started, the source of the music automatically switched from SiriusXM to the Amazon Music app from within Android Auto and start playing the song I had played while testing. I looked for an answer on how to cancel this behavior but couldn't find anything so as a last resort, I uninstalled Amazon Music from my phone. There's got to be a better, easier way to stop this behavior but this Newbie can't find it so if you know how to change this, please let me know.

 

[physicsguy]

If you subscribe to Sirius XM in your car I think that also allows you streaming from the Sirius XM app. I use the app on my phone rather than the car's S/XM interface, and when I start my car, Android Auto plays Sirius XM from my phone where I left off like it would from any other audio app. In my case, it's even better than the native Sirius XM interface for the car itself because there's more controls within the app and I keep the signal in places where I would often lose signal with the car's XM antenna.

 

[Moondoggy]

I considered doing that as well. The only issue is that my so called Verizon " Unlimited" plan isn't truly unlimited as once your usage reaches a threshold they start throttling the speed for every family member in the plan so to keep the speed up I need to use the Satellite feed instead of the app.

 

[kikbxr1969]

There are two things that can allow music to automatically start. Both are in the setting at: Settings-> Apps -> Android Auto-Configure in Android Auto.

The first is the radio toggle in the "startup" section: "Start Music Automatically". Make sure it is turned off.

The second is under the "display" section: "Customize Launcher". Removed the check marks next to any music apps that you do not want to use (ESPECIALY Spotify - this app is REALLY rogue about self starting EVERY time I connected to the car)

After doing both of those, you should be good to run your Sirius through the car's stereo as opposed to your car. Works fine on all three vehicles in our household.

 

[Mooncatt]

ESPECIALY Spotify - this app is REALLY rogue about self starting EVERY time I connected to the car

Pandora is even worse. There have been two threads recently about it self starting when NOT connected to a car, and I've experienced it as well without ever using Android Auto in the first place. It won't play, but just has a hidden notification with an "Unknown" in the song info that you only notice if you pull the notification shade down. I followed that suggestion when someone else posted about it in one of the other threads and it no longer auto-starts in the background.

I'm guessing there was an update to Android Auto causing all these issues.

 

[Moondoggy]

Thanks for the reply.

I made the suggested changes and from what I can tell the Start Music Automatically may have been the primary issue and my suspicion is that removing the check mark next to app removes the app from the available apps on the launcher screen. Now that I know where to find these settings I may go back and re-check the apps if they were removed from launcher screen and try Amazon Music. I use Amazon Music as my music source on my Alexa device at home so if it doesn't auto start that might be another choice for music as I have purchased many MP3 albums from Amazon and they were all listed in the app and that would be better than trying to play them from a memory stick like I did with my old car. Thanks again for the help.

 

[kikbxr1969]

Pandora is even worse. There have been two threads recently about it self starting when NOT connected to a car, and I've experienced it as well without ever using Android Auto in the first place. It won't play, but just has a hidden notification with an "Unknown" in the song info that you only notice if you pull the notification shade down. I followed that suggestion when someone else posted about it in one of the other threads and it no longer auto-starts in the background.

I'm guessing there was an update to Android Auto causing all these issues.

You are correct. I had forgotten about Pandora since I stopped using it specifically because of that a very long time ago.

If I remember correctly, if you have Pandora tied to your Google account (for Google home, etc), then it will open on your phone if someone plays from a speaker at your home that uses the same Google account as your phone. You could create a separate "house" account login for both Google and Pandora for this reason

(FYI, you do not really need a secondary e-mail if you are using google, you can use the "+anytag" option to use the same e-mail but create multiple logins for Pandora. But, you might need a second gmail for the google homes)

youroriginalAddy at gmail dot com
youroriginalAddy+family at gmail dot com

 

[kikbxr1969]

Thanks for the reply.

I made the suggested changes and from what I can tell the Start Music Automatically may have been the primary issue and my suspicion is that removing the check mark next to app removes the app from the available apps on the launcher screen. Now that I know where to find these settings I may go back and re-check the apps if they were removed from launcher screen and try Amazon Music. I use Amazon Music as my music source on my Alexa device at home so if it doesn't auto start that might be another choice for music as I have purchased many MP3 albums from Amazon and they were all listed in the app and that would be better than trying to play them from a memory stick like I did with my old car. Thanks again for the help.

If I recall correctly, specifically for Sirius, if you check the box for the app on Android Auto, it will still open the app on your phone when you start Android Auto if you have used the app while not connected. It will not start playing with the Start Music Automatically. But it will open the app which will reside in your notification bar until you turn it off.

I use Sirius through my open ear hedphones when I am out biking. If I did not force close the Sirius app after listening, it would still start in the background whenever I connected to my car.

I think Amazon did the same thing, but I rarely if ever used it.

I just disabled all of them from Android Auto and only re-enable them when I am traveling with a rental and actually want to use them.

 

[Moondoggy]

I was wondering about the behavior of SiriusXM on my phone as I did notice that even though it didn't autoplay any music the app was open in my phone's notification section with the option to hit play. A couple of times I went and closed the app only to have it re-appear when I restarted the car. I guess it causes no harm as but I wonder if the fact that it's open whether it's consuming battery. I also wonder if this behavior only occurs if you have at least launched SiriusXM from within Android Auto as the car had a 90 day trial setup on the car and the dealer setup Android Auto up not knowing that I already had a subscription. When I deleted and reinstalled Amazon Music even before I disabled auto play it never autoplayed again so I may try deleting the app and reinstalling it to see. The fact that it does this helps me out as I was a bit worried that something was still misconfigured. Thanks.