Slacker and Pandora will not stream to car stereo since Jellybean

[Lasermn]

One of my favorite features of Bionic was the ability to stream Pandora and Slacker via bluetooth to my OEM Toyota car stereo. Since Jellybean this is broken. The Phone connects, and Google Music can stream to it. Slacker, Pandora and, I Heart radio no longer will stream sound to the car stereo. I have done the following:

-Unpaired and reconnected the phone. ( Several times )
-Paired just the Audio and not the phone. ( Several times )
-Remove and re-install the apps.
-FDR

Any ideas how to fix this?

 

[meyerweb#CB]

Have you removed the pairing from the car, as well as the phone? I had some issues with BT connecting to my car after flashing an updated ROM, and deleting and recreating the BT profile from both the phone and the car, and recreating them both from scratch, solved the problem.

 

[Lasermn]

Ok, I did remove the phone and music pairing on the car and phone. Same behavior, google music plays and pauses great. Every now and then I can get both the album on my phone and a slacker station playing simultaneously ( not what I want! ) but when I hit pause in google play, the slacker or pandora apps will not stream alone.

I guess I got jellybeaned when it comes to streaming from pandora or slacker...

 

[greg7673]

I've had this same issue for a couple months with my Droid Bionic and 2012 Tacoma. Streaming was fine before Jelly Bean and now I can only use Google Music. I've searched extensively and each thread ends with no solution. Here's what I've learned:
1. It seems to affect Jelly Bean/Toyota almost exclusively (I heard about a Subaru and an aftermarket stereo a few times)
2. The problem is the change from bluetooth standard AVRCP 1.0 to AVRCP 1.3 with Jelly Bean. For some reason newer Toyota stereos can't handle this. You may notice that before Jelly Bean the Toyota stereo said "streaming audio" for all music (Google, Pandora, Slacker, etc). Now, with JB, the song titles show up on the stereo (a 1.3 addition) and only Google music works. If you try to start Pandora it may play for a few seconds and then stops (while still progressing on the phone) and the Toyota stereo says "Pause." Once you see "Pause" it's all over. Starting Google music again will fix it but no other music player will work. I got Pandora to work the other day when I noticed the stereo said "streaming audio" again. Not sure why it did it but after starting the truck again it's back to the usual. Can't repeat this, track titles are showing again.

So, that's all the info I've collected. The addition of track titles with AVRCP 1.3 has killed the Toyota stereo functionality. I was considering bringing my truck to Toyota and telling them that my stereo is broken but it seems we may all have this problem. I hope someone smarter than me can take this info and come up with a solution.

Please help, this is bad.

 

[Lasermn]

Yeah, it really makes me grumpy... Am going to best buy today and will buy the Razr M if it can stream to my car stereo. I will let you know if that works. My nexus 7 streams fine to the Toyota and it has an even newer version of Jelly Bean on it, so I'm not too sure that this isn't just a problem with the Bionic and not the newer version of Bluetooth. The Nexus 7 doesn't have an external radio just wifi and I don't want to carry that along just to stream Pandora to the car stereo.

 

[59er9er]

Good news, I've discovered a workaround in android forums and can confirm that it works with my HTC One and my 2011 Sienna. Here goes:

Launch pandora
Launch Google Play Music
Under Manage apps, select Google Play Music and stop it.
Sometimes Pandora starts streaming at this point.
If not, select Pandora from Running and stop everything under it.
Restart Pandora and it should stream now.

What you'll see on your headunit is the last track and artist that was playing through Google but thats a minor downside for having a working workaround. Good luck guys!

 

[Lasermn]

Thanks 59er9er.. I tried this last night with my Bionic. Not only did slacker then play but I Heart radio, ESPN radio all started streaming again. This is a bit of hack each time you want to stream, but is certainly better than nothing.

 

[59er9er]

You got that right Lasermn, better than nothing. I wish I could program my NFC tag to open Manage Apps but I don't see that as an option. Hoping 4.2.2 resolves this.

BTW, if you want to clear the last track display just got to Radio then right back to Aux input and it clears the screen.

 

[Lasermn]

As of today, problem solved. I did a factory data reset a week ago and this morning when I fired up the trusty bionic, every google app started updating. Voice dial works flawlessly, bluetooth streaming is perfect once again. It is a new phone!

Unfortunately, the new phone has gone back to not streaming slacker until you stop Google Play Music...

 

[kimmears]

I have had this same issue. I have been told by Motorola and Verizon that it is a JellyBean issue. I was advised to go back to ICS or wait for a new version of the software to come out. I am not willing to do that. Here is my workaround. I found that if I receive a text within an hour of getting in the car, and I leave it unread (notification must be up in the notification bar or this doesn't work), then streaming works perfectly. It is a real pain to have someone text me each time I want to get in my car to go somewhere. I am going to try to root it this weekend to see if it will fix the issue.

UPDATE: I did root my phone. The first thing I tried was just keeping the stock firmware (ROM) with installing Titanium Backup and freezing bloatware. I wanted to see if something was interfering. That didn't work, but it did make my phone super fast and increased my battery life by a whole lot. I tried an app that was supposed to fix bluetooth problems on rooted phones. It didn't work. I then flashed new firmware (ROM). I went with the Cyanogenmod. It did fix the bluetooth streaming issue!!! Also, my battery life is significantly better, my phone runs faster, and it can do all kinds of new tricks. It is scary to try it, but it was sooooo worth it! So, bottom line, the best way to fix the issue is to root and flash a new firmware package to your phone.

 

[Twynkles]

I drive a 2013 Ford Edge Sport and my phone is a Galaxy S5, and I'm having the exact same problems with streaming Slacker