Why can no one hear me when I make calls through car stereo

[Stephen Ouellette]

I have a Samsung S7 Active which used to connect very well with my Sony Bluetooth radio (MEXN5100BT), and make and receive calls. Suddenly, I can hear the party on the other end, but they can't hear me. The radio has a separate mic, which works fine. I tried another car stereo with the same result. Bluetooth connects, I can control the radio, for other functions in the radio App, the microphone works fine for voice commands, etc. but for some reason, the S7 is not processing the voice coming back from the stereo and transmitting it as part of the phone call.

 

[SpookDroid]

This might sound dumb, but have you checked that the mute button isn't active in neither car or phone? I had a similar issue with an iPhone...for some reason it started connecting calls with the Mute button active all the time.

 

[Stephen Ouellette]

Not dumb at all, but yes, I did-I even tried muting and un-muting it. There is also a gain control that I have also tried adjusting, to no avail. Makes me crazy when I am driving, the phone rings and suddenly switches to the hands free mode with the radio, but no one can hear me, so I have to unpair the phone and call them back!!

 

[SpookDroid]

Does the car radio show which profile the phone is connected as? It should say Phone profile, not just media (don't think that's it since the call wouldn't automatically connect if it was just media, but still worth a shot).

 

[Stephen Ouellette]

It shows it is connected both for media and for phone. Separate little icons.

 

[SpookDroid]

Do you have any BT headset that you could try? Long shot, since you already tried a different car stereo, just want to check if it's doing it with all microphones. What about with the wired headset that came with your phone? Does that one work?

 

[Stephen Ouellette]

I will try that. I was looking at permissions for the Sony App that comes with the radio called SongPal. Oddly, SongPal's permission to access the phone was not checked off, so I need to see if that was the issue. To complicate matters, i also have a Gear S2 watch that connects to the S7 using bluetooth (or 3G to AT&T) but initially it worked despite that, so i suspect the S2 is not the issue.

 

[SpookDroid]

Yeah, I was thinking about permissions, too... but it's weird that it would still connect the call if the permission to use the Phone wasn't set. And I don't recall a specific permission to use the CAR'S microphone (I know there's a permission for some apps to use the phone's microphone, but that's not your problem).

 

[Stephen Ouellette]

Well, I am thinking it may need a different permission to send audio to the phone than it needs to accept audio from the phone-it has no issue playing music or the audio from the phone-which arguably require the same permission.

 

[Stephen Ouellette]

I tried changing permissions, etc on the phone and the Sony program, and at one point actually was able to leave a message at my office suing the hands free mic, but have been unable to duplicate that event, so I know it is a software issue with the phone.
It could also be an interplay with my Gear S2 watch-although this did not create an issue previously. Very annoying when I forget to shut off bluetooth, am in or near the car and the radio answers the call, but I can't talk to the caller.

 

[SpookDroid]

Well, you could try doing that... put the S2 in airplane mode so that it's not connected to your phone and then try the call. If that works every time, then at least we know where the software bug is coming from.

 

[Stephen Ouellette]

I tried disabling the Gear S2, no difference.

 

[SpookDroid]

Last thing I can think of right now... have you tried this in Safe Mode? If it works in Safe Mode but not in 'Normal' mode, then a 3rd party app is causing the issue.

 

[o2bnclemson]

Software update in your vehicle, maybe? Also, do you have another BT device set up? I had a problem when I switched from my old S4 to my new S7. Made the S7 the primary and that didn't work. Deleted the S4 from my phone's BT altogether and that fixed it. Good luck!

 

[Pamelagerrish]

I am having this same problen.
Frustrating.

 

[Rukbat]

If the radio has a plugged-in mic, make sure the plug is fully in. (That might mean getting under the dash.)

Also, if audio isn't going either way (you hear the caller on the phone, not the radio), make sure that the phone has the radio set for call. There should be 2 profiles for a car radio (in the phone's Bluetooth page - tap the gear for the radio), call and media. If only media is checked, you'll hear music through the radio, but calls will go through the phone.

 

[bob5731]

I have a similar issue with Android Auto I can't hear anybody when I make a phone call and they can't hear me I've been through all the settings on the stereo with no luck. I have a hieha car stereo 7023b.
If there's a firmware update for my stereo I don't know where to get it it's one of those cheap foreign radios.