New phone problems.

[Torryhun]

I've had my 4 SE LR now for nearly 2 years, everything was working fine till I got a new phone last weekend , I no longer get Android Auto, the main screen says follow instructions on phone, but there's nothing to read, am I miss something out regards the new phone?

 

[siteguru]

What new phone please? (I got a new Xiaomi Redmi Note 13 Pro+ 5G a couple of months ago, and setting up Android Auto was a breeze).

Have you looked at the Android Auto settings on your phone? (Open the Settings app and search for Android Auto - sometimes it's not easy to see them in the list).

 

[Torryhun]

The new phone is a Samsung A16

 

[siteguru]

What cable are you using in the car? And what was your previous phone? (Newer phones seem to be much more selective as regards the physical cable).

FWIW I'm using a wireless AA adapter in my car ... I set it up originally with my old phone (Moto G8 Plus) and simply connected my new phone to the adapter - I've never actually used my new phone wired. (I have the cable connected to a 12V USB power adapter, so I can plug in the phone to power on a longer journey - on short journeys my phone doesn't even need to leave my pocket).

 

[Torryhun]

Cable is very good quality, like an steam iron armored flex.Old phone was a Samsung A71

 

[DixieTGS]

The new phone is a Samsung A16

What cable are you using in the car? And what was your previous phone? (Newer phones seem to be much more selective as regards the physical cable)

My wife's A14 was very patchy until we got a short Anker cable as others have recommended. A portable USB hub fixed it too.

I've got a new A25 to introduce to the car tomorrow. I'll post if I spot anything of interest.

 

[Tig170]

Its usually caused by wi-fi issues (home wifi or phones hotspot, or btwifi from your neighbours), which seems to have a higher priority than bluetooth / mobile network, move away from your driveway... and try again, also if you have a dashcam, use wifi to set it up, but after that select forget network on your phone, once in a while I have these issues, so just move to my preferred location away from other houses, and re-pair everything.

 

[malcolmald]

The iPhone app is crashing since updating last night. On iPhone 16 pro

 

[Ian Key]

The new phone is a Samsung A16

Apparently a recent update might be the problem.

https://www.sammyfans.com/2024/11/08/samsungs-november-2024-update-might-block-android-auto-heres-quick-fix/

 

[DixieTGS]

Okey dokey,

So the good news is, I have had it working on the new phone at least once.

The bad news is, I had exactly the same symptoms as the OP, and it took me an hour to get it going and I don't know what I did to make it work exactly.

The best I can offer before I've gone and had another session with it tomorrow maybe, is to do the following:

On the phone:
Set all permissions fully on for Android Auto.
Set all permissions fully on for Google Maps.
Clear both Data and cache for Android Auto.

Try connecting again. Possibly clear the data again and try a second time if necessary.

I did try a lot of other things including other phones, other cars, bluetooth pairings, other cables and other settings. I suspect they were irrelevant but cant be sure unless I can reproduce the problem.

Given the phone was brand new and had never opened AA before, its very odd if clearing the data is the thing that cured it. Maybe I did things in a different order the first time or chose different options .

I'd better go for a test drive tomorrow and see if it's properly reliable.

 

[Torryhun]

Thanks for all the above information, but up to now,no joy. Next idea, do I need to do any thing first with my old phone that might help things along?

 

[dsimpkins]

Have you tried rebooting the infotainment by holding down home button? Have you checked the phone has connected to car via Bluetooth as well as cable? I've had trouble sometimes when my daughter's phone pairs with the car first, and so mine doesn't make a BT connection to car as well as cable.

 

[DixieTGS]

The new phone paired with the MG OK, but that gets automatically disconnected when Android Auto starts - I think this may be normal as AA will take over all those functions which I think someone mentioned on a thread quite recently. When you press the button to swap apps with cable connected, it shows 1 app running in the background. Clicking that shows that it is AA so we know it does run at least after you plug in.

My next check would be to plug it in to another car. I tried with a 5 year old Citroën Berlingo and AA worked with the phone straight away. Quite a surprise since the Citroën has given far more trouble with AA in the past than the MG has.

Also worth checking both the permissions are set in the MG. I had tried toggling both of those even though they claimed to be set from the previous phone usage.

 

[DixieTGS]

After some more tests it seems. Most likely that AA is starting on the phone when you plug in, but not displaying on the phone screen.

When the car says continue setup on the phone, mine always displays properly now where originally it never did, so I can't diagnose any further.

With the message on the car, try tapping the 'recent apps' button (3 vertical bars) on your android navigation bar, just in case it's minimised for some reason.

I have a whole load of other things you can try/check if you're interested, but it's probably best to move the conversation to a PM. Others would only be interested in something that fixes it, not everything else that didn't fix it.

 

[Torryhun]

Quick update, after trying several of the above mentioned solutions to my problem nothing worked, so as the car is going for 2nd service in a couple of weeks was just going to leave it to the garage to figure it out.
On returning to airport after 10 days plugged phone in as usual to change & AA fired up as usual, if fact even works better than it did before, responds to voice commands far better & has new icons I'd never seen before.
Next question in the 10 days I've been away have MG started OTA updates or did AA fix some bugs?.

 

[Ian Key]

No to OTA updates and the last AA update was on 13th February although your phone might have updated AA after this date.

 

[Torryhun]

No to OTA updates and the last AA update was on 13th February although your phone might have updated AA after this date.

Thanks, that might explain it then.

 

[dsimpkins]

If you look in Google Play, you should be able to see what apps have been recently updated.