Intermittent problems with Android Auto

[MG Clive]

I signed up just to answer this question, FIX IS:
turn off hotspot within the vehicle settings, you simply have two signals conflicting - works perfect on Bluetooth android auto

Thank you @minomis, and welcome to MGEVs.

 

[Joningy]

So ive had the car for a little while now and since day 1 ive had intermittent problems with Android Auto disconnecting/crashing.
Im actually not quite sure whether the problem is with the infotainment system or my phone (Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra)..

So what happens is that the music will sometimes stutter (and if im looking at google maps i will see that this stutters as well), this is very intermittent but it kinda seems like it happens more at the start of a drive and less so after ive driven a while?
Apart from the stuttering i sometimes also see AA crashing (dissapears from infotainment, AA icon on infotainmentscreen goes grey) It usually picks up again after 10-60 secs but a couple of times ive gotten a message box on the infotainment telling me that it could not find any android auto to connect to.

I did some googling around the problem about a week ago and one tip that i picked up was to make sure that android auto was not being affected by battery saving. I went through all the settings on the phone and let AA use all the battery it wants as well as setting it to never sleep/deep sleep.
I also tried removing the phone case as i thought maybe it was dampening the signal too much, but there's been no change.
I spoke to my uncle who drives an MG4 (i think) and hes had a lot of issues with AA there but a recent software update on the car fixed it for him i think..

Ive used spotify on my phone with BT connection in my old car (no AA) and never had any issues there, so if its the phone then i think its the AA software stack and not BT itself at least..

I wonder, do anyone else here with an MGS5 experience the same issues? Any tips or tricks i can do to make this work more consistently?

I also had issues with Android Auto, it seems to work OK, but I got thoroughly fed up with Google maps showing every time I started the car, I've now disabled AA on the car, I can easily turn it on if needed for perhaps Waze or What3words on a longer journey where I need guidance.
I tried turning off Bluetooth, but of course I was not able to send or receive phone calls.
I don't use AA apart from route planners.

 

[minomis]

I hope this helps someone.

My earlier suggestion was wrong. After more digging, I found a Reddit thread explaining that Pixel and other Android phones default to higher Bluetooth protocol versions that some car systems struggle with. I changed the settings and the problem was fixed immediately.

First, enable developer mode on your Pixel or any Android device, then set both Bluetooth AVRCP and Bluetooth MAP to version 1.3. You can try 1.4, but it adds more metadata and may bring the stutter back. Restart the phone afterwards and the issue disappears.

The cause might not be “newer versions” being too modern, because AVRCP 1.3 and 1.4 are old standards. It is more likely a firmware bug in the car’s Bluetooth stack that fails when dealing with the extra metadata or features in the higher protocol versions that Android devices use by default.

Hope that helps!

 

[emmrecs]

With reference to the specific problem of the drop-out of audio when attempting to reply to someone who has called you; you can hear them clearly but often, after quite a short time, they can no longer hear you.

This happened to me earlier this week: the head office of the dealership from which I bought the car wanted to talk to me about their GAP Insurance product. I was able to initially take the call and, for about a minute or so the caller was able to hear me but suddenly, without warning, though I could hear him he couldn't hear me! Very annoying.

Reading this thread and seeing mention of using either a wired connection or a wireless dongle reminded me I had one of the latter which had been used previously for over 3 years without problem in my MG5 PFL. So, today, I fitted it in my S5.

Ironically, the only call received was from the same source (though not about the GAP product) but I was able to hold a conversation with the caller with no drop-out. The conversation lasted only about two minutes but it was very reassuring to NOT hear the caller saying "Hello, Hello", "Are you still there" etc., etc.