Xperia XZ1 can not play song to my car with Spotify

[hcheng868]

Hi

I connected my new XZ1 phone with my car through bluetooth. It seems like the phone and address book works with my car fine. I tried to play music with build-in music player, the music was not coming out from my car stereo at first. Then, I turn WiFi and NFC off and play the music again, then it works. However, my car stereo is not showing the sounds track information like my old Xperia X did. Then, I open Spotify and play the music, there is no music coming out my car stereo. However, the phone showing that the music is playing. Also, there is no soundtrack information showing on my car stereo as well. I tried re-boot the phone and re-connect the bluetooth. I still can not get my car stereo to play the music from Spotify. My car model is 2016 BMW X1 (F48). Can someone help?

[Bhonder]

This page https://www.bmw.it/it/topics/mondo-bmw/connecteddrive/how-to-use/compatibilita.html?desktop= specifies the Bluetooth compatibility up to Z5. Try to check if there is some firmware update. 

Mine has been updated because this. I have a Peugeot.

[MajesticAF]

I have a BMW X1 and a XZ1 Compact. I've fixed all of my connection issues so if you still haven't figured it out I hope this is helpful.

This is what I did. I needed to make all of these changes to fix the phone for my uses.

1. Turn on developer options. You'll need this to make changes to the advanced Bluetooth settings on your XZ1. (There are plenty of guides on how to turn on developer options in Android)

2. Scroll down to Bluetooth section under Networking within developer options. 

3. Set Bluetooth AVRCP Version to have AVRCP 1.4 as the default.

4. Set Blueooth Audio Code Sample Rate to 44.1 kHz. (You might not have to do this. This solved an issue I had with SoundCloud for some reason.)
5. Uninstall Sony Smart Connect. (I think Sony Smart Connect was causing an issue. I think it was turning on the default media player whenever it connected to my BMW) Either way this app is crap and there are alternatives.
6.Disable the default sony music app. I use GoolePlay Music, SoundCloud and Bandcamp for my tunes. As mentioned above for some reason my connecting via bluetooth to my BMW usually opened the default sony music player and would only play sound from it. Disabling it helped.

7. Download an app called "AutoAudio - Bluetooth Helper" by FlagNotify. All this app does is help keep the bluetooth metadata for the current song up to date. I have the persistent service set and it seems to help. This app may have been removed from the Google Play Store recently. It seems hard to find now. There are alternatives I think that do similar things.

8. Download and setup an app called "Bluetooth connect & Play" by Carl Parziale. This app waits for a bluetooth connection and then automaticly opens a music app and starts the music. You can set it to auto open whatever music app you want once it detects your BMW X1.  There are other alternative apps that do this, but this is my favorite.

That's it. I'm sure a few of those steps are not 100% needed, but the setup above now produces flawless bluetooth playback and connectivity of music from my XZ1 Compact to my BMW X1. The only issue I have sometimes is that it sounds like nothing is playing on initial connection. This is usually due to the music volume on either my BMW or XZ1 being too low.

Hope this helps someone.

[MalcCaulkhead]

Hi MajesticAF

Thank you so much for taking the trouble to place this post. I have been going round and round in circles with Sony over this issue with regard to my Z5 Compact. I can connect to my car blue tooth and hear the music but there is no track info or the option to skip tracks available. I have completed numerous painstaking back-ups, restores and factory resets as per Sonys instructions. I have spent hours on their support chat. To be frank they have been uninformed and unable to help. They claimed that it was my car software that needed updating not the phone. I spoke to Volkeswagen, (I have a 4 year old Golf), who claimed it was not an issue with their entertainment system. I tended to agree as all of my older phones, including a sony Z and an iphone all blue-toothed perfectly, with all track info / skip fuctions working perfectly.  

I recently upgraded to a brand new Sony XZ1 Compact and guess what ...same problem! Arghh!

However, thanks to your post, I discovered how to access the developer options. Sony never even mentioned this to me over inummerable exchanges and advice from their so-called experts.

Following your instructions, I have changed the AVRCP setting to 1.4 and the code sample rate to 1.44kHz.

The blue-toothing is now working prefectly, thanks to your excellent advice! You should work for Sony as their technical staff, who have wasted a great deal of my time, are obviously inept!

Many, many thanks!

[GihuNgu]

I had the exact same problem on my BMW with my brand new XZ1: couldn't hear any music or podcast app, but the phone was working fine. You solution fixed the problem.

Thanks a lot !

[Dagreg]

Hi !

I have had the same issue with my xz1 in connection with the mmi/bluetooth system from my Audi A3, i.e. no tittles on my MMI display while playing Spotify.

Seting the  Bluetooth AVRCP Version to  AVRCP 1.4 as the default did the trick for me.

Thnak you so much MajesticAF for your precious help ! 😉

[TuanLVT90]

Well I think I sony support is semi right also... Since they want ppl to use new technology (example avrcp 1.6.) and they saying it's your car that is uncompatible and needed to update... Support ain't saying about developer mode because you aren't developer guess... But I'll try this solution if it works ty

[TuanLVT90]

At first i changed avrcp to 1.4 it didn't work so I put bitrate to 44.1 khz and now it showed track name but when changed song it didn't show next track name... Now I changed avrcp back to 1.6 and it works fine now

Honda civic 5D 2017

[MajesticAF]

It's probably best for the phone to be configured so that music playback is compatible with the most devices possible. Using the older AVRCP version seems to be best in most scenarios so it's odd the phone is configured to use avrcp 1.6. I assume Sony did it because it makes some of their newer bluetooth headphones sound better, but not sure.