Xperia Z does not work with car BLUETOOTH handsfree module

[coyote82]

Hi Everyone!

I've just changed to Xperia Z from iPhone, and I would be a very satisfied user, if the phone wouldn't piss me off with a bluetooth problem: I'm driving a 2004 BMW E46 with stock bluetooth module, which has worked perfectly with Blackberries and iPhones so far. Now Xperia Z has the following issues:

1. after successful pairing, the phone quickly connects to the car module. When I want to call someone, the Bluetooth logo appears just fine, but as soon as the other person picks up at the end of the line, the connection is dropped and the logo disappears, the phone switches to the integrated speaker. After the call, BT connection is usually up and running again.

This is extremely annoying and I really won't change neither my car, nor the BT system just to resolve that. The phone is the "new guy" in the system...

In the meantime my old iPhone works just perfectly with the module.

2. other issue is the phone directory: the module is reading some random names and numbers which are not even visible on my phone! Where are they coming from? However, this secondary problem is not so important, if problem #1 is not resolved, I can't even use the handsfree.

Please help me, otherwise I'll need to return to my iphone which I really don't want to. Thank you

[coyote82]

just tried with wifi and stamina off. No success.

Still connecting, but when I call someone it disconnects. Doesn't seem to be an interference issue, rather a SW bug or communication failure (incompatibility) when the call is actually happening.

The phone replaces the (B) emblem with a loudspeaker on the calling screen, no way to switch back to bluetooth. The (B) sign on the top of the screen fades out too, showing that connection has been lost.

[gregorg1]

I told you some tipps in my first post.

The first one you should really try ist to switch off media audio connection.

In the XZ bluetooth menu click on the carkit entry and uncheck Media audio if you don´t need it.

There were some options in the car menu did you check?

Kind regards

[jayphotoworks]

I have a 2013 F30 3 Series with Nav/BT. I found it does the same as mentioned above. If I pair my Xperia ZL (395 build), it will constantly poll the phone and at some point it will actually turn off bluetooth on the car. Then after I manually reactivate this, all of my paired phones will be gone. If i try to make a call, a high pitched whine at full volume will come from the car and the bt will disconnect and the phone's earpiece will take over.

I've tried Wifi/Stamina mode off and it doesn't seem to work. I then tried to just enable the telephone and not the bluetooth audio setting in the car and it doesn't work. Lastly, I tried turning off all extra bluetooth features (bt audio, office, additional images) and that didn't work either. After pairing, the same end-result will occur and the car's bluetooth will be off and all paired phones erased.

I started to question myself if the car was the culprit, so I went to BMW.com/update and downloaded and updated my car's firmware to UPD10006.BIN and I re-tried all of my testing methods above. 10006 is designed to support ios6, so I figured this might help. Exactly the same symptoms, and when the bluetooth in the car resets like above, I not only lose the pairing, I lose the UPD10006 update and have to re-upload the firmware in the car as well.

I think the car will turn off and reset the internal bluetooth module if it encounters a set number of errors, similar to a pc watchdog timer that will autoreboot the pc if it doesn't repond or hangs after xx seconds. Since my other phones don't do this, this has to be something the ZL is sending, or not sending.

In my last attempt to date, I paired the phone again (leaving all options on in the car: bt audio, office, additional images), with the current firmware in the car (UPD10006), but when the MAP REQUEST comes into the phone asking to access messages/phonebook, I ignore them or decline them. This will not allow me to see my phonebook/messages in the car, but so far it is stable. I can make and receive calls, and it hasn't dropped the connection.

I think the phone has a number of serious bugs. I've never encountered this in my last 3 bmws all with bt and I've gone through at least 12 phones in that span (HTC One X,Galaxy S,S2,S3,Note,Note2,Iphone 4,4s,5,Lumia 920,Bold 9900,Z10) and now Xperia Z.

Sony does need to release an update for this phone in short order. I hope this can help someone.

[drlmiles1]

Has anyone with any car other than a BMW got any problems with Bluetooth and the XZ? I have done a brief search and there are reported problems with BMW cars and HTC, BlackBerry and iPhone that I could find! Often it is reported that the person's previous phone worked fine, but the new phone had problems, and so it was assumed that the new phone was the problem, not the BMW bluetooth software.

I think that there is a serious problem with any software that loses the update as mentioned above. In one reported problem elsewhere, simply having anything stored in the comments field of a contact (HTC phone) caused repeated failures.

It may even be that Sony has implemented a newer version of the Bluetooth standard that BMW has not allowed for.  We need to hear of problems in other makes of Bluetooth car modules to be sure this is an XZ problem, rather than a BMW problem.  In particular, does anyone have a different brand that accesses and downloads contact data from the phone that either works or has similar problems?

[MarkEvansKent]

My Kia Picanto also returns failed connections on my XZ, never had problems before but continual problems with this phone. I have to delete and repair each time this happens.

I've also got the tennis ball NFC BT speaker from Sony, this regularly loses connection also.

Mark.

[jayphotoworks]

As an update, currently my working and stable configuration is:

a) BMW Firmware 3.5.6 (UPD10006.BIN from bmw.com/update)

b) Disable "Office" profile on BMW BT Configuration, but leave BT Audio profile and Telephone profile on)

c) Pair phone to car as normal

d) Once paired, phone's notification bar will ask for MAP Requests (the car is trying to access messages on phone and phonebody on phone)

e) Either deny or simply ignore these.

Step e) is crucial. The only issue with this is the phone will beep once or twice everytime you get into the car as the phone will connect and the map requests will prompt. But in the last few days of going out, shopping, etc. I have had no further issues with my bluetooth. I can't access my texts/emails/phonebook from the in-car screen, but livable until Sony fixes these things.

[Hugoma]

My Hyundai i30-2012 has the same Bluetooth connectivity problem with the Xperia Z. I tried everything I could imagine to pair them. Sometime works but most of times it doesn't.  I already ask my car dealer and Sony Tech Support and their silly and lazy answer is that there is not compatibility between the bluetooth system of both device. I really can't believe how two brand new devices are not able to connect.

before the Xperia I used to connect an HTC Sensation and iPhone S4 on the i30 without any problem. with the Xperia Z its a nightmare even try to connect it through the USB cable in the car.

Hugo

[coyote82]

This is the reason why I finally sold my Xperia Z last week.

Why did I sell it?

1. The Bluetooth connectivity problem is the FAILURE OF SONY, they "forgot" to make it backwards compatible to connect older devices. My car uses BT 2.1, simple as a rock, handles calls and reads phone directory, that's all. My iPhone 4 and Galaxy S3 connects to the car perfectly, even synchronizes phone book.

2. the support of Sony is a shame. All they can say is that "my other device is too old" "my other device is not compatible"... So what??? Xperia Z is the "new guy" on the market, it should be made compatible!!! If I would have received a response like "we are looking into it, the next SW update you can expect in x weeks which should already include some improvements" then I would be patient. But no, all responses were negative, not even offering a slight chance for fixing this problem.

I really like Xperia Z but it could not fulfill my basic requirements, therefore I saw no other option but to get rid of it. What a shame, Sony.

[GeoffH]

there does seem to be an issue with legacy BT connections - I'm not entirely sure it's totally Sony's fault but it should be their resposibility to fix it - I suspect that things like BT and wifi are standard devices used throughout the industry just like cpu's and gpu's

It seems that to have any chance to have BT working turning of wifi is a must as there is a coflict issue there also

I see 2x things here that need attention - Sony needs to work hard to iron out issues on their side and with the chip manufacturers but equally car manufacturers need to privide updates for their devices too - we have seen this sort of thing with MS Windows for years - it's nothing new

BT is/has an established standard unlike wifi direct and the like - and in a perfect world these issues should not exist, also consider that if Sony are using the latest Hardware for BT and wifi I'd expect samsung aLG and HTC to be doing the same - I'd be expecting issues there too, I'll do a google search in a moment to see if HTC have any of these same issues

[drlmiles1]

I've already done some searches and found issues with BMW and other cars, with Samsung and HTC phones amongst others. On several occasions the messages have been almost the same as here, and speak of a car working fine with an older phone, but not with a newer phone. Newer implementations of BT have been implicated with older car versions  of BT. It is of course important to note that just because you have a new car does not mean it has the latest implementation of BT.