JacobC

Hi all,

I have a Lexus IS 350 f sport (2015) and an Android phone running Marshmallow.

On about 5 or 6 occasions when I have gotten into my car, the music automatically starts playing over bluetooth and all of the meta-data for the music appears. When it is in this state, I can also play and pause and skip tracks using the controls on my steering wheel.

However, about 99% of the time this does not work. I have to manually initiate the music from my phone, and no meta data appears. I cannot control the music from my car in any way.

How can I fix this?

nathantse

In order for the car to pull music via Bluetooth, you must have the specific application running in the background of the phone. Ex. Spofity, Itunes, etc. If nothing is running, you have to launch the application with your phone first.

If you want to initiate a music app manually through the car, you must download the Lexus App Suite onto your smartphone. And the only music streaming apps you can initiate with his method is Pandora, iheartradio, and Slacker.

JacobC

I do have the app suite installed on my phone already. Its true that I am using Google Play Music instead of those other apps, but why does it sometimes work perfectly?

nathantse

Having it installed is one thing.

Having it RUNNING in the background is another. <--- This is what you need in order for the car to pull the music via bluetooth.

I've never used Google Music for my entertainment.. I mostly stick with the Lexus App Suite and Pandora.

JacobC

I have both app actively running on my phone... Nothing.

JacobC

I just installed Pandora, restarted my car with both apps running. No Meta Data or control from my car.

nathantse

Does music play at least? I'm assuming the Google Play is not compatible with the Gracenote software <-- this is the software that will display the artist name, song, album, and etc.

Try going into the settings of the car and see if you could update the Gracenote.

Or

Try to launch a different music app, like pandora or spotfiy. These usually show the info.

computerwi

The Lexus App is not required for metadata to be transferred over Bluetooth. We don't have this in Canada and it works fine for me.

With my Samsung S7, what I've found is that if the phone is locked, it will not always be able to start playing (even though I have the vehicle added as a "trusted bluetooth device", which means it can unlocked my phone). It will also launch the default music app sometimes, instead of say, Spotify, even if Spotify is already running and open.

The ability for your phone to transmit the song metadata is primarily dictated by your phone's Bluetooth capability. The Bluetooth profile for metadata transfer and remote control is AVRCP 1.4 or higher. The application also limits certain functions. For example, if I use the default Samsung music app on my phone, I can browse the current playlist, but with Spotify, I can only skip tracks. In any case however, the metadata does display.

3ISJerry

iTrader: (1)

Is that a OnePlus? I recently bought one too and my metadata wasn't working until I updated to 7.0. I think it's a problem with OOS.

JacobC

Wow, good eye. Yep, its a oneplus 3. I haven't updated Nougat yet. Is that even available?

3ISJerry

iTrader: (1)

Its available in Canada and germany. I had to connect to one of the location with a VPN and I was able to update to nougat directly from the phone. However, couple bugs were reported on OP forums such as battery drain. The new version
​should be out next week.

akshunj

This happens to me on occasion. I have to reboot the Nav system to get the metadata to appear. It happens with Google Play and Spotify. I don't use the enform stuff. Phone is a Note 5, car is 14 IS350 with the original firmware/software.

Cav86

I also use google play music. Mine always starts playing on its own when i start the car. Only time it doesn't start automatically is if I had restarted my phone and not opened the google play app yet. Otherwise it always starts with no issues. All controls through steering wheel work as well. Google Pixel with Nougat if that helps. Before i got my pixel i was using a Google Nexus 5x with Marshmallow and also never had any issues.

Isberg2015

I have the same car (2015 IS 350 F Sport) and an iPhone 6S. A few months ago the metadata stopped showing up when using the Lightning cable to USB. The info displays in Bluetooth mode only now, and I have to go through this cycle of plugging the phone in, then switching back and forth between iPhone and Bluetooth to get music to play and the data to display. Very annoying!

itsx

I had the same problem and do the same thing you do! I wind up doing it off the steering wheel, or i'll just turn it off and back on by pushing the volume **** in. Sometimes I'll just hit play before I start the car and I get away with it.