Dear all, I just upgraded my phone to the Droid Maxx. I have had Droid phones for at least a couple of years and have had no problems pairing them with my LS 430.

However, with the new Droid Maxx, the phone was easy to pair with the car, but it only connects intermittently.

I have ordered a new phone under warranty which hopefully will solve the problem, but was wondering if anyone else has seen this problem.

Thanks, Jim

 

I had a htc droid phone and had no issues but when I got a new samsung galaxy s4 I have intermittent connectivity issues with the bluetooth in my ls430. I think the newer bluetooth versions aren't 100% compatible with the older bluetooth in our cars even though bluetooth is meant to be backwards compatible with old versions. From looking on the net it seems quite a few people with all different makes and models of cars are having similar issues.

 

You can go to mylexus and find a list of current cell phones that are compatible with your specific car.

 

Jim, the problem lies in an incompatibility between the Lexus firmware and how Android implements Bluetooth. Lexus wants to blame Android, but in reality it's a problem with the car's software/firmware as other manufactures do not have the same problem with the same phone. I went through a total of 4 phones on my 13 GS from different manufactures and all have the same problem. 2 Droid Maxx's, 1 Droid Turbo and now a Note 4.

Supposedly this problem will be fixed when Android 5.x reaches your phone.

 

Sorry to dash anyone's hopes- but OS5 may not solve your issues. I have a Nexus 5 and had Lollipop (os 5.x.x) since it was official. This has not improved. Here's tips to ensure it will connect successfully more often. Don't have ANY other BT devices on (like other headsets, speakerphones etc) make sure your phone already has the BT feature turned on and that you've already programmed it into your Lexus to begin with. Not sure this next step matters- but I removed any other phone profiles from the stereo. I then make sure I'm not on a call, turn on the car and WAIT till I get the bluetooth successful connection message before I begin using my phone.

If some of the above is not followed, I can see the call come in on my dash- but audio is still through the phone- and even if I chose on the phone during the call to toggle speaker or ear on phone THEN bluetooth- it will still not transfer the audio to the car stereo.

I feel your pain, it's very frustrating- and it's not just lexus. I've not tried an apple iphone on our cars- don't have one.

 

nothing is wrong with your phone....just get a different car...



Kidding. As some others have mentioned, it is just a finicky Android compatibility issue...

 

I'm not so sure that it is the car. The iPhone 5S with iOS8.1 works perfectly.

 

Soooooo, I suppose there is no firmware update available for our cars that would make the bluetooth 100% compatible with today's technology?

Mine's an 06 ML, and I've got the exact same issue. I was very seriously considering upgrading to a better phone, figuring that would solve the problem for sure. Glad I didn't before discovering this thread.

 

I had a Blackberry that worked flawlessly with my 04's Bluetooth. Then I got the iPhone 6. I was having issues. We ended up having to reinstall the OS as a new phone to completely wipe it and now it works perfectly. Maybe you want to try that on your Android before spending a lot of money on new phone or car.

 

My impression is Lexus will only fix new cars, but won't go back to fix older cars, especially when they can point the blame at someone else like google (aka android 4.4.x).

 

Yeah, sad to say- but the best alternative may be to get a bluetooth speakerphone / visor mount like those from Jabra and others- sadly, I don't feel noise cancelling or the microphones are anywhere near as good as the Lexus OEM equipment.

The other option, though, I've yet to try is a BT headphone adapter like this:

This has it's own microphone- so you can attach this to the end of a tape cassette adapter and have the audio come through your stereo and speak aloud to be heard. with a splitter- you can retain line output to an audio device for music.

I've a few items on order to try such nonsense.

 

Bluetooth connectivity between my LS430 and my former Motorola DroidX on Android 2.3 with Verizon was perfect.
My Samsung Galaxy S4 on Android 4.3 with T-Mobile connects about 70% of the time. Usually wrong numbers connect perfectly, but the wife calling me from her iPhone 4 never connects on bluetooth in my LS430.

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