Bluetooth audio plays automatically from last source

Definitely a nice feature IMO. My after market Sony head unit does this and I love it. Get in the truck and it automatically starts playing my music. Don't have to wait for it to connect to my BT, pull out my phone, open spotify, play a song, etc. Don't see how you see it as an issue

 

I'm trying my best to be clear. Sorry, It has nothing to do with the radio being on or off, or the radio at all.

Its frustrating to have to interact with the head unit or the mobile device to stop it from auto-playing the last opened MEDIA source. My solution thus far, has been to dock the phone in a cradle that is lightning/usb hard wired into the aux USB port on the dash.

I use the hard line for full fidelity audio when I select it, or tell Siri to "open spotify" "shuffle my music" etc. I use Bluetooth for streaming video/audio playback b/c most apps block this feature, except YouTube (kudos Youtube)

All I am saying it should be a user choice to disable it. Then its a technically a feature. Seems logical to me.

 

I prefer the Bluetooth connect and play. I mean that’s why I have it turned on. What I hate is when you jump out for a min and walk out of range, come back and it doesn’t reconnect. Then it freezes up and won’t connect. Then I have to reboot the device or the radio to get it working again. Very annoying.

 

I think that you're misunderstanding what I'm getting at here. He stated that "Auto play requires unnecessary time and user interaction", in the negative sense. Well, not having autoplay also "requires unnecessary time and user interaction" being that now I, the user, have to take the time to play something... I really like the autoplay feature. It allows me to get in and go without the required time it takes for me to find and play something. If I did not want the radio to automatically play when I started my truck to go somewhere, I would simply turn the radio off before exiting my truck every time, which still "requires unnecessary time and user interaction". So, technically, you do have a choice.

 

Agreed. Also, It takes more effort to pull out your phone and choose a song than to just turn the volume knob down or turn the stereo off.

 

I prefer it to work this way. That way all you have to do is get in the truck and drive. My old work truck was a Chevy and you had to select Bluetooth every time you started the truck. Rather than just staying on whatever it was last set to, it would just default to FM radio. It was super frustrating that say you’re driving along listening to Bluetooth, you stop for gas. Hop in and start the truck again, now you have to select the source, pull your phone out of your pocket and hit play on whatever media you were listening to and then drive off. It drove me nuts that I had to do this every time I get in the truck, which with my profession was about 5-10 times a day. Meanwhile my Tacoma remembered what I was listening to and started it right back up for me.

I do agree that this should be able to be turned off in the settings though. It should have an option of whether or not to “auto-connect to Bluetooth” or something of the sorts.

 

It's frustrating to have to interact with the head unit or mobile device to START it playing audio.

 

@NWTRDbrad yes, it should be a user setting choice. That would be good design.

@OdiN1701 I agree with you also, but it should simply have a choice to disable it. It's frustrating to me that we are forced to have one option only requiring interaction with the head unit or device when the feature is not desired.

 

Not being able to control a feature does not make it less of or not a feature. The technical definition states nothing about being able to control it.



... and you do have a choice. Multiple... Set your phone to what you want to play on the way to your truck, or don't. Turn bluetooth off or on. Turn the radio off or on. At some point you will always have to do something, just like you have to manually plug your phone into the hard line or telling Siri what you want the phone to do. Seems logical to me.

 

The last firmware update is irrelevant to any discussion regarding technology that is performing as intended. Auto-resume of media is a feature of your phone, not your car/headphones/stereo, and the software on that phone that streams media via Bluetooth makes the decision.

Why should Toyota override what your phone tells the radio to do, and how do you justify that Toyota is to blame for something your phone does?

Edit: not snarking, really trying to understand how you reason this.

 

The truck does tell the device to start playing on connection. My bluetooth speaker doesn't start playing music when I turn it on unless I press play on my phone. The bluetooth connection happens automatically when the speaker / truck is powered on, though.

And there's nothing here about "old software", this is a feature that the majority want. For a while there last year Android broke it, but it's working again thankfully.

 

It's not a feature of the phone. It's a feature of the stereo

 

I've never tried streaming audio over BLE, only data, but I've watched the back/forth between my phone and the truck, and the truck only sends it's UUID. However, any media apps running will start playing. Maybe Android/iOS are doing that at the connection layer?

Bluetooth is complicated, keeps changing, and everyone from the BLE chip to the speakers gets involved, and surprisingly, it mostly works. But I'm pretty sure the Toyota is doing nothing except ID.

 

Well you see, Toyota isn't wrong here.

 

If Toyota's radio works the same way every other radio works, then it isn't wrong.

Leaving Bluetooth turned on in your phone is a security hole and drains the phone's battery. A lot. If anyone is wrong it's Operator Error!

 

Strange. The Google Play Music app on my Note8 has no issue with the autoplay "feature" described by the OP, and it has never stopped playing audio after a few seconds either. Sounds like you may have an issue that could be specific to your phone.

 

I actually agree with you that it can be a bit annoying when it autoplays non-music media sources. In my case, I watch/listen to A LOT of youtube every day, so it is a little bit annoying when it randomly restarts whatever youtube video I was watching last. When that happens, I have to scramble to unlock the phone and turn it off, or switch sources on the head unit. Mine also seems to randomly decide which app to autoplay -- sometimes it's Google Play Music, sometimes it's Youtube, and it doesn't seem to matter which of those apps is open or closed on my phone at the time. It just picks one and blasts it at the last volume I used.

In other words, I appreciate the "feature" when it comes to music apps, but not so much with video apps and other types of media, and it's a little annoying that I can't turn the feature on/off.

I can live with the compromise, though. Not too big a deal.

 

@paleh0rse ... well said.

 

I’m on the fence about best practice... that route might be best practice, but it’s likely not ‘most probable practice’.

I’ll bet more than 50% of people prefer their audio experience to pick up where it left off when they get in the vehicle. I’ll also bet that more than 99% of people don’t want their microwaves kicking off when they get home. It’s about programming for a) safe use first, then b) most common use. So the microwave comparison is really an apples to suspension comparison.

I’ve just trained my brain to consider who’s getting in the car ‘next’. If it includes my wife I flip to XM from my Audi books when I exit the vehicle.

<edit> I’ll add that it is annoying if I’ve run Sonos or other media in the house and I get back in the truck and Apple defaults to the same damn U2 song I can seem to get off my phone.

 

@RushT you're right, the microwave was a crappy comparison, but you get it. You're right about A then B also.

sorry, i feel like i shouldn't have said anything to begin with, like reading news pundits debating politics, but lack of autoplay control is a long standing complaint from some and overtime will improve if Toyota puts the dev cost into updating the newer 3.0 Linux based platform features or God willing includes CarPlay in the future. Pre 2017 Entune is built on Blackberry QNX and sooooooo antiquated it will never improve. Docking the phone (which disables BT streaming but allows for hands free calls) is my solution and the added benefit is full fidelity audio plus charging while driving vs poor quality compressed BT audio and autoplay. Although it does autoplay after selecting a source, usually the first song in my phones library, or last media app opened. Everyone is entitled to a choice and a preference and their opinions. All good.