Entune + Pandora = frustration

I just tested this with my phone this morning because I read this post last night. Pandora seemed to work fine for me.
Galaxy S7 Edge. My truck is 2 weeks old.

 

Pandora app on the truck works maybe 50% of the time. Pandora on my phone via BT works 100% of the time. It is very frustrating. I am going to try the uninstall from the phone tack and report back. I just don't get how badly this has been implemented.

 

I haven't had any problems either.

 

I was having similar issues with an iPhone 6 up until about the 5500 mile mark / 3 months ago.
What ultimately seemed to work is:

1. uninstalling / reinstalling the Entune app
2. Before starting Pandora in the truck, let the app load fully and get to the screen that says Entune with the disconnect at the bottom.
3. The important thing is to not let the network / coverage change on your phone before Pandora has started - meaning if you are still in range of wifi when Entune app starts, you need to stay on that wifi network until after Pandora is running. If you need to get rolling, start the Entune app once you're away and on cellular.
4. If the app is loaded and Pandora's not working, change the source, restart the app fully and then go back to Pandora.

YMMV but I can't remember the last tether error I've had.

 

Well this is a nightmare. My Droid Tubro with Verizon, which used to work fine with the entune app, no longer does, and hasn't for a long time. Tethering error. Tried all sorts of disconnecting, reconnecting, etc.

It works sometimes, occasionally, by just starting the Pandora app on the phone and streaming straight Bluetooth. But I've gotten long pauses and blurbs of noise doing that more often than not. About to try a straight aux cord. Yay wireless.

And this is very interesting: service-by-service and phone-by-phone compatibility matrix with entune apps.


https://www.toyota.com/content/entune/responsive/pdf/EntunePhoneCompatibilityList.pdf

Its singles out my phone as being incompatible with the entune apps. Which did not used to be true. Yay.

 

My galaxy s7 has green checks across the board..... buuuullllll shit!

 

Double-check that you search for Tacoma in that PDF, and there are 2 different lists for different model years.

 

Still doesn't' explain why my bluetooth stream straight from my phone's Pandora app is fucked.

 

Recently, after an Entune update, I am now starting to have issues. It claims insufficient connectivity yet I had 5 bars and full 4g LTE. Disconnecting, closing the entune app, then launching it and repairing seems to work. I've noticed it will sometimes start to play as I am driving but sometimes it takes almost 50% of the trip or more before it does. Nothing has changed other than the Entune app and head unit update since my last post in this thread when everything was hunky dory. I'll do some investigating and see if I can find out what is going on. I will get my Surface since I have a wifi network analyzer and I will attempt to see what the bluetooth and network traffic is spitting back when it bombs out like that. The only thing I have noticed is when I put the truck into reverse immediately, it almost acts like it interrupts the connection to Pandora, odd, but could be a software bug as that is the only thing that has changed.

 

Page 153 is my radio, scrolled down to page 160 for Verizon galaxy s7 all green checks, is that the wrong list?

 

No, that looks right, you found the 2017-specific list. Mine was on the 2014-2016 list.

So I learned a little bit more yesterday because I was so pissed off. I had never previously used the Entune app to run Pandora. It had worked without it in the past. Then at some point, I kept getting a tethering error message. So I figured I should try this to at least sort out the Toyota/OEM headunit end of the deal.

1. Before I left the office, I logged into Entune, found the Pandora app in that, and while I was there switched on higher quality.
2. When I got int the struck and started it, Entune in the head unit immediately prompted me to download an update, which I installed. This had not happened in more than a year, so I guess it was triggered by logging in to the Entune site and app.
3. I started my phone's Entune app and selected Pandora.
4. It worked. Huh.
5. Sound quality, even on high, sucks ass.
6. The user interface seems different than I remember, and it seemed I couldn't use the touch screen to select channels.
7. I could use the steering controls to change channels and tracks, but this did not visually appear on screen (cursoring and highlighting).

Result: got it to work (for at least a half hour on one day), totally not worth it for low quality sound and janky interface.

NEXT UP: Bluetooth from Pandora on Droid Turbo on Verizon in well-covered area.

This had worked well for me, but one day I suddenly started getting intermittent blurts of noise that sounded compressed or scrambled, between long silences (perhaps 20 seconds?). I could tell it was music, but sounded like superfast, super-short shots of it.

I had an A-ha! moment then. My phone memory has been maxed out for a while, and I'd been deleting some stuff occasionally as a bandaid. I needed to really clean out a ton of videos especially. I moved a lot of stuff to my PC to free up phone memory.

Result: Fixed it! Just didn't have enough room for buffering Pandora data I suppose. Worked flawlessly all the way to work this morning.

 

Apparently their sales numbers don't have them concerned about pimping decade-old tech. Someday soon, every vehicle will just have a docking port, right?

 

I mean, while we're bitching: Nav. By the time it loads, I am already at or past my main decision point and still waiting for traffic data, which is usually completely stale anyway. Oh, red you say? I'm now driving through that "red" at 70....

But at least the screen glare is debilitating! Jesus, what part of "binnacle design" don't you understand, Toyota?

Google maps: everything I need in less than 10 seconds while I fasten my seatbelt.

 

From what I've read toyota dumped a ton of money into developing entune and despite how much it sucks they refuse to cut their losses.

 

Maybe they could hire Microsoft to fix it.

 

I thought he was casually leaning against the tree, one knee up 80s rock band style.

 

I have Sprint and the Galaxy S7. It's to the point where Pandora only works about half the time. I don't know if it's the head unit, the app, the phone, or the service provider but it's infuriating. Keep hoping they release an update that fixes it. I love how you can't back out of the app either, actually have to hit the home button. Restarting the phone seems to fix it every time, sometimes disconnecting and reconnecting works, sometime clearing the device memory works, but the only thing that always seems to work is rebooting the phone.

At least my head unit stopped rebooting. It used to reboot almost every time it rained. Never figured that one out.

 

Unlinked my pandora account on entune app and then re-linked. Deleted Pandora app on my iPhone and restarted iPhone. Seemed to have worked so far. Fingers crossed!