Car Thing iPhone Volume Bug

[Od1e]

Plan

Premium

Country

United States

Device

iPhone 13 Pro

Operating System

iOS 15.1

My Question or Issue

When starting my car, my phone's Bluetooth will connect to my Car Thing before it connects to my car radio. When my phone connects to my car radio, my phone's volume automatically sets itself back to whatever it was last time I was connected to my car radio.

Here's where the issue comes in, my Car Thing will remember my phone's volume before connecting to my car and next time I attempt to adjust my phone's volume, it will set it self back down to whatever volume Car Thing remembers (before connecting to my car radio).

This can create another issue when my phone's volume is initially zero since Car Thing will show "Phone Volume: 0" instead of playback controls. Is there any way to have Car Thing update its phone volume value every so often to fix this?

Thanks  

[Ver]

Hey @Od1e,

Thanks for posting here 🙂
 

It's a good idea to try restarting Car Thing to see if that helps:

1. Click the Settings button on the top-right.
2. Find Restart.
3. Press the dial to select and confirm.

We'd suggest you also restart your phone, log out and log back in to your account again.

In case nothing changes, could you share with us the following:

• Did this occur, for example, after an update?
• Video recording of the issue.

Keep us in the loop.

[cgnobrega]

I have the same issue, but I have a Google Pixel 3. When I turn my car on, Car Thing and the car radio automatically connect to my phone, and playback begins. My phone volume is at max when connected to my car radio, but Car Thing says "phone volume 0". Toggling my phone's volume does not change anything. I have tried restarting my phone, restarting Car Thing, factory resetting Car Thing, and logging out/back in of my Spotify account. When I pause the music, the playback controls are visible, but when anything is playing, the message "phone volume 0" obstructs playback controls. Please advise. 

[MafeG]

Hi @cgnobrega,

Thank you for posting on the Community and welcome.

In order to have a better picture of what's happening with the three devices, could you share with us a video showing how everything happens? If the file is too large to be posted, you can upload it to another service and post the link.

Also, have you ever had this issue or did it start happening after a certain event such as an update? 

Keep us posted.

[cgnobrega]

Hello, when I went to my car to film the issue, it has resolved. I am not sure why it resolved, but my guess is that if my phone volume is off, my car radio will turn the volume back on itself, but this does not register with CarThing, hence the message "phone volume zero". So, as long as my phone volume is on before connecting to either CarThing or the car radio, there is no issue. 

[MafeG]

Hi @cgnobrega,

Thank you for your reply. 

We're glad to know it is working normally! We'll take those insights into account to help other users if they present the same issue. 

Remember to always keep your app updated, so you don't miss any fixes or new features. Don't hesitate to give us a shout if you have more questions.

Have a great day!

[iamtyy]

I have the same issue with my new car thing and my Pixel 6 Pro. "Phone Volume 0" remains at the bottom of the now playing screen no matter what, even though the volume is turned up and playing just fine. I've rebooted everything with no change.

Here is a video:

https://photos.app.goo.gl/8fGscovaTiV31S8j7 

[Eni]

Hey there @iamtyy, 

Thanks for getting in touch about this. 

Could you let us know if you've already tried the steps mentioned previously in this thread? 

If so, we'd like to know if this issue started happening after a specific event such as an update, 

We'll be on the lookout for your reply.

[iamtyy]

Yes, I did do everything suggested in this thread. I'm not sure about when it would have started as it's brand new. I just set it up for the first time and discovered the issue. Thank you.

[CarlosE]

Hey @iamtyy,

Thanks for your reply.

For further assistance regarding Car Thing, you can reach out to our Support team through the option Contact us here.

If you need anything else, the Community is here for you.

Cheers!

[bluerocket]

I have a Google Pixel 4a and have the same issue.  I connect my phone to my car's audio system via the aux-input port on my car and my phone connects to the car thing via bluetooth.  About 50% of the time I start my car, it will say "phone volume 0" throughout my drive, even though the music is playing at full blast.  This is irritating because it covers up the controls for playback on the lower third of the screen. 

I have tried to figure out why the problem seems so intermittent.  I think it has to do with whether my phone connects to the car thing via bluetooth before or after I plug my phone into the aux in port of my car.  If I start my car, let my the car thing boot up and connect to my phone via bluetooth, and then plug in my phone to aux in port, it seems to work.  If plug in my phone to the aux in port prior to the bluetooth connection being established I seem to get the error.

[MafeG]

Hi @bluerocket,

Thank you for posting on this thread!

What may be happening is that your phone is prioritizing the first connection established and gives the volume control to it, whether it is the aux cable or Bluetooth. That may be the reason why you're able to control the Car Thing's volume when you connect via Bluetooth before using the aux cable. 

Also, could you confirm if the same happens when your phone's volume is set to 0 before connecting to your Car Thing and car's stereo? 

In this case, we suggest you test this during the next few days to confirm if that pattern is correct. That will help us narrow down this issue as much as possible.

We'll be on the lookout.

[bluerocket]

After further testing, it does NOT seem that allowing the bluetooth connection to establish first and THEN plugging in my aux cable is a solution.  I still am getting the "Phone volume 0" banner most of the time.

I leave my phone with "media volume" at 0 pretty much all the time.  As soon as I plug it in to my car the "media volume" turns itself up to max (see images below).  I do not manually change the volume on my phone at all.  I have tried turning the "media volume" up to max before plugging in my phone to aux in, but I still get the "Phone volume 0" banner.

It seems like this issue is definitely happening with Pixel phones.  Can you please do some internal testing using a Pixel?

[CarlosE]

Hey folks,

Thanks for your reports and all the info you've shared with us.

We've passed this on to the Car Thing team. We'll keep you posted about any developments on this.

Cheers!

[danielbarker126]

I recently got my car thing and very quickly encountered this issue. Over the past week+ I've been experimenting and have been able to trigger/combat the Phone Volume 0 glitch pretty consistently. If my phone connects to my bluetooth radio BEFORE car thing, then car things acts as intended. If my phone connects to my bluetooth radio AFTER car thing, then I encounter the volume glitch.

This only time the pattern deviates from this rule is once the volume glitch has already been triggered. Meaning, if I accidentally let my phone connect to car thing before my radio and trigger the glitch, then every time I connect to car thing in the "near future" the glitch will persist even if I connect to my radio first. For example, if I get the glitch on my way to get groceries, then leave my truck for an hour while I shop, the glitch will still occur once I get back to my truck no matter what. It seems this resets after a certain amount of time. So if I have the glitch one day, it doesn't ever seem to persist long enough to occur the next day.

I am using a Pixel 3XL, so Pixels do seem to be one of the leading devices associated with this glitch as bluerocket pointed out, though this thread was started by an iPhone 13 Pro user.

[Ver]

Hey everyone,

Thanks for the info that you've share with us so far. We've passed it on to the right team and they're looking into this.

We'll let you know as soon as we have any updates on the matter.

Thanks for posting and stay tuned!

[danielbarker126]

My serial number is S.N: 8555-RP81-Q512

Thanks!

[bluerocket]

SN:  8556-R08R-Q311

[sasadad]

Chiming in to say that I am also encountering this issue with my iPhone XS. Description of issue:

1. Turn on car.

2. Phone connects to Car Thing. My "playing over phone speakers" iPhone volume is usually set to zero, so Car Thing fetches this info and says "phone volume 0" at the bottom

3. After a few seconds, phone connects to car. This causes the iPhone to switch over to its saved volume level for when it's connected to my car, which is usually 5

4. Car Thing doesn't know this has happened, so it still says the phone volume is 0 even though the audio is playing over the car speakers at the appropriate volume. Using the dial to increase the volume sets it to 1 (0+1) rather than 6 (5+1).

I look forward to a fix for this.

[Alex]

Hi everyone,

Good news. We want to let you know that the folks at Spotify have made some changes backstage that should address the volume issues 🙂

Please let us know if you're still experiencing any odd behavior on your next drives or if not, to please confirm that things are looking good.

We'll be on the lookout for your replies.