You enter your car and drive off into the sunset but then you realize there is no sound coming from your car speakers. That’s odd, you think to yourself as you do a quick check and notice the Bluetooth is connected as usual. Since you are already on the road and there is no way for you to do a thorough check. Annoyed and flustered, you have no choice but to keep driving to your destination without the sweet companionship of your music.
We all know how important music is when you are driving to the same old destinations on a daily basis, it breathes life and excitement even when you are stuck in a traffic jam. Since most people use their mobile phones as music storage devices, what better way to connect to your music library than Bluetooth. What I am trying to say is I truly understand how you feel when there is no sound coming out from your car speakers even though the Bluetooth is connected. I am going to share with you some troubleshooting guides which you can use and maybe solve this issue.
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Table of Contents
Troubleshooting and Fixes
It is an exhaustive list and please try not to skip any of them unless necessary. Alright, as this might take a while so be prepared to spend some time.
Check playback volume
Check the music playback volume control in your mobile device, see if the volume is been set to a minimum. If it is, then just turn it back up and you should hear music coming out of your car speakers. You’ll be surprised how often this is the case.
Sound was Muted
Check the media player of your phone, is it been set to mute. If it is not, check your car audio system if you have accidentally mute it. If yes, then simply just unmute it.
Turn Bluetooth off and on again
Try turning your Bluetooth off, wait for a few seconds, and turn it back on again.
Reconnect Bluetooth connection
Unpair the Bluetooth connection, wait for a few seconds before pairing them up again.
Restart your Mobile Devices
Try restarting the devices that you are pairing with your car such as your mobile phone, tablet, laptops, etc.
Restart your Vehicle
This is worth the try, and restarting your vehicle doesn’t take much time unless you are already on the road. Then find a parking lot and safely park your car first before you try this.
Check Car Audio Volume
This is a possibility as you might have lower down the car audio system volume earlier when answering a call or were talking to a passenger. Try increasing the car audio volume, if it doesn’t work then move on.
Check Car Speakers
It could probably be the fault of your car speakers, you should test them out by changing to another source component such as the car radio and/or CD player. If you still couldn’t hear any sound after changing the source, then most likely your car speakers are faulty.
Check ATT button
ATT or the Attenuate is a setting that your car audio system might have. You should check if this setting has been activated, and turn it off if it is. Once you have deactivated the ATT, you can start trying again.
Update Firmware
You might want to check if your mobile devices have the latest firmware and update them accordingly. Sometimes the latest firmware of your phone may not be available for your country, you might want to contact the mobile device manufacturer for the release date. The same goes for your car, as you might need to update the system firmware in order for the Bluetooth to work properly. Or update the firmware of the car systems that enable the car’s Bluetooth to work. If you are not too sure, you might want to check with your car manufacturer or the car dealer from which you bought your vehicle.
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Use another speaker system
Find another speaker/audio system (e.g. portable Bluetooth speaker) that has a Bluetooth connection, pair it with the mobile device which you use to pair with your car audio system. Do a test and check if there’s any sound coming out from the other speaker system. If the problem still persists, that means the fault lies with your mobile device and not the car audio system.
Disable Bluetooth A2DP hardware offload
This is for Android users only. You can find this setting under ‘developer options’, the sequence goes something like this; Settings > Developer Options > Networking > Disable Bluetooth A2DP hardware offload. Once you have this turned off, your device will prompt a restart. Just restart the device and check if it is turned off. Different devices may have different menu paths.
Connecting with Aux cable
This is an odd fix but it may work. Connect your mobile device to your car audio system using an aux cable (if possible). You should hear the sound/music coming out from your car speakers. Make sure your mobile device is still paired with your car system via Bluetooth. After listening for about 15-30mins, plug out the aux cable and check if the sound/music still plays through your car speakers via Bluetooth.
Adjust connected devices settings
On your car audio system, go to ‘settings’ then ‘connected devices’, look for your mobile device entry, and click on the gear icon next to it. Check to see if the ‘media audio’ is enabled and if there’s an ‘HD audio’, you can try disabling it. Another setting to check on your car audio system will be going to ‘settings’ then ‘sound’. Find the ‘play media to’ option and check if it is set to your car audio system.
Nearby device scanning
If this issue only occurs when you are driving on the road then there’s a possibility that this might work. Go to your car’s Bluetooth settings, look for ‘connections’ then ‘more connection setting’, and turn off ‘nearby device scanning’. This setting might pause your music playback because of the interruptions made by passing cars with Bluetooth audio.
Power saving mode
Put your phone in maximum power-saving mode. If it works, then turn back to medium or normal power mode.
More Details at Amazon – Kenwood Bluetooth Digital Media Player – Car Stereo Receiver
Delete Bluetooth profile
Sometimes your phone may recognize the wrong Bluetooth profile of the paired device. Try deleting the profile associated with your car audio system and redo the whole pairing process.
Incompatible devices
You can check with your car manufacturer to see if your current phone model is compatible with your car model. There’s a slight possibility that the incompatibility issue is the main cause. There’s also a possibility there may be a new software update from your car manufacturer which can solve this.
Spotify Bluetooth issue
If you are using Spotify as the music source, you might want to try the following. Check if your device OS is up to date. Check if your Spotify app is up to date as well. You might also want to reinstall the Spotify app. Restarting the app might work too.
In Conclusion
Hopefully, the above list has helped you to solve the issue. If it doesn’t then perhaps you might want to contact the support of your mobile device and car manufacturer, they might be able to solve your issue at their end. Before you send anything for servicing/repair, you should isolate the problem first by using the above list of troubleshooting/fixes. Once you have isolated the problem, you will know which device is to be sent for servicing. Bluetooth connections may be finicky at times, it may even just resolve the issue by itself.
