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Help Car AUX Input Issues

duhrman

Newbie
Oct 3, 2010
12
0
Hi,

I just recently upgraded to the Galaxy S3(Verizon) from an HTC Evo 4g (Sprint). I love the phone, but I'm having a very annoying issue using my car's AUX 3.5mm(on both ends) headphone input to play music/podcasts. I know from years of using the Evo that there is no issue with my car's AUX input. Anyways, When I plug the 3.5mm input into my S3 and try to use the AUX input on my car, the music plays out of my phone's speaker instead. I have noticed that if I unplug the audio cable from both the car stereo and the phone and try plugging in each end, starting with the phone first, I can get it to work eventually (usually not the first time). However, this is less than ideal and a huge pain in the ass to have to do every time. With all other devices that I've used I am able to leave the end that's hooked up to the car stereo connected at all times and just plug the other end into the device I'm using without issue. But not with the S3...

Even when I am able to finally get the sound to play through my car speakers I have issues. I've noticed that if I get any text message, call, or notification of any sort, the ring or notification sound will play through my cars speakers and then immediately after this, my music will start up again and play through the phone's speaker. This happens whether or not I actually do anything to acknowledge the notification. Not to mention, the sound for a notification is preceded by a really loud and random heartbeat noise going through the car speakers that I never hear when the phone is unplugged from the car. I know there's a heartbeat vibration setting, but I didn't think vibrations would play through the AUX input. It's very strange and it sounds like something just hit my car.

Has anyone else had similar issues and, if so, have you found any solution? I know from using a number of other devices that this is not typical behavior. Is it possible this issue is just with my particular S3?

Thanks a bunch in advance!
 
Hello there,

I actually joined the forum to ask about the exact same issue that the OP is facing. I have a wind mobile galaxy s3 (North American version) and can't seem to get the aux cable to work right. Like previously mentioned taking out the cable and plugging back in gets it to work but it stops playing through the car even if you switch to the next song.

I've bought 2 aux cables and both have had this issue. Both of these were 2 contact cables and I was wondering if maybe the s3 uses 3 contact ones. Or it might be an issue with our version of the phones.

Any help would be appreciated here. Thanks
 
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I also have tried numerous pairs of headphones and they all work great so I don't think my phone's totally FUBAR. I'm not sure that trying various cables is going to do it. I know that in my car, it won't go into aux mode unless I have something plugged in. If I recall the phone itself won't detect a headphone input if there is not a measurable impedance coming from the AUX input. I wonder if the impedance is only within the expected norms for an input when the car stereo is in AUX mode. However, I'm not sure this theory makes sense because all of my other devices (ipod and HTC Evo 4G) have had zero issues working in this environment.
 
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So I just went out to my car and investigated this a little further. What I noticed is that if I take my 3.5mm cable and plug it into my phone with the other end unplugged, my phone indicates that it detects headphones. When I plug in the other end into the car, it thinks the headphones have been unhooked and the headphone icon goes away. So basically the phone is unable "detect" the presence of an AUX input when the other end is hooked up to the car, but does just fine if the other end is hooked to nothing. The times I am able to get this to work involve me plugging/unplugging each end a number of times until I get lucky.

I'm starting to get a little concerned that this may be a hardware issue. Although, with the popularity of this phone, I would have expected to find numerous posts about this issue on the various android forums. I'm wondering if I should try Verizon/Samsung tech support to see what they say.
 
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So I just went out to my car and investigated this a little further. What I noticed is that if I take my 3.5mm cable and plug it into my phone with the other end unplugged, my phone indicates that it detects headphones. When I plug in the other end into the car, it thinks the headphones have been unhooked and the headphone icon goes away. So basically the phone is unable "detect" the presence of an AUX input when the other end is hooked up to the car, but does just fine if the other end is hooked to nothing. The times I am able to get this to work involve me plugging/unplugging each end a number of times until I get lucky.

I'm starting to get a little concerned that this may be a hardware issue. Although, with the popularity of this phone, I would have expected to find numerous posts about this issue on the various android forums. I'm wondering if I should try Verizon/Samsung tech support to see what they say.

It could also be a faulty cable, or a problem with the input on the car. Are you able to try in another vehicle?
 
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I dont think it'll be a case of a faulty cable or car's aux input. I have an old Nokia N8 and I used the cables that I have, and the sound was perfect.

One thing that I would like to ask, for the guys that can get it to work properly, what do the cable bases look like. Maybe the cable's base is too thick and its not going in all the way. When i compare with the OEM headphones, it seems to go in the same length, but you never know with these things.
 
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Thanks for all the suggestions so far everyone. To summarize what I have tried so far:

1) The phone works with conventional headphones.
2) The phone works on a 3.5mm input to a conventional home speaker system, using the same cable as the car.
3) I've successfully used a number of devices such as my old Evo 4G, a couple ipods, and even a laptop to play music through this AUX input.
4) I've tried multiple audio cables and all show the same issue.

I drive a 2009 Saab that from what I can tell has the same, relatively speaking, car stereo interface that most GM (who owned Saab at the time) cars had at the time. I'd be interested to see if any of you have success with a GM system from that time-frame.

While I know that my car system is able to work with other devices, I'm guessing there is a unique incompatability between the phone and my car because using the same cable, I can play my phone on a home speaker system fine. The phone detects the cable and displays the headphone icon when the cable is plugged into the phone with the other end unplugged from the car. Once I plug the other end in, the phone thinks I've unplugged the headphone input. My best guess at this point is that the phone looks for a certain impedance on the other end and the galaxy s3, for whatever reason, is much less forgiving of my car's stereo than any other device I've used successfully in the past.

As a last ditch effort, I'm thinking I might try to get a nicer audio cable than the standard crappy ones I have. Does anyone have any suggestions? I found this one on monoprice: For only $2.51 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 6ft Designed for Mobile 3.5mm Stereo Male to 3.5mm Stereo Male (Gold Plated) - White | Mobile 3.5mm Audio Male to Male Cables

Again, thanks for your help/suggestions so far.
 
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Thanks for all the suggestions so far everyone. To summarize what I have tried so far:

1) The phone works with conventional headphones.
2) The phone works on a 3.5mm input to a conventional home speaker system, using the same cable as the car.
3) I've successfully used a number of devices such as my old Evo 4G, a couple ipods, and even a laptop to play music through this AUX input.
4) I've tried multiple audio cables and all show the same issue.

I drive a 2009 Saab that from what I can tell has the same, relatively speaking, car stereo interface that most GM (who owned Saab at the time) cars had at the time. I'd be interested to see if any of you have success with a GM system from that time-frame.

While I know that my car system is able to work with other devices, I'm guessing there is a unique incompatability between the phone and my car because using the same cable, I can play my phone on a home speaker system fine. The phone detects the cable and displays the headphone icon when the cable is plugged into the phone with the other end unplugged from the car. Once I plug the other end in, the phone thinks I've unplugged the headphone input. My best guess at this point is that the phone looks for a certain impedance on the other end and the galaxy s3, for whatever reason, is much less forgiving of my car's stereo than any other device I've used successfully in the past.

As a last ditch effort, I'm thinking I might try to get a nicer audio cable than the standard crappy ones I have. Does anyone have any suggestions? I found this one on monoprice: For only $2.51 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 6ft Designed for Mobile 3.5mm Stereo Male to 3.5mm Stereo Male (Gold Plated) - White | Mobile 3.5mm Audio Male to Male Cables

Again, thanks for your help/suggestions so far.


Woah !!! I think you may have narrowed it down for us. I also drive a Saab 9-5 (2008) and reading through your last post, seems pretty clear that this is an incompatibility issue. I guess I should wait for other replies before throwing songs back into my old ipod :D
 
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It seems like Saab is trying to be too techy here. In my Scion it just lets you turn on the aux setting and if you have something playing it plays it through the speakers, and if you don't then it's just silent. Less is more sometimes.

If you are really attached to using an S3 maybe you can get like a $100 head unit for your car and it'd probably work perfectly fine.
 
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As a last ditch effort, I'm thinking I might try to get a nicer audio cable than the standard crappy ones I have. Does anyone have any suggestions? I found this one on monoprice: For only $2.51 each when QTY 50+ purchased - 6ft Designed for Mobile 3.5mm Stereo Male to 3.5mm Stereo Male (Gold Plated) - White | Mobile 3.5mm Audio Male to Male Cables

Again, thanks for your help/suggestions so far.

I don't see why another cable it gonna solve it. Did you look at the belkin aircast ?
 
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Woah !!! I think you may have narrowed it down for us. I also drive a Saab 9-5 (2008) and reading through your last post, seems pretty clear that this is an incompatibility issue. I guess I should wait for other replies before throwing songs back into my old ipod :D
Wow, I would say the odds are very slim on this, it's gotta be the Saab. It's hard to believe that the Saab would be unique on this. I assumed that the stereo, outside of stylistic changes to the interface, was a clone of the standard GM stereo from that year. I looked on the forum I generally check for Saab issues (www.saabcentral.com) and found a couple posts with issues similar to this, but for different phones. Here's one about an issue with an iphone (iPhone Issues - SaabCentral Forums). I think there are other forum sites specifically for Saabs that we might want to scour for answers. Maybe there's a fairly easy fix for this. I'm actually still under warranty but I wonder really if the dealer can/will try to do anything about an issue such as this.

I don't see why another cable it gonna solve it. Did you look at the belkin aircast ?
You're probably right about the cable. I guess I was wondering if the cable has an impact on the impedance seen by the phone. I know this phone has an odd headphone input that's curved and makes it difficult for fatter jacks(which are all I have right now) to get in all the way. Although, like I said before, I can get stereo sound out after fiddling with it for a long while so I don't think the jack's not getting in all the way.

Thanks for this suggestion. I looked into it and it definitely seems like a viable option. I'm concerned about paying ~$50 for this because it still relies on the car's aux-in so there is a chance that my car would reject it like it does the phone, although from my experience, the S3 is the only device so far to have issues with it. Sucks because my car actually has bluetooth (for calls only) so it's kind of odd to add another bluetooth unit. I do have a sick feeling though that this will easily be the cheapest solution.
 
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At this point, I'm thinking the belkin aircast is a decent idea but it does seem weird that I'm buying something to wirelessly transmit sound 1 ft away. As I see it, the real problem stems from the fact that my phone doesn't directly work with my car's AUX. I think the belkin aircast, or almost any other device, will probably work though. So really all I need is some intermediary device that is more likely to work with my car than my S3. Does anyone know of a decent quality dock for this particular phone that has an audio line-out? This would achieve the same goal as the belkin aircast but would hopefully be cheaper and also have higher sound quality. I'm thinking I could attach it to the dash with velcro or something. Anybody have any suggestions? I figure I would need a dock that's fairly sturdy so that it would be able to handle the vibrations of my car.
 
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Here's an update for those who were curious about my issue. I ended up getting the ibolt (mentioned here: http://androidforums.com/samsung-galaxy-s3/566164-anyone-seen-car-dock.html), available on Verizon's website for 39.99(29.99 with 25% corporate discount. This puts my phone in dock mode and is able to get audio out through the mini-usb port. It works!!! This option is slightly cheaper than the belkin aircast although I did have to buy a $9 USB car charger as the cable included with the iBolt is conventional USB. Still, I'm glad this was able to work and it will be free of some of the issues I've read about sound quality with some of the bluetooth options. Thanks to all who provided help/suggestions. Cheers!
 
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I also bought the iBolt and it works fine playing to AUX using the micro USB. My problem is that if I am playing music or a podcast and I get an incoming call it switches the audio to the s3 speakerphone and it sounds horrible. My previous droid X2 would play the sound thru the car speakers. The caller also has problems hearing me. Not sure if the Mic is or the position is not right. Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance...
 
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Concerning use of the I Bolt,does its ability to source the music from the S3's micro USB port as opposed to from the headphone audio output jack bypass the phones music volume control? This would be ideal as you would only have one volume control to mess with being the one on the car audio system.

I used to have an Ipod Touch for which a connector was available that allowed access to my music through the units 30 pin charging port. Interestingly,the Ipod's music EQ affected the output sound though the volume control was totally bypassed.This gave me added flexibility to tailor the sound of the music on my stereo even more and was very nice to use.
 
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Concerning use of the I Bolt,does its ability to source the music from the S3's micro USB port as opposed to from the headphone audio output jack bypass the phones music volume control? This would be ideal as you would only have one volume control to mess with being the one on the car audio system.

I used to have an Ipod Touch for which a connector was available that allowed access to my music through the units 30 pin charging port. Interestingly,the Ipod's music EQ affected the output sound though the volume control was totally bypassed.This gave me added flexibility to tailor the sound of the music on my stereo even more and was very nice to use.
From my experience with the iBolt, I would say that unfortunately it does not bypass the volume control on the phone. I remember a number of friends of mine having expensive head units for their cars that hooked into the 30-pin connector of an ipod/iphone and doing exactly what you described (and it was definitely cool) but I guess this is not supported by this phone or android in general. Luckily though, you do have access to the volume buttons while the phone is docked. You will, however, have to get by without using the power button as it is blocked. I've been asking around to see if anyone has tried to rig the dock to get some sort of improvised access to the power button by drilling a hole or something. I think I could probably macgyver something together but I'm concerned that their may be circuitry/wiring in the spot that I'd have to drill. Anyone try this? Still, it's a very nice dock and a huge plus for someone like me who has inexplicable issues getting my car's AUX to work with this phone.

I've also noticed the issue with the calls going through the speakerphone but I don't mind it too much. Honestly, the speaker's pretty decent and I guess that's better than it defaulting to the phone's earpiece for sound. If you have bluetooth in your car, you can use that to go through speakers. I've read that this phone doesn't let you sync with bluetooth when hooked to the headphone output so this dock will conveniently get around that issue.
 
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Hey all,

I also drive a 2008 Saab 9-3. I believe that is due to the Saab trying to "auto detect" the music from aux source. I have tried using the "Headset Routing" app from the play store and it helps to force it to play. However, after the song, it will stop and you will have to repeat the process.

I am going to buy Rock 'n' Talk Smartphone Handsfree Driving Cable - 3.5mm on amazon to see if it will help since it has a microphone on it and possible have a different impedance.

Any thoughts?
 
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Hey all,

I also drive a 2008 Saab 9-3. I believe that is due to the Saab trying to "auto detect" the music from aux source. I have tried using the "Headset Routing" app from the play store and it helps to force it to play. However, after the song, it will stop and you will have to repeat the process.

I am going to buy Rock 'n' Talk Smartphone Handsfree Driving Cable - 3.5mm on amazon to see if it will help since it has a microphone on it and possible have a different impedance.

Any thoughts?

It sounds as though duhrman had luck with the iBolt car dock. Why not just go that route as opposed to buying another cable that probably won't fix the issue?
 
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