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Samsung Galaxy S3 Bluetooth Connectivity with Subaru and other blue tooth enabled vehicles

How do you rate Samsung Galaxy S3 Bluetooth Connectivity

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  • Total voters
    48
I've found this has to do with the music app rather than the S3 itself.

For example, when I use the Google Music App, the music volume automatically lowers when the Nav Voice is active, then resumes normal volume once the nav voice is done (to me, that's preferable to cutting the music completely).

When using Mixzing, the volume doesn't change and the Nav Voice is mixed in with the music audio.

Another difference I noticed is that when the head unit is disconnected, both Mixzing and Google Music will stop playback. When reconnecting however, Google Music will automatically restart the song where it left off; Mixzing requires me to manually restart the song.

My advice would be to try different music players until you find the one that works best with your preferences.

When you say Google Music App which one are you referring to. I ask because I
can not find a Google Music App. Thanks.
 
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When you say Google Music App which one are you referring to. I ask because I
can not find a Google Music App. Thanks.

Google Play Music. It came installed on my S3. It's listed as simply "Play Music" (headphones icon) in my App Drawer:

Screenshot_2012-09-09-21-23-52.png
 
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Thankfully bluetooth has worked flawlessly from the first day I got my S3. I use a Motorola TR505 FM transmitter in my car and use it to play music and have hands free phone capabilities. I also use a bluetooth external keyboard from Freedom at least 2-3 times a week when I need to take heavy notes, and that has worked very well. I also have a bluetooth dongle on my desktop PC, and my phone connects to that readily.
 
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I have no problem connecting Bluetooth to my MB ML350 but I'm getting disconnected every 1~2 minutes with my Audi.
The problem is related to "phone book" or "contacts" download process.
If you select an option not allow GS3 to send "Contact" information to your connected BT device, the problem will not appear anymore.

I'm not sure whether Samsung is working on this or not but I had very similar problem with GS2 a while back and it was related to "Call Log" download right after BT connection.

So, in general, Samsung Galaxy series phones have problems sending data over BT connection. It works for some BT devices but don't for the rest.
 
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I was having problems with Samsung Galaxy 3 failing to autoconnect via BT with my car stereo in my 2012 Subaru Forester. It would pair fine but fail to autoconnect when I restarted the car. I read joudbren's post that he or she had success pairing using the voice command system not the stereo dials. I connected using the voice command system and this solved my problem. It takes a few seconds to connect but it does connect for both voice and media.

Thank you joudbren for you post.
 
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I recently started having problems as well. It always worked flawless. Then out of nowhere, the media stream went silent. It's not that it wouldn't connect. It showed connected. The phone was sending the audio. But it was like it was on mute. It did this to my Ford Sync. And it does it to my Plantronics Legend headset. The phone audio always worked fine and has never hiccuped.

Today I finally made a discovery. While connected and the media audio isn't working, if I go into the bluetooth connection settings and UNCHECK phone audio, the media audio kicks back on immediately. Recheck phone audio, the media audio mutes.

So the problem seems to be related to the phone improperly perceiving when it needs to mute the media stream to make way for phone audio.

Somestimes the problem goes away for a while on its own. Sometimes i have to unpair and delete devices, reboot the phone, and repair. It is EXTREMELY annoying.
 
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Works fine in my 2012 Mazda Speed3. My complaint is Pandora and Digitally Imported other music apps do not display song info. Google Music shows all the info fine just not other music apps. I don't understand why Google Music shows info but other apps do not. They are all streaming info through a data connection. I wish I could get an answer to that.
 
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Works fine in my 2012 Mazda Speed3. My complaint is Pandora and Digitally Imported other music apps do not display song info. Google Music shows all the info fine just not other music apps. I don't understand why Google Music shows info but other apps do not. They are all streaming info through a data connection. I wish I could get an answer to that.

Because those music players are not designed to do that. The google music player is designed to do that. It's not the bluetooth, it's the player.
 
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Because those music players are not designed to do that. The google music player is designed to do that. It's not the bluetooth, it's the player.

Agreed, for example the stock Samsung music app transmits tag info to my factory Jeep stereo, but Rocket Player does not.

Bluetooth is far from a perfect standard, based on my experience and has a long way to go.

I actually had to get the update for my Jeep directly from the manufacture of the factory stereo system because the service department was useless
 
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I was having the same issues mentioned here - no automatic connection and having to try 2,3 times to get hands free to work manually.
I removed everything from the radio and re-paired. I then noticed a couple of pages in the Subaru manual later that there is an additional pairing operation for the hands free. Followed that and everything is working fine. Now when I turn the car on, if my S3 had bluetooth enabled the radio hooks up automatically.
 
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