Dear Ford, please fix the bluetooth connectivity.

[rclee]

I have a 22 Maverick XLT LUX Hybrid. The Bluetooth has been very much of an annoyance. I like to stream SiriusXM while I am in the car. The Bluetooth connects, and within about 2 blocks from my house it will pause. I have to push the play button on the sync2.5 lite screen to get it going. The next trick it will do is it will lose the connection with my phone and then reconnect. This process is varied, sometimes it will be quick and other times it may not connect at all. On the longer times it will default to the AM/FM radio and I will have to wait until it finally connects.
I am sure I am not the only one having this issue. I finally got the OTA update (after many tries over a couple of months) to ver.G2.001_r22285A. This update did not appear to fix anything. I still have the same disconnect-reconnect issue.
Is there an update in the pipeline?

I have an iPhone14 with the latest software updates on it.

Please help!

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[colinl]

Certainly that would be nice, but if I were you I would probably get a wired->wireless streaming dongle or just plug your phone in.

I doubt you're going to get relief anytime soon from an update on your Ford Connected Audio.

 

[Rdubs]

I have a 22 Maverick XLT LUX Hybrid. The Bluetooth has been very much of an annoyance. I like to stream SiriusXM while I am in the car. The Bluetooth connects, and within about 2 blocks from my house it will pause. I have to push the play button on the sync2.5 lite screen to get it going. The next trick it will do is it will lose the connection with my phone and then reconnect. This process is varied, sometimes it will be quick and other times it may not connect at all. On the longer times it will default to the AM/FM radio and I will have to wait until it finally connects.
I am sure I am not the only one having this issue. I finally got the OTA update (after many tries over a couple of months) to ver.G2.001_r22285A. This update did not appear to fix anything. I still have the same disconnect-reconnect issue.
Is there an update in the pipeline?

I have an iPhone14 with the latest software updates on it.

Please help!

Seems like your phone is just disconnecting from your wifi once out of range from your house, then trying to connect to 4g/5g... Also the other recommendation to get an android auto/wireless carplay dongle is a good one. I did the same, got the Motorola MA1. Super stable connection and my music starts when I turn it on without having to do anything! I love that.

 

[colinl]

Seems like your phone is just disconnecting from your wifi once out of range from your house, then trying to connect to 4g/5g... Also the other recommendation to get an android auto/wireless carplay dongle is a good one. I did the same, got the Motorola MA1. Super stable connection and my music starts when I turn it on without having to do anything! I love that.

Good point. When switching between wifi and cellular, the app isn't going to see a connection for 5-10 seconds.

If there is a cache or buffer it might be able to handle this. Or offline/downloaded songs for Spotify.

But if the Sirius app doesn't offer any of those things, yes, I would expect it to pause when it loses wifi.

 

[YazYaz]

Good point. When switching between wifi and cellular, the app isn't going to see a connection for 5-10 seconds.

If there is a cache or buffer it might be able to handle this. Or offline/downloaded songs for Spotify.

But if the Sirius app doesn't offer any of those things, yes, I would expect it to pause when it loses wifi.

He stated his phone is connected by Bluetooth to the vehicle, not WiFi. His phone would be streaming Sirrius Radio via his cellular service.

 

[colinl]

He stated his phone is connected by Bluetooth to the vehicle, not WiFi. His phone would be streaming Sirrius Radio via his cellular service.

LOL unless his phone is connected to wifi from his residence. (Were you trying to be rude? You succeeded if so.)

My phone most definitely is on my home wifi in my garage, and most likely it would still be connected in my driveway.

After I pull away from the house it's going to lose wifi connection and switchover to cellular exactly as Rdubs said.

 

[Decayed]

I have exactly the same problem. Most of the time, switching from wifi to cellular doesn't seem to be the culprit. It often happens when I am simply out somewhere else. It does sometimes happen when I pull away from my house but it's random enough to think that the wifi/cellular changeover is not the major cause of it.

There is definitely a bluetooth disconnection issue, it's the truck not the phones.

 

[YazYaz]

LOL unless his phone is connected to wifi from his residence. (Were you trying to be rude? You succeeded if so.)

My phone most definitely is on my home wifi in my garage, and most likely it would still be connected in my driveway.

After I pull away from the house it's going to lose wifi connection and switchover to cellular exactly as Rdubs said.

His issue is not how he is streaming Sirrus be it wifi or cellular. His issue is inconsistent connection issues from his phone to Sync 3 via Bluetooth. Please stay on topic and stop trolling with the "trying to be rude" comments.

 

[colinl]

His issue is not how he is streaming Sirrus be it wifi or cellular. His issue is inconsistent connection issues from his phone to Sync 3 via Bluetooth. Please stay on topic and stop trolling with the "trying to be rude" comments.

It can be both and likely is, given how awesome the bluetooth connectivity is in the truck. That's why in my first reply I gave him 2 options to deal with that.

However, his other scenario states 2 blocks from his house. If that's repeatable, and I think we can safely assume it is, then it's very likely to be an issue with internet connectivity on the phone handing off from wifi to cellular.

 

[taylor_]

He stated his phone is connected by Bluetooth to the vehicle, not WiFi. His phone would be streaming Sirrius Radio via his cellular service.

It could be unrelated to the bluetooth issues, but this comment is not correct. If his phone is on wifi, that is his connection to the internet. The data from Sirius would be travelling through his home wifi connection to his phone, then streaming over bluetooth to the car stereo system.

The disconnection within "2 or 3 blocks" of his house does indicate that it might be the period in which his phone loses wifi connection and switches over to cellular data.

 

[YazYaz]

It could be unrelated to the bluetooth issues, but this comment is not correct. If his phone is on wifi, that is his connection to the internet. The data from Sirius would be travelling through his home wifi connection to his phone, then streaming over bluetooth to the car stereo system.

The disconnection within "2 or 3 blocks" of his house does indicate that it might be the period in which his phone loses wifi connection and switches over to cellular data.

I should have stated: "His phone would be streaming Sirrius Radio via his cellular service or wifi depending on how he set up his phone and how close he is to his wifi."

This would not change anything. Millions and millions of people have the exact same set up and when they pull away from their home wifi the switch to cellular is seamless. It is seamless because years ago the software engineers who design the software for cell phones thought of this very situation and designed the switch to be seamless.

Also, the OP seems to indicate that he is having other Bluetooth connection issues unrelated to any possible wifi to cellular switch over scenario.

 

[cneth]

The way to test this would be to turn off bluetooth, start Sirius playing in the garage (playing over iPhone speaker) and then start your drive. If Sirius hiccups 2-3 blocks from the house, then it's probably not bluetooth.

 

[taylor_]

I should have stated: "His phone would be streaming Sirrius Radio via his cellular service or wifi depending on how he set up his phone and how close he is to his wifi."

This would not change anything. Millions and millions of people have the exact same set up and when they pull away from their home wifi the switch to cellular is seamless. It is seamless because years ago the software engineers who design the software for cell phones thought of this very situation and designed the switch to be seamless.

Also, the OP seems to indicate that he is having other Bluetooth connection issues unrelated to any possible wifi to cellular switch over scenario.

Not trying to be combative or anything here, but while it *should* be seamless, in practice it doesn't always work out that way. My own phone frequently has little pauses when switching, especially when the switch is predicated on a *loss* of wifi signal rather than manual disconnection. I think issues pop up when you are trying to switch simply by leaving the effective range of the WiFi, as the signal isn't a binary on/off, but it degrades until the phone finally recognizes the signal is completely gone. I get what you are saying, though.

As far as OPs problem, I have always found bluetooth to be too finnicky, so I just opt for using a physical cable in the car.

 

[colinl]

Not trying to be combative or anything here, but while it *should* be seamless, in practice it doesn't always work out that way. My own phone frequently has little pauses when switching, especially when the switch is predicated on a *loss* of wifi signal rather than manual disconnection. I think issues pop up when you are trying to switch simply by leaving the effective range of the WiFi, as the signal isn't a binary on/off, but it degrades until the phone finally recognizes the signal is completely gone. I get what you are saying, though.

As far as OPs problem, I have always found bluetooth to be too finnicky, so I just opt for using a physical cable in the car.

I believe phones do this because they are trying to minimize cellular network data usage whenever wifi is found.

If you have unlimited data, the carrier wants wifi used more. If you don't have unlimited, you want wifi used more. Therefore the phone is programmed to prefer wifi.

A modern smartphone definitely has the processing power to load-balance wifi and cellular internet connections, but it is easy to imagine how this would increase battery usage and could increase cellular data usage. If we didn't care about those 2 possible issues, actively load-balancing wifi and cellular would definitely make the internet connection resilient and possibly increase performance.

So, despite assertions that 'millions of millions' don't work this way, I believe exactly the opposite is true. Smartphones do work this way. They are intentionally slow to handoff internet connectivity from wifi to cellular. If a person thinks otherwise, perhaps their apps are unaffected by loss of internet connectivity (such as caching or just not constantly needing internet), or a person is just not using it in a way that this problem would be obvious to them.

 

[AutobahnSHO]

yeah my home WiFi to cell handoff is rarely without a hiccup, regardless of which vehicle my phone is in.

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