Question about Bluetooth Priority order on Infotainment Center

[gjallen3]

Much to my surprise, my 2024 Maverick XLT with the luxury package came with just a plain old AM/FM radio, (not a SYNC) but it does have Bluetooth connect ability and Apple Car Play. Please excuse my ignorance, but in this day and age I really expected all cars/trucks to come with Satellite as standard. So while I do have SiriusXM Streaming on my iPhone which works great on Car Play, until such a time that you drive out of a cellular area and drop the song you were listening to. Get's annoying here in AZ with all of the mountains around us. So to the rescue Sirius XM sell a reasonably priced device called the ROADY BT which can be purchased and installed in my Maverick. While it's not built into the dash, where I mounted it is not obnoxious at all. It's about the size of a small cell phone and I rigged up a mount using the Mabet cell phone holder that slides into the '24 useless cubby next to the screen. It looks pretty good and sounds great. Problem solved? Not exactly. As it's name implies, it is a Bluetooth device, which after all these years, the Bluetooth standard only allows one device to be connected at a time. So of course we all have cell phones that connect automatically to our Bluetooth when we first get into our trucks. In doing so, this Roady BT will only connect after the phone has been disconnected and you then give permission to the Roady to connect. OK I know, life is tough with all of these modern inconveniences. Imagine the exhaustion of having to tap the screen three times before I get the Roady connected and able to play my satellite radio. But we all have priorities and right now since I'm retired, I do a lot less conversing on phones and more listening to old tunes that remind me how old I am now. So my request to the forum then is this, if by some miracle of modern science it actually is now possible to have multiple devices connected to our Maverick Infotainment systems, I would be grateful to know how to do it. But if it is still not possible, then I would appreciate instructions, if they exist, on how to set Bluetooth Priority so that my Roady gets first shot at connecting over my phone and starts playing music right away. As a side note, the Roady can also connect with an AUX cable, but correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think there is an input on the back of these radios either. You can also connect with an FM Modulator but I don't want to go that route either.

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[Ozarkbeard]

I guess the cubby is pretty useful, if it has a nifty device holder in it. I use my cubby for the garage door opener which is stealthy stuck up in the top of the cubby with velcro.

Re bluetooth, I don't think you can change the priority. You can always just turn off Bluetooth before you get in the truck in the quick settings pull-down menu of your phone (or wherever it is if you have a non Android device).

The following won't solve your intermittent cellular problem; but what I do is use Pandora for music. It will automatically download parts of your favorite stations to your phone storage (on wi-fi). Later, in the truck, if you lose mobile service temporarily, it will finish playing the last fully downloaded online song in the buffer. A tone will sound and it will automatically switch to one of your downloaded offline stations until mobile service returns - then switch back to the online station.

 

[Laurence5905]

Much to my surprise, my 2024 Maverick XLT with the luxury package came with just a plain old AM/FM radio, (not a SYNC) but it does have Bluetooth connect ability and Apple Car Play. Please excuse my ignorance, but in this day and age I really expected all cars/trucks to come with Satellite as standard. So while I do have SiriusXM Streaming on my iPhone which works great on Car Play, until such a time that you drive out of a cellular area and drop the song you were listening to. Get's annoying here in AZ with all of the mountains around us. So to the rescue Sirius XM sell a reasonably priced device called the ROADY BT which can be purchased and installed in my Maverick. While it's not built into the dash, where I mounted it is not obnoxious at all. It's about the size of a small cell phone and I rigged up a mount using the Mabet cell phone holder that slides into the '24 useless cubby next to the screen. It looks pretty good and sounds great. Problem solved? Not exactly. As it's name implies, it is a Bluetooth device, which after all these years, the Bluetooth standard only allows one device to be connected at a time. So of course we all have cell phones that connect automatically to our Bluetooth when we first get into our trucks. In doing so, this Roady BT will only connect after the phone has been disconnected and you then give permission to the Roady to connect. OK I know, life is tough with all of these modern inconveniences. Imagine the exhaustion of having to tap the screen three times before I get the Roady connected and able to play my satellite radio. But we all have priorities and right now since I'm retired, I do a lot less conversing on phones and more listening to old tunes that remind me how old I am now. So my request to the forum then is this, if by some miracle of modern science it actually is now possible to have multiple devices connected to our Maverick Infotainment systems, I would be grateful to know how to do it. But if it is still not possible, then I would appreciate instructions, if they exist, on how to set Bluetooth Priority so that my Roady gets first shot at connecting over my phone and starts playing music right away. As a side note, the Roady can also connect with an AUX cable, but correct me if I'm wrong, I don't think there is an input on the back of these radios either. You can also connect with an FM Modulator but I don't want to go that route either.

What if you connect the Roady BT via Bluetooth, and connect your phone via a USB cable and use Apple CarPlay or Android Auto?

I have one of these Roady BT radios coming tomorrow (if you believe the tracking info) and I will be *EXTREMELY* disappointed if I can't use it while also using, say, my Maps app on my phone. I don't expect it to make phone calls and play music at the same time, obviously, but I should at least be able to have Maps read out turn-by-turn directions, interrupting the Bluetooth music as needed, then resuming the music when it's done speaking.

I had purchased an Onyx EZR SiriusXM radio, which had no Bluetooth (I didn't realize that when I bought it) but it *did* have an FM transmitter. But that transmitter was so weak, it couldn't even broadcast to the roof-mounted FM antenna without there being a ton of static in the signal, plus every little 5-watt daytime-only FM station in my very rural area could override the stupid thing so easily, I was forced to switch frequencies every 4 or 5 miles of driving. Yuck. So I returned it and bought this Roady BT radio, figuring that'd solve my problem. I'm going to be *VERY* disappointed if it doesn't.

 

[gjallen3]

So did the Roady meet your expectations? I simply don't connect my phone anymore via blue tooth and I used to connect to CarPlay via a dongle because I hate plugging in cables. I do not use CarPlay anymore because the dongle first connects via blue tooth which interferes with the Roady connecting. I continue to have problems with the Roady making a Bluetooth connection when starting the truck because the Maverick Infotainment system defaults to connecting to FM. When listening to the Roady when it is connected, you need to turn the volume up twice as loud so when you start the truck up and if the Roady does not connect to Bluetooth in time, or not at all, (it's a crap shoot), then your ear drums get blasted when FM kicks in twice as loud. I now try to remember turn the audio off every time I get out of the truck but sometimes forget. What bothers me most is having to find the Roady in the Bluetooth settings of the Infotainment center and connect it. That doesn't happen every time but enough to be annoying. I just want to connect to the Roady when I turn the ignition on and not have to worry about remembering to turn the audio off every time I exit the vehicle. Crazy to have to do all of these work arounds just because Ford was too cheap to install satellite.

 

[Laurence5905]

So did the Roady meet your expectations? I simply don't connect my phone anymore via blue tooth and I used to connect to CarPlay via a dongle because I hate plugging in cables. I do not use CarPlay anymore because the dongle first connects via blue tooth which interferes with the Roady connecting. I continue to have problems with the Roady making a Bluetooth connection when starting the truck because the Maverick Infotainment system defaults to connecting to FM. When listening to the Roady when it is connected, you need to turn the volume up twice as loud so when you start the truck up and if the Roady does not connect to Bluetooth in time, or not at all, (it's a crap shoot), then your ear drums get blasted when FM kicks in twice as loud. I now try to remember turn the audio off every time I get out of the truck but sometimes forget. What bothers me most is having to find the Roady in the Bluetooth settings of the Infotainment center and connect it. That doesn't happen every time but enough to be annoying. I just want to connect to the Roady when I turn the ignition on and not have to worry about remembering to turn the audio off every time I exit the vehicle. Crazy to have to do all of these work arounds just because Ford was too cheap to install satellite.

Yeah, I'm disappointed I can't use CarPlay and the Roady at the same time. And it does suck that the radio will see that the Roady is not available, because it takes a few seconds to "boot up," so it defaults to FM radio instead of Bluetooth, and you have to go into the radio's menu to get back to the Roady's input.

I did find a reasonable solution to the volume problem, however. In the Roady's menu there is an "Audio Level" setting. Press Menu, select Audio Settings, then select Audio Level. Push the right-arrow until the Audio Level is all the way to the right. Menu-button twice, and you're back to the main screen. Even with the Audio Level maxxed out, It's not *quite* as loud as the FM radio, but it's a LOT closer (about 90%), so you won't blast yourself when the radio auto-selects FM the next time you start up.

All of this could've been solved if Ford had just included a damn 3.5mm aux-input jack. Like they've had on literally every vehicle manufactured in the past 20 years. Except for this one.

I've bought the Sirius/XM FM modulator device and a couple of adapters for the antenna inputs/outputs... I'm a bit apprehensive about installing it, however, because I really don't want to break half the damn clips that hold the dashboard together... And I can't find any videos online that demonstrate for certain that the audio quality is decent. I'd hate to do all that work only to find out that the audio is unacceptably bad. I guess I'm just going to have to take the plunge, however, because not having CarPlay is awful. Not being able to see Maps on my screen really bites.

 

[gjallen3]

I hear you. Something I’ll just have to get used to. Thanks for the tip on the audio setting on the Roady. You just never know when it’s going to default to FM at start up.

 

[gjallen3]

As I said in my original post I can stream everything I want on the Sirius XM app on CarPlay with the streaming bundle and use maps and my phone all in one. That’s great until you lose your cell signal and the audio goes silent. Thus the reason I bought the Roady. Only to find out I’m actually still limited. I have a few rattles at times under the dash. Not too bad but I know if I rip into the dash to get to the radio I’ll have all kinds of problems with broken clips and connectors. I don’t know if it’s worth it.

 

[gjallen3]

Another idea I thought of was getting a mobile cell booster but they get mixed reviews, and spending more money that pisses me off because Ford was too cheap to just come into the 21st Century and install sat. as standard on all vehicles.

 

[Laurence5905]

Yeah, I live in a rural area with lots of rolling mountains so there are *lots* of cellular dead spots around here -- pretty much every time you drive down into a deep enough valley. So listening to anything streaming, (Sirius, Spotify, Apple Music, whatever) just sucks. Even FM is kinda crappy because the big-city FM stations are 50-60 miles away, and we're at the edge of their range. The HD Radio signal drops in and out constantly, and the audio-quality suffers as a result -- it'll just suddenly *stop* and then resume the analog signal after half-a-second or so. Then HD comes back and it repeats the last half-second of audio. Then it drops again and you get the half-second of dead air. Over and over and over... Bleh.

Who'd have thought this would be such an issue? Kinda ridiculous in 2025 to have to deal with this.

I think I'm going to have to tear apart my dashboard... I'm definitely going to make a video about it, though. Since there are none out there.

 

[gjallen3]

Then there is this. But it plugs into the USB so you'll still not be able to use CarPlay but it will be more stable than BT
Vais Technology GSR-FD05 Use SiriusXM's satellite radio tuner with the factory radio in select 2022-up Ford models at Crutchfield

 

[Laurence5905]

Then there is this. But it plugs into the USB so you'll still not be able to use CarPlay but it will be more stable than BT
Vais Technology GSR-FD05 Use SiriusXM's satellite radio tuner with the factory radio in select 2022-up Ford models at Crutchfield

Wowsers!! That's a bit pricey! And I still can't use CarPlay... Yeah, I think I'll take my chances with the plastic clips.

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