Samsung Galaxy S4 not Connecting to Car Audio Fix

Few months back suddenly my Toyota refused to connect to my Samsung Galaxy S4 without any reason. Earlier I could listen to music, dial calls and answer calls without issues.

But suddenly the connection between the car and the phone broke and the worst thing is I lost entire Bluetooth screen from the car audio system (Normally I have FM1, FM2, Bluetooth and AM). I thought my audio system is malfunctioning so I went to Toyota, but they said it is a known error and Galaxy S4 is having new Bluetooth version and it is not compatible with most of the car audio systems and I will not be able to use the phone with the car. This was very disappointing to me so I asked for them for the audio system update but they said no updates are available.

Then I thought to try out few things and get it fixed by myself, good news for anyone having the same issue is I solved the issue. But it is not always reliable but 95% of times it will work.

To get your S4 (or any other new device) connected into your car audio follow the steps below, they might help you.

1. First we need to get the missing Bluetooth mode (screen) back in the car audio, for this I removed all the registered devices I had in the car audio.
2. Then I registered my old Windows Mobile phone to the audio system using the settings screen (since the Bluetooth mode is not available). Any old phone like an iPhone 4G or below, Samsung Galaxy S2, Windows Mobile phones will be ok. If you get the device properly registered you will get the Bluetooth screen back when you restart the car audio system.
3. Then register your Galaxy S4 with the car audio system, and change the connection behaviour immediately. Normally the car audio will try to connect to the phone, but since the phone is having new version of Bluetooth car audio will not recognise the commands transmitted by the phone. So the system will think there is no device.

To over come the issue you need to configure the phone to make the connection. In my Toyota this is done by selecting the connection settings after the Bluetooth connection is made using the Bluetooth mode (screen). Because latest phones are intelligent they will detect that the car audio is having older version of Bluetooth and it will change the instruction set accordingly and start communicating with an instruction set which is recognised by the car audio, making everything back to normal again.

After making my phone to connect to the car, I could play my music, answer calls and dial calls without any issues.

Hope this will help you to get your car audio connected to your latest phone.

Windows Mobile 7

Highly awaited Windows Mobile 7 is at last showing in horizon.

Have a glance at it by visiting the following URL.

http://www.microsoft.com/presspass/presskits/windowsphone/videoGallery.aspx?contentID=mobileworldcongress2010

http://www.microsoft.com/windowsmobile/en-us/cmpn/windowsphone7series/default.mspx

http://www.windowsphone7series.com/

Microsoft is planning to release phones with Windows Mobile 7 at the end of 2010.

Disabling Date-Time Changes

Do you know that you can programmatically stop the user changing the date and time of a Pocket PC device?

This is useful if your applications need to take time accurately for some reason from the device.

The following code will disable the user from accessing the date time changing settings using his Windows Mobile powered device.

1. private void btnDisableClock_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
2. {
3.     RegistryKey hklm = Registry.LocalMachine;
4.     hklm = hklm.OpenSubKey(@"\Software\Microsoft\Clock\", true);
6.     System.Byte[] offValue = new byte[1];
7.     offValue[0] = 0x30;
8.     hklm.SetValue("AppState", offValue);
10.     lblTitle.Text = "Change Clock Status - Disabled";
11. }

 

If you want to re-enable the setting, to make the user able to change the data and time use the below code.

1. private void btnEnableClock_Click(object sender, EventArgs e)
2. {
3.     RegistryKey hklm = Registry.LocalMachine;
4.     hklm = hklm.OpenSubKey(@"\Software\Microsoft\Clock\", true);
6.     System.Byte[] offValue = new byte[1];
7.     offValue[0] = 0x11;
8.     hklm.SetValue("AppState", offValue);
10.     lblTitle.Text = "Change Clock Status - Enabled";
11. }

How to Hard Reset i-mate JASJAM

Different phone has different key combinations to perform a hard (factory) reset.

In i-mate JASJAM you need to press the 2 soft keys together while pressing the reset whole.

Then it will show options, letting you proceed or cancel the reset. Remember hard resetting will wipe all the applications and data in your device, so remember to backup everything before performing a hard reset.