I have a new car stereo. It is paired with my phone over bluetooth. The stereo has buttons to play the next/prev tracks, as well as navigate up/down in the folder hierarchy. The first buttons seems to work fine. The others do not.
My phone is running Android 7.x. I’m assuming the problem is I am using the wrong app (Play Music) to play music. Which music player should I be using instead in order to navigate folders?
Thanks.
My stereo (a fancy Sony dad got me awhile back) has its own app to control things more perfectly. Check your manual for the stereo and see if it recommends something similar, perhaps :)
Also, some stereos also have USB plugin (originally intended primarily for iPod hookups, but some from a few years back support iPhone/Android in general), and those “folder navigation” buttons tend to work better in that mode.
Folder navigation is used when you plug in a USB thumb drive full of MP3’s.
Over Bluetooth, your stereo is using a media playback protocol and there’s no concept of folders. Any app, including the standard music player that came with your phone, should work.
Since it’s a new car stereo, it likely came with a microphone. That makes the whole process of selecting music hands-free. All you do is tell google what you want to hear (consult your car stereo manual on how that piece works).
It’s too cold right now to mess around with it. I will try again in a few days. Thanks!
Do yo guys have a favorite app for listening to music in the car? My phone doesn’t support being seen as storage media, so the up and down folder buttons on the car dash are of no use.
I use Google Play Music for everything. It supports integration through Android Auto, but I generally just queue up a full album in advance rather than fiddling with it.
What do you normally use for listening to music on your phone? Can’t you just use that?
I want to be able to switch albums without stopping the car and fiddling with the phone.
Does your car not have steering wheel controls?
If it does, bluetooth audio should be controllable by them, as should a usb stick plugged in.
I can switch tracks on my phone, but not albums. Haven’t tried a thumbdrive yet though.
I use Poweramp, but I don’t think any combination of app+vehicle controls will offer you the granularity to change albums without having to interact with the phone.
“Siri/OK Google, play X”
I have been trying that, but it keeps playing the wrong tracks/albums. Or it plays a Google Play Mix instead of the albums I own. It’s pretty useless. I have had 0% success rate. For instance, it plays a Peter Tosh song when I want to play a live electronic album by a different artist. I don’t own any Peter Tosh songs/albums AFAIK.
So, you’re saying it went a bit Pete Tong?
I ask “play live at burning man” (link), and it looks for “Man in the Hills (Live)”, can’t find it, then plays some random reggae song.
Do you have a play music monthly subscription? I wonder if that’s the difference. Usually it plays what I ask it to but it’s always playing stuff from the service and I don’t add my own albums
No, I am not a subscriber. I also can’t figure out how to switch to VLC media player (or something else) instead of Google Play Music. (Assuming VLC media player even has any voice controls.)
Maybe go into app settings and clear your default settings for audio apps (if you need more detail than that I can provide it), then when you do the “Google, play X” command in the future, it might ask you what app you want to use instead of defaulting to its own?
Yeah, if you could be more specific, it would be great. I can’t find “Google Assistant” in “Apps”. (Nougat)
Also, all my music is synced from my PC to Google Play Music. Not sure how changing the player will fix things.
[edit]
I’m willing to try other players.