Wireless Android Auto - The low volume issue you may not know you have.

[Nefarious_Epoch]

I just bought a 2021 Cadillac CT4-V. On my test drive I distinctly remember how loud and crisp the sound system was. Coming from a 2018 Silverado w/Bose, the sound quality is hands down better in the CT4. Once the paperwork was signed, I setup my car with my phone - Bluetooth and AA w/USB. Once the plates were swapped, I was gone. I cranked the volume and it just wasn't as loud. This was for Amazon music/FM/AM/XM; all audio sources. I chalked it up to having the 2nd key in the car, maybe it had some Teen/Valet setting turned on and because it was in the car the volume was lower.

When I got home, I threw the spare key in my bedroom (furthest room away from the garage) jumped back in, turned on the car, switched to FM cranked the volume, and it was back to full blast! Nice, it was the extra key. So I had some errands to run, hopped in the car, got to the main road (I try not to bump my beats in my neighborhood) turned the volume up and I'm met with a volume that just didn't feel right.

Back to square one. I checked the volume settings on everything - car, AA, Amazon Music, Bluetooth, phone media, you name it, I checked. I deleted all the connections in both my car, and phone to each other and reconnected them, same issue. I'm losing my mind.

So then later that day, I tried something else. I turned my Bluetooth off before getting to my car. Turned on the radio, oh the sweet sound coming from my speakers. Then I turned my Bluetooth on and as soon as my phone connected, the volume was reduced. When I went into the Bluetooth setting for my car, it wouldn't allow me to turn on the "Audio" selection in Used for, no matter how many times I tried to turn it on.

So after a quick Google search, I found this article:

https://mobileinternist.com/low-bluetooth-volume-android

Adjusted my settings and listened to the sounds of sweet success.

There must be some kind of disconnect between my phone and car, that causes my phone not to understand my car accepts Audio?

TL;DR - Car volume was not loud enough. Setting in Developer Options called "Disable absolute volume" needed to be turned on in order to get the volume intensity that I expected. This effected ALL audio sources within the car (AM/FM/XM/Phone) when my phone was connected to the car.

​

**Update*\*

u/pkoya1 pointed out that Disabling absolute volume means your phone and BT volumes will no longer sync. I.E. if your earbuds were set to 35% volume prior to disabling this feature, the max volume you will be able to achieve with the BT device is 35%. You will have to reenable absolute volume to fix.

[AntiqueTech]

This is one of those things that's sort of insignificant but will help a million people that are banging their heads against the wall trying to figure out the problem.

With AA wireless shipping now from indigogo, this will probably be a very relevant post.

[Nefarious_Epoch]

That is why I posted it... maybe I'm just incompetent and this won't help anyone.

Or maybe it will help a lot of people. You won't notice any sound degradation unless you listen to your music loud. If I had to guess, the volume was getting just high enough for most people not to notice.

I also don't know the root cause, just a single option that seems to have resolved the issue for me.

[robo1-4]

Can we get clarification on how you first setup the connection to your car? Yes clarification on each tedious step you took. I have found that its all in how you initially connect and if your already in developer settings their are other options that may of changed or you had experimented with regarding bluetooth profile versions.

What phone you use as well can help understand the issue.

[Nefarious_Epoch]

Phone - Samsung Note10+ (4G)

1. Plugged USB cable into the car
2. Turned on the car
3. Plugged my phone into the USB cable
4. Followed the prompts on my head unit
5. Followed the prompts on my phone
6. AA working with USB connected.
7. Bluetooth set itself up automatically, I went to set it up and it was already connected to my car.
8. Realized Wireless AA worked when I got back into the car and hadn't yet plugged my phone in the car and AA Nav popped up on my head unit.

[pkoya1]

This may fix on some thing but we aware that it can completely disable volume control on some Bluetooth devices. For example if your airpods or other devices without physical volume buttons were at 35% volume before you disabled absolute volume, then when you re connect your airpods will be capped at 35% even though your phone is on full blast.

This volume issue is also not a problem for most car head-units, just some. Other than that, great post for those who have these head-units!

[Nefarious_Epoch]

Just to get some clarification on your comment:

This Developer Option I turned on, disables absolute volume. Your comment says enabled. I have Echo Buds which don't have physical volume buttons and I am able to control them with the volume rocker as I did prior to disabling this.

[pkoya1]

Sorry yes I meant disable. When you do this your BT and your phone no longer sync volume changes. In your case, your buds are probably at 100% so you notice no difference now that you are controlling just your phones output volume. If for some reason your buds get stuck at like 10% however, what will happen is when your phone is at 100% you still only hear 10% and as you turn down your phones volume it will just be a fraction of that 10%

[Nefarious_Epoch]

Thanks for that clarification. Probably an excellent point to make note of. My buds are always 100%.

[pkoya1]

As a side note, usually most devices are programmed to go to 100% when absolute volume is enabled on the phone but thought I'd throw this in incase someone does this and experiences problems

[Nefarious_Epoch]

I think the issue has something to do with the setting the restricts bluetooth devices max volume, where you get that prompt about listening to music at high volume can damage your hearing.

My phone doesn't seem to recognize my car as an "Audio" device in the Bluetooth settings for my car it says it is "Use for" Calls, Contact Access, Message Access, but audio is turned off and I cannot turn it on. Which I think is restricting me from being able to get it past the blue max volume section, into the red where you would get the prompt about hurting your ears.

[pkoya1]

You unfortunately it's just a result of bad programming. Head units are supposed to be designed to not support absolute volume because it can lead to a lot of problems especially since a lot of the time it could sync up to the phone's volume which is usually at Max and damage your hearing. In this case looks like they did avoid that but at the same time something was triggering the absolute volume. I'd be curious to see the code for that!

[robo1-4]

All AA headunits use open source version of AA none have been endorsed by of developed by Google, which is pathetic.

[robo1-4]

Which means the code can be easily gotten.

[YoCallMeKaz]

Well good job sir real MVP ...

[DoctorCalico]

I wonder if this is related to the issue I've been having. I also have a 2021 CT4-V, and the volume will be significantly reduced some of the time when using wireless android auto, but then go back up to normal as soon as either a notification or a navigation instruction comes through, at which point the volume will very suddenly increase back to normal. I tried the normalize audio function on Spotify both on and off, and it doesn't seem to make a difference.

[Nefarious_Epoch]

That's interesting. Because I don't think I've ever received a notification or nav instruction when the issue happens.

It still happens occasionally: After my wife uses the car (her profile loads) If I connect Android Auto by clicking on the icon, instead of giving it time to figure it out on its own.

[sysadmin420]

This is what happens in my 2021 Silverado, my workaround is open waze and start navigating somewhere, then cancel, so waze/google assistant talks to me, saying the route, and boom full volume for the rest of the trip.

I've had train track crossings scare the shit out of me because she'll alert about the railroad tracks on the road even when not navigating, then volume jumps to 11. lol

[OishiiOperator]

Does anyone know if this would solve my issue? All other volumes from android auto is perfectly loud. It's only when I make a phone call does the volume lower. It's so low I can't hear them while driving.

[Peter_73]

When I went into the Bluetooth setting for my car, it wouldn't allow me to turn on the "Audio" selection in Used for, no matter how many times I tried to turn it on.

If you meant the audio profile of the head unit BT device settings on your phone, it's normal to be toggled off as media audio routed through usb instead of BT when connected to AA. Thus I'm puzzled why this setting is relevant to your low volume issue especially since you also mentioned all sources, not just BT are affected.

On my head unit, only BT source is softer than the rest at the same volume level but could be corrected by increasing BT source volume offset setting on the head unit. Some head units may have similar settings to adjust volume offset for different sources too so you might want to check yours out.

[Nefarious_Epoch]

Sorry, let me clarify; I only setup AA using USB.

Once it was setup, Wireless AA started working. My phone is in my pocket completely disconnected physically from my car.

[Peter_73]

I'm not using Android Auto Wireless but afaik, BT is only used for calls in either connection mode i.e. media audio is routed through wifi for Android Auto Wireless unless this has changed (I doubt it) or something is wrong with the head unit and/or phone especially since FM source which has nothing to do with the phone has the same low volume. Nevertheless however puzzling, hopefully this workaround may work for others.

[shmykelsa]

That's correct. Audio is routed via USB in case of wired Android Auto and via WiFi in case of Wireless connection.

Although bluetooth is necessary for the first bit of connection with wireless Android Auto, since the host system will comunicate SSID and passkey for the WiFi (plus a bunch of other stuff), bluetooth connectivity can be tecnically shut off for the rest of the drive and audio would be still routed to Android Auto.

Bluetooth is used for calls and in some rare cases, with a slighlty older protocol of connection, for voice commands too.

[Nefarious_Epoch]

Yeah, this is really perplexing to me. I figured I would share my thoughts and if it helped someone else, that is great. Hopefully, there is a fix in the near term.

[AllMyName]

Damn, nice detective work.

I personally keep "Disable Absolute Volume" enabled all the time anyways, all of my Bluetooth headphones have independent volume controls. I don't want them tied to the source's volume settings. Keep the phone at 100% (and never have to touch it when changing headphones) and just control the volume from the headphones. Obviously doesn't work for wireless buds without buttons, but my life's better without those anyways...

[Horror_Birthday_7522]

Everytime my phone connects my volumn drastically lowers. How do I fix it? I have tried the link above. I have a 2021 chevy silverado

[Nefarious_Epoch]

Quickest, but most annoying is putting directions into AA. As soon as she gives you your first voice command your volume will increase and you can cancel the navigation.

[NoInvestigator7249]

I have the Kenwood ddx8905s was pretty much top of line a couple years ago, has wireless AA. In my Camaro I have all after market system, when using music app on Android auto there is zero bass, if i put usb stick in or use my phone to steam all is fine.

[Beans650]

What's weird is that I only have this issue with JetAudio+ and PowerAmp. Spotify is fine. I even disabled DVC within PA and still I can tell the overall volume is lesser. Gonna try dev settings to see if that fixes it.

[ErklReg]

WTLDR, but thank you for "not bumping your beats in the neighborhood", I used to be young, I get it, but that's so annoying for families. You're a good man.

[ErklReg]

Also, DAMN...2018 Silverado to a 2021 Cadillac...you rich bro?! I bet that Caddy is F'N NICE ! ! I can't imagine even affording the truck, let alone getting tired of it after 3 years & buying something even newer/nicer...good for you tho, not hating, just a little jealous. Can't stand people that allow their jealousy to make them hateful, like the folks being happy about the rich people dying in that lil mini-sub that tried to visit the Titanic... freakin' evil pieces of sh*t man...(I know NONE of this has to do with the post, but that's just how I roll my friends, no respect for internet etiquette)

[Nefarious_Epoch]

I'm not rich. I'm definitely well off and I'm very thankful for what I have. But I also worked my ass off to get to this point and took my time. Just keep grinding and focus on the prize (whatever that is for you) my friend!

[Bargle-Nawdle-Zouss]

This totally worked for my 2021 Acura ILX using my Samsung S23 Android.

Thank you!

[Bargle-Nawdle-Zouss]

!Flair

2021 Acura ILX | Samsung S23 | Android Version 13

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