Why Is My Music Playing Through My Phone and Not My Car?

It can be frustrating when your Bluetooth fails to play through your car speakers. This is a common problem, whether you are using an iPhone or an Android phone. The good news is, this issue can easily be fixed. In this article, I will explain seven reasons why your music is playing through your phone and not your car and how to resolve them.

Why Is My Music Playing Through My Phone and Not My Car?

Why is my music playing through my phone and not my car? There are several reasons your music plays on your phone and not through the speakers in your car. This may be due to the following reasons:

• Bluetooth versions of your car and phone is incompatible

• Your phone is far from your Bluetooth car kit

• Low battery power

• Ensure Bluetooth is enabled on both devices

• The phone is not paring to your Bluetooth car kit

• External signal interference

• The phone is connected to another device

These are some of the most likely reasons why your music may be playing on your phone and not on your car. After falling victim to some of these issues, I developed an easy way to identify and resolve these issues. Read on to learn how to solve this quicky when it happens to you.

1. Bluetooth Version of Your Car and Phone Is Incompatible

Although Bluetooth is intended to be a universal connection mode, devices of different versions can often conflict. Some devices will be compatible even if one of them is an older version.

One likely exception is when one of the devices is using smart Bluetooth technology. Smart Bluetooth devices will only pair with Smart Bluetooth devices. Therefore, if your phone is not connecting to your car’s Bluetooth kit, check if they are compatible or whether one of them is smart.

2. Your Phone Is Far From Your Bluetooth Car Kit

Make sure your phone is close to our Bluetooth Car kit. Bluetooth devices usually stay connected at distances, not more than 30 feet, but with decreasing functionality as the obstructions increase. Ensure that there is no obstruction between your phone and your car kit.

Proximity is very critical when pairing your phone to your car kit. If your music is playing on your phone, but not on your car, you should move your phone near the Bluetooth car kit.

If your phone does not connect to your car kit, remove any obstruction between the phone and your Bluetooth car kit. When you pair your phone to your Bluetooth car kit, it should stay linked even if you place it in your pocket, purse, or your phone holder.

3. Low Battery Power

You may have noticed that when the Bluetooth is on, your phone will consume more power and reduce the battery life. Some devices are programmed to activate power-saving mode when the battery is running low. This may disable Bluetooth on your phone hence disconnecting it from your car.

In this case, you can either switch Bluetooth on your phone back on manually or charge your phone to continue listening to your music.

In any case, when you are having trouble listening to your music in your car, make sure that your phone is fully charged. Alternatively, you can plug in your phone to a power source to charge.

4. Ensure Bluetooth Is Enabled on Both Devices

If your music is playing through your phone and not your car, check your Bluetooth settings. Whether you are using an iPhone, Android, or Windows phone, it is possible that your Bluetooth is disabled in the phone settings.

Why Is My Music Playing Through My Phone and Not My Car?

The same applies to your Bluetooth Car kit. Ensure that the Bluetooth network is switched on. Since Bluetooth seems to consume much of the device’s power, it is often set to switch off automatically if unused. Therefore, before you play your music on your phone, ensure that Bluetooth for both devices is on.

5. The Phone Is Not Paring to Your Bluetooth Car Kit

When pairing your phone with your car’s Bluetooth kit, you must ensure that the phone’s Bluetooth is turned on and that your car’s kit is in pairing mode. Some devices come with one multi-function button, which means you have to turn off the device and then turn it back on with a long press before it enters pairing mode.

Ensure your car kit’s Bluetooth LED indicator flashes blue when in pairing mode. When your phone disconnects, the LED will flash red. Always check to make sure your devices are connected before playing music on your phone.

When connecting your phone to your Bluetooth Car kit, you must make the two devices discoverable. This will depend on the configuration of your phone’s operating system. Also, your car kit should be set to discoverable to allow the phone to locate and connect to it.

Once the devices are paired, you can set the connection to automatically connect to avoid frequent disconnection. If both your phone and car kit are set to discoverable, and you can still not play the music through the car, you might have a compatibility issue.

6. External Signal Interference

 The Bluetooth connection between your phone and your car kit can be obstructed by Wi-Fi networks and hotspots around your vicinity. This may cause a disconnect between your phone and your car kit.

If you use a mobile hotspot in your car via your phone, try switching it off. Once your phone has paired with your car kit, you can power it back on. Once it is on, you can pair your phone to your car Bluetooth kit and listen to your music via the car’s speakers without a problem.

Interference can also be due to USB 3.0 connections that use the same frequency of 2.4GHz as the Bluetooth devices. The problem is caused by inadequate shielding, and you are likely to encounter it in your home and workplace than in your vehicle.

However, if your phone uses USB 3.0 to charge and is connected to the charging port, consider it a possible source of interference. Ideally, electronic devices that use the 2.4GHz frequency spectrum will interfere with Bluetooth devices’ pairing and operation.

Charge your phone on a different port if necessary. Alternatively, you can pair your phone to your car kit when the vehicle is switched off or when accessories such as inverters, laptops, and phone chargers are unplugged. Once you have paired, and your music is playing through the car, you can now plug the other devices into power.

7. The Phone Is Connected to Another Device

If you are having trouble pairing your phone to your Bluetooth car kit, the car kit may be attempting to connect with another tablet, laptop, or phone. Some car kits and speakers are designed to connect to the last devices they paired with automatically.

If music is playing through your phone and not your car, then there is a possibility that your vehicle is connected to another device. This will deny your phone the ability to pair with the Bluetooth car kit speakers.

To resolve this, switch off any other devices near or inside your vehicle. If your headphones or external speakers were previously connected to the car kit, consider switching them off completely to allow your phone to pair with the car kit.

If you are no longer going to use your headphones, tablet, laptop, or external speaker, you should unpair them to avoid potential issues. You can delete other devices from the phone settings by selecting “Forget Device” on your phone. To do this, tap the device’s name on your Android or iPhone Bluetooth network settings and then Unpair.

After unpairing other devices, proceed to pair your phone again to your car kit. Some headphones and speakers can save pairing information for different devices. However, the number of devices that can be held on pairing information is limited.

If you have trouble unpairing previously connected devices to your car kit, you should consider resetting the devices to clear stored paring information and start afresh. Different device manufacturers will have a reset button on the devices to easily reset.

Closing thoughts

Bluetooth is one of the most commonly used wireless data transmission technologies in the world. It is widely used for connecting devices like phones, earphones, music players, speakers, car kits, and keyboards. More than 4.6 billion Bluetooth devices were shipped last year, with the figure expected to rise to over six billion per year by 2024.

Besides being popular, they can also be frustrating when they don’t work the way you wish. In this article, we have detailed seven reasons why your music is playing through your phone and not your car. This will help you to quickly identify and resolve the issues to get your phone to communicate with your Bluetooth car kit so that you can enjoy your music. It is important to note that Bluetooth is dependent on hardware and software compatibility to work correctly. Therefore, if your phone is not compatible with your car kit in the first place, it will not connect.

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