qsauce

(What's the correct name for the head unit I have in a E200? Is this an "Audio 20"?)

Is there anyone having a smooth time using bluetooth with an Android smartphone, using music apps and podcast apps?

I use a Huawei Mate 9, with these two apps mostly: "MortPlayer Music" and "Pocket Casts".

I have these symptoms:

- Auto-connect on entering the car, seems to happen reliably for the phone features, but not for the media features.

- I have to manually coax the re-connect by going through my smartphone, choosing "MB Bluetooth", or disabling and re-enabling Bluetooth.

- When I manage to get the BT media link established, (music playing), it often disconnects for no apparent reason within minutes.

I don't use the BT-phone features much, in fact I have been unsuccessful in my attempts to configure things so that BT is only used for "media", and not for "phone". But MB Bluetooth seems to be very eager to connect the phone features.

Any ideas?
Is buggy bluetooth just a fact of life of Merc head units?

ua549

I've never had a problem with Bluetooth in any car. That said, I only use Samsung Galaxy phones (mostly G4, G5 & G6). How do you connect the phone features? Try using BT for all connections to the car.

qsauce

Do you have the same head unit as mine?
I just de-authorized and re-authorized my phone, taking care to allow if access to contacts and phone etc, whatever it requested. Seemed ok during short test. <1 minute.

Do you listen to music from your Samsung phone much?
Or mainly using the phone?

What do you mean? BT = bluetooth? What other way is there? "all connections"? What other connections are there?

There appears to be no way to connect a phone by BT for just the "media" features, without the "telephone" features.

My phone works well with the built-in head unit of 2013 Nissan LEAF. And I can disable / enable phone features via my phone, without affecting the music streaming connection.

ua549

You said that you only connected Bluetooth for media so I wondered how you connected for voice, text and other functions. You can connect your phone via USB.

qsauce

Ah yes, I now have to check the possibility that attempting to disable some BT functions may be causing the problem. (e.g. disabling access to contacts book and SMS, might cause music playing ("media") to become unreliable?

Ah, I've never connected via USB yet. I don't plan to do it while still troubleshooting the BT, wanting to avoid unnecessary confounding factors.

I have de-auth and re-authorized my phone, allowing "everything" to be enabled as default. And I will update if it seems better.

Ideally though, I would like to be able to have the BT be working only for "media", i.e. music stream from smartphone.

MichaelRDavis

Is that photo taken from an E200?. The display doesn't look wide enough to me? If it is how do you get the presets to cascade like shown in the photo?

qsauce

Yes, this is the basic head unit included in a E200 from Singapore authorized distributor this year. The salesperson told me that this is known as "Audio 20", and it is not COMAND. (Actually seeking confirmation on this, from this forum.)

For the Singapore market, E200 gets single screen in the middle, and 2 big physical dials for speed and RPM (as you can see on the right-side of the photo). E250 and above get "dual wide screen cockpit".

The carousel view? That's just how it comes. As discussed in my other thread, there is a notable setting for this carousel view: Station presets view: OFF/ON
When it is OFF, the carousel contains all auto-tuned stations.
When it is ON, the carousel only contains stations which are in the presets list.

Merlion888

Have you checked with your SE? I believed the Audio20 can only integrate with Bluetooth for the phone features.

If you want the multimedia features, you will have to use Andriod Carplay. BUT for the Singapore's version, the Audio20 is NOT compatible if we download it from Singapore's Google Store. It has to be an overseas Google Store.

Sorry, I have not yet collected my car so these are just info that I am reading at local forum on Mercs.

qsauce

Media thru bluetooth device is present in the head unit user interface. And it does work sometimes, especially immediately after freshly "authorising" a smartphone. (bluetooth pairing can be done only at the "Phone" section. It cannot be done at the "Media" section.

Yesterday, I got into the car and without touching my phone, it linked up with the headunit, and resumed playing from a music player in my phone, except that the sound was coming out of my phone speakers! This was with a phone that was de-authorized, and re-authorised a few days ago, allowing all access permissions, and it worked at that time.

Are you getting the same config as mine? E200 "Exclusive".

Merlion888

Interesting. I am checking with my SE. If I have any info, I will update.

I got the E200 Avantgarde. Both the config has the same Audio 20 CD. The difference between Avantgarde and the Exclusive is in the upholstery, rims and the front badge.