Hi everyone,

I have a 2021 Mercedes W213 with the widescreen cockpit (MBUX system), and I’m having an issue with the media system.

The radio works fine, and Bluetooth is connected to my phone — I can make and receive calls through the car’s audio system without any problem. However, music streaming via Bluetooth almost does t works.

Most of the time, the screen just says:

“Media – Activating…” with the spinning loading circle, and it stays like that indefinitely. Very rarely, it does start working and plays music, but most of the time it stays frozen on the “Activating” screen and doesn’t respond.

I’ve tried:

• Reconnecting Bluetooth

• Restarting the car

• Trying a different phone

But none of that helps consistently.

Has anyone experienced something similar? Could this be a software issue or is it really hardware-related? Is there any fix without replacing the whole unit?

Thanks in advance!

Yes, this is common problem. Those who claim it never happens to them are either lying, or not using the music often.
It has to be due to a bug in MBUX, which was (and maybe wont) never fixed.
It seems to be occuring more, if you are switching music sources (between bluetooth,usb, or online). It also seem to be caused by calls in MBUX, since it switches the source of the audio too.
There is one solution to this problem, and that is using Apple carplay. Then your entire music stream is working via cable/wifi and never uses ****ty bluetooth that mercedes implemented).

What software version are you running, I think latest that is applicable for this vehicle was NTG6/081? https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.mbw...1ee529c9d5.jpg Image source comes from here: https://mbworld.org/forums/gle-class...re-update.html

Im running either 081 or 083, but its the latest for sure. My car is also one of the latest manufactured ones (12/2022) with ntg 6 and high hu variant

I wonder if you could get one of those wireless adapters and just use android auto or carplay.

Even when using a cable, it still doesn't detect it, and the issue remains unresolved.

I never said using cable will solve the problem. Only carplay 100% will. Its just because benz SW is ****fest in latest years.
Also, If you dont have carplay/AA purchased, wireless dongle wont help.

I play music from my Samsung Galaxy S24 via Bluetooth every day without any issues. Simply put, it always works.
In MBUX I select my phone as the Bluetooth source. I do not use AA or other similar apps.

I thought those wireless box things basically is a mini computer powered by android and what it does is project the content to the car once plugged in?

That "mini box" provides Android system interface with android apps, but its running trough your car Apple Carplay protocol.
Your car needs to have Apple Carplay for the box to work. These goes for the most common boxes and carlinkits. There are also boxes/carlinkits, that runs(needs) original Android Auto protocol instead of Carplay. The most rare are boxes are the ones running trough chinese Baidu Carlife protocol.

In any case, your car still needs to have Android Auto or Carplay for these boxes to work. Then you can basically select the box according to which protocol your car has, and convert it between Apple Carplay/Android Auto/Android multimedia. Cool thing is you can also root these boxes or flash its firmware, and customize them to hell.

To sum it up, if you had same bug as the OP, all you need is Car support for Carplay/Android Auto. You can also use the multimedia/convertor box after, but they have its own bugs

I see.