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Phone audio problems

Discussion in 'Prius v Audio and Electronics' started by qrx7zcv8, Sep 20, 2014.

  1. qrx7zcv8

    qrx7zcv8 Junior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2014
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    Location:
    Mountain View, CA
    Vehicle:
    2014 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Two
    I recently bought a 2014 Prius v, and I love most things about it, but so far I absolutely despise the way the audio system interacts with my iPhone 4S. Does anybody have a solution to any of the following problems?

    -If I plug the phone into the USB to charge it, the phone speakers will get silenced, and all audio will get sent to the car speakers. This happens even if the car speakers are off, and in that case the phone just goes totally silent. This would not be such a big deal except...
    -The car often decides that I am on a call, when I am not on a call, and I am depending on the phone for Google Maps turn by turn voice directions. The screen on the car shows me as being in a call and silences the phone's audio. Occasionally it will play a brief bit of audio that sounds like it was recorded from within the car. If I push the button to hang up on the call nothing happens, and I just have to find my way to my destination without any directions. Or if I have enough battery I can disconnect the USB cable and get there using voice directions played on the phone speaker.
    -The same issue sometimes interrupts audio playback when streaming audio from the phone.
    -If I answer a call while I have audio playing, the audio keeps playing, and there's no apparent way to turn it off using the car controls. The car's next song and previous song buttons quit working too, so I'm at the mercy of whatever was on the playlist.
    -I have to turn the volume up incredibly high to hear people who call me. When I end the call, the car suddenly starts playing a song from my iTunes music at deafening volume, even if I was not playing music before the call started.
     
  2. rdgrimes

    rdgrimes Senior Member

    Joined:
    Jun 7, 2013
    1,740
    444
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    Location:
    New Mexico, USA
    Vehicle:
    2018 Prius Prime
    Model:
    N/A
    At least some of all that is due to the phone itself, and how its set up to handle USB and BT connections.
     
  3. Offline

    Offline Active Member

    Joined:
    Sep 3, 2012
    637
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    Location:
    Lenexa, Kansas
    Vehicle:
    2012 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Five
    What happens if you connect your iPhone only with Bluetooth and charge your iPhone through a USB adapter in the 12V port?

    Doesn't your Prius v Five have navigation? A lot of people throw rocks at Toyota navigation but the nav systems in our '12 Prius v Five (with the ATP nav system) and '14 Sienna seem easy to use and accurate and they work in areas where there is 2G or no phone service where Google maps and the like can't be used.
     
  4. qrx7zcv8

    qrx7zcv8 Junior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2014
    4
    0
    0
    Location:
    Mountain View, CA
    Vehicle:
    2014 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Two
    Do you have any suggestions for what settings I should be looking at on the iPhone? Apart from turning Bluetooth on or off I'm not aware of anything I can set on the phone that affects any of these issues.

    It's particularly annoying that the car seems to be able to control the phone over USB even though I never took any action on the phone to consent to that. When I connect it to a new computer, the phone asks me whether it should trust the computer, and I have to either tap "Trust" on the phone or enter the phone's passcode on the computer. Somehow my car is able to bypass the phone security without my knowledge or consent. I guess it is Apple's fault for setting up the OS in a way that the car is able to do this, but it is still annoying that the Toyota even tries to do so.
     
  5. qrx7zcv8

    qrx7zcv8 Junior Member

    Joined:
    Sep 20, 2014
    4
    0
    0
    Location:
    Mountain View, CA
    Vehicle:
    2014 Prius v wagon
    Model:
    Two
    No, I do not have nav on the car. I didn't want to pay for more than trim level 2, because I thought I would be able to use a standalone nav system, which is much cheaper and easier to upgrade later compared to buying a higher trim level. I didn't have any idea that the car was going to sabotage any competing nav systems.