Having a multitude of audio issues. Help me like I'm 5.

For the past month or so, I have been having issues with the Pandora function on my car stereo. If I can even get it to connect and start playing (you know, after hitting pair, allow, whatever else all of the screens start asking, a million times...), it will start to play eventually (half of the time the channels never populate, or the song information never shows up). After a song does start to play, when it ends or I click skip next, it does one of two things. It either says the car has lost Pandora connection with my device, and I have to close all of my phone windows down and let it start all over again, or, the entire Bluetooth system in my car completely reboots (screen runs through the steps like it does when you first start your car). It does this after every.single.song.

Seems to work fine playing Pandora through just regular bluetooth mode, but then you lose the functionality on the screen to thumbs down and whatnot.

Specs of everything I can think of:
-I have a 2015 cx-5 sport (I do not have navigation).
-iPhone 7 running 10.2.1
-Pandora version 8 (I do not have the paid version, and I have already tried deleting and re-downloading the app).
-I have already fully removed my phone from my car bluetooth system and set up as new device.


After furious googling, I read to do a hard reboot of my car's stereo system but it says to hold Mute, Nav, and Back simultaneously until it restarts. Only, I DO NOT HAVE A MUTE BUTTON? Is there a mute button and i'm missing it somewhere? Because if so I'll be pretty mad that I haven't already found it in the 2 1/2 years i've owned this car. lol

I have also attempted to update Gracenote but I cannot even find what version I have already, and I also cannot find a usb stick in my house that my car can read. Keep getting a read error when I plug them in. Keep finding YouTube videos of people doing this process and their infotainment screens look completely different than mine and I can't figure out what to click on to find the version.

So honestly I feel really stupid that I cannot figure this out, so any help is appreciated.

I have the same issue with iOS 10.2 It dropped pandora connection after approx 10 min.. but I found it does work better if I start pandora, start the song, then select pandora from the list of inputs... ( FM, AM, etc...) then it will work, for ten min, I can change the station, thumb up or down.. but it looses connection.

This is on a 2016.5.

I hope either the infotainment system gets a good update soon.

Other post with issues too with pandora...

https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/sho...-and-iPhone-6s-Plus-and-IOS-vs-Android-Phones

Could they mean the mute speaker button on the steering wheel? I do not have your system but do have that button.

Martyd said:

Could they mean the mute speaker button on the steering wheel? I do not have your system but do have that button.

Click to expand...

My steering wheel does not have a mute button either. I have volume up and down but that's it. Looks like this: http://st.motortrend.com/uploads/sites/5/2014/11/2016-Mazda-CX-5-steering-wheel-controls.jpg

I sat in my car when I got into work this morning and recorded the shenanigans. In 12 minutes of video, it lost Pandora connection 17 times, Bluetooth completely restarted 6 times, songs played with no volume 5 times, and Pandora/Bluetooth functions completely blacked out and reverted to FM audio twice.

You could bring to the dealer?

Since you have the SPORT, I believe that has a completely different system than the Touring or Bose headunits.

I would try unpairing the phone on the head unit, removing the Bluetooth link to the headunit on your phone. reboot the phone, and reboot the car, and then pair up the phone to the car again.

I believe that there are some issues, with earlier Bluetooth units, no? Dealer replaces those, with updated ones. I went the Kenwood way, so I don't know about these issues.

I called the dealer earlier and he directed me to Johnson Controls (who makes the programming I guess). The tech said to restore to factory settings and re-pair my phone and see what happens. If the issue repeats, then take it to the dealer with my case number. I also told him about the issue that I had attempting to update Gracenote and he said I did everything right, to have the dealer look at that also.

He said it's not the first that he's heard of the issues, but the first he's heard of in my model year. I've done the reset but not tested it out, i'll report back later.

ddtigger1 said:

I have the same issue with iOS 10.2 It dropped pandora connection after approx 10 min.. but I found it does work better if I start pandora, start the song, then select pandora from the list of inputs... ( FM, AM, etc...) then it will work, for ten min, I can change the station, thumb up or down.. but it looses connection.

This is on a 2016.5.

I hope either the infotainment system gets a good update soon.

Other post with issues too with pandora...

https://www.mazdas247.com/forum/sho...-and-iPhone-6s-Plus-and-IOS-vs-Android-Phones

Click to expand...

These are OS and/or Pandora issues. Apple has them with annoying frequency - it's as if they don't test bluetooth functionality on anything but their own devices (which may be the case).

craigo said:

These are OS and/or Pandora issues. Apple has them with annoying frequency - it's as if they don't test bluetooth functionality on anything but their own devices (which may be the case).

Click to expand...

Playing Pandora via bluetooth (and not Pandora function in my car) works fine though...

I had this issue with my 7plus after the latest update... Then I swapped out the Head Unit and I'm far happier!!

I constantly have issues with my iPhone 6s+ and iOS 10.2.1 (actually all versions of iOS) and Pandora. It's just mu CX-5, it's also with my Prius as well (using their Entune Suite). The iPhone is really bad at connecting to both cars and playing Pandora reliably. I get constant lock ups, drops, and inability to connect. With my Prius (a 2013 model), I originally had a Samsung Galaxy Note Edge android phone, and I never had problems with it. What's interesting is that I kept my Galaxy Note Edge, and tested it with my CX-5 GT and everything worked flawless, no issues, or drop outs, and it works flawlessly with my Prius as well, so I believe its a iPhone issue. That being said, I'm planning on getting rid of my iphone and going back to android with the ZTE Axon 7 or similar. I've had it with constant issues with my iphone.