I removed the “Solved” tag from this topic, as it clearly is not solved from the Fairphone side. I myself have had spotty “wins” along the way. But mostly disappointments.
When Android Auto, from the start, did not reliably work when using a cable, i bought the “Motorola M1” wireless Android Auto adapter. That worked for a while with, but then connecting to that also began to fail sporadically. Leaving me to try the cable again just in pure frustration of not knowing what might work that day.
And as it stand, its a 50/50 when i get in my car and connect the phone to with a cable, weather or not Android Auto will work. And when it works, it only does so for about 20 minutes. Then it starts lagging. Both the sound (music) and the map. That goes on for a minute or two and then the phone trows a warning saying the Android Auto crashed.
This really bums me out. Like many, i have daily commutes to and from work. Trips with the family regularly. And it is just such a bummer when i cannot rely on my Fairphone to deliver the bare minimum of expected functionality when I’m in a car. Being able to use Android Auto for the music and map (navigation) should be considered basic and as important as having the phone or sms function these days.
I’m joining the ‘gently going nuts’ crowd here, but not because of FP (yet).
I had a 2019 Skoda Superb which - after a raft of software updates - worked perfectly with Android via USB or wireless with our various Samsungs.
We then swapped for a 2024 Octavia and suddenly wireless AA stopped working. A bit of searching showed up a message on Samsung’s website that certain VAG (Volkswagen, Audi, Skoda, etc) cars have a bug that “VAG is working on”.
No big deal, I thought - I’m buying a Fairphone!
So I can get the FP to reliably connect via USB (though - oddly - contacts sync is a bit hit & miss) but wireless AA is still a no-go…
So the question now is whether VAG can’t make software (well, tbh, we know they can’t unless it’s made to lie about emissions) or if FP also has whatever oddity Samsung has that prevents wireless AA from working…
(FWIW - the issue seems to be that the phone can’t get an IP address from the in-car WiFi when connecting)
FP6 and all updates to Android 16 done. Tested three different cables, the used one and two new ordered cables with speeds of 5Gbit/s and 10Gbit/s. Android Auto displays on FP6 „connected" but no app was mirrored by Android Auto to car display.
My old smartphone (it’s a Sony.. ) works fine with all these three cables without any connection problems. All functions via car display like navigation are usable with the old phone but not with FP6…
I think its the lamé connection by USB 2.0 port (max. 480Mbit/s) in FP6. My old Sony uses USB 3.0 (5Gbit/s) and made no problems with Android Auto the last five years.
In the next three or four weeks I get the chance to test an older FP5 in my car. The FP5 has USB 3.x and I will see what happens if I will connect the FP5 to my car and Android Auto. I will test the three cables also…
Perhaps I will need an additional car connector for Android Auto by Bluetooth/WLAN (Like Ottocast e.g.) and this will cost more than 30 Euro… If the problem is the slow USB 2.0 connector in FP6…
I have also the framerate issue with android auto when my phone screen’s is off. I tried to change some settins (like allows full consumption of power) and used multiple cables but, even with the last update, I still have this issue…
) works fine with all these three cables without any connection problems. All functions via car display like navigation are usable with the old phone but not with FP6… 