iPhone 4: Bluetooth Issues - Hands Free Phone in vehicle

[ShaneHD]

All,

This is my first Apple post. I usually go out and Google and find/figure things out on my own, but I am stumped!

I recently upgraded my wife to an iPhone 4 16gb Black from an iPhone 3GS 8gb. With the 3GS, we were able to pair the phone with our 2011 Toyota Highlander with bluetooth capability, giving me nearly 9 month pregnant wife the ability to stream audio to her stereo, but more importantly she was able to make/receive calls in her car using the hands free.

We were able to go through the setup like we did with the 3GS to pair it. It pairs up just fine. However, the only thing that works is the audio streaming. She cannot access the phone for calling/receiving calls with the vehicle. When a call comes in, I remember the 3GS having a bluetooth headset option that showed up, but as long as the bluetooth was on in the car, the stereo would automatically pick up the call and she could talk to the car and hear the call through the speakers.

I have read that the iPhone 4 had bluetooth issues with older IOS versions, but she is on 4.3.3 currently. Again, audio streaming her music works, just not the phone. What gives? Is there a firmware upgrade on the vehicle?

[matt0420]

Wow, never had any problems hooking up my iPhone4 to my 2010.

Just followed the instructions on the owners manual, worked without a hitch.

On the phone I go settings>general>bluetooth, turn it on, and connect to "hands free" type in the passcode, like 1111 or something, and it worked everytime.

My old blackberry on the other hand never really wanted to connect. But blackberries are a whole other story of terrible...

Next time I'm in my truck I'll go through the whole re-connect process and write down step by step what I do

[jgayman]

Not sure what the problem might be. I paired my iPhone4 with my 2011 SE (without NAV) and it works flawlessly for both hands free and streaming audio.

[bschurr]

Originally Posted by jgayman

Not sure what the problem might be. I paired my iPhone4 with my 2011 SE (without NAV) and it works flawlessly for both hands free and streaming audio.

Pairing allows use of the phone via the BT. You need to register the Audio in order to stream music. Under settings, hit audio and then register the iPhone and stream away!

[arabianobsession]

You can either pair the phone by itself ("Phone Only") and then pair it to the BT audio system, otherwise you can also pair both at the exact same time ("Internal Audio").

[nannahill]

I'm having fun (using that word loosely) trying to determine if I can stream music from my iPhone 3GS to my Nav equipped 2009 Ltd. I just spoke with Toyota Customer Service and they said it's not possible. Using the website below:

http://www.toyota.com/connect/

doesn't help much either. If it is possible how do you do it? I have paired it successfully on the telephone side of things but for the life of me can't figure out how to stream music using Bluetooth.

Thanks.

[arabianobsession]

^Don't ever go by that website, it's horrible and we avoid it at the dealership. The site tells me my husband's phone (LG EnV Touch) won't work, and wallah! It works perfect.

On your Nav screen, find the audio setup button, if you have bluetooth audio, there will be an option there to pair a bluetooth audio player.

[CPSDarren]

Yup- the pairing is very cumbersome compared to some other makes. There's a separate pairing for phone and for bluetooh audio players. Sometimes they interact. For example, if you switch the bluetooth audio player to a kids' iPod Touch, it will sometimes mess up the phone. And the times that it doesn't mess up the phone pairing, when you go back to pair the phone as the bluetooth audio player, you have to re-pair it as a phone again too. Nice concept, but poor implementation. Perhaps it varies by phone/player model, too. I usually do the pairing with voice commands as I don't have NAV and it's a little cumbersome on the radio display.

[arabianobsession]

The good news is in the future, when most Toyota models will have Nav/Entune standard, all of those problems are going to disappear (and add some more, I'm sure, haha). BT audio and phone will pair as one device, not separately, and they won't "cancel" each other out anymore.

[antoCamry]

I have a Camry SE and I can't connect my iPhone 4 through HandsFree and Audio at the same time. It's either then Handsfree or the audio alone. It won't let me use both at the same time.

Let's say I connect to the handsfree and then I go to connect to the Bluetooth media audio, it's kind of resetting. Is there a trick?

Thanks!

[TheBum]

Originally Posted by antoCamry

I have a Camry SE and I can't connect my iPhone 4 through HandsFree and Audio at the same time. It's either then Handsfree or the audio alone. It won't let me use both at the same time.

Let's say I connect to the handsfree and then I go to connect to the Bluetooth media audio, it's kind of resetting. Is there a trick?

Thanks!

When you say "connect", do you mean "pair"? If you pair using "Internal Audio", that should get you hands-free and audio. That's the way I set up my Highlander and it works fine with my iPhone 4. I assume the same would work on the Camry, but couldn't say for sure.

[masterbender777]

I have a 2012 HL and a Iphone 4 and I paired the phone with the handsfree in my HL and skipped pairing the bluetooth audio and the phone works through the handsfree system and so does the steaming music when I switch the band on radio to bluetooth.

[antoCamry]

Thank you TheBum! It worked!