Force stop android auto music playing

[tkgafs]

Hopefully someone may have a suggestion as to how to fix this issue

My car a Kia Sportage has only 1 USB data socket and does not have wireless charging.

The aa-proxy-rs works perfectly using a pi 3a+ plugged into the data socket

It also works plugged into a small 4 port USB hub with a USB stick plugged into another socket of the hub.

But I have discovered that the only way I can play music from the USB stick or the cars own radio is to make sure they are being played when I stop and turn the car Off

Then when I restart the car for the next journey I can continue to play music from the radio or the USB stick, whilst using Waze/Google maps via android auto, but as soon as I start a music app for example Spotify on android Auto I cannot then go back to the car radio or USB stick without the maps going off. If I then re-select Android Auto again for the car interface, I can only get the music that is in effect playing on my phone.

Is there anything I could do using the disable-media-sink so no music plays from the phone, or would this stop the route directions from the Waze or Google maps being played back as well

Although I have set android auto to not auto start music, something presumably from the car software must be triggering it when I reselect it after I try and play the car radio or USB stick.

Reading reviews of Android Auto it seems to be a very common issue of the music starting although it is set not too.

Any suggestions greatly received.

[manio]

Hmmm... disable media sink is a global option for whole AA session(s).
Do you have a switch for USB media in head unit?

[tkgafs]

From the car head unit I can choose radio, Bluetooth audio, USB audio or Android Auto. But if once I've chosen to play music using Android auto say Spotify or TuneIn radio for example I cannot go back to listening to my USB stick full of music without android Auto in effect closing down. I'm pretty sure the fault must lie with the Kia head unit or my pixel phone but no obvious way to prove it. I don't really think there is a solution but thought it worth asking for other people's ideas

[manio]

I’m not sure how to answer you directly… it really might be an issue with the HU. For now, I’m just acting as a relay between Discord and GitHub 😉... but I took the liberty to ask the same question on Discord, and people didn’t really give a clear answer...
Anyway ... feel free to join, we have some KIA owners there...

[manio]

... and also if you need usb storage to play media, you could expose that from aa-proxy buildroot.
You could use unused space on sdcard and expose it as storage, but this is something you need to do on your own...

[TermoZour]

I'm using aa-proxy with a Toyota Camry 2020 and in my HU I also have the option in Audio source section between bluetooth, radio, Android Auto, etc. So the audio source also dictates what is shown on the screen.

My theory is that this is indeed a limitation of the HU of your Kia. If you said that USB audio playback works as long as the car doesn't detect an audio stream from Android Auto while AA is active, I would suggest disabling the media stream from aa-proxy. If I remember correctly, waze/maps navigation is played through a different audio stream (phone call I think) so it wouldn't trip the HU.

In regards to AA playing audio automatically even if AA is set not to, this can also be a "feature" of the HU. I tested this with a 2018 Toyota C-HR (no AA whatsoever) and when I pause the music on BT, if I press volume up or down on the HU (or steering wheel) the music will start again. Same thing happens when the BT device is connected after the car turns on. As soon as the connection between car and phone is successful and assuming Spotify is running in the background, the car will start playing music automatically. On my Camry the situation is the same with Bluetooth as well as Android Auto as audio source.

What may have made a difference for me was enabling Android Auto developer mode. After I turned that on, even though I did not fiddle with settings in there, when I quit developer mode I noticed AA would respect the setting and NOT start music automatically. I did not want to fiddle with the setting to confirm. Maybe it was a fluke but at least now I don't automatically get music playing and if I really want it, I can set up some Tasker automation.

[tkgafs]

Thank you for your replies and suggestions

I have never used discord, is it a type real time discussion forum ?

If I use space on the sdcard will it appear as storage on my phone or another USB source the car will see ?

My first thing to try is turning on developer options and see what happens then

My ultimate goal is to be able to use Waze for directions along with whatever music I wish to play on my phone, but be able to get back to FM radio from the car itself and still have the Waze maps and voice directions displayed.

Thanks again for your suggestions I'll update with my progress

[manio]

I have never used discord, is it a type real time discussion forum ?

Yeah, it’s basically like a real-time chat (though of course you can treat it more like a forum if you don’t have time to sit and read everything live).
I’m kind of old-school myself - started with IRC and ICQ - so I resisted it for a while too, but Discord turned out to be really nice and useful. You don’t even have to “learn” it, it’s very intuitive to use.

My first thing to try is turning on developer options and see what happens then

For this you need MITM certificates, so again encouraging to join Discord for this (until @TermoZour was telling only about this options in phone) :)

If I use space on the sdcard will it appear as storage on my phone or another USB source the car will see ?

No you need to build and configure this yourself... not that easy... I'm only saying that's its possible (@Ioniq3) did this as well.