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nexus s and volvo c30 -> no audio via usb?

hi
i have a nexus s and a volvo c30 with the multimedia package which has a usb port. With my iphone, I could just plug in the iphone in the usb and i could navigate trough the music and listen to it on my iphone trough the car's stereo.
If i put in the nexus nothing happens, it keeps trying to read the disk.
if i put on usb storage mode, it says after a while that it can't read the disk.
is there any way i can make this work or is it just not possible?

I would check out the manual or Google it. I bet the Volvo stereo only supports FAT16 or FAT32 format (i.e. USB flash thumb drive). Just a guess. Hope it works out...
Also, does it support Bluetooth? If so, see if the stereo can accept audio over bluetooth. I've got a 5-6yr old Alpine head unit that can do it, so I'm betting there's a good chance yours can.

The manual says it indeed only supports usb2 and fat partitions...
Is there any way this can be done on the nexus?
I have bluetooth, but there is no mension about being able to play music over bluetooth, phone does work and addressbook syncs, so bluetooth works as it should

I'm honestly not sure about the formatting issue. I would assume that repartitioning the phone would be a tough job to do without messing something up.
As for Bluetooth, I don't really have any experience with audio-via-BT, but I would try atleast pairing it to the car to see if you can play around with it. Go to Settings > Wireless and Networks > Bluetooth Settings. Enable Bluetooth and turn Discoverable on. Then try using your car to pair with it, or vice versa. If you manage to get it connected, I don't really know what the next step would be, since I've never had a stereo that supported it without paying $200 for an adapter.
I would just play around with the bluetooth stuff and see if you can get it running. Since I'm not familiar with Volvo car stereo systems, I don't know if it really supports playback, or just phone calls. See if there's an input in the menu (ie CD, FM, AM, AUX, etc) called BT Audio, or something like that. 3rd party head units typically have this input if they support it, similar to the AUX input option. I'll see if I can find a generic guide for it in the meantime.
What year is your C30?
Good luck

So it looks like your car does NOT support the audio via Bluetooth protocol, known as A2DP. I found a great resource for your car that you should check out, called C30 World. From there I found a thread on this, where people say it doesn't support it, and that your best bet is to use the aux input jack in the center console. Unfortunately, it also looks like that jack is disabled if you have the Bluetooth package installed.
My advice is for you to post on the C30 World forums and ask for some help. I'm sure there's some very knowledgeable people over there that can help you.

thanks man
I think I will just put a usb splitter in there and use a thumb drive in the usb with my music and use the phone as a phone on bluetooth and still have the option to charge my phone

Try using the BT adapter that I use. Been using viseeousa 2000 plugged to my USB port. Flawlessly stream music wireless. Plug and play device and works with android for bluetooth streaming.

[Q] I can't play music through usb port on my pioneer dvd receiver head unit?

I just bought the new samsung infuse 4g. I have a pioneer dvd receiver with both a usb and aux input on front. When I connect the infuse to the pioneer with usb cable, the head unit says form read and does nothing. It will play music through the aux but I would like to have some control on the screen like I do with my iphone 4. Any help is greatly appriciated. This is my first android phone been iphone for since 3g, 3gs, 4.

most head units are formatted mainly for ipod.
i have the idrive system in my suv and i cant get it to come up like it does on iphone or ipod. just lets me play forward rewind skip the general functions.
but when i plug in my ipod. i get full track list albums and what not

It's certainly disappointing.

word. pisses me off at times, because i got buttons on being my steering wheel to control all of that but noooo.

350havok said:
I just bought the new samsung infuse 4g. I have a pioneer dvd receiver with both a usb and aux input on front. When I connect the infuse to the pioneer with usb cable, the head unit says form read and does nothing. It will play music through the aux but I would like to have some control on the screen like I do with my iphone 4. Any help is greatly appriciated. This is my first android phone been iphone for since 3g, 3gs, 4.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
the easy answer is that you need a dock. a dock can be simulated but im not going into that in this post. the home dock alonk with the deskhome app enables usb out. you can get a different app that will work but you still need to trigger dock mode. sorry there isnt an easier way that i know of. not untill there is some development on the platform.

When you plug in infuse into usb
Port it asks if u want to use it as disk drive kies or something else
I forgot what now.
This might be the problem as it should be usb disk drive
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ooh crap i think i read wrong. ok you need to mount the storage to the headunit. it "may" support usb audio, but it is likely trying to look for media on the device. that is the only way that it would potentially use the stearing wheel controls. if it were to use audio over usb it would still use the phones media player.
it might not have drivers that can support the infuse to be mounted as storage. but if it does you can mount it from the notification bar on the phone.

hmm, try getting a widget that mounts the SD card when you plug it in. ("plug it in and turn me on"- Afrojack ) anyways, yeah maybe if you can get the sd card to mount it will works as a USB disk drive.

So...is there no answer on this yet? I have a Kenwood head unit in my truck and it sits on reading as well. I've tried the mass storage option and media player. I've also plugged the phone into my laptop and synced it with WMP thinking that would create a folder structure that the head unit is looking for, but nothing. I've plugged in various Android devices and they have all worked (even the cheap Chinese ones). There has to be an easy answer to this.

jmfrost said:
So...is there no answer on this yet? I have a Kenwood head unit in my truck and it sits on reading as well. I've tried the mass storage option and media player. I've also plugged the phone into my laptop and synced it with WMP thinking that would create a folder structure that the head unit is looking for, but nothing. I've plugged in various Android devices and they have all worked (even the cheap Chinese ones). There has to be an easy answer to this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
In my experience it has been.hit or miss device to device.
Did you try the app mentioned above
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00mred00 said:
In my experience it has been.hit or miss device to device.
Did you try the app mentioned above
Sent from my SAMSUNG-SGH-I997R using XDA App
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I haven't tried the app above because the way the post read to me was that I also needed the dock. Maybe I haven't tried enough devices, but every device I've plugged in has worked so far, even a plain flash drive, until I tried this unit. Which leads me to think if I can make a plain and simple flash drive work, then surely I can make this work in mass storage mode. I'm thinking it has to be something to do with file/folder structure. Again, it could possibly be the file system. Seems like I read somewhere the file system was formatted with something outside the norm. So I wonder if I format a microsd card as fat or fat32, then maybe that's the trick?!?!

I'm getting closer to a fix. Here's what I have working so far. If you create a folder on the microSD card called music and drop all your tunes in there, select mass storage mode when you connect to the USB port, then the stereo should start reading from that folder automatically. I didn't format the card that came with the Infuse so whatever file system they formatted it with seems to be fine. I also haven't tried this folder on the internal memory, but will try that as part of my testing. I listen to a lot of podcasts as well, so I need to figure out a way to organize so I can switch between music and podcasts easily and so far I've only been able to control it from the headunit. I also haven't been able to get things like GPS voice navigation to play through the head unit either...yet.

Keep us posted for sure!!!
I have an old 500gb drive i use for this so really no need to do it from the phone...
My jvc has bt so i just play stuff thats on my phone over that
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So far I've hit another brick wall. I'll figure out something, it's driving me nuts. I can't believe they would leave this functionality out, in particular for use a GPS navigation device.
I have tried BT connections in other cars, but my bionic ears notice a considerable drop in sound quality when doing that.
I have e-mailed Samsung to see what their official response is to this.

jmfrost said:
in particular for use a GPS navigation device.
I have tried BT connections in other cars, but my bionic ears notice a considerable drop in sound quality when doing that.
I have e-mailed Samsung to see what their official response is to this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
lost me there on the GPS ...
I can tell a slight difference in sound quality but not enough that it has bothered me....I think I just dig not having cables running everywhere.
I may try and mess with mine tomorrow if I can find some time

What I was saying about the GPS is that it's nice to hear the turn-by-turn instructions over the stereo. If other people are talking, then sometimes you don't hear it if you're using the phones speaker.
FWIW, here is the response I got from Samsung. I just looked through my settings and most of this is already done. My gut feeling is...Samsung ain't gonna' do jack about this! Maybe I don't understand and manufacturers aren't using Android devices to compete with iPhone. But if you want to compete with iPhone, then I would think connecting to external devices as easily as iPhones do would be a key part of that competition. This is why Windows never lost out to Linux and ios became king. There are a few of us geeks willing to dabble, but most people just want it to work. I'm no phanboy, but I certainly have to give Apple credit on this one. Maybe this will improve with a GB or Ice Cream update.
Thank you for taking the time to inform us your inquiry concerning your Samsung product. We apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused you. We appreciate hearing from our customers, as your comments are vital for us to continue improving our products, as well as our business.
By default the phone has a feature to make a mass storage option to the computer so it can browse file and transfer files between the phone and the computer as well. However, we don't have much information on 3rd
party devices for it will be a compatibility issue which is why it is not working on your USB device.
You may try to check the USB settings below for mass storage option:
> Tap Menu
> Tap Settings
> Tap Applications
> Tap USB settings
> Tap Mass storage even if already selected
> Tap Home key to return to the home screen
Make sure that under Development, all option should be unchecked:
> Select Menu
> Select settings
> Select Applications
> Development
> Uncheck all three options (USB debugging, Allow mock location, Stay Awake)
Connect the USB data cable to the phone and to the device’s USB port
On the phone screen, touched “Connect USB Storage”
If it’s still not working, you may try to look and download an application on the Android Market that works on your USB device. However, we don’t have much information on 3rd party software so before downloading the application check on the user’s comments for the assurance.
Should you have additional questions concerning a specific feature of your device, please contact us anytime, as we would be happy to provide additional information. You can contact our Customer Care Center by phone at our toll free number 1-888-987-4357, between the hours of 7:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. Monday through Friday, and 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. Saturday, Central Standard Time.
If you're on Twitter or Facebook, you can also tweet or post questions for us.
www.facebook.com/samsungservice
www.twitter.com/samsungservice
Thank you for your continued interest in Samsung products.
Sincerely,
Technical Support

jmfrost said:
What I was saying about the GPS is that it's nice to hear the turn-by-turn instructions over the stereo. If other people are talking, then sometimes you don't hear it if you're using the phones speaker.
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Click to collapse
I guess where I am lost is in that has nothing to do with hooking the device up via mass storage
That one is another great benefit to BT set up...GPS broadcasts to the head unit, all sounds do
When hooked up via mass storage the head unit will only be reading files....so that is what threw me off when you mentioned GPS

00mred00 said:
I guess where I am lost is in that has nothing to do with hooking the device up via mass storage
That one is another great benefit to BT set up...GPS broadcasts to the head unit, all sounds do
When hooked up via mass storage the head unit will only be reading files....so that is what threw me off when you mentioned GPS
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
OK. So you got me on the BT thing. But I'm not going to rush out and spend $200+ for a decent HU that has BT. Maybe I can find an adapter.
The GPS thing was a side thought.

jmfrost said:
OK. So you got me on the BT thing. But I'm not going to rush out and spend $200+ for a decent HU that has BT. Maybe I can find an adapter.
The GPS thing was a side thought.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's awesome! Sorry, I have been addicted to BT for years now...I have two sets of stereo headphones, the JVC in the car, and have been looking for a home surround system with BT (not as important now that most blueray players are network/pandora ready). They prolly make an adapter specifically for your H/U

I had this same issue over last weekend, on the way to a music festival. My friends kenwood deck wouldn't play my infuse through the USB. As far as I can tell it's seriously just something that Samsung has left out. There were 3 other droids in the car that played perfectly through the USB. Very frustrating to say the least, especially on a phone of it's level.

Music control on phone for Car radio

Hello,
I have really no idea if this is possible, how hard this could be to do and what it can require but :
1 - Would it be possible when I plug my phone on my car radio with USB to control the music with my phone instead of the radio itself ?
2 - Would it be possible to deport the sounds (calls, applications etc) on the car speakers ?
Let me know if I'm not very clear
PS : please don't answer something like "use a jack-jack cable"
Thanks !

From what I get, you want to "stream" audio through the USB port. I don't know why would you want that and the jack-jack cable is not good (maybe you have a USB port on you car stereo but no line in) but as far as I know it would take A lot of modifications (stereo and phone) to make it work.
So, theoretically it is possible, practically I don't think someone will ever make it possible.

Im pretty sure it would be impossible to control the car radio with the phone via usb. There might be some kind of solution using IR, but I don't know how that'd interface with the Droid. Most aftermarket decks allow for a wired remote on the back (looks like a headphone Jack). I've used it with a steering wheel interface adapter and it worked well, so there is a possibility that a custom usb cable could be made, but would also require a custom app written for the Droid to output the signals through the usb.
On streaming radio via usb, I don't think that's possible either, bc the uusb on the deck is looking for files to read on a mounted drive.
If you happen to have an incredible, you can get the tv-out cable and make a shorting pin on the video output. This makes the phone think it's connected to a TV, and will then stream Pandora, music, Google navigation, etc through the usb. If you do this with your aftermarket radio, you'll need an aux input and an rca to 3.5mm cable unless you already have RCA.
Hope this helps!

Thank you for answers! I was asking that because I remember when I had an iPhone, I was able to play, pause, forward the music from my iPhone. I will try to use the aux-in (I have a little Pioneer DEH-3200UB).
Thank again !

That's because both the head unit and the iPhone know a common language and communicate.
Sadly, I don't think there's anything like that outside Apple.

It is called Ipod ready. That could be emulated in Android, would be another bite out of the apple,s ass.

Emulate an Iphone USB interface to a car radio?

I recently purchased a car that has a USB interface for the radio. My wife's Iphone fully integrates with it, of course, and via the radio's interface but the Samsung only mounts as a connected drive.
I have read other thread where people were able to force their Samsung into car dock mode by modifying a USB cable. Is there anyway to just do that in software?

you misunderstand what car mode is.

Good luck! I switched back to my iPhone for this reason alone. I listen to a lot of podcasts and I couldn't get this to work via the USB interface and I don't have bluetooth on my head unit. I can't seem to get the newest update to see if that works either. Would love to know if someone has a solution that doesn't require making your own cable.

yo sleze..what model car if i may ask?
i made my own auxiliary input for my car(i know its not a big feat) with an old dsl filter a soldering gun and some resistors and capacitors.. i might be interested in creating a usb interface for my car and then maybe i can give you some insight .. big maybe

well you will never get the headunit to command the phone, android simply doesn't support anything like that. but you can get audio over USB which is triggered by shorting a couple pins through a resistor. ill have to look up that thread but there may already be a dongle or cable out there to do this. it may not be say "android carmode" but if you find the name of the USB standard that they use to trigger it you can find the appropriate cable or dongle.

isnt there a usb headset available that can stop/start music and next track functionality ..if so you could (in theory) make a usb interface that would allow the head unit or in my case steering wheel control to work similarly?

no it wont command the phone. the framework and apps don't have an interface for that. plus the headunit would need special drivers if the phone had that capability. the issue with android is too many manufacturers do things different so unless google comes out with that on a nexus and tells maunfacturers the way it needs to be implimented I don't see any hope.
there might be a way to echo the commands through adb if you have a computer in your car. but I guess you'd have to know how the music app works for that.
we All know apple has the accessories market down pretty good. even though some older accessories don't work with the newest hardware. that's the one thing apple is good for, a wide accessory market.
now if you have a Bluetooth controler and it uses the right protocol to work with thw samaung bluetooth stack then you might be able to map keys to certain functions with an app or simple configuration file editing. but as far as USB goes I don't think android is designed to host USB input devices. there is limited otg usb support on certain special galaxy s and nexus 1 and nexus s kernels but nothing native.
maybe some 3rd party root app could eventually be developed but I haven't heard of one yet.
besides all that, who knows if the head unit will know to go into audio over USB mode in the first place, even if you get the phone in that mode, will the headunit be looking for USB storage and an iPhone interface only? was it designed to accept USB audio other than an iPod interface?

well with my car BMW mad a usb interface for ipod/iphone.. i hate mac so scratch that.. i also have a usb interface(i can control radio/nav functions via carputer) that is designed to work with I-BUS (intelligent input bus) which is what some BMW's used for audio/nav integration. some newer models actually come with a usb input that was designed to work with most media players..so i thought maybe with some time/frustration/rum..i might be able to make it work..

mejori said:
well with my car BMW mad a usb interface for ipod/iphone.. i hate mac so scratch that.. i also have a usb interface(i can control radio/nav functions via carputer) that is designed to work with I-BUS (intelligent input bus) which is what some BMW's used for audio/nav integration. some newer models actually come with a usb input that was designed to work with most media players..so i thought maybe with some time/frustration/rum..i might be able to make it work..
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It still to my understanding that on BMW iDrive system will have full integration with iOS. We had a 2010 5 series at home with all the bell and whistles on it, and even then it would only display song names. With my iPod we got full library options, podcast too. Android will only be able to be used as a mounted devices.
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I used to have an iPhone and installed this kit http://usaspec.com/product.php?ProductID=18. After switching to android I just use a 2.5mm to RCA cable to plug in to the same unit. Not worried too much about integrating with car controls - I also use a phone mount. Does your head unit have any AUX IN connectivity? Maybe on the rear? If so just play audio through the headphone jack. There's always the lighter socket RF adapter option too, but audio quality with those things can be lame.
Samsung-SGH-I997 Infused 2.3.3

yeah the headphone amp on the infuse has pretty good fidelity too. the headphone Jack might not be as convenient as a single USB that also charges the phone but I'd you want to use the playlists and 3rd party apps like Pandora or Google music its the best way. audio over USB needs the dock or special cable to trigger but I don't know which headunits will support that.

[Q] Car Stereo -> USB connection: mass storage or output sound?

Hi!
For the people who use an Android phone via USB to their car stereo: does the car stereo just make the phone a glorified SD card? Like, you just browse through the file structure on the stereo? Or, is it straight output? So, whatever I'm playing through my phone, it plays through the speakers?
Basically: does the USB slot on car stereos act like a computer (i.e. phone is glorified SD card) or a dock (i.e. phone is source for speakers)?
~Ibrahim~

Depends. Does your phone support mass storage?
Does your head unit support Bluetooth connections?
If 1. Is true then yes you should be able to pick mass storage from status bar (in some Samsung phones it's buried deeper in settings -> data more settings -> USB settings.
On some new devices like SGS3 mass storage is not supported at all and MTP requires Windows drivers to work.... I've not seen a Microsoft head unit anywhere to date? (I could be wrong but at the very best they'd be few and far between).
This can be circumvented with root access and scripts to mount a designated card and or an app like EasyUMS.
If you don't have mass storage support, you don't have a BT supported head unit and you don't have a rooted device then all i can say is good luck.
Just for clarification BT is to suggest that you can stream from your device. I've looked into reverse radio transmitting from FM app hacked but gave up when i discovered my latest device doesn't have FM radio what so ever.

Jarmezrocks said:
Depends. Does your phone support mass storage?
Does your head unit support Bluetooth connections?
If 1. Is true then yes you should be able to pick mass storage from status bar (in some Samsung phones it's buried deeper in settings -> data more settings -> USB settings.
On some new devices like SGS3 mass storage is not supported at all and MTP requires Windows drivers to work.... I've not seen a Microsoft head unit anywhere to date? (I could be wrong but at the very best they'd be few and far between).
This can be circumvented with root access and scripts to mount a designated card and or an app like EasyUMS.
If you don't have mass storage support, you don't have a BT supported head unit and you don't have a rooted device then all i can say is good luck.
Just for clarification BT is to suggest that you can stream from your device. I've looked into reverse radio transmitting from FM app hacked but gave up when i discovered my latest device doesn't have FM radio what so ever.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the reply!
Yeah, only MTP on stock, but EasyUMS works. But, I actually wanted the USB audio out (not mass storage). For example, all the playlists I have would be useless and it sounds nigh impossible trying to navigate 1000 songs with a head unit. Do you know if any head units do support Android USB audio out?
I considered BT, but no head units support apt-x (lossless audio codec) yet: even the 2013 models are using crappy SBC. A few home stereos have it, but they don't exactly fit in my car, haha.