iPhone 4 and 4S bluetooth compatibility

[jqs]

I'm thinking of moving to an iPhone 4 or 4S and am interested in hearing positive and negative comments on it's compatibility with VW's bluetooth. I have a 2011 Golf TDI with the 9w7 option.

I've read through a lot of the threads on bluetooth compatibility here, but I haven't found clear information on whether there is trouble with the iPhone 4 or 4S and the factory bluetooth option. The phones are of interest individually since, according to Apple, the bluetooth has changed from 2.1 to 4.0 from the 4 to 4S.

At a minimum, I'd like to plug in the iPhone to the connector cable for charging and have it work as expected, i.e. the phone works through bluetooth, you can play music and it interrupts for calls, etc.

Ideally, I'd like to be able to access Siri through bluetooth, have navigation commands played through the speakers, and maybe a few other whiz-bang capabilities. It seems like at least those first two should be doable. Does anyone have any experience trying these?

 

[nikhsub1]

The iPhones work great with the 9w7, I have used my 4 and 4s and they do everything you describe you want them to do... the only issue I started having with my 4s is that sometimes the phone and the MDI will say it is connected, but when a call comes in (or you try to call) it won't work over bluetooth... I have to turn BT off in the phone settings then turn it back on and then it works again. This doesn't happen often and I'm pretty sure it is a 4s issue that will hopefully be fixed in an update... This never happened on my 4, just the 4s.

 

[rte2MA]

I just hooked up a 4S to my 2011 a week ago. No problems with incoming or outgoing calls - although I can't say I've got a lot of experience after just one week. Syncing was easy.

 

[i64w2gohome]

For me, using VW Bluetooth with iPhone 4 works well for hands-free phone and iTunes in the 2011 Golf TDI. Easy set up with basic instructions.

 

[Feyd]

worked flawlessly from day 1

 

[Cincojoe]

Ditto, never an issue

 

[TDI Space-Coaster]

IPhone 4...works great!

 

[Asmerrill]

For me, Siri over bluetooth is a little laggy. Also, my voice command doesn't work as good as it did with my 3GS. It handles incoming calls flawlessly and outgoing calls when I use the phone book on the MDI screen. I love that I have found out how to stream Pandora and Stitcher through the cable instead of Bluetooth. Overall, these little issues should not keep you from buying an iPhone. I have the 4S and it is amazing.

 

[Brianjed_TDi]

Bluetooth works good for calls. Syncs without any problems. Issue I have is with MDI connection. Sometimes the display song and actual playing song are different. Siri lags a little but it works.

 

[rambalu80]

My iPhone 4s as well as my wife's iPhone 4 work great with BT and the MDI. No issues with charging either.

 

[ElectricMayhem]

I haven't used my 4S extensively, but I've made a few calls with it in my 2011 Golf. Works as well as my iPhone 3G did.

How do you use Siri over bluetooth?

 

[BrentRN]

We just got a 2012 JSW and both of our iPhones pair with car. It keeps the connection with the last paired phone so you have to go through the MFD to switch phones if there is a new driver.

I love that it displays the phone book, and can stream Bluetooth audio. If you keep the phone plugged into the MFI it will stay charged too.

 

[John and the GTi]

Thought I read somewhere someone was having problems with ringer volume being turned down while connected, then not returning after exiting the car. Was that not an accurate post? Hope not.

 

[rambalu80]

It keeps the connection with the last paired phone so you have to go through the MFD to switch phones if there is a new driver.

Don't know about the 2012's but our 2011 connects automatically to either phone as long as BT on the phone is turned on.

If both phones are in the car with BT turned, the car connects automatically to the phone that was paired first. If only one phone has BT turned on, the car connects to that particular phone automatically, regardless of the pairing order.

The only drawback is, if you want to connect your paired phone to the car after starting the car, i.e., if you turn on BT on your phone after starting the car, it will not connect automatically. You will have to do it manually via the MFSW buttons & MFD or using the touch screen. Same thing for switching phones after the car has been started.

 

[hot_guitar]

The one issue is that, indeed, the ringer volume on your 4S gets turned down during the pairing, but does not return to normal volume when you exit your car (I have a Golf 2012). This means that you must remember to turn up your volume when you exit your car.

 

[EJtdeye]

For me, Siri over bluetooth is a little laggy. Also, my voice command doesn't work as good as it did with my 3GS. It handles incoming calls flawlessly and outgoing calls when I use the phone book on the MDI screen. I love that I have found out how to stream Pandora and Stitcher through the cable instead of Bluetooth. Overall, these little issues should not keep you from buying an iPhone. I have the 4S and it is amazing.

Sounds great. I just bought a 4S today and am just figuring out everything. I'm especially interested in figuring out the Pandora connection using the cable. So far so good, the phoned paired with my Radio with no problems.

 

[jqs]

my question too...

I haven't used my 4S extensively, but I've made a few calls with it in my 2011 Golf. Works as well as my iPhone 3G did.
How do you use Siri over bluetooth?

I'm also curious how you use Siri over bluetooth, particularly with the Golf system. Do you have to grab the iPhone to initiate Siri and then can interact through bluetooth?

By the way, thanks for all the feedback. Sounds like I can give in to my technolust without fear.

 

[Fixmy59bug]

I'm also curious how you use Siri over bluetooth, particularly with the Golf system. Do you have to grab the iPhone to initiate Siri and then can interact through bluetooth?

Yup.

When I use Siri while driving, I press and hold the home button until Siri activates then interact through the Bluetooth system.

 

[HRC-E.B.]

Thought I read somewhere someone was having problems with ringer volume being turned down while connected, then not returning after exiting the car. Was that not an accurate post? Hope not.

I am experiencing that exact issue and can't quite figure out why, or how to solve it...?

 

[grnmtnjj]

We've found the 4s' (mine and my wife's) work fine. I only have two gripes:
1. Bluetooth audio volume is EXTREMELY LOUD
2. The phone auto-plays when connecting, which absolutely sucks as we don't always want to listen to the phone's ipod while driving. This is apparently not just a VW issue.

Otherwise, all is good. I like that we can now see track info while streaming over BT, although sometimes I've found the time played/remaining to be suspect.

 

[Fixmy59bug]

I think I have a solution to both problems.

1. You have to remember that the phone volume setting on the radio is for the ringer and the in call volume. So if you have to turn the radio way up to hear the call, it will also turn the ringer volume way up when the next call comes in. Try turning down the phone volume on the radio, and turn up the in call volume on the phone.

2. Go into audio settings in the radio and disable autoplay.

 

[finalkiss]

I have the bluetooth not picking up phone calls issue too. but I have a 5 hour drive to get home from where I work ( different town) that I make down and back every week or so. during that 5 hour drive I KNOW my phone will fail to pickup a call or several calls at some point. VW has been unable to reproduce this... I suspect I'll have to leave my car with them idling for 3-4 hours for it to happen to them. no issue with my old 3gs and I didn't buy an iphone 4. but it's VERY annoying when my wife tries to call me and isn't sure if my phone is being grumpy.. if I'm away from the car.. or if something bad happened on the highway. :/

 

[GolfTDI12]

iPhone 4 works perfectly from day one.

 

[Last Mango]

Bluetooth issues ...

Bluetooth:
2012 JSW with nav. iPhone 4S.

Ringer volume is automatically turned down on phone when connecting to car. Does not turn back up automatically. Most annoying.

Bluetooth playback volume is sometimes very low, even with Pandora volume turned all the way up. Must turn car volume up to 26-28 to hear music. Somewhat annoying.

Pandora music timer on VW Display is often wrong by a factor of 2. Amusing.

From what I can find, the issue appears to be with ios 5 on iPhone. Hope Apple is working on a fix.

Cheers,
James

 

[TDI Stevestr]

Bluetooth:
2012 JSW with nav. iPhone 4S.

Ringer volume is automatically turned down on phone when connecting to car. Does not turn back up automatically. Most annoying.

Bluetooth playback volume is sometimes very low, even with Pandora volume turned all the way up. Must turn car volume up to 26-28 to hear music. Somewhat annoying.

Pandora music timer on VW Display is often wrong by a factor of 2. Amusing.

From what I can find, the issue appears to be with ios 5 on iPhone. Hope Apple is working on a fix.

Cheers,
James

Have you checked the settings on the navi for input volume?

On the 315 its buried in one of the menus but you can choose the volume for Aux, the Media In, and the start up volume of the head-unit.

I haven't noticed the volume issue on my 4s with iOS 5.

 

[ElectricMayhem]

I am having a problem with my iPhone 4S where the vehicle claims to be connected to the phone, but when the phone rings it doesn't go through to the vehicle sound system.

 

[finalkiss]

Mention it to your VW Dealer electric. I did to mine so they have it on file. of course they couldn't reproduce it... but they didn't have a 4s to try with either..

 

[crashtested]

5.0.1 Update and my iPhone 4 hasn't had a problem linking to the BT.

 

[Daniel L]

Bluetooth:
2012 JSW with nav. iPhone 4S.

Ringer volume is automatically turned down on phone when connecting to car. Does not turn back up automatically. Most annoying.

Bluetooth playback volume is sometimes very low, even with Pandora volume turned all the way up. Must turn car volume up to 26-28 to hear music. Somewhat annoying.

Pandora music timer on VW Display is often wrong by a factor of 2. Amusing.

From what I can find, the issue appears to be with ios 5 on iPhone. Hope Apple is working on a fix.

Cheers,
James

I have all these problems as well. It works fine other than these problems. I've found that restarting the phone resolves the playback volume problem.

 

[Last Mango]

Have you checked the settings on the navi for input volume?

On the 315 its buried in one of the menus but you can choose the volume for Aux, the Media In, and the start up volume of the head-unit.

I haven't noticed the volume issue on my 4s with iOS 5.

Steve: Input volumes are all set to Medium. I don't think any of these would turn down ringer volume on the iPhone. And, if so, how would this affect the iPhone ringer when away from the car?

Maybe you were addressing the playback volume issue. This issue is inconsistent. Usually the volume is fine, but 20% of the time playback volume is extremely low.

I fault Apple for these issues, not VW, or my ineptness with electronics.

Open for other suggestions ...

Thanks,
James