iPhone 4S and Alpine head unit Bluetooth connection Issues

[hjr]

My brand new iPhone 4s does not connect to the Alpine head unit every time I enter the car. My old Plam Treo, and then my deathly slow iPhone 3G connected perfectly every time. Is anybody else having issues?

I have to go to settings, and reconnect the phone every time I enter the vehicle.

Once connected it works fine except for Siri which broadcasts over the speakers, but cannot find the car's microphone. Anybody else have this issue?

[cinergi]

I haven't had it not connect... I haven't tried Siri while connected yet. I'll give that a shot and report back... will also report back any other new issues.
I was on the IOS 5 beta and it didn't play well with the Alpine.. seems better now but I had various issues of the audio corrupting (with no way to fix it), playlists not working right, dupe items in the playlist (I think I see that still), etc ...

[tdevince]

I have the same issue. My phone shows its connected, I can access music via Bluetooth but the Alpine
Says no telephone. I also can receive calls. If I park and clear paired devices, then pair the phone it then shows up on the Alpine. I've also noticed that the Alpine doesn't see the 4S when connected via USB. My 3G was much more compatible

[meloccom]

I had a similar issue with my Blackberry 9700 and my car's Bluetooth.
Although both were paired and the BT features turned on they would not communicate until I attempted to generate a call from the car BT device to the Blackberry. Then all would start working.
Now every time I get in my car and turn on the BT adapter I press the call button and announce "Check battery". This connects them and the Blackberry tells me how much charge it has. You may find something similar works for your combination.

[tdevince]

Alpine's documentation for their KCE-400BT unit says that the latest firmware version (311) is compatible with Iphones up through the 3GS running software version 3.0.1. The date of their latest firmware update is 10/2010, so I would expect we need a new firmware update for the latest iPhone from Alpine.

[markwj]

Seems to be an iOS5 issue (not necessarily iPhone 4S).

I'm getting the same with my iPhone 4 running iOS5. Alpine says "no phone", but bluetooth audio works fine.

There were some dramatic changes in the bluetooth stack of iOS5/iPhone4S (bluetooth v4?), and that seems to have messed this up.

[hjr]

Thanks for confirming that this is a general iPhone/OS issue and not, heaven forbid, an Apple problem. I'll try to contact Alpine and see if there is a firmware update coming.

Siri actually works fine (if I am going slowly or stopped). I am not sure if the microphone being used is the car's or the phone's, but it would be really great to have a better noise cancelling mike. Has anybody tried to upgrade the car's microphone?

People cannot hear me when I am flying down the highway in my Roadster Sport with my hair on fire! Perhaps that is their problem, and not mine!

[Plouf1er]

I just received my Roadster (delivers last Friday).
So far, my iPhone 4S connects to the Alpine unit : i can play songs by bluetooth and make calls.
- If i use bluetooth, i just get limited commands : play / pause, prévious and next song, nothing else. I can change songs from the iPhone too in bluetooth
- If y choose the "iPod" option, the Alpine screen will put the iPhone music app in a special mode and i must use the Alpine screen to choose the music. ( BTW, The interface is AWFULL. I did not understood how to access my lists... it seems i just can access the songs directly (but the interface is so awful perhaps i haven't understood ?) The guy who build that interface should use that...)
The phone section seems to work great (i use bluetooth).
Hope it helps...

[markwj]

Alpine's documentation for their KCE-400BT unit says that the latest firmware version (311) is compatible with Iphones up through the 3GS running software version 3.0.1. The date of their latest firmware update is 10/2010, so I would expect we need a new firmware update for the latest iPhone from Alpine.

After clearing the pairing on both the Alpine AND the iPhone, then re-pairing, now it seems to be working. Previously, I had just cleared the pairing on the iPhone.

[hjr]

I spoke to an Alpine technician today! The glitch is that the audio bluetooth tries to attach to the phone first. The telephone then is not seen. If a new incoming call arrives you actually connect output sound through the audio bluetooth and are using the telephone' own built in microphone. No wonder everybody said i sounded like I was in a tin can (response - "please... its carbon fiber").

Fixes - try these in order and find what works for you:
1) as suggested, clear all bluetooth devices by going to "settings" "source setup" "bluetooth" "clear devices" (I did not go through this sequence on my car yet, so please excuse any error)
2) go to bluetooth settings and select "HFP" only without the audio.
3) wait for the new firmware upgrade. the tech said they have been working on this for a few months and this will surely fix the issue. He did not say when the upgrade will be released but implied that this is iminent. You can follow the upgrade instructions on the Alpine website under their KCE-400BT listing, or wait for your next service visit (I hope the Tesla guys pick up on this upgrade)

I hope this answers any questions.