Eryeal

Same here .. I don't hear any notifications, either from MMI or the phone, when the phone is in the car. No text message sounds, no sound when locking/unlocking the phone, etc.

Mrchntmarine

That's what I'm talking about! You on an iPhone? I wish someone at Audi could tell me how it's suppose to work. I get a different answer depending on who I ask - Audi NA and the dealer.

nathanjbrown

It seems to me that everyone is saying something different here. Let me see if I can clarify how it's supposed to work:

First things first...
PAIRING = The act of "introducing" your Bluetooth device (e.g. iPhone) to your MMI system for the very first time.
CONNECTING = The act of establishing an "on and ready to play" relationship between your previously paired Bluetooth device and your MMI system.

1. When your iPhone is paired with - and connected to - your MMI system, you will hear NOTHING from the speakers built into your iPhone. The only way to hear chimes, clicks, beeps, and, of course, music from your iPhone is to select "Media" as your MMI mode and then select your iPhone as the media source (at which point you'll hear all of those sounds through the speakers in your Audi).

2. In the event that two or more passengers are in the car, all of whom have previously paired their stereo Bluetooth device (e.g. iPhone) with the MMI system, the MMI system will automatically connect to the most recently PAIRED device. In this case, your iPhone may NOT be connected and, as a result, chimes, clicks, beeps and music will play through your iPhone speakers.

3. By way of the Bluetooth settings menu within the MMI system, any previously paired OR new device can be toggled on or off for both music playback and communications (so, in theory, the driver could manually connect his/her iPhone for communications while the passenger connects his/her iPhone for music playback).

In my family, I'm the primary driver, so I deliberately paired MY iPhone with the MMI first and THEN paired my wife's iPhone second. This, in turn, established a device priority that automatically connects to MY iPhone when I'm driving alone, and MY WIFE'S iPhone when I'm driving with her in the passenger seat (because I know she's going to want to stream the music from HER collection while I drive).

So the only way to hear chimes, clicks and beeps from your iPhone is to either A.) manually disconnect your iPhone from the MMI system using the Bluetooth settings menu or B.) ride in the car with someone else who has a Bluetooth device that was MORE RECENTLY paired with the MMI system.

Longwinded, but thorough and helpful I hope!

Nathan

Mrchntmarine

Thanks for the detailed answer but I still have 2 questions- then why can't my dealer or Audi NA explain it that way and why up until 2 days ago, without making any changes to either my phone or the car was I able to hear my notifications, alerts, etc. with my phone being paired and blue toothed and now I can't? I could hear them also in my 2012 Q5. Tks again.

nathanjbrown

My guess is that Audi struggles to explain it that way due to a lack of understanding. While I can't be sure other phones operate in the same manner, the iPhone, by design, sends all OS sounds to the connected Bluetooth speaker system if that system (MMI, in our case) supports the A2DP (stereo audio streaming) profile.

Is it possible that:
- Your Q5 was NOT selected as the preferred audio output on your iPhone all that time (iOS 7+ : swipe up from the bottom of the screen, tap "AirPlay" and then confirm whether "iPhone" or "[enter your Q5's name here]" is selected)?

- Your MMI system was connected to your iPhone in communications mode only rather than communications and audio/music?

- There was someone else in the car with a Bluetooth device that was more recently paired than yours?

If you were driving around, by yourself, listening to music streamed from your iPhone to your MMI while continuing to hear OS sounds (chimes, clicks, beeps, etc.) from your iPhone's built in speakers, then we have a mystery on our hands, for sure. To be clear, I'm not saying that isn't possible. It SHOULDN'T be possible, but I've worked in the consumer tech industry for 15 years and I've seen crazier things.

And by the way...If you figure out how to repeat the anomoly, please report back. I've actually always wished that I could stream music to my Q5's speakers while still hearing OS sounds through the iPhone's built in speakers.

Nathan

Eryeal

If the issue is the same as mine, he isn't saying the OS sounds are coming from the iPhone - they aren't coming from anywhere when the iPhone is connected to MMI .. I've had that issue from Day 1 driving off the lot - when the iPhone is connected to MMI - there are no notification or other OS sounds from either MMI or the iPhone. Plays music just fine. It is the only phone paired. I will definitely try the suggestions above next time I am in the Q5 and see if it's one of those issues.

Mrchntmarine

See my answers above, plus this- how it use to work for me - by default I have my media source set to jukebox, which is empty so that I don't have to get music every time I get back on the car. With my phone bluetoothed I would hear notifications, etc. from my phone. Now for some reason I don't. I have never heard them through the car, even with the airplay selected as you mentioned - just tried it. But this is what I also tried after your thread above. I bluetoothed to the car and turned off the Bluetooth audio player setting in the mmi. Now I'm able once again to hear phone sounds through the phone while bluetoothed. However, I then went to media source to select my iPhone for streaming and it was not there. I then turned back on the audio player setting, and I was not able to hear the sounds from my phone. Streaming worked fine as usual. I then went to the airplay button you told me about and it was set to my car. I set it to my phone and now I can hear the sounds from my phone again and streaming is okay too. I guess I just have to check that setting when I can't hear the sounds. Also, just tested - while streaming to the car I typed a text and heard the keyboard through the car. Could not test other sounds as no one to send text at the moment. Once I stopped streaming and selected my phone on air okay settings all sound goes back to phone while bluetoothed.

nathanjbrown

Sounds like we have a few different issues going on here. All of them are somewhat mysterious!

I just sat in my Q5 after a trip to the store in an effort to replicate these issues. Although I couldn't replicate them exactly, I did notice odd behavior when I selected "iPhone" from my AirPlay menu rather than "Q5." When "Q5" is selected, it streams audio as I would expect while "Media" and "iPhone" is selected on the MMI. When I change the iPhone AirPlay setting to "iPhone," it still streams audio through that setting but will ALSO stream music, OS sounds, and Siri through the Q5's speakers EVEN WHEN I HAVE "RADIO" SELECTED as my MMI source! Now THAT is odd.

So the moral of the story is: It SHOULD work THIS way but might ALSO work THAT way and PERIODICALLY will work the OTHER way.

Problem solved!

Eryeal

I did some playing around with mine today - here's what I found out:

1. The phone notification and other OS sounds only occur when I am in Media mode (and the volume is up enough). If I switch out of media to radio or something else, I lose the phone sounds altogether (they don't come from the phone or MMI). Which I can see happening because the Entertainment Volume slider controls both music/audio and phone sounds .. So even if the sounds came through on Radio, the music would be too loud to hear them anyway. It seems like the MMI is really missing a separate volume control for phone notifications/sounds other than the ringer itself.

2. I tested various settings - ringer volume in MMI, checked Bluetooth connectivity in MMI (both settings turned on), iphone is set to MMI output, etc.

Eryeal

I'll give this a shot tonight.