A car Bluetooth connecting only for phone calls can test your patience, especially when you want to entertain yourself during a traffic jam. Luckily for you, this Bluetooth problem is nothing new, and fixing them can be a walk in the park.
In this post, we’ve listed the top seven reasons Bluetooth is only connected for calls on your car. Plus, we’ve included the steps for playing music using a Bluetooth connection to help make your car ride a lot more enjoyable than before.
Why does my Bluetooth work for calls but not music?
It certainly is no accident why Bluetooth is acting up. Below are the most common things that can happen to your car’s Bluetooth connection causing it to work with calls but not music.
1. Incorrect Bluetooth Channel
Believe it or not, you need to set up the correct Bluetooth channel to ensure your car’s speakers play the sounds you want. For example, with the Media Audio channel, the vehicle will only play music from your phone, not calls.
Thus, if you’ve only selected the Phone Audio channel under your phone’s connection settings, that would explain why your car Bluetooth only works for calls. Enable both Phone and Media Audio channels on your smartphone to fix this.
This should not be an issue with some phone brands and models that ask for syncing permissions during the pairing process. However, if you have a Samsung phone, you must configure its separate sound feature.

Features like separate app sound will allow you to choose which media types can be played on your smartphone and its connected devices. As such, you might need to select your car’s speaker beforehand before it can play any music.
2. Removed Bluetooth Device
If you’re wondering why won’t your Bluetooth connect to the car anymore, it might also be due to your smartphone being removed from your car’s list. After all, there’s usually a limit to the number of Bluetooth devices that can be saved on your car.

Therefore, the last person who paired a device with your car may have deleted your smartphone’s pairing to free up space for them to connect via Bluetooth. Another possibility is that you’ve done it yourself beforehand and only forgotten.
You should always double-check your car’s dashboard’s Bluetooth settings and configurations. This way, you’re less likely to encounter Bluetooth connection errors due to small and simple details that are easy to overlook.
3. Bluetooth Auto Connect is Disabled
Another reason why Bluetooth won’t connect to your car anymore is due to a disabled Auto Connect feature. This usually happens if you’ve been connecting and using your smartphone with your car regularly.
However, whenever this doesn’t happen, the likely culprit is your car’s faulty or reconfigured Bluetooth settings. In particular, this can occur if someone disabled the car’s Bluetooth Auto Connect feature or if it was turned off due to a software error.

With this, your car and smartphone won’t connect via Bluetooth automatically, even if they’re detecting each other. This may lead you to believe that your phone isn’t connecting to your car using Bluetooth anymore due to a disabled feature.
The quick fix is obvious. Enabling Auto Connect on the Bluetooth settings of your car’s dashboard should fix this issue for you.
4. Another Device Has Bluetooth Priority
Sometimes, your car’s speaker won’t play music from your phone because another connected device has more priority. This happens when the culprit device or piece of media is connected physically to your car through a cable or drive.
A good example is a CD and DVD mounted inside the car’s disk drive, which the speaker prioritizes over the media playing on your phone. It can also happen if another smartphone is connected to your car using a USB cable.

It’s because physical media takes higher priority than air transmission. After all, the content of physical media and devices is easier to load and access compared to data that needs to be received and read simultaneously.
You need to remove any physical media connected to your car to prevent any Bluetooth connection issues with your smartphone. Also, do not assume everything is in the same order as the last time you used the car if someone else drove it.
5. Problematic Bluetooth Pairing
Like any Bluetooth device, your car it’s not immune to connectivity issues involving its pairing with other devices. Even if your car’s Bluetooth connection is impeccable, it wouldn’t matter if the smartphone itself was the cause of the choppy connection.
As such, renewing the Bluetooth pairing between your car and smartphone is often a wise idea to ensure both devices are correctly paired. It’s a good safety net if you have reason to suspect their previous Bluetooth pairing was faulty or problematic.
6. Signal Interference
Even surrounding objects can mess with the Bluetooth connection between your can and smartphone. After all, the 2.4GHz signal frequency that Bluetooth uses is what other wireless devices use to establish WiFi and other network connections.
This causes heavy traffic to this frequency band, which results in disconnection issues due to signal interference. A common sign of signal interference is constant disconnection issues while connecting your smartphone and car via Bluetooth.

In some cases, both devices may not connect to begin with. As such, there’s a big likelihood that this is the reason why your Bluetooth won’t connect to your car anymore.
7. Incompatible Music App
The music app or media player you’re using on your smartphone may also contribute to why your car’s Bluetooth only works for calls and not music. Remember that there has to be total compatibility for the wireless connection to work.
And this is where it can get a little tricky. Car manufacturers may not bother adding support for all media players and apps.
Not only is optimizing various apps to work on one system complicated, but it’s also not practical since music support isn’t a necessary feature for cars. As such, they only add support for the most popular apps since more people like them.

There’s a reason why music apps like Spotify, YouTube Music, and Apple Music are the ones that often receive software support from most car models. It means you may have to use one of these apps on your car rides if you want to be sure.
How to Play Music in My Car Using Bluetooth
The process of playing music over a Bluetooth connection will vary based on whether your car is Bluetooth-ready. Below are two ways to connect a smartphone to play music in a car with or without Bluetooth capabilities.
1. Use the Bluetooth menu on your car’s dashboard
Difficulty | Easy ●●○○○ |
Number of Steps | 17 |
Time to Perform Fix | 1 minute and 20 seconds |
Things Needed | • A car with Bluetooth support • A smartphone |
The most straightforward method to connect your phone to a car using a Bluetooth connector is through your vehicle’s dashboard menu. Since Bluetooth is a standard feature in many car brands and models, this is likely available on your car.
Please note that the exact steps of navigating through a car’s dashboard menu may vary based on the vehicle’s model and manufacturer. We suggest securing a copy of the owner’s manual for your car to find the correct Bluetooth access.
Don’t worry; a copy should be available for free on your car manufacturer’s official website. Once you’ve successfully paired your smartphone to your car via Bluetooth, any music you play from your handset should use the car’s speakers.
Again, since not all cars share the same features, others may require you to enter “music mode” before your smartphone can play songs using the vehicle’s speakers. You must do this if playing a song from your phone doesn’t work after pairing.
Step 1: Open your smartphone’s Settings app.

Step 2: Open the Bluetooth menu from your smartphone’s settings.

Step 3: Toggle your smartphone’s Bluetooth switch on.

Note: If your smartphone has a “Make Discoverable” switch under its Bluetooth menu, you have to toggle it on as well.
Step 4: Keep your smartphone close by and open your car dashboard’s main menu.

Step 5: Click the Bluetooth option on your car’s dashboard.

Step 6: Wait for the Bluetooth Settings option to light up and click it to configure your car’s Bluetooth connections.

Step 7: Click the Setup tab to change the car’s Bluetooth configuration.

Step 8: Turn on the Auto Connect feature and set the pin code for Bluetooth pairing.

Step 9: Click the Device tab to return to your car’s Bluetooth device settings.

Step 10: Click the Add button to start the Bluetooth pairing process.

Step 11: Select your smartphone once it’s detected by your car and click Pair to connect.

Step 12: Enter the pin code you set earlier to continue.

Note: If you didn’t set any passcode, your car and smartphone should pair right away.
Step 13: Enter the same pin code on your smartphone to complete the Bluetooth pairing.

Step 14: Click Allow or OK on any pop-up windows that will appear on your smartphone to enable extra Bluetooth syncing features.

Step 15: Click Close to return to your car dashboard’s Bluetooth Settings menu.

Step 16: Click the Music option to enable the music playing mode.

Step 17: Select a song on your smartphone and play it on your car’s speakers.
Note: Be sure to double-check the volume on your car’s dashboard if you don’t hear any sounds from your car’s speakers.
2. Use a Bluetooth adapter or FM transmitter
Difficulty | Very Easy ●○○○○ |
Number of Steps | 5 |
Time to Perform Fix | 20 seconds |
Things Needed | • A car without Bluetooth support • A Bluetooth adapter/FM transmitter • A smartphone |
Are you wondering how to connect Bluetooth to a car if this feature isn’t supported? Well, the answer to this is simple, and it involves using a Bluetooth adapter or FM transmitter that can plug into your can via its cigarette lighter outlet or auxiliary port.
The most common Bluetooth adapter or FM transmitter you can find in the market are the ones that plug into a car’s 12V to 24V cigarette lighter outlet. They’re handy devices that let you listen to FM radio and plug your phone into them to recharge.
With this adapter, connect your smartphone to your car’s speaker indirectly and use them when playing some music. This method uses your Bluetooth connection to pair a smartphone to the adapter, which connects to your car’s speaker from the outlet.
This way, the Bluetooth adapter can receive the audio signal from your phone and convert its data so your non-Bluetooth car can read it and produce the sounds. It lets you bypass the limitations of your car so it can also play music from your phone.
Step 1: Plug a Bluetooth adapter or FM transmitter into your car’s cigarette lighter outlet.

Note: Some adapters will plug into the Auxiliary port of your car instead so check its product guide to make sure.
Step 2: Open your smartphone’s Settings app.

Step 3: Open the Bluetooth menu from your smartphone’s settings.

Step 4: Toggle your smartphone’s Bluetooth switch on.

Note: If your smartphone has a “Make Discoverable” switch under its Bluetooth menu, you have to toggle it on as well.
Step 5: Click the adapter or FM transmitter from your smartphone’s Bluetooth devices list and pair both devices.
Note: The pairing process should conclude automatically so you can start playing music from your smartphone using your car’s speakers.
Some Bluetooth adapters or FM transmitters will have an LED display that will flash when they’re ready to pair. If yours is like this, be sure to wait for the flashing light before you initiate the pairing process from your smartphone to avoid any issues.