Zumo XT Music issues

[jfheath]

Hi,
I did post earlier this year about the issues I was having playing music. I managed to resolve it to a degree, but an issue remains…
My music is stored on a SD card in the XT and generally plays well for much of the trip, but occasionally it becomes choppy and either stops altogether, or will recover and start to play clearly once again. If it stops, my headset turns off! (It’s a Nolan B601-R made by Sena, and yes it does have a function whereby it will switch off if no BT signal is received, but only after 5 minutes, not immediately! In any case, I’ve disabled this function..). If however the music recovers and becomes clear again, the spoken navigation voice then becomes croaky/crackly for the rest of the trip, unless I turn the headset off & on again after which it’s crisp and clear once again (until the next time!).
I think it’s likely to be the headset getting BT interference, especially as I’ve tried it with my phone disconnected from the XT without success. Still can’t understand why the music continues to play crystal clear but the nav directions are audible but very crackly
Phone is a Motorola G73 running Android 14, and both this and the XT have up to date software.. Headset is connected to XT, and phone is connected to XT (Drive App) with ‘Media Audio’, ‘Phone Calls’ and ‘Contacts and Call History Sharing’ all activated. There are no other BT connections..
Wondering if anyone else has similar things happening?
Cheers, Paul

A couple of thoughts.

Why do you need media audio activated on your phone, if you are playing music from the SD card on your XT ?

Is your Drive app set up so that it can synchronise with the XT ? You will know by selecting Where To -> Explore. If you get a menu with 3 icons and a Connect Now button, then Explore Synch is not enabled.

But my guess is that it is enabled. So the BT will be working overtime talking to the XT. Which might be the cause.

The solution to that (at least to try it) is to kill the Explore link. But there are 2 things that you need to know first.
1. Do you plan your routes in the Explore App ?
2. Do you use Collections ?

The reason for the question is that if you do what I am about to suggest, then you will lose both of those facilities. You can still use the Drive app to transfer routes etc (eg by opening from your phone using the drive app). But collections will not be available. But it will still control alerts and phone calls and get data regarding traffic and weather and up ahead places. It just won't synch. Which from me was perfect. Just perfect.

The other issue is that you have to delete the Drive App from your phone, and perform a system reset of the XT1, and then reinstall.
When you reinstall the Drive App do not say yes to any request to share or synch data with Explore. Read the questions carefully - including the one that you can hardly read. That is the one that you have to be careful answering.

Resetting the XT1 to factory - is not a problem - but you will lose settings and some data. If you like to keep your active log files, then take a copy of CurrentTrackLog.gpx and of the archive folder that is in the GPX folder. They will be wiped during a reset. IT does not afect maps, but it will probably get rid of any loaded routes. Nothing on the SD card is affected. Maps are not affected.

Read the info on this page carefully.

app.php/ZXT-P56

[Biker PG]

Hi, many thanks for the response..
Good point about having media audio enabled on the BT phone link to the XT, that goes back to when I was experimenting with Android Auto on my Honda NT1100 (which I no longer use. Indeed, neither my phone or headset is now connected to my Honda). I’ve now disabled that option on my phone.
No, I don’t use Explore at all. For my longer trips, I plan routes on Basecamp..
So, I’ve followed the instructions to unlink Explore, and think I’ve done it correctly. I wasn’t asked many questions about Explore when the Drive app was reinstalled after resetting the XT, but when I now go into ‘Where To’ then ‘Explore’, I get screenshot 1, so all appears well…
Looking forward to a bimble later in the week, fingers crossed it’s made a difference!
Thanks again.
Regards, Paul.

[baz-R]

Personally I believe there is an element of barking up the wrong tree. I have an identical issue with audio off SD but also issue with phone calls.
Explore app ditched long ago and media blocked coming off phone. I get the issue across multiple headsets and phones and on my 2nd XT1. Garmin support has been flakey to say the last and I'm still waiting for my 3rd XT1 to come back from exchange it's been gone for ages.

I suspecting that there is a issue with the firmware of the XT1 and modern BT or Newer android phone software.
My bike was blamed for RF interfering but I can have issues off the bike and not moving so?....

[Biker PG]

I do think there’s an element of incompatibility, what with the vast array of phones & headsets available, but I mainly believe that interference plays a major part with this issue. Hopefully what I’ve now done will help my situation, but guess I’ll have to live with it if not. It’s a first-world problem after all..!!

[jfheath]

Garmin support has been flakey to say the last and I'm still waiting for my 3rd XT1 to come back from exchange it's been gone for ages.

I would chase that up. They don't normally 'receive and repair' Zumos - they have a whole load of received units that they have already refurbished - You send yours in, you get one of the refurbished units by return of post. In this situation, your refurbed unit is ready to go out as soon they email you the return label. The refurbed ones always look brand new.

I've sent five Zumos back over the years, and that procedure has always been the case - except one year they didn't have any refurbed 550s to send out, so I got a brand new boxed 660LM instead. I think my 550 was out of warranty, and I had paid about £100 for the repair/refurbed unit.
I got lucky.

Unless there is something in particular that they want to sort out with yours .... - but why should you be waiting for them to repair or investigate a faulty unit ?

I've had 3 XTs. One replacement due to a perceived fault - but the replacement demonstrated the same fault. So they decided to send a brand new one to eliminate old Zumo hardware as the problem. I reckon it is cheaper for them to do that than to have their expert team looking over it.

I've never had a music problem from the Internal Storage or from the SD card. I've used it with a BTM03 module Blutooth to cable via autocom wired headset. BT to Cardo Packtalk Edge, and cheap BT earbuds that I use for testing. It has always behaved immaculately.

But it always misbehaved when I tried using music from the phone. (And I have convinced myself that BT seeking out passing BT units looking to pair up are the problem - becasue it gets worse faster on busy roads). And I did have an issue with an old android phone not disconnecting after a phone call - but only when Tread synch was set up. Deleting that, the issue stopped. But - I got a new Android, so just for fun (I don't get out much !) I tried to provoke the same fault with the new phone. It wouldn't go wrong. So there IS an issue with certain combinations of equipment - which is understandable.

Just remembered - I did have an issue with the BTM03 bluetooth to wired unit. It would be late connecting and would drop out. I had put it in the compartmenet under the pillion saddle - where the Engine Management System is located. I moved it to the front behind the headlights.
I don't have a TFT screen and it worked perfectly there. I have heard that TFT screens can cause interference - but I don't know the details.