Zumo User Forums

I have a bunch of music stored on the SD card on the Zumo XT and I do listen to the music quite often when I ride. I also have phone paired to Zumo XT for the Garmin Drive and for the phone calls, and Zumo XT is also paired to my Sena headset.

Quite often I get an question on my Zumo, while driving and listening to music, something like "Music/sound was played through your device. Would you like to listen to the sound on your device?". I don't know the exact message because my Zumo XT language is not English, but the message box on Zumo is totally unclear and confuses me every time. What is "my device"? Zumo, Phone? These are all my devices...
If I select the wrong answer (YES) then the music folder is changed from Zumo XT SD card to phone - and I hear no sound whatsoever. And it is not safe to change the music folder while driving so this why this is the pain in the ass. I have to stop and change folder just to continue listening to music.
If I select NO, then everything is ok, the message goes away. But rarely I select NO due to unclear message.

Why am I getting these messages? On my phone Bluetooth menu with Zumo I have sound disabled, and type "other". Also on the Zumo when my phone I have music disabled. Garmin Drive on my phone has notifications disabled...

I would really like to get some pointers on what to check next as I am running all out of ideas.

b1324 wrote: Mon Sep 01, 2025 2:14 pm I have a bunch of music stored on the SD card on the Zumo XT and I do listen to the music quite often when I ride. I also have phone paired to Zumo XT for the Garmin Drive and for the phone calls, and Zumo XT is also paired to my Sena headset.

Quite often I get an question on my Zumo, while driving and listening to music, something like "Music/sound was played through your device. Would you like to listen to the sound on your device?". I don't know the exact message because my Zumo XT language is not English, but the message box on Zumo is totally unclear and confuses me every time. What is "my device"? Zumo, Phone? These are all my devices...
If I select the wrong answer (YES) then the music folder is changed from Zumo XT SD card to phone - and I hear no sound whatsoever. And it is not safe to change the music folder while driving so this why this is the pain in the ass. I have to stop and change folder just to continue listening to music.
If I select NO, then everything is ok, the message goes away. But rarely I select NO due to unclear message.

Why am I getting these messages? On my phone Bluetooth menu with Zumo I have sound disabled, and type "other". Also on the Zumo when my phone I have music disabled. Garmin Drive on my phone has notifications disabled...

I would really like to get some pointers on what to check next as I am running all out of ideas.

Sorry you have had to wait so long for a response. I missed the message coming in.

First of all, you need to make sure that your XT is set up correctly:

Ignore what Sena say (for now) and set it up like Garmin expects:

a) Headset paired to the XT, and check that you get sound (naviagtion, keyboard clicks etc) through the headphones.
b) Phone paired to the XT.

When the phone is spotted by the XT - it recognises it as a device that can play audio. So the message "Do you wish to play audio through your device" is asking whether you want your XT to receive the audio (music) output from your phone. It isn't talking about phone call audio.

If you say Yes, then the source of music in the music player is set to the phone. So if you want to play spotify music, or music from Google or just music stored on your phone - then you would select yes.

The alternative, is to open the Music player and select the source. MP3 or Bluetooth.

MP3 is by far the most reliable - that accesses MP3 files that you have placed in the MP3 folder on your SD card in the XT (or in the MP3 folder in internal storage).

Even if you don't intend to set it up like this permanently, do it to start off with. It gives you a system that works without involving the complexities of having the headset at the centre of things.

The final thing is to select the Volume button and adjust the master volume and the mixer volumes.

Personally I set phone calls to be 100%, navigation and media to be about 70-80%, proximity alerts to be about 40-50%.
Tweak it afterward. The master volume can be controlled by your Sena Headset if you wish.

This set up allows everything to work very reliably. But there is a sacrifice to be made. Although you can set off a playlist, you cannot use your headset to say "Hey Google. Play That track I like from suchabody".

The alternative - which I wouldn't even consider trying to set up until you have proved everything works as it is intended - is to pair your Zumo to the phone and the headset to the phone. This means that the XT will know nothing about phone calls.
It also means that you are streaming music from outside using your phones data, you are sending it to the headset via BT.
I tried to get this to work a long time ago - and it worked very well for the first 10 minutes. Then the music started becoming fragmented. And it would get progressively worse during the next 10 minutes until it became too choppy to be listened to. I reckon (I don't know), that the phone is busy trying to mate with any passing BT device, and it just gets bogged down. I could never get it to go wrong sitting at home. Only when on the road.

But that is not my choice to make. I cannot help you with the headset as the main item.

You might want to connect conenct you phone to access traffic data, up ahead places, weather etc. These all come through the Drive App. If you set up Drive, do not let it synch to the Explore database. It causes all kinds of navigational issues. But that is another topic.

Try this...

With your phone connected to the XT, open the XT Settings > Wireless Networks and look at the entry for your phone. To the right you will see two symbols, one for Garmin Drive and one for music. My guess is that both show as connected (blue color). You want to tell the Zumo that the phone is not a music source so tap the phone entry to open its options, then untick the "Media Audio" option. When you go back to the previous screen you should see the music symbol is now black.

Be advised that the Media Audio setting is finicky in that it seems to randomly enable itself. I'm sure it isn't random, but I have not been able to determine what event(s) cause it to become enabled. Enabled is the default so a re-pair of the phone will enable it.

Also, I have a Cardo Packtalk which has a built-in FM radio receiver. That makes it a potential music source so I keep its Media Audio option disabled as well.

Thank you both for you reply.

@jfheath I already have that exact setup your suggested, but the issue is still present.

@Peobody I think you are right when saying that "Media Audio setting is finicky"..

Yesterday before the ride I double checked settings on my mobile phone and connection with Zumo had audio disabled (on phone). Then I turned on the Zumo and checked the bluetooth device menu - my phone also had audio disabled (on zumo). But at that time phone already conected to Zumo so I chacked the bluetooth menu on the phone again and with connection to Zumo now had audio enabled!?!?!
So I disabled it and the entire whole day of riding I didn't get that audio message, but then again I only listened to music just 1 hour or so because we were connected on the intercom with riding buddies.

Anyhow I learned that the bluetooth settings differ when the device is on or off.