[Charlie (Wessex)]

I let the Mrs drive the car the other day (!!!) and we both have the same mobile phones. I hooked hers up to the car before she set off - on my user profile. Then I thought it best to change the name of mine so that I could differentiate the two. But even having done that, the phone wouldn't auto connect and I had to go via "com" and manually connect phone. Deleted her from the recognised devices and all back to reconnecting mine automatically.

So my question is, has the car got confused with 2 phones that are the same make and HAD the same name, or does it always need manual connection when there are more than 1 phone paired? I really can't believe it would be the latter, but.... Now that I have changed the name of mine, if I reload hers, will it auto connect when I get in the car (and I had set priority being mine)?

[barian]

I am ready to be proven wrong, but I think the way it works is that if two phones are paired, and both are present, then in theory it should connect to whichever is set as the priority (there is a menu option to do this). In practice, I think this may not always work, possibly because it may detect the lower priority phone momentarily before the other. This is just my deduction having grappled with the same problem.

[330Stevie]

I think it just connects to whichever you preferenced on the previous journey. Not tried it on mine but in my F30 that’s how it worked. I’d often toggle between my personal and work iPhone or the kids iPhone if they wanted their music on….

[4monks]

There's an order option somewhere in the menu you can set once they are both connected.

[Charlie (Wessex)]

I set the option of which had priority, but it wouldn't auto connect. Would only do so.if I went via iDrive. But all sorted now having unpaired 2nd phone

[barian]

Originally Posted by Charlie (Wessex)

I set the option of which had priority, but it wouldn't auto connect. Would only do so.if I went via iDrive. But all sorted now having unpaired 2nd phone

But you should be able to have a number of phones paired.

[gavinwong]

Mrs and I both have iPhone 12's and both automatically connect with mine set as the priority. I have mine set up to car play though, where as she only has it to connect via Bluetooth as she uses Spotify on her phone.
In the scenario when we're both in the car : If I'm connected via CarPlay, but not playing anything, and then she gets in the car with her phone, it automatically starts playing whatever she was listening to. If I play music or use apple maps, it cuts hers off and uses mine as the input. Not sure what would happen if 2 calls came in at exactly the same time lol 🤔

[Charlie (Wessex)]

gavinwong Connecting via Bluetooth.....raises another issue. Alexa and Android Auto.

For some reason I got it working on a journey there, but not on the way back. No idea why, save for I had ticked Bluetooth Audio Connections. Alexa doesn't seem to work when Android Auto is on, so there seems an incompatibility with Alexa and Android Auto's Bluetooth.

Anyway, deleted my phone from car, and car from AA on the mobile. Also going to change AA to connect always, rather than the default which is up to the car.

Just think it another case of technology being good in principle but crap in practice.

[Charlie (Wessex)]

Reinstalled everything, and things (inc Alexa) seem to be working. Who knows what happens - maybe an update made it throw a wobbly. I guess sometimes a reboot (or rather, delete and reinstall) is the best way to go. What ever happened, it took a good few minutes before the car paired with my mobile. Took so long that I was wondering whether it actually would. So in this case, I think it my mobile rather than car at "fault".

[Taylor66]

Mine regularly ignores the priority selection (Work phone No.1, private phone No.2) But I run AA through my private phone. Don't know why it will not let you have both connected, my previous car (Merc) did. I got Alexa to work once then never again, although it randomly thinks its being talked with but then just says not connected after waiting for a response.

Its probably all operator error on my behalf