Android Auto Also Broken on Samsung’s Latest Foldable
It’s never quiet in the Android Auto world, and after Google reportedly confirmed an investigation
Photo: Bogdan Popa/autoevolution/Samsung
The whole thing happens in a car where Android Auto launches and runs correctly with the same cable but a different mobile device, sometimes even from Samsung.
Someone says on the forums that they tried a Samsung Galaxy S10+ with the same USB-C cable, and everything worked properly in a car where the Galaxy Z Fold5 failed to launch Android Auto. The same goes for other non-Samsung phones, so the culprit appears to be the new foldable launched by this brand earlier this year.
There are no workarounds, as the generic fixes, which involve things like clearing the cache, downgrading or updating Android Auto, and changing cables, proved to be a waste of time.
A Google Community Specialist has already chimed in, asking for additional information on the bug. However, earlier this week, it was revealed that Google is investigating the connection issue hitting Samsung devices, but it’s too early to tell when a fix could ship.
Meanwhile, users have no other option than to try various combinations of cables and Android Auto versions. For the reason that nobody can determine, random cables could allow Android Auto to launch with Samsung devices, though there’s no universal pattern here. It’s a trial-and-error kind of test, so you’d better try out all the cables you have around to see if they produce an improvement. Oddly, the genuine Samsung cable that ships with the foldable doesn’t work, exhibiting the behavior described above.
Samsung has so far remained tight-lipped on the whole thing, but these connection problems are nothing new for its long-time customers. Similar errors occurred when the company launched the Galaxy S22 series, with updates supposed to improve the general reliability and stability in the car shipped nearly a year later.
The same thing is happening today with foldables and the Galaxy S23 series, and once again, it looks like Samsung and Google are struggling to figure out what happens.
A new Galaxy S series is just around the corner, as the South Koreans are expected to unveil the upgraded models in early 2024. Time will tell if the company ships an update to resolve the Android Auto connection issues by that point, but it’ll be even more interesting to see if the new Galaxy S24 series struggles with the same problems. Based on Samsung’s typical launch schedule, the new models should be here in February.