My ’05 MINI has had the (dealer installed) AUX socket since day one and until recently it has always worked just fine. But the last few trips I’ve tried to use it I’ve had problems, and yesterday it was pretty much useless.
The music will play just fine and then it will abruptly stop. The iPhone is still playing but the radio on the MINI is no longer saying AUX and when I rotate through the choices AUX is no longer even available as an option. The fix is to remove the audio cable from the iPhone and plug it back in – the AUX option reappears. In traffic, this is quite the cumbersome thing to do so that’s pretty much it for my music listening.
It’s a bummer as sometimes there’s something I want to listen to, rather than the regular XM radio.
I suspect the fault lies with the AUX adaptor but we’ll find out fairly soon as in May I am ditching the iPhone and will be going Android. The iPhone is a great device and I am sure I will miss it, but I’m no longer willing to put money into the ever-increasing dictatorship that is Mr Jobs – what next, demanding I can only use your devices while wearing a black turtleneck?
Oh, and I really can’t stand AT&T anymore either.
The ‘Droid will also work with that AUX port adapter. Sadly, it sounds like there is a problem with your head unit or with the port adapter itself. I’ve had mine in for years and have not had a single problem with it, so I would look at that first.
Pull the down tubes and slide the stereo out and make sure it’s fully connected. You can do this and should only take about 15-20 minutes. Easy stuff.
Getting the Incredible? Looks like 1 bad ass device that I will be looking at once it comes out.
Do you have the iphone unplugged on battery, or powered by a charger?
I know many have had issues where due to ground loops from a charger, the head unit disables the aux input.
Try it unplugged, and if that fixes it, try a few different car chargers.
As Josh mentioned, if it works when powered by battery, then there is ground loop problem with the charger. It is a common problem with the aux and comes up often in the forums. A remedy is to use a ground loop isolator such as this:
http://www.crutchfield.com/p_127SNI135/PAC-SNI-1-3-5-Noise-Filter.html?tp=2653
BTW, if you’re currently using a charger, I suppose you’re using the iPhone’s headphone jack for the aux. You can get better audio quality from the line out signal in the dock port. I use a Griffin AutoPilot which both charges and provides audio aux from the dock. A nice bonus is having only one bottom cable coming off the device. It works great and seems immune from ground loop issues.
http://www.amazon.com/Griffin-Technology-9559-AUTOPLTB-AutoPilot-iPod/dp/B000WKW6HS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1271695473&sr=8-1
Richard
Josh, Richard – thanks for the suggestions, I have been using the charger the last couple of times when this has happened so I suspect you are spot on. But I’m also sure I’ve used it before with the charger in the last 5 years and not had the problem before. Anyway, I will try it next time “unplugged”.