[bwalton]

I purchased a 2013 Outback Premium a few weeks ago and successfully paired my Blackberry Bold 9650 to the OEM H/U (Basic H/U not the HK unit) this weekend. I have encountered two problems with this Bluetooth connection:
1) The Bluetooth connection does not reconnect after I perform the pairing and turn off the ignition. In other words, when I turn the ignition key back on my Blackberry Bold 9650 does not reconnect to the OEM H/U even though both the phone and H/U list each other on their Bluetooth pairing menus.
2) I cannot stream BT-Audio music from my Blackberry through the H/U.

Does anybody have any ideas how to rectify these BT connection problems:

Notes;
1) My Blackberry Bold is a little over a year old and has been updated with the most current OS 6.0 patches.
2) My Blackberry is paired with two devices; the first is my 2013’s OB’s H/U “Car M_Media” and the second is to my company car’s H/U, which is a 2012 Camry “Car Multimedia”.
This Blackberry phone has successfully paired to (2) Pioneer Aftermarket H/Us and to the 2012 Camry OEM H/U. Does anybody know if the Subaru’s OEM H/U’s firmware can be updated through the USB port?

Also, the Subaru H/U does not list/read MP3 folder numbers correctly on CD-Rs, which were ripped and burned on MS Windows Vista & 7 Media Player. Again it seems like a firmware update would fix this problem as well.

 

[bwalton]

My Blackberry’s BT establishes a connection with the OEM H/U if and only if I turn on the phone right after I power up the H/U. For some reason the H/U and the Blackberry will not automatically establish a connection if the phone is turned on before the H/U is powered up. Yesterday I asked SOA if a firmware update is available for my H/U and they said not at this time.

The only remedy that they offered was to make sure that the Blackberry’s BT is turned on at all times in the power saving menu—which it is. As mentioned in my original post, My Blackberry has no problem connecting to Pioneer aftermarket H/Us and a 2012 Toyota Camry OEM H/U.

Question; does anybody know who MFRs my 2013 “Type A) OEM H/U: Clarion, Kenwood, Panasonic/Matsushita, Fitjusi-Ten/Eclipse, Harman Kardon or ect.?

 

[thekayaker1]

I purchased a 2013 Outback in December 2012. It has the Harmon-Kardon radio with navigation. I have a Motorola Razr HD which will pair with the on-board Bluetooth, but will disconnect at about the 30 second mark (sometimes it will later reconnect only to disconnect a minute or two later). I've tried changing cell phones, the dealer disconnected the battery twice to re boot the car's computer and nothing as worked. Just recently I spent about two hours at the dealership while they went through some diagnostics with a Subaru Tech Rep. I have also spent quite a bit of time exchanging emails with Motorola and Subaru, and there is no solution in sight. The Bluetooth component is a Fujitsu Ten I believe and I find it very surprising that it just won't stay connected. The dealer tried my phone on two other OBs on the lot and experienced the same problem. I'm told that the electronics are "about two years behind" which means that they will have caught up about the time I'm buying an newer phone. My solution is to turn off the car and cell Bluetooth function to avoid the "bings" telling me about the connections and disconnections.

 

[TonyAnza]

I have the same problem with my 2012 Outback Premium with the basic 6 speaker system..
It worked perfect with my older iphone 3gs ....

I upgraded to a Iphone 4s with IOS 7 and now "no auto pairing" ....
each time I start the car I have to re-pair to use my phone ... I have not tested the music etc yet..

"Apple tech support says it is an easy fix because the new IOS is based on the newest BlueTooth version .... just Have the Dealer do a audio firmware update" ...

Well the dealer confirmed the problem ...
but they have no update available?

The Dealer said my Radio was a "Clairion ce617u1" ....
Clairion web support refers you to the "Auto Manufacturer" for all updates & issues ...
what a cluster **@** joke for the consumer ...

This car is still under warranty but no one will do anything ...
they just pass the buck back and forth ..

I called "Subaru USA" customer support, they admitted they have a lot of complaints on this issue and they are looking in to it, (really? how long does it take to write a firmware update?), ...
but all Subaru USA would do was make a notation on the problem on my car SN# record ...

New note:
I just came back from the Apple Forum and .....
You have to set up your device using the stereos voice system.
There's a bug in the stereo that doesn't let it automatically connect to your iPhone unless you set it up that way.
Seems strange but it works and it just auto paired 3 times so far ....

You must use the Voice to list .... then Delete all pairs in memory by voice not manually with buttons
(when i asked in voice to list ... it showed my old 3gs iphone ... it never showed it when i did it manually)
then use voice to pair ..... now its working
Tony in Florida

 

[TonyAnza]

Day 3 and it is working perfectly ...
Tested the Music on the Iphone and it is all working good ...

Merry Christmas
Tony in Florida

 

[jamie]

This fix works

I have the same problem with my 2012 Outback Premium with the basic 6 speaker system..
It worked perfect with my older iphone 3gs ....

I upgraded to a Iphone 4s with IOS 7 and now "no auto pairing" ....
each time I start the car I have to re-pair to use my phone ... I have not tested the music etc yet..

"Apple tech support says it is an easy fix because the new IOS is based on the newest BlueTooth version .... just Have the Dealer do a audio firmware update" ...

Well the dealer confirmed the problem ...
but they have no update available?

The Dealer said my Radio was a "Clairion ce617u1" ....
Clairion web support refers you to the "Auto Manufacturer" for all updates & issues ...
what a cluster **@** joke for the consumer ...

This car is still under warranty but no one will do anything ...
they just pass the buck back and forth ..

I called "Subaru USA" customer support, they admitted they have a lot of complaints on this issue and they are looking in to it, (really? how long does it take to write a firmware update?), ...
but all Subaru USA would do was make a notation on the problem on my car SN# record ...

New note:
I just came back from the Apple Forum and .....
You have to set up your device using the stereos voice system.
There's a bug in the stereo that doesn't let it automatically connect to your iPhone unless you set it up that way.
Seems strange but it works and it just auto paired 3 times so far ....

You must use the Voice to list .... then Delete all pairs in memory by voice not manually with buttons
(when i asked in voice to list ... it showed my old 3gs iphone ... it never showed it when i did it manually)
then use voice to pair ..... now its working
Tony in Florida

I had the same problem with my 2013 XV Crosstrek and iphone 5S. Deleting the old phone with voice commands and setting up with voice commands did the trick. Now autopairing! Thanks

 

[nelsonday]

Awesome advice Tony. I suffer from exactly the same problem. Now I just have to figure out how to use the Voice system to link my phone.