2016 S6 Bluetooth Issues

[ryanlada]

Wanted to share in case someone else is having trouble. My Pixel XL 2 (problem persisted through two of them) and the 2016 MMI have been having trouble. While on a call, the mmi would cycle between call connected and ending call repeatedly. For the most part the call audio would continue working through the disconnect/reconnect process but every 5-8 cycles the call audio would drop out and the radio would start playing. The person on the other end would report that i would disappear for 3-10 seconds at a time during a call even though i could still hear them.
As it turns out there is an mmi update that address these problems for Android phones. The problem seems to be made worse by the latest Android versions.
TSB reference on my receipt is 2041925/5
Note said "43902 performed deactivation and reactivation. Then performed tsb2041925/5. Completed at this time. Gff time is 155 t.u."

Hope it can help someone else, drove me nuts for the last 3 months thinking it was my phone.

[Audibot]

Haven't had this issue on my 16 A6, but good to know there is a TSB for this.

[str8up70]

I have the exact same problem on my 2016 S7 and did the MMI software update to MHI2_US_AU57x_K0539 at the dealership. My phone driver version is 17.03.5. I thought that the problem would be resolved as yours was but it hasn't. Actually, now it is worse. Even after the July 5th Google update, the problem persists. Any ideas on what I should do? I have a Google Pixel 2XL with Android 9.

Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[ryanlada]

The above greatly improved mine but did not completely fix it. Over the months that followed, i tried different things, developer mode in the phone to change the Bluetooth version (AVRCP 1.3, disabled absolute volume), deleted and re-paired to the car, Android updates. Not sure what ultimately fixed it but it's now 99% working.

[ryanlada]

UPDATE:
I had to change some developer settings on the phone to fully fix this. My recent update to Android 10 reset these settings and I was reminded to update this thread. As stated above the MMI update helps a little but I still had issues with the Bluetooth call audio dropping out and the radio would start playing while the call was still active. I would have to turn down the radio and switch to the speakerphone or handset to get back to my call. You may also notice the call status in the dash will show disconnecting and then reset the call timer when it reconnects.
The fix was to change the AVRCP version on the phone to 1.3. The default on my Pixel XL 2 was 1.4. I tried the 1.5 and 1.6 versions but all seem to have the same problem with the Audi MMI (the phone would work ok on other cars.) My guess is that the MMI doesn't fully support the newer versions (and maybe never will).

You need to enable developer mode on the phone (typically in settings under "About Phone" you need to repeatedly tap the Build Number and after 5-6 times you should see a message that Developer mode is enabled. From there it was under System>Advanced>Developer Options on my phone. Find the AVRCP section and change the version to 1.3. I cycled the Bluetooth service off and back on and my connection issues are gone.

Hope this helps someone else, this problem made Bluetooth with he MMI unusable.