Android 14 Kills Android Auto Wireless And Nobody Likes The Fix
Longtime Android Auto users will know that installing updates can sometimes be risky from a stability perspective, as each new version of the app can cause issues like connectivity issues and broken features.
Photo: Bogdan Popa/Autoevolution/Google
Users have been complaining about Android Auto wireless issues after updating to Android 14 for several months, ever since the search giant began rolling out the new operating system to eligible devices.
The issue is widespread and users claim that no one has been able to reset Android Auto wirelessly. And there's not even a hard reset, because resetting your mobile device to factory settings doesn't fix Android Auto wirelessly.
I recently had the same problem in my car after updating the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra to Android 14. The wireless connection, which I had been using without problems for about a year, stopped when I got behind the wheel, and the head unit acted like it couldn't find the device.
According to users, clearing cache and data, downgrading Android Auto and resetting the app to restart the car did not work. As a result, I tried two different solutions to test and see if Android 14 is indeed the cause of the Android Auto wireless connection issue.
The first is to restore the wired connection. It's the first thing most people reach for, even if no one likes it. Having cables isn't easy for everyone, and getting rid of them is often the main reason to upgrade to wireless Android Auto. However, given the loss of wireless connectivity, the only option is to use a cable to run the app.
The second is to update my device and go back to Android 13. This is not the most convenient solution and may be difficult to achieve for less tech-savvy users. I did it anyway and after about an hour my device was back to the previous version of Android. It turns out that Android 14 was actually the cause of the wireless connection issue because everything was working fine on Android 13.
Google hasn't released a fix for this, so most users ditch wireless Android Auto and go back to using it only to launch apps when their mobile devices receive a new OS update. Since this is a widespread bug, Google must provide a fix as soon as possible, otherwise many people may tend to delay upgrading to the new OS and end up missing out on several fixes and security updates.
