Sudden Android Auto Issues

[Whiffle]

Hi there.

I would be grateful for some advice as I seem to have messed up what was a perfectly working setup in my car.

I bought an Android Auto screen that sits happily on my dashboard (Bluetooth recognises it as T86PRO-8A35).

Until recently, I would just turn on the ignition, the screen would fire up and automatically connect to my phone and everything would work perfectly.

However, I recently set up Wireguard on my home router and now connect to that via the Wireguard App on my phone.

I soon realised that I didn't need Wireguard Tunnel on all the time, so I have used Tasker to set up the following profiles:

1. If connected to my home network - turn off both Wireguard tunnels
2. If connected to T86PRO-8A35 - turn off both Wireguard tunnels
3. If not connected to any wifi network and not connected to T86PRO-8A35 - turn on Soft Tunnel (this is a split tunnel, that allows only Home Assistant app on my phone to connect to my home network)
4. If not connected to T86PRO-8A35 and connected to wifi and not connected to my home wifi - turn on Hard Tunnel (this send my entire phone through the tunnel and is used for when I connect to public wifi hubs)

Ever since I have had this running, my phone randomly disconnects from the Android Auto Screen.

It doesn't happen often (maybe 2-3 times per half hour and it eventually reconnects) but it is really irritating.

I cannot work out what the potential issue is.

Is there an issue with my Tasker logic?

Is there a way of setting up full logging on my phone, so I can see what caused the disconnect at the end of my journey?

Any pointers would be much appreciated.

 

[Orcvader]

Is Wireguard still running (but tunnels off) when connected to the AA unit? What about if you have it completely off, does the disconnects still happen? Would help rule out if Wireguard or tasker at fault.

Which phone is it? Did it have any system updates recently?

 

[Whiffle]

Thanks Orcvader - good call.

Wireguard is always running, so I might try turning off the app completely and see if that helps.

I have just read that Android Auto dislikes VPNs and disconnects when they are detected. My current guess is that there is a brief disconnection from the Bluetooth, this quickly flicks on the VPN and then Android Auto disconnects and somehow has to restart itself.

One thought - do you think a possible fix might be have Tasker wait for 10 seconds before turning on either tunnel?

Another option might have to using a more reliable way of knowing when the phone is in the car - perhaps an NFC sticker?

My phone is a Xiaomi Poco M6 Pro (no recent updates that have coincided with the disconnection).

 

[radderfire]

I have just read that Android Auto dislikes VPNs and disconnects when they are detected. My current guess is that there is a brief disconnection from the Bluetooth, this quickly flicks on the VPN and then Android Auto disconnects and somehow has to restart itself.

One thought - do you think a possible fix might be have Tasker wait for 10 seconds before turning on either tunnel?

Probably this.

My guess - Anything that affects the status of being connected to the Android Auto could do it. So, either a Bluetooth interruption, or an interruption in Tasker operation. This would trigger Wireguard tunnels switching on.

 

[Whiffle]

Probably this.

My guess - Anything that affects the status of being connected to the Android Auto could do it. So, either a Bluetooth interruption, or an interruption in Tasker operation. This would trigger Wireguard tunnels switching on.

Thank you.

Do you think that connection to Android Auto itself, rather than Bluetooth, might work better as the trigger to turn off the VPN?

 

[radderfire]

My thoughts:

The initial handshake to establish the connection between Android Auto and the phone will be done by Bluetooth, and it will then automatically switch to a Wi-Fi connection.

Thus in the first instance you need to use the "Bluetooth connection to Android Auto" status to switch off Wireguard.

Once established, the Wi-Fi connection may be more reliable and less prone to disconnection than Bluetooth. Thus you may be able to use the status of the Wi-Fi connection to ensure that Wireguard is left off.

 

[FlyingFish]

Have a look in your connection settings for the toggle that uses mobile data to either boost WiFi or when WiFi is poor, move to mobile data This is known to interrupt Android Auto and it's WiFi connection. So make sure it's turned off.

 

[Whiffle]

Thanks so much for all your help on this - I think I have cracked it.

I think my understanding of how Android Auto worked was messing things up - my Tasker logic referred to other networks, without my realising that Android Auto uses a wifi network itself for connecting.

I updated my profiles to account for this also turned off the setting, Soldato mentioned above. I had a stable connection all the way to work this morning.

Thanks again - really appreciate it.