[yp2017]

New 2017 Impreza. The radio always comes on when the car starts. Is there any way to disable this "feature"? Standard 6'' screen, no Starlink, no navigation.

I have tried turning off the radio before turning off the car, after turning off the car, but the result is always the same. The only solution I have is to turn the volume to 0, so that when it does come on automatically, I do not hear it.

There has to be a better way.

Y

 

[yourluckystars]

i don't like that one bit! i'll check this out when i test drive the base model coming in to my local dealer. i thought i'd get lucky and not have any issues going with the smaller screen. let us know if you figure something out. thanks!

 

[Tom]

Read your manuals! I believe you have to depress & hold the volume button down for maybe like 3-5 seconds to completely turn off the radio. It will beep when off. Yes, another electronic feature that is a P.I.T.A.

Mine is a 2017 Hatchback Premium with 6.5" screen

 

[John86]

There's an off and a completely off ?! What's the difference ??

 

[Tom]

"There's an off and a completely off ?"

Yes. A mute by depressing the volume knob, volume change by rotation and OFF with the 3-5 second depression of the knob. Like I said, P.I.T.A. features now with advanced electronics. It's 2017, ya know. And no CD player to boot.

 

[yp2017]

Yes, that is how I turn off the radio. And then it still turns itself on when I restart the car next time.

Short hold makes it go mute, longer hold turns it off which also turns the screen off. At that point I stop the car, take the key out of ignition, lock, unlock, restart the car and voila the radio is back to life!

Read your manuals! I believe you have to depress & hold the volume button down for maybe like 3-5 seconds to completely turn off the radio. It will beep when off. Yes, another electronic feature that is a P.I.T.A.

Mine is a 2017 Hatchback Premium with 6.5" screen

 

[Tom]

I stand corrected. I've not tested as you had. Maybe if you turn down the volume and then turn off with the 3-5 second depression, next time you restart the volume will be lower. Maybe.

This is the modern dilemma. Sophisticated electronics with manuals thicker than the vehicle manual. A friend got a new Audi A6 and couldn't figure out how to play a CD. Maybe he has by now.

I've looked in the manual and found the 3-5 second press, but do not know how to turn it off....maybe just turn volume way down.

Well, something I'll check out. Folks with the 8" screen have their lock-up issues. Technology! Bah, Humbug!

 

[yourluckystars]

yeah, my current vehicle is a 2001 toyota and has power NOTHING(including acceleration - LOL). i even have to shift my own gears and my radio is just an AM/FM(who needs more when you have sports radio and NPR?) without even a cassette - for you millenials, a cassette is this rectangular plastic piece that encased a roll of audio tape between two spindles. i don't have to worry about any bugs though! still, the new impreza has my attention if they can figure out the gremlins.

 

[Tom]

Yeah, I may look in the attic and see if I have my old auto 8-track cassette player. Now there was simple sound! I remember a buddy installing a small 45 RPM record player in his canary yellow 1966 Chevy..Impala I think. Yeah, I'm a geezer. Can't help it.

 

[Tom]

I did the test today. If you turn down the radio to 0 volume and turn off the vehicle, the radio will be back on when restarted, but at 0 volume. Seems you can not simply turn the radio OFF. Another possible option is to change source to mp3 media before turning off vehicle. Nothing simple anymore.

 

[bluebites]

I have the same issue with my 8" screen.
Basically,
- radio comes on when I start the car
- when radio is off and using CarPlay, i disconnect the CarPlay and radio comes back on

This is so annoying...if anyone knows how-to fix this, please share!

 

[xodaisy]

So far I've been mostly enjoying my new Subie (5dr ltd), but this has been maddening. It's intrusive. I usually don't listen to the radio at all preferring content from my phone.

It interrupts the conversation I'm having with whoever I'm with. I've gotten in while on a conference call, and since bluetooth pairing takes a few seconds, I couldn't hear my call. If I turn the radio off, it should stay off until I turn it back on. Sometimes I just want some quiet. I am capable of turning on the radio if I want it on.

I've been having some flakiness with Android Auto, and it is incredibly annoying to have the radio pop back on any time it disconnects. It's annoying enough that I'm having issues with Android Auto. Jarring my senses with the radio isn't helping my inner calm. It's as annoying as Microsoft Clippy. Do you want some music? How about now? No, you really want music now.

If anyone from Subaru reads these forums: Please fix this in a software update. Let your customers choose their own experience.

 

[xodaisy]

I mentioned in my last post that I had some flakiness with Android Auto. It's working solidly now, but I had to do a little tweaking. I figured I'd share.

I read all sorts of things online about getting it to work. Despite trying things like enabling dev options and such, it was still only connecting maybe half the time. It would either connect right away or forget about it. No amount of unplugging/rebooting would make it connect. Then the next day, it would connect. I did see some improvement with using a high quality USB cable, like their help docs said. Other than that, it was still flaky.

So, after more digging, I found a post by someone with my exact phone (Samsung Galaxy S7 Edge) who had figured out they had to disable the pre-installed Samsung MirrorLink. I'm not sure if it was some sort of race condition where MirrorLink grabbed the MTP link before Android Auto, but since disabling that, I've been connecting 100% of the time.

 

[pwllms]

Figured mine out .. Stays off

2017 Impreza Premium with 6" screen and standard radio/Speakers.

I was having the same problem as other people, the radio turning on when I start the vehicle.

Using the steps below, the radio has stayed off.

- Before turning off the vehicle, with the radio on -
1. Turn the volume to 0
2. Hold in the radio volume button until radio and screen shut off.

With my last four starts, the radio has stayed off. I have also turned the radio on and then repeated the two steps above and it still worked. So for me at least, it is a fix.

Can someone else confirm?

I should add that this is without using bluetooth with my phone or android auto. It's just the radio. I have not tried this with anything else connected to the radio.

 

[sagaciousB]

This is by far one of my biggest annoyances with the car so far, and has given me a decent level of buyer's remorse already.
I hate the radio. I never, ever want to hear the radio. My primary audio source is either:
A) Android Auto (Spotify)
B) Bluetooth Streaming (Spotify)
C) A USB flash drive full of music

It annoys me enough that when I shut the car off that my music stops playing from Android Auto or the USB drive. But, to be honest, that was the behavior of my '13 VW Golf, so I'm used to it. Its not entirely unexpected.

What *is* unexpected is that the song I was enjoying is suddenly cut off and replaced with a song or commercial or static at a slightly different volume as I get out of the car. Why would anybody want this?! Thank you, Subaru, for forcing me to listen to some random 20 seconds of Justin Bieber or some crap every single time I leave the vehicle to remind me that I have probably made a terrible car purchase.

Is that not enough? Here you go same crap radio as your first experience when you start the car up, just to remind you that your UI experience is going to be miserable for the rest of the drive.

 

[pprknight]

Picked up my first Subaru, a 17 Impreza wagon (hatchback?) Premium trim, perl white with ivory interior Feb 27 - 2 days ago. I've spent a lot of time fussing with the "radio". I do enjoy puzzles but ..... Other than that I'm happy overall with my purchase and love actually driving it.

The only real frustration with this car is with using the 6.5 inch "infotainment" unit at least with my Nexus 6 Android phone interfaced to it. The reported automatic radio start up I thought I could live with - and really I can but I should not have too. I tried the suggestion to just set the unit to media play option with nothing inserted and it seems to be quiet when you start up the car. OK.

But when I actually used a USB drive for media and thought it worked fine I then observed that the USB port is live and powered (5 volts 2 amps?) even with the car off. I also hear a sound like a fan running in the dash behind the 6.5 inch screen. No sound under the hood. Could that be the battery drainer issue that some are having. Dumb dumb dumb.

I have de-installed the Android Auto on the phone for now and just went to just bluetooth phone. Seems to work better now. Can’t explain it or even 100% blame the Subaru unit really as there were several players like smart watches, Tile key chain gizmos, bluetooth speakers, etc. in the picture. Getting an automatic or manual bluetooth connection was iffy and the phone was displaying stuff that just didn’t work. Factory reset 3 times. Played with the clock to reset manually twice. Maybe someday I’ll try again if someone here has a solution available.

Even so this morning (day 3 of ownership) the FM radio came on “unrequested” on start-up after having been firmly (I swear) turned off last night on shut-down. Now it had a black screen and non operating buttons or knobs to control it. Car off and on again with the key and still no change. It only corrected itself when I shifted into reverse and got the rear camera view! That brought the buttons and screen back after going back into PARK and I could control it and turn it off.

When Android Auto was working the navigation using Google Maps was great. But Google Music (music on my phone) could not move away from a one single album.

Subaru, get the bugs out of this unit PLEASE. If it was an after-market item it would have been returned.

 

[Scooby]

As for radio 6.5 radio, lets say volume @15.
Turn car off radio still running.
Open the car door radio stops playing.
When car is started again radio is on @ volume 15.
It is like that for now.

 

[Ken R.]

Get the update on the head unit. It will fix the problem. Call the dealer.

 

[pprknight]

Getting better results with the Subaru Infotainment unit and Android Auto and Bluetooth. Still have the radio start with the car start minor nuisance but with the volume knob run down to zero at least you don't have to hear it. Audio for phone calls is independent and that's a nice touch.

If you are having Android phone connection issues also, something to try is re-booting your phone in "Safe Mode" - yes, shades of Microsoft Past!!! Not an Android expert here but it apparently will start up your phone with all the add-ons from the Google Store deactivated temporarily. The phone is a hand-me-down Nexus 6 that is almost as big at the Impreza 6.5" screen itself!!!! Hey, it was free.

When I did this the Bluetooth connections for both of my cars, Subaru and Mazda, became reliable and with the "phone audio" option checked every time. That told me that some gremlins were involved with my downloaded installs on the phone. Android Auto is ghosted out here, as it was a downloaded app. You can test your Bluetooth issues this way.

Went to church, lit a candle, came home and began the uninstall, reinstall, test, repeat ... until I believe I now have the thing reasonably stable for a few days now. Didn't want to wipe the thing as I have stuff on it that I don't want to lose. My major suspect is now Android Wear which tries to work with your Android Watch - also a free item, found under the Christmas tree. If you haven't guessed yet, I'm family with some Google employees. I think I'm going to suggest a new app to them - Android Referee or maybe Android Nanny or how about "Android Prefect of Discipline".

 

[rkh]

I think I've got this one solved or it seems to be on our 2017 Impreza Premium with 6 inch screen. The steps may be a little fuzzy as I'm working from memory instead of creating a How To video.
1. With Car parked, turn key to on.
2. Radio screen lights up with the "I won't drive while looking at the radio" screen. Agree to that.
3. Choose settings from the screen.
4. Choose Driver Profile. Should show "Default" or "Add". Choose Add.
5. Walk through steps to create new profile. (We named ours with the car name, Roo - as in the Winnie the Pooh character.) Either choose a phone or skip it (it will let you skip that step). Choose a wallpaper. Click Finish.
6. Choose Home.
7. Choose settings then edit profile. You should now have the 4 lit selections at the bottom of screen. One of them is audio. Choose that.
8. Select Entertainment volume and set to 0. Save and exit out.
9. Turn the key to off and remove it.
10. Insert the key and turn to ACC or On and the radio volume should still be at 0.
This doesn't actually turn the system OFF (probably related to phones and rear camera?) but it does allow you to get in the car and start without listening to entertainment/radio if you want.
HTH