Please do also check the forum for more information and user experience!
General
There are two basic causes for problems to get rSAP running with your combination of phone and car:
SIM Card
The biggest problem is the access to the SIM card. There is no standard for it in the Android programmer interface, so this is basically what makes a phone compatible or not. Check the tables below for more information.
The rSAP installer app checks for basic compatibility, when it says that your phone is not compatible, there is nothing you can do.
SIM card problems always show after Bluetooth pairing. Some car phones show an error message after pairing, some simply timeout after a few seconds, sometimes after a much longer time. When you have a SIM PIN active and you are requested to enter it, you are most probably safe.
Sometimes it may happen that a phone is compatible, but the SIM card you use does not work with rSAP for whatever reason. Please test a different SIM card (best is from a different provider). Maybe you get a working card when you request a new card from your provider, but maybe a new card has the same problems. Be sure to test your card with the trial version of the app!
When the phone is compatible there are two basic flavors of SIM card compatibility with my app:
- Full SIM Access
The car phone can access the SIM card with no restrictions. Especially it should be no problem to establish 3G data connections. The full SIM access may make a difference on the VW Premium phone, built-in recent Audi phones and the Nokia 610/616.
- GSM-only SIM Access
The car phone can only use the GSM application of the SIM card. This may cause restrictions or problems with car phones that try to establish 3G data connections. Especially recent Audi phones (Audi connect) do not work with this mode! Many car phones only use GSM mode, like Porsche PCM, Mercedes SAP, Audi SAP module and Opel. It does not make a difference with these.
GSM-only mode is used by the Nexus 4 and some HTC phones, like HTC Sensation, HTC One S villec2, ... All other phones support the full SIM access.
Bluetooth Issues
Car phones query for the rSAP profiles in two different ways
- Only by profile ID/first entry in service class id list
old VW Premium, Audi SAP adapter, Nokia 610/616, Opel, Mercedes SAP V3
- By full service id class list and/or profile descriptor list
Porsche PCM, Mercedes SAP V2, Audi built-in, new VW Premium/Business (Discover Pro)
The Android Bluetooth programming interface is only able to set a single entry in the service class id list. This makes the phone invisible for all cars that need the additional information.
Additionally the Bluetooth implementations vary heavily between different phones, sometimes even between different firmware and/or Android versions on the same phone. For some Bluetooth implementations my app is able to specify the additional data.
There are 3 major Android Bluetooth implementations that support the additional information:
- Old Broadcom Bluetooth stack
Samsung and HTC phones before Android 4.0, some HTC phones also with Android 4.x
- Linux BlueZ stack
AOSP 2.3-4.1 (Nexus S, Galaxy Nexus), CyanogenMod 7-10, Most Samsung and HTC phones with Android 4.0/4.1, Sony Xperia with Android 4.0
- New Broadcom Bluetooth Stack
AOSP 4.2/4.3 (Nexus 4, Galaxy Nexus), CyanogenMod 10.1/10.2
HTC One 4.3, Samsung Galaxy S3/S4 4.2
MediaTek phones don't support the additional information!
Remember: this only makes a difference for Porsche PCM, Mercedes SAP V2 and built-in Audi phones. If your car recognizes your phone and allows pairing and entering the Bluetooth PIN (16 or 6 digit) you are not affected by this Bluetooth problem!
Phones
Samsung phones
HTC phones
Sony phones
LG Phones
The Nexus 4 uses a solution similar to the "generic" HTC solution, therefore it does only support GSM mode.
| Support rSAP out of the box does not work with my app! |
G2 (D802) G3 (D855)1 |
| Supports rSAP out of the box | Nexus 5X (bullhead)2 |
| Compatible (Confirmed) |
Nexus 5 (hammerhead)3 |
| Compatible (GSM only) (Confirmed) |
Nexus 4 (mako) |
| Maybe compatible (Not yet confirmed. Please tell me if you could successfully run the trial app!) |
|
| Not compatible |
1 With some ROMs my app works on an LG G3
2 At the time of writing (Feb. 2016) the Google rSAP implementation has a severe bug. My app fixes this.
3 Since mid 2014 many Qualcomm phones use a baseband software which blocks rSAP functions. See here for a possible fix.
Other Phones Using a Qualcomm SOC
Recent phones with a Qualcomm SOC may support rSAP. This is used for the HTC one (m7), HTC One S (ville) and the Sony phones listed above. In this table I list the phones from other manufacturers.
| Support rSAP out of the box | Xiaomi MI2/MI2S |
| Compatible (Confirmed) |
Motorola Razr HD Motorola Photon Q (XT897) Oppo Find 5 Huawei Ascend Y300 Motorola Moto G 1st Gen. (Falcon)* Motorola Moto G 3rd Gen.* OnePlus One* Xiaomi MI4-c* Xiaomi Redmi Note 2 |
| Maybe compatible (Not yet confirmed. Please tell me if you could successfully run the trial app!) |
Motorola Moto X* Xiaomi MI3* |
| Not compatible |
* Since mid 2014 many Qualcomm phones use a baseband software which blocks rSAP functions by default. See here for a possible fix.
Phones using a MediaTek SOC
The MediaTek chipset is often used in Chinese phones, e.g. MT6577 dual-core, MT6589 quad-core or MT6592 octa-core. Some of these phones already support rSAP with their stock ROM, those may also be compatible with my app. Since there are so many of them, I'll list all that are confirmed to be compatible. Be sure to check compatibility with the trial version!
| Support rSAP out of the box | Alcatel OT-997D |
| Compatible (Confirmed) |
Zopo C2 Platinum Xtreamer Q Elephone P8 Wiko Darknight |
| Maybe compatible (Not yet confirmed. Please tell me if you could successfully run the trial app!) |
Star Cubot iOcean Huawei Y625 ... |
| Not compatible |
Note that the MediaTek phones don't support the full Bluetooth service record (see above)!
Car Kits
Here I list some reported problems with car kits.
Volkswagen/Skoda Premium
See here.
Some users report crashes of the car unit when syncing phonebook. The cause may be contacts with (too large?) pictures.
I created a Bluetooth Phonebook app that replaces the Phone Book Access Protocol. This does not work on ROMs with the "old" Broadcom Bluetooth stack! See compatibility page.
Older VW Premium devices only support the IrMC phone book transfer. You can use my Bluetooth Phonebook app.
Mercedes Benz SAP Module
The SAP V3 has problems reading the phonebook via Phone Book Access Protocol. Try the replacement mentioned in the Volkswagen section.
Audi
Built-in car phones have huge problems with GSM-only rSAP implementations. Please be sure to test with the free trial version!