Android Auto with new phone in BRZ, no aux cord now, music not playing. What am I missing?

Until last week, I used my S9+ with Android Auto and plugged into an aux cord.  No sweat.

Ordered the new swanky S23 Ultra (mostly for the cameras) & today was the first day I've driven the BRZ since purchase/setup.  I knew I had to pair the new phone to the car through Bluetooth, fairly simple.  Went to plug the cord in, still half asleep, realized no sync cord plug in the phone.  D'oh, forgot about that.

I can pull up the audio screen and the phone is paired, but when I try to play my Youtube Music through Android Auto, it will start for just a second and stop, without actually playing music.  Before, if I unplug the cord and reconnect, that fixed it and music played.  Now there's nothing to unplug...

Was I doing a bandaid fix by unplugging/plugging and missed some setting somewhere?  Going to try again after work, maybe try something besides Youtube Music (using SWMBO's family plan) and see if ANYTHING plays.

For AA to work wirelessly, both phone and car must be compatible for AA wireless, which uses wifi. You should still be able to plug a USB into your phone to play just like your old one. 

It's my understanding they don't have WiFi support for Android Auto or the Apple version. 

I just use Bluetooth and Spotify. I haven't messed with Android Auto as I'm too lazy to go buy a proper cord. 

z31maniac said:

I haven't messed with Android Auto as I'm too lazy to go buy a proper cord. 

It's just a standard USB charging cable.

Ah yes, I'll try the USB cable in the glove box for any needed charging on the drive home.  I remember the saleslady for my Crosstrek saying don't bother with wireless/Bluetooth, go with a cable.

dps214 said:

z31maniac said:

I haven't messed with Android Auto as I'm too lazy to go buy a proper cord. 

It's just a standard USB charging cable.

It's a standard USB data cable.  A "charging cable" is only intended to carry power and may be missing some conductors and/or have too much signal noise to be reliable for data.

Early versions of AA required a cable.   I have heard that there is a revision that can run wirelessly now, but I don't have a head unit that supports it.

Yes, I assumed that at this point pretty much every charging cable in existence is actually a data cable.

Wireless carplay/AA does exist, I think it's still fairly rare though.

dps214 said:

z31maniac said:

I haven't messed with Android Auto as I'm too lazy to go buy a proper cord. 

It's just a standard USB charging cable.

USB-A on the car end, USB-C on the phone end.

So yes, I'd need to go buy a cable to use it.

All the recent Pixel phones come with a USB-C to USB-C charging cable, with a converter that plugs into the wall for charging.

Tried a good USB cable for the drive home, no luck.  The options when I pressed Audio were AM, FM, XM, and Phone.  But Phone was just a keypad to dial and some settings for phone calls.  Time to do some Googling the BRZ forums and see what I find.

Quick update:  someone on a local 86 owners Facebook group mentioned an aux-USB cable.  $10 on Amazon and it worked this morning.

In reply to Jerry :

Good to know. Maybe I'll get around to trying it one of these days.