Dec 11, 2018 - There are a number of reasons for a car radio to stop working after the battery dies, and fixing the problem may be easier than you think. The radio in my Camry will not turn off or on. No obvious breaks in the fuses. Try disconnecting the battery negative cable sometimes this will reset the system. If that does not work you will need to pull the radio out an check the power and grounds at the back of.
- ProsNew 8-inch touch screen. Intuitive interface. Mostly free connectivity.
- ConsNo Apple CarPlay or Android Auto.
- Bottom LineWith its intuitive interface, new 8-inch touch screen, and (mostly) free connectivity, Toyota Entune 3.0 is one of the best automaker infotainment systems in cars today.
Toyota's Entune was one of the first smartphone-based infotainment systems offered by car makers, and one of our perennial favorites. Its combination of physical and touch-screen controls make it easy to operate, while connectivity via your smartphone is straightforward—and free. Entune 3.0 adds onboard connectivity for cloud-based features that let you access and monitor your vehicle remotely. These additions improve the already stellar system, though a lack of Android Auto and Apple CarPlay keep it from earning top marks.
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Overview and Interface
Entune 3.0 is the first infotainment system from Toyota to use an Automotive Grade Linux operating system (AGL). It comes standard on all three trim levels of the 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid and will eventually roll out to the entire Toyota vehicle lineup. We had a chance to test it in a 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE.
The system consists of an 8-inch touch screen with four buttons on each side: Home, Menu, Audio, and Info on the left; Seek, Track, Phone, and Apps on the right. On the far left is a tune/scroll knob and a larger volume/power knob. The Home button brings up a three- or four-panel home screen, which is configurable in the number and content of each panel. The icons on the main menu can also be rearranged according to your preference.
The Info button brings up fuel and energy consumption info, while the Audio button allows you to control or change the current audio source. The buttons on the right side are used to seek radio stations, skip tracks, and access phone functions and various apps.
There are some redundant features. The Apps button and Apps Catalog menu item are identical in function but different in layout, for example, but this doesn't detract from usability.
Connectivity and Features
Entune 3.0 still has smartphone-based connectivity for cloud-connected streaming music and local search apps, including iHeartRadio, NPR One, Pandora, Slacker, and Yelp. It also adds connected turn-by-turn navigation via the Scout GPS Link, which was previously offered only as an extra-cost option on some Toyotas.
The new version of Scout GPS Link includes moving maps as well as local search. Local search is also available via the Yelp app, but turn-by-turn directions for a Yelp destination are handled by Scout, which requires a subscription after a free three-year trial.
Scout gets over-the-air map updates through the embedded modem, which also provides in-cabin Wi-Fi. It comes with up to 2GB of data for free for the first six months of ownership.
Onboard connectivity allows for other new cloud-based features. Service Connect keeps tabs on vehicle maintenance and allows you to schedule service. An app for Android and iOS devices allows you to remotely lock or unlock car doors, start or stop the engine, find your vehicle on a map, check fuel levels, and more. The app also lets you set alerts if the car is driven at certain times, past a chosen speed, outside of a certain area, and other parameters. A Toyota Owners section offers a digital owner's manual, service scheduling and discounts, roadside assistance, and more.
In addition to popular streaming apps and Yelp local search,the Entune 3.0 system also has generic apps for weather, traffic, sports, stock info and can find fuel stations in the vicinity. But one thing (actually two) it doesn't have is Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Unlike most major automakers, Toyota has decided not to implement the two popular smartphone integration platforms.
It should also be noted that we had trouble getting Pandora to work properly with Entune, whereas we've never had that issue with CarPlay. And we've found that we prefer CarPlay for messaging over most built-in solutions, which proved to be the case here.
Conclusions
With its intuitive interface, new and larger 8-inch touch screen, and (mostly) free connectivity, Entune 3.0 remains one of the best automaker infotainment systems available. The only thing that keeps it from being an Editors' Choice, like the 2018 Toyota Camry Hybrid XLE in which we tested it, is the lack of Apple CarPlay and Android Auto. Otherwise, it's still better than most other infotainment systems—and a pleasure to use on your next drive.
Toyota Entune 3.0
Bottom Line: With its intuitive interface, new 8-inch touch screen, and (mostly) free connectivity, Toyota Entune 3.0 is one of the best automaker infotainment systems in cars today.
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- Went to the dealer this week. He said its not unusual for the car to drop calls every other week. With a new phone every third week. Unbelievable. His solution reinstall the phone when this happens. I bought a 2010 model the highest end Camry and it can't keep my phone paired for a week. Now its down to days. It wasn't the option that sold me on the car but its the option that is making me hate my new car. Its a real pain completely disconnecting and reinstalling every other day and still that doesn't always work. I gave up. Any one buying a Camry with the blue tooth in the car you might as well consider it NOT a selling point. Highly disappointing. '>
- The echo may be caused by you turning up the iphone's blue-tooth volume too high. *When you are connected via bluetooth* try turning it down a bit. If it isn't coming out of the speakers loudly enough, try turning it up via the Camry's display. This helped me avoid the echo.
However, I still think the quality is poor -- just tolerable with the echo problem solved. - @ cesno,
Thank you for the suggestion. I will try that and see if it helps the echo (when it stays paired). ;-) - I have 2010 Camry w/Bluetooth (non-JBL). When I try to connect phone the sytem tells me that to pair my phone it must disconnect my paired audio player and that I may need to re-connect it...which i do...however when I go to re-connect the audio player the sytem tells me it must disconnect my paired phone and I may need to re-connect it which I do...so I have been unable to pair both...only one or the other.
Any suggestions? - Can someone explain briefly in layman's terms WHY the car's bluetooth is only compatible with a limited number of phones?
- Toyota has known about this for a long time. I have a 2007 XLE that i finally gave up using the blue tooth on. Extreme echos, incompatibility with a variety of phones and no support from the Toyota dealerships. They basically told me that was rather normal to have those kind of problems and I shouldn't expect great sound. They offered no solutions. If anyone is considering a Toyota, you should definitely skip the bluetooth and install it after market.
The potential gas pedal problem was also my floor mats.
Do you see a pattern? - I am having this same issue with my BB 8330. I spent about an hour with a product specialist a few weeks ago trying to pair both and was told they usually have no problems and to contact Verizon who is my wireless carrier. I called them and they said they could not help as they did not know much about the cars system, but to update to the newest version of the software and see if that helped. It has not. I tried to use Pandora through the Aux plug, but it will not allow the phone to use bluetooth and play through the aux plug in the car and the USB just gives me an error.
Please help. :mad: - edited July 2010I have a 2010 Camry. the Bluetooth connection is putting my phone in a perpetual call waiting mode, thus I can't get access to contacts and speed dial buttons. This has happened recently. My phone is a Blackberry 9630 Tour.
I have uninstalled and installed but the problem continues. Does anyone know how to resolve this?. Toyota offers no help similiar to their lack of resolution with the bad outgoing sound.
Thanks - 0
- I have a Blackberry 9700 Bold and a 2011 Camry. I can sync either the phone or the audio but not both. Can I sync both? Also when I try and copy my phonebook to the Camry all it does is copy the first entry and no others. Any Ideas on how to get my phonebook to give up all my contacts to the Camry.
- Car_addict. Did you ever find a solution? The only thing I found that works besides shutting the car off and restarting is just very gently tapping the microphone. It seems to get it working again. However, I hope this isn't something that I'll need to do all the time.
- So wish I had found this before I purchased the 2011 XLE Camry.. the bluetooth doesn't work and the service had nerve to tell me it was my voice.. My family and friends do not want me to call them when I'm driving in the camry.. they can't hear me.. sounds as if I'm 2 rooms away from the phone.. Toyota headquarters does know about this and has no solution. I have done everything I can think possible to make them fix it or be held responsible for selling cars that have bad bluetooths.. May report it to the state. It amazes me that this has gone on for so darn long and no one has sued their butts yet. I'm so aggravated with the entire situation..
Has anyone got a resolution to it? - Can you try set it up and use with a different phone type, as a troubleshooting diagnostic approach?
- Its not the phone.. its the bluetooth.. Toyota is aware that their bluetooth isn't working correctly and they are working on a resolution (cough cough). I am going to buy a portable/visor bluetooth to compensate..
- Oh, okay. Your original post made it sound like they suspected it was your phone. What you are saying now is that Toyota has acknowledged it's a vehicle problem, and need to design a fix for it.
- Yup.. they are aware of it.. but haven't yet designed a fix for it, but are working on it.. Or so that is what I have been told. and no it wasn't my phone at all, it is the bluetooth that is installed in the toyota vehicles.. I was told that I sound like I'm 2 rooms away from the phone.. then there is the static at times, my voice goes in and out.. and just makes it impossible to talk
- Bought the 2011 Camry XLE brand new 3 weeks ago, with Nav & everything. My LG Dare and Blackberry both sync and I can make calls (both Verizon)... HOWEVER! The contacts, dialing buttons (the numbers), and the speed dial features on the phone menu screen get greyed out - completely intermittently! Sometimes it works for a few minutes, then they just grey out for no reason. Extremely Frustrating! I'm trying to work with the dealership.. but no fix for it as yet. Wish Toyota Corporate would just own up to this problem and fix it. Ohh wait.. how long did it take them to fix the accelerator problem?!?! JUST FIX IT!
- Here is the thing that really makes me angry.. why wouldn't they let consumers know that these problems exist. From reading here, I see that this has been going on since 2007?
I talked to the owner of Jones Toyota and was told that he didn't even know there was a problem. He agreed to buy me a portable bluetooth, which I haven't shopped for yet. Even with that it still is not the same, I bought the car with the full package.. I really dont want to put a portable bluetooth in the car.. and here is the thing.. a portable bluetooth $100.. what it cost to get the upgraded version in my vehicle $2k or so..
Just fix it.. and stop selling people vehicles w/out a disclosure..
We should all report it to our local news paper.. I would bet toyota would then get right on it!! They dont need anymore bad publicity. - Although there is a Bluetooth standard...all bluetooth devices just don't work as they should. You blame Toyota, Toyota tells you to blame your phone maufacturer and we as the consumer go back and forth blaming both. I'm sure they know the problem but don't care enough to give us a fix. I mean how hard can it be to update the bluetooth?
What I would really like to know is do Lexus customers have the same bluetooth problems Toyota owners have? Just a guess but I don't think they do.
My experience with my 08 Camry LE (no Nav) is:
perfect operation with a old Blackberry (can't remember the model number) on T-Mobile, although I couldn't transfer my contacts. The conversations though were perfect. No lag, no echo, just perfect conversation.
Horrible everything with a Blackberry Storm ver. 1 on Verizon. Echoes...yep, Lag...yep, could I transfer contacts...nope. It would always connect though but the experience was so bad I just gave up on it and used the speaker phone.
Droid X on Verizon (what a phone!) - ah perfection has finally arrived. I can have a perfectly clear, lag free conversation with all of my contacts available to me - I just want to chime in that there is at least one success story for the 2011 Camry XLE blutooth with a cell phone. I have a Tracfone Motorola W376g that now works fine with bluetooth in my new Camry. I had to find the secret on the web about how to get it to connect. With Tracfone, you can not select any pin you want. The pin is burned into the phone and can not be changed and it is 0 (zero). The off hook and on hook buttons on the steering wheel control it along with the voice button on the wheel. I don't have any audio devices that use bluetooth to try out. Also, I did not know how or if I could transfer the phone directory or anything like that. It seemed easier to build a new one in the Camry using the voice commands.
- I just bought a 2009 Toyota Camry without navigation system and I have an Iphone 3GS. I know that my phone has Blue tooth on it, but it will not connect with my car. I have a LE Camry. Does anyone know how to do this??? The manual is very vague. The only controls on my steering wheel are for the audio controls. However, I have the microphone in my car and I can see the bluetooth signal on the radio screen (not lite up) Any help would be so appreciated, I have been trying to figure it out for days!
- Let me throw a spanner in the works.
Just got new Hybrid camry. Clicked the connect to phone button, after swithcing bluetooth on, from my Samsung galaxy SII.
Worked first time, and everything worked, but I have not tested all the menus.
Ok, but.........
I tried connecting my wife's Samsung Galaxy SII (same phone model) to it, with no avail.
Could it be: once paired with a phone, then will not pair with another phone.
Could the Bluetooth on my wife's phone be faulty, as factory defect?
I will try to debug this problem further, and do the process of elimination.
try other bluetooth headsets with my wifes phone, try other phones, etc. - We have a 2011 Camry Hybrid (base model).
The dealer paired my wife's Android phone up with the car when she collected it. It has worked without issues since.
I paired my iPhone up as a Bluetooth audio player and then later that day as a phone. I successfully made calls with it. It has not worked since that day. - I am experiencing the exact same symptoms on my 2010 Toyota Camry SE.
Toyota have replaced two new radios and I am still experiencing the same problems as bonnie.
Bonnie, was your problem ever resolved?
Thanks - Hi
I have a 2009 Camry and had a hard time pairing my Palm Centro, but I finally researched online and found a trick that worked. It works now, but now I am contemplating getting a new phone. I tried to pair my brother's Motorola droid and it would not pair. I don't want to buy a phone that will not pair with my car.
When I looked at the website to see which phones were compatible, it only listed old phones. Does anyone know if the new phones pair? I know it said Toyota was working on getting the iphone to work, but I think I want a droid. Thanks! - No.. I never had the problem resolved..went up the the president of the company.. he said he would buy me a bluetooth to put on my visor.. I gave up after that.. so yes I'm one of the millions of people driving and talking in the car. with my phone held close to my ear..
I hope the eventually have a fix, but I am doubtful. - 0
- I just purchased an iPhone 4S and I have paired it with the Bluetooth in my 2011 Camry LE. I have installed several different GPS apps on my iPhone and they all have the same problem: the voice guidance will not play through the audio system unless I have it set on AUX and also have streaming audio like Pandora already playing. If the GPS app is on by itself, the voice directions will not come through. I know this is a Bluetooth problem because I have paired with the Bluetooth on a 2012 Camry rental car and it works as it should. Am I missing some setting?
- darrl01,
You are not missing a setting! I have the EXACT same issue with my iPhone 4G! How I discovered this was when I realized that my phone was no longer alerting me when I received new messages (text/email/tweets/FB and sometimes even VM). I used to work for a local Toyota dealership and am somewhat of a tech-geek and spent time fiddling with the systems or I would have to help a customer pair their phone, etc...
Which GPS app are you using? I have GPS Drive Motion X and the nav voice (that I paid extra for!) won't play AT ALL now!
I called Apple yesterday and they were able to at least identify the culprit, the cause of this inconvenience is a little bugger is the A2DP (http://www.mobileburn.com/definition.jsp?term=A2DP). The Apple tech helping me didn't really understand too much about it and, well, that makes two of us! She did say that it had something to do with the iOS 5.0 but didn't mention if this A2DP mess will be remedied next month with the release of iOS 5.1 (http://news.cnet.com/posts/?keyword=iOS+5.1). The culprit and its nasty side-affect are literally driving me NUTS!!'>link title
Have you been able to get your situation with the iPhone solved? - The Garmin GPS Nuvi 2460LMT uses bluetooth to monitor the TCH through the OBDII port. Does that mean that a cell phone using bluetooth for voice will not work through the TCH's speakers/mike? The security alarm on the TCH has been disabled by a plug in the OBDII port. What happens when this is removed to connect the Ecoroute HD cable? And finally are there any warrantee issues using the OBDII port? Any experiences? Advice?