Bluetooth Streaming Audio - Track Metadata Display in COMAND

[st13phil]

When I picked up my W212 from Stuttgart at the end of April last year the lady who did the handover demonstrated the Bluetooth Streaming feature having just paired my iPhone 4 and I was surprised to see that artist and track metadata was displayed on the COMAND screen and in the instrument cluster. So surprised in fact, that I actually made mention of it to her and she commented that she thought it was pretty good, too. For the journey home I had the iPhone connected via the Media Interface, so I didn't use the Bluetooth audio again until I was back in the UK, but when I did no metadata was displayed

I asked my dealer, but as the Bluetooth Streaming feature was then quite new, they had no experience or knowledge of whether metadata should be displayed or not so they suggested I call MB Customer Services. The latter registered my call and made some enquiries, eventually coming back to me to say that they had been unable to find any documentation regarding metadata display with Bluetooth Audio and didn't know whether it should display or not. At that point I dropped the matter, as it was clear that no-one knew anything about it, and I rarely use Bluetooth Audio anyway.

Fast forward to today, when I picked up this little titbit from one of the American MB forums.

I finally found the answer to why I was not getting bluetooth metadata on my 2011 E using iPhone with iOS 5.1.

Seeing metadata requires AVRCP 1.3 in the COMAND system. The 2011 COMAND supports it.

The iPhone started supporting AVRCP 1.3 in iOS 4.something.

When I first paired my phone, I was using an early iOS that didn't support 1.3.

Once the phone is paired, apparently, it never shares its protocol support again with COMAND, even if it has changed. COMAND simply remembers the phone's remote control protocol level from when it was first paired.

Since I paired the phone before it supported 1.3, no matter how many times I updated the iOS, COMAND never knew it supported 1.3.

The trick was to de-authorize the phone from COMAND and go through the pairing process again from scratch.

I've just deleted my iPhone's pairing with COMAND and re-paired it and, voila! I'm getting the metadata displayed when streaming audio again

Why this worked when I picked the car up and then stopped working I'm unsure, but if it does it again at least I can report it as a fault when the car is next serviced.