How do I stop automatic Bluetooth streaming?

Question

When my iPhone connects to Sync in my Ford truck it automatically starts playing music on my iPhone. This kills the battery. Autoplay on the Sync system is off.

Answer 1

Turn off bluetooth on the phone. Unpair the phone from the truck.

When you pair your device, the truck is seen as a remote control in addition to all the other functions so if the truck wants to play, the phone is right to start playing. There is no switch to disable one remote some of the time in iOS or to edit the capabilities of a paired device.

You might need to go to the ford dealer and see if they have a firmware update for your truck :-) Seriously - they either need to disable or let you better control the situation where the "remote" asks the phone to play music.

Answer 2

You should try quitting the iPod app. In my experience, streaming starts because the app is running in the background but paused/stopped. When sync occurs, the iPhone iPod app begins to play.

To quit the app, press the home key twice and you'll see all the the apps currently running. Then press the red minus button to exit the iPod app. I recently read that shutting down apps like this prolongs the battery life but YMMV.