Android Auto bug is bad news for Samsung Galaxy S21 owners

Android Auto appears to be running into more issues – and this time it's the Samsung Galaxy S21 series. It’s one of the best Samsung phones on the market, but that hasn’t stopped it from encountering its own set of issues with the infotainment service.

Amongst its many merits, Android Auto is prone to bugginess and is sometimes unable to do its job: that of projecting the best Android phones' apps and features directly onto the best Android Auto head unit dashboards. What should be an easy-to-use interface that many motorists prefer to their standard in-car infotainment setup, now becomes a tricky case of working out exactly why things aren't working.

To be clear: we've come across several known issues with the Samsung Galaxy S21 before. But this time there seems to be a slew of Android Auto users reporting that the app crashes when the phone is unlocked. One user with a Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra says that if their phone is locked and untouched, then the app works as normal. If their Galaxy Ultra S21 is already unlocked, then the app is fine, as well. However, if the phone is locked and then they unlock it, Android Auto crashes and is unable to return to a functional state.

Some of these Google Support forum posts are from earlier this year, but there are also posts from this week, which report that the issue still persists. Another user notes that they've updated Android Auto, but the issue remains on their Samsung Galaxy S10. 

Samsung users are stumped

Considering that the problem has been ongoing for some time, you would've thought that Google may have tried to solve it. Unfortunately, as with many Android Auto issues, the problems are shared amongst many users but more often than not it's difficult to define what exactly is going on. 

Still, this is a nuisance and means that users are forced to potentially jeopardize their phone's security by having to leave the phone unlocked or locked but without touching it. The latter is clearly quite impractical when you need to use your device. The newly-released Android Auto 7.1 has reportedly solved some other issues that were affecting the platform, including Telegram not working on the app, though you'll have to wait a while longer before Google solves the Samsung situation. We'll keep you posted, as per.