Meridian stereo and iPhone USB

[greiswig]

I have an old iPhone that I keep loaded with Spotify music. I know I can use Bluetooth to play from that, but the sound quality is noticeably less in my experience relative to a direct signal path. And using the aux in jack means that all playback has to be controlled from the phone.

So I’m trying to use an Apple USB cable to directly connect through one of the two USB ports in the upper glovebox, but it isn’t working. All I get is an on-screen message to “Please connect a USB device.”

I even downloaded an “Apps” app from LR via the Apple store, in case that was needed. Doesn’t seem to help.

2016 LR4 HSE, if that matters. is there some trick?

 

[ryanjl]

You probably need at least one song on iTunes to connect. It's a iPhone thing that affects almost all vehicles.

 

[greiswig]

You probably need at least one song on iTunes to connect. It's a iPhone thing that affects almost all vehicles.

Oh, Lord...does that mean I have to fork out $10/month for an Apple Music sub just to be able to use Spotify?

 

[ryanjl]

No. Just a single song in your itunes. At most $1 (or whatever an iTunes song costs now), but they offer free songs too. I think somebody came out with a song that's pure silence just for this purpose, because that one song will autoplay every time you hook your phone up.

 

[greiswig]

That did it. Thank you, @ryanjl !