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How do I pair my iPhone with my Toyota navigation GPS system via Bluetooth?

I've had an Apple iPhone since the iPhone 3 was released and now that I have an iPhone 4, I realize that I should be able to pair it via bluetooth with my Toyota GPS navigational system. I have no idea how to proceed, however. Any chance you have a Toyota and can help out?


Dave's Answer:

You're in luck. For this particular experiment, I went out and bought a Toyota Highlander! Just kidding, I already owned it and I too hadn't paired my iPhone 4 with my Toyota Nav System, but having seen my friend have his iPhone send stereo to his Ford nav system, I've become jealous anyway, so it's a good time to figure this out.

I'll tell you right up front, however, that the Toyota nav system is more than a bit weak in the bluetooth support area. In fact, not only does it not (at least, the 2008 version of the nav system in my 2008 Toyota Highlander) support the bluetooth stereo audio protocol known as A2DP, but it doesn't even offer the ability to transfer your address book onto the car system so you can have nice phone shortcuts there on that screen in your dashboard. I suspect Toyota has an external vendor for the stereo / bluetooth systems, but that should make it easier: simply change the requirements and let them figure it out.

Unfortunately, from what I understand of bluetooth circuitry, this isn't even something that a firmware update from Toyota can fix. My nav system simply can't do it. It can't connect via A2DP to any bluetooth device and push that out as audio on the speakers. Frustrating and disappointing, to say the least!

Anyway, it does work with your iPhone, however, for phone calls, so let's have a look at the process of pairing the two via bluetooth. I'll warn you, it's tricky and will take a few minutes - or more - to get it right. I have tried to capture all the necessary steps on both the Toyota GPS navigational system and the iPhone, but can't guarantee it's 100% accurate and correct for your car system.

To state the obvious, you'll need to be sitting in your car with the nav system powered on and you'll need your iPhone in your hand. How you'll see this page too, I'm not sure, but we'll leave that one for now and just proceed. :-)

On your phone, go to Settings --> General --> Bluetooth. It'll look like this:

iphone bluetooth pairing auto 09

Now on your Toyota GPS Navigational System tap on the "INFO" button below the screen. You'll be taken to this screen:

toyota gps nav system bluetooth pairing 1

Tap on "Telephone" and you'll get an error:

toyota gps nav system bluetooth pairing 2

We know that a phone isn't paired up yet. That's what we're trying to do! Once the error goes away, however, notice the "Settings" button on the lower left. Tap on it.

toyota gps nav system bluetooth pairing 3

Tap on "Bluetooth" on this screen to pair the iPhone with the Toyota nav system.

toyota gps nav system bluetooth pairing 4

Tap on "Register" to add a new phone...

toyota gps nav system bluetooth pairing 5

Now the nav system is sending a sync signal via bluetooth you need to turn back to your iPhone, which should have had the "Handsfree" system suddenly appear on the screen:

iphone bluetooth pairing auto 10

There's a point in this process where the iPhone switches from the name of the class of device to the specific name "HANDS FREE". This is a good thing.

iphone bluetooth pairing auto 11

Tap on the "HANDS FREE" device on the iPhone and it'll ask you to enter the sync security code to pair the devices:

iphone bluetooth pairing auto 13

Recall from the earlier Toyota nav system screen that the secret code is "1111". Enter that, then tap "Done".

Now the nav system screen shows:

toyota gps nav system bluetooth pairing 7

Done!

You can verify it worked by looking on your Apple iPhone 4, of course:

iphone bluetooth pairing auto 14

And when you get a phone call now and you're in the car, you'll see on the iPhone itself it's incredibly easy to pull a call off the hands free system (if you need privacy, for example) by just tapping on the correct button:

iphone bluetooth pairing auto 15

When you are on a call, here's what you see on the Toyota gps nav system screen:

toyota gps nav system bluetooth pairing 8

Since there's no way to transfer your address book (darn it!) the nav system can't put names to numbers, which is entirely too bad: when a call comes in while you're driving, it's sure nice to have their name show up on the screen before you make the "answer / voice mail" decision.

In any case, I hope this helps you connect your iPhone to your Toyota GPS Navigational system, and if anyone knows how to get a 2008 Toyota nav system to work with the A2DP bluetooth stereo output of the iPhone, please do let me know!!


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Categorized: Computer and Internet Basics , iPhone and Cell Phone Help   (Article 9513, Written by )
Tagged: apple iphone, auto bluetooth, bluetooth pairing, iphone 4, toyota gps, toyota nav system
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Reader Comments To Date: 19

Chamila said, on August 9, 2010 7:18 AM:

Hi,
This question may not be relevant to the article. But I appreciate if you can help me on this.

Could you please tell me the Navigation model ? Since I'm searching for a owner's manual for this particular nav version.

Appreciate if you can help me on this.

Kind Regards,
Chamila

Aaron Fisher said, on August 9, 2010 4:21 PM:

I'm the product training specialist at a Toyota store in Illinois. Your instructions are very good but I would like to point out a couple things where you may be wrong.

First, The newest versions of Toyota vehicles (newer than your 2008 model) do support bluetooth audio on the vehicle. Second, you can transfer your contacts to the navigation system on any Toyota if your "phone" supports doing so. Simply go go to www.toyota.letstalk.com , enter the type of phone and wireless provider that you have, and you can find instructions on how to pair the phone, and how to transfer the contacts from your phone to the vehicle. There are a few phones that do not allow this, it will tell you if yours is one of those phones. But its a function or non-function of the phone, not the vehicle.

Dave Taylor said, on August 20, 2010 9:39 AM:

Chamila, I don't see how to figure out that model number, based on poking around on my nav system. Perhaps Aaron can enlighten us?

Aaron, I'm SO bummed that my 2008 Highlander doesn't include that version of the bluetooth circuitry. Guess I'll have to live with the headphone jack -> AUX in, which is better than nothing.

In terms of the phone contact info, seems like that'd be a great thing to have a device at Toyota service centers where they'll transfer your phone book onto your car for a nominal fee...

Andrea said, on September 15, 2010 2:46 PM:

Just a note that I just went to the "Lets talk" site and transferring contacts from the iPhone (any version they list) to the Bluetooth/Nav system is not an option. Seems odd considering the high level of technology in the iPhone. A little frustrating...

Gary said, on September 28, 2010 9:42 AM:

My wife has a 2010 Highlander and I have 2010 Prius. I have an iPhone 4, she has an iPhone 3. When I connect my iPhone 4 up to the Prius it worked fine, pulled all my contacts with work on my part. We then tried to configure my wife's phone for her Highlander, it failed to transfer the contacts. We then tried my iPhone 4 (worked fine in the Prius) and it failed to xfer the contacts. Sounds like something with the Highlander BluTooth to me.

Stef said, on January 8, 2011 2:21 AM:

Gary, when you say "When I connect my iPhone 4 up to the Prius it worked fine, pulled all my contacts with work on my part"...what "work" did you do to get your contacts to transfer over? I have the iPhone 4 and have no idea how to even try to transfer them from the phone. I know how to set up the nav system to be ready to receive them but don't know how to send them from the iPhone 4. I have a 2008 Sequoia so I may not be able to do it at all, but any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Stef

Robert said, on January 21, 2011 7:29 PM:

I can pair my iPhone 4 for phone operation with my 2011 Toyota nav but it doesn't play the iPod over the speakers - help

Dave Taylor said, on January 23, 2011 9:23 AM:

Robert, glad you got it paired, but you've found a limitation in the Toyota bluetooth implementation: no AD2P support. AD2P is the additional bluetooth protocol that supports wireless transmission of stereo audio information, and since the car doesn't support it, you're out of luck. Then again, your iPod doesn't have bluetooth anyway, though of course your iPhone does.

drstevej said, on February 13, 2011 2:21 PM:

Synched by IPhone 4 with my 2009 4Runner in 4 minutes with these instructions.

THANKS

kieran said, on February 25, 2011 9:09 AM:

Hi could anyone help ,I cant connect Nokia n95 to toyota avensis 09 with satnav and bluetooth?

Dan said, on June 1, 2011 9:27 AM:

Has anyone had any luck pairing and using a iphone 3G with a Highlander w/o the navigation system?

I've paired my phone, but it doesn't seem to want to respond to voice commands.

I can hear itunes and pandora via the speakers, but no phone functionality.

Thanks.

Katie said, on June 8, 2011 8:34 PM:

My Grandmother has a 2008 highlander and we have connected her i phone 4 to her blue tooth many times. We keep syncing it up and it will work for 2-3 weeks and then un-pair and she has to go through the whole process again. Anyone else having this problem? Suggestions?

David.H said, on July 30, 2011 7:36 PM:

just bought an avensis T2/TR, SAT NAV WHICH DOES CONNECT VIA BLUETOOTH, HOW DO I TRASFER PHONE CONTACTS FROM PHONE TO AVENSIS T2/TR

Cindi said, on August 10, 2011 6:45 AM:

Thanks so much for great instructions! I was following the nav system instructions but had no idea about tapping the "hands free" on the phone! I was entering the pin in the dialpad! Went back to Verizon, waited my turn :(, then was told I'd have to go to the car dealer! Your helpful website saved me that trip and had me connected in half a minute!

Rolf said, on August 4, 2012 3:33 PM:

Some cars (like the Toyota Verso) have a bug in the handshaking protocol which makes it look like the iPhone can't be connected to your car. Dealers don't know this, but I found a simple workaround today which I've explained here (no ads, no tricks, just my personal blog):

https://rolfje.com/2012/08/04/toyota-corolla-verso-iphone-bluetooth-connection/

I hope it helps somebody. Cheers.

suki laniado smith said, on October 24, 2012 3:34 PM:

thank you. This was incredibly helpful. A frustration turned into a 2 minute exercise.

Diane Witte said, on November 14, 2012 2:45 PM:

I need your help if you can. I have a 2010 Toyota Highlander Limited Edition and I have been told by those who have called me while driving that they can barely hear me on the speaker even though I am aimed at the microphone in the ceiling and speaking up. Is there a way to adjust the microphone volume? I can only find how to adjust the callers volume in the nav system manuals. I would really appreciate your help. Thanks so much.

Dave Taylor said, on November 14, 2012 5:50 PM:

Unfortunately, I too found that the microphone with the hands free system on my Highlander was very poor and ended up replacing it with an expensive third-party Bluetooth system. For reasons I don't understand, Toyota has no upgrade path.

George Spiteri said, on April 26, 2013 8:37 AM:

Hi, I have a 2010 Avensis with the nav system. I have paired the phone (iphone 3S) with no problem - I have also been shown how to download my phonebook but haven't done this yet (not sure that I want absolutely every contact transferred). On my old avensis I had the Toyota Bluetooth system as an add-on and I had complete hands free (keeping the "mode" button depressed would initialise hands-free usage and prompt me for dialing instructions). On this Avensis I can't seem to get total hands-free to work. I can use the touch screen but that is not what I would term hands free. Do you have any ideas if voice activation is a feature - there is a button on the sterring wheel that would suggest it is possible. Cheers

Starbucks coffee cup I do have a lot to say, and questions of my own for that matter, but first I'd like to say thank you, Dave, for all your helpful information by buying you a cup of coffee!

I do have a comment, now that you mention it!











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