Using an old phone as an in car MP3 player

I’ve got an old Moto G that died and then magically came back to life, so i thought I’d use it as an in-car MP3 player.

Presently I have a USB stick stuck in AUX socket and navigate via the screen on the dashboard, which is dangerously distracting to the extent that I don’t use it. The plan is to use the once dead phone so that my good lady wife can pick the choonz whilst I concentrate on getting us to the garden centre / kids birthday parties without wiping us all out.

Phone has no SIM, so I’m stuck with Google Music Player or File Commander.

Before I spend a dispiriting amount of time looking in the Drawer Of Many Leads is this going to work, or is the only way to navigate going to be using the car’s own system?

Car is an S Max with the Sony system.

Help me STW, you’re my only hope.

What do you mean by an AUX socket? Just a USB socket, or is it an actual 3.5mm audio in?
Does it have Bluetooth?
If its just a USB socket, it will probably only work for USB drives. You won’t be able to control it from your phone.

USB and 3.5mm audio in.

My other phone that is still a phone is Bluetooth connected, but she’s not messing with that as I use it as a sat nav.

So just get a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable. Plug it from the headphone socket on the phone into the Aux in.

It should work fine. Can play whatever you want from the phone.
I’d suggest Vanilla Music for a nice simple MP3 player app. Less confusing that Google Play Music.

I use mine as an in car mp3 all the time. Just make sure you don’t pick the phone up whilst driving or even with the engine running. If you put the phone in a mount just touching the screen is legal within reason.

I use an old iphone in the van, Bluetoothed, and shout at Siri to play stuff. Get some fairly random playlists at times, but works OK generally .. can you OK Google stuff when driving alone?

I chanced £7.99 on a cheap-as-chips Bluetooth to FM transmitter, which has so far worked surprisingly well. Plugs into the cigarette lighter and has two USB outputs to charge your phones, select a frequency on the transmitter and tune your stereo in – it’s not class, but it’s cheap and simple. Biggest bugbear is occasional bleed through if you pass through Random FM territory and they use the same/similar frequency.

I’ve got an old Moto G that died and then magically came back to life, so i thought I’d use it as an in-car MP3 player.

Do we get to suggest a play list?

Try plugging in both usb and audio.
That’s how my iPhone worked with the ford Sony system- no idea if android works also in that way. Full control of phone from car or handset, folders, artwork etc all appeared on the display of the car. Usb gives it all the jazzy control stuff then the audio gets piped through the 3.5mm.

Or just Bluetooth it and get the same thing wirelessly.

So just get a 3.5mm to 3.5mm cable. Plug it from the headphone socket on the phone into the Aux in.

This is what I used to do with my SMax and my old iPhone

It played whatever music perfectly well, mostly Spotify downloaded playlists.

Problems were…..having to constantly charge the phone in the car, the phone heating up to the temperature of the actual sun and having to remember to hide it in the glovebox every time I parked.

Now I just use my actual phone through Bluetooth to do the same thing , plus sat nav, rather than a dedicated car music phone arrangement. It’s much better.

Do we get to suggest a play list?

On the old Mondeo I just ran a 3.5mm cable into the aux socket, which in that car was helpfully in the glove box.

We got a good few hours of playback out of a charged phone and the old Moto g’s have pretty good battery life IME.

Put it in flight mode so it doesn’t look for location or WiFi etc while driving.

BEWARE – In my car at least using the phone as sat nav either requires you to select the Bluetooth option as media type or disconnect the phone from the Bluetooth and use it’s speaker if you want to hear directions.

If I use Google Play music and Google maps the two work pretty seamlessly from one device so not sure why you’d bother with a second. Just choose tunes before you leave.

I need a second because the sat nav phone is mounted on my right hand side under the A Pillar, and my good lady wife wants to choose the tunes from the passenger seat.