Phone Volume adjust randomly and mutes audio

[jdawg]

Hi All, Does anyone know what this issue might be? Module, some setting or a button/knob that I don't know about? This is on my new 25 Heritage.
Happens enough to be really super annoying. Does not matter what the source audio is.
On the screen pops up phones volume adjusting. The really weird thing is ... there is no phone connected. No phone connected via bluetooth OR CarPlay. It was driving me nuts so I fully removed the phone thinking that was the issue... and it still happens. PIC of no phone connected and video of issue. If this issue didn't mute the audio, I would not care. I have tried to reset sync4 and that did not solve the issue.

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[N0madK1ng]

I'm super curious to see if anyone else has any logical input here but have you tried a master reset on the display? Idk if that's even a setting in there tbh...

 

[jdawg]

I'm super curious to see if anyone else has any logical input here but have you tried a master reset on the display? Idk if that's even a setting in there tbh...

Thank you. I just did a full factory reset. Didn’t know that was there, but it is. Now it’s fingers crossed. Because I really really don’t want to deal with something like this. Driving and listening to music go hand in hand.

 

[N0madK1ng]

Thank you. I just did a full factory reset. Didn’t know that was there, but it is. Now it’s fingers crossed. Because I really really don’t want to deal with something like this. Driving and listening to music go hand in hand.

I had the same exact issue with a mini cooper I had years ago. Was a fun little turboed car and I enjoyed driving it on the freeway and blasting my music. The god damn car would adjust the volume randomly but it wasn't every single day.. it was random which made no sense. I know some cars are equipped with an automatic volume adjustment feature, such as the mini, based on your drive speed among other things..

Edit: Also wanted to point out that someone could've connected their phone sometime after the build process and before you got the car. If they removed it wrong or some glitch happen, the car could still think the phone is there and trying to connect even though the display doesn't show that as an option. Hope that makes sense and that's what a hard reset would clear.

 

[jdawg]

Circling back around on this.... It is still happening even after the reset. I however did notice that this seems to be specific to SiriusXM. Every time this happens (sound mutes and phone volume pops up) I see the notification XM SiriusXM updating. Without fail. It also started to register that this happens more often when it’s cloudy (Pointing again to SiriusXM).

Called SiriusXM and they reset something but as I was talking to the support, they said that this is a HW issue and to talk to Ford. Which suuuucks.

If anyone has experience dealing with the ACU or whatever the module is called, I’d love to hear about it.
I’m more documenting the symptoms now, with hopefully a fix at some point to help others if they run into this.

 

[TXHeritage]

We have the same issue on our new 2025 Heritage. Hoping to hear about a way to fix it.

 

[jdawg]

We have the same issue on our new 2025 Heritage. Hoping to hear about a way to fix it.

This smells of a SW issue. However, Call SiriusXM and let them know. Make sure to actually talk to someone. I believe they did a reset. I actually thought it was fixed after I initially called, but it significantly improved for me.
They did the reset on 4/23 and it didn’t happen again till yesterday 5/3.

 

[TXHeritage]

Thanks for this. I initially thought it was my phone that was intermittently losing bluetooth connection, but my wife said it happens while listening to music with or without bluetooth, so the sirius/xm source makes alot of sense.

 

[jdawg]

Thanks for this. I initially thought it was my phone that was intermittently losing bluetooth connection, but my wife said it happens while listening to music with or without bluetooth, so the sirius/xm source makes alot of sense.

That is what I initially thought as well. Drove me up a wall.
So I reset the Sync, getting everything out and drove without the phone having been connected. It still happened. Since I didn't have the phone connected, I started to listen to SiriusXM and correlated when it did happen to when SiriusXM was updating (every time without fail). Listening to radio or Sirius ... it would happen and Sirius was updating.

 

[rugedraw]

That is what I initially thought as well. Drove me up a wall.
So I reset the Sync, getting everything out and drove without the phone having been connected. It still happened. Since I didn't have the phone connected, I started to listen to SiriusXM and correlated when it did happen to when SiriusXM was updating (every time without fail). Listening to radio or Sirius ... it would happen and Sirius was updating.

There is a recent ACM update that was first pushed out to F150/Lightnings a week ago that addresses some kind of problem related to Sirius. Hard to say if this also relates to your issue, but it may be software related:

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/thr...read-f-150-lightning-mach-e.16968/post-639376

 

[jdawg]

There is a recent ACM update that was first pushed out to F150/Lightnings a week ago that addresses some kind of problem related to Sirius. Hard to say if this also relates to your issue, but it may be software related:

https://www.f150gen14.com/forum/thr...read-f-150-lightning-mach-e.16968/post-639376

Ohhhh. That actually could be a possibility. It does say Hardware Problem in that update. Not sure if that’s a generic statement. I never did see that…. But did see Something went wrong”

 

[rugedraw]

Ohhhh. That actually could be a possibility. It does say Hardware Problem in that update. Not sure if that’s a generic statement. I never did see that…. But did see Something went wrong”

Most of these Ford Sync 4 vehicles seem to be running the same Sync versions, so a problem that affects one vehicle can affect others in a different platform. I don't see any TSB or SSM out for the issue on the 2025 Broncos.

I also just ran 3 random 2025 Bronco Heritage VINs through FDRS and none of them showed and pending ACM updates. They didn't show any pending updates for any module period. If this is the same problem, then there is no fix out for the Broncos yet.

 

[jdawg]

Most of these Ford Sync 4 vehicles seem to be running the same Sync versions, so a problem that affects one vehicle can affect others in a different platform. I don't see any TSB or SSM out for the issue on the 2025 Broncos.

I also just ran 3 random 2025 Bronco Heritage VINs through FDRS and none of them showed and pending ACM updates. They didn't show any pending updates for any module period. If this is the same problem, then there is no fix out for the Broncos yet.

Did a little research on this and “Hardware Problem” is the message. So not this issue.

 

[jdawg]

Most of these Ford Sync 4 vehicles seem to be running the same Sync versions, so a problem that affects one vehicle can affect others in a different platform. I don't see any TSB or SSM out for the issue on the 2025 Broncos..

Nail meet head

 

[rugedraw]

Nail meet head

To you and anyone with the issue, message me the VIN. I'll try and open a case with Ford so they can at least start looking into it.

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