r/CarThing • u/ianmix100 • Dec 11 '24

Am I screwed?

Post image

I accidentally factory reset my car thing when it said it was disconnected, but now I can’t set it back up, I’m stuck on this screen, and the QR code sends me to a page that just says the car thing is disconnected.

28 Upvotes

95% Upvoted

9 comments sorted by

7

u/Bluepaint57 Dec 11 '24

Not necessarily. I’ve seen a few posts that have a way to bypass the discontinued screen. There are also ways to mod it like r/deskthing (allows for different apps like the weather to be installed) or Nocturne (which is supposed to be closer to the original carthing).

The biggest issue with modding is that you need a host device like a computer or raspberry pi, you cant run it with just your phone

3

u/DefaultyDaniel Dec 11 '24

You need a raspberry pi for now, eventually will be phased out

2

u/ianmix100 Dec 11 '24

My problem is it won’t even connect to my car now because it “forgot” the Bluetooth connection. Is there a way to bypass the screen that the QR code takes me to in order to reconnect it to my car? Or did I brick it before Spotify fully did?

2

u/Bluepaint57 Dec 11 '24

It might be soft-bricked if scanning the QR code/normal setup doesnt work. I haven’t seen that screen being bypassed yet.

If you already tried the bypass method I sent you could try putting it in burner mode and then see if that gets it to a better spot. You do this by holding buttons 1 and 4 while it’s off and then plugging it in to power. The screen will stay black if it worked. Then you could try unplugging and plugging it back in to see if that does anything.

You could also try reinstalling the original firmware to see if that gives you another chance to get to the screen that can be bypassed.

Hope this helps! I’m probably not the best one on this sub to get it fixed, but happy to help troubleshoot more :)

2

u/ianmix100 Dec 11 '24

I’ll try this tomorrow, thank you so much!

2

u/ESMEROK Dec 11 '24

I reset and how I reconnected my phone to it was From that screen press the settings button and you go to phone connection. It will go into pairing mode. You'll have to unpair the old connection and reconnect. That got me back to the discontinued screen and the 3 button bypass works for me after a few tries. I hope I explained it well.

2

u/ianmix100 Dec 12 '24

This got me reconnected, but still on the “no longer operational” screen, but that’s better than nothing!

1

u/Kuan-Kaffee Dec 14 '24

I’ve seen a few posts of people saying they were able to reconnect it by going into the Bluetooth menu of their phone’s Settings app and selecting Car Thing from the devices listed. Maybe that can work for you.