Skip to content
AI Box Fix

Audio & callsReviewed

Can't Hear the Caller on Incoming Calls Through the AI Box

Incoming calls silent through your AI box? Reset Bluetooth to one phone-box pairing, or route calls via the head unit. Carlinkit TBox Ambient, Ultra, Plus.

Quick answer

Remove every Bluetooth pairing that involves the box or the car on your phone, the box and the head unit, restart the box and the phone, then pair the phone with the box only. Three of the four owners who reported trying it got incoming-call audio back; if your car allows a phone pairing while the box runs in Android Auto mode, sending calls straight to the head unit worked for two more.

Symptoms

  • On incoming calls you hear nothing and the caller hears nothing; calls you place from the box work
  • It worked for weeks, then incoming calls went silent without any change on your side
  • After a silent call, music and radio do not come back until you restart
  • Volume buttons during the silent call adjust phone volume, but no sound plays

Applies to

Connection to the car
CarPlay and Android Auto
Head units mentioned in reports
Avatr Avatr head units; Changan Changan head units; Jetour Jetour head units
Firmware in confirmed reports
Carlinkit TBox Ultra 2: 2026-08-21
Highest risk on this page
Advanced
Status
Workaround confirmed by the community

Why it happens

When you dial from the box, the box’s phone app owns the call from the first second. An incoming call starts on the phone, and the phone decides which Bluetooth link receives it. If your phone is also paired with the car, with an AutoKit entry, or with an old pairing of the box, it can hand the ringing call to the wrong one. The box then shows the call, but the audio is going nowhere.

Firmware plays a part too. On some builds incoming calls broke after an update and came back after a different build was installed, so the same symptom can have two causes.

This page covers silent incoming calls. If callers cannot hear you on every call while you hear them, see microphone not working on calls. If calls work but lag or echo, see call delay and echo.

Fixes, ranked

Reset Bluetooth to one phone-to-box pairing

  • Safe
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Worked for 3 of 4 reports
  1. On your phone, open Settings → Bluetooth and forget the box and the car. Watches and headphones can stay; only the entries for this car and the box have to go.
  2. On the box, open Settings → Bluetooth and forget every device.
  3. In the head unit’s Bluetooth menu, delete every paired phone.
  4. Restart the box and the phone.
  5. Pair the phone with the box only, then ask someone to call you.

A TBox Ambient owner with an iPhone, whose incoming calls had gone silent while calling back from the box worked, fixed it this way. Another owner replied that this is the setup they drive with, and that it took a long time to find. A TBox Ambient owner in a Changan UNI-K got incoming audio back after re-pairing, but added that it does not help every time.

An owner in a Chery Tiggo Pro Max found re-pairing helped only for a short while, and suspected the May 2025 firmware. If yours comes back, try Fix 3 or Fix 4.

Send calls straight to the head unit (Android Auto mode)

  • Safe
  • Time: 20 minutes
  • Worked for 2 of 2 reports
  1. Check that your head unit supports wired Android Auto. Without it, this fix does not apply.
  2. Switch the box to Android Auto mode; switching between CarPlay and Android Auto has the pin-hole and menu methods.
  3. Pair your phone with the car’s own Bluetooth, not with the box.
  4. In the phone’s Bluetooth settings for the car, turn off Media audio and leave Phone calls on.
  5. Make and receive a test call. Calls now play through the head unit while the box keeps navigation and music.

Two owners use this setup, one of them with a TBox Ultra 2 in an Avatr. The second left media audio on, but the first found that after each call the music jumped between the box and the phone, which is why step 4 turns it off.

Not every car allows this. A TBox Ultra 3 owner in a Jetour Dashing found the head unit would not show the box in Android Auto mode; the Avatr owner had the same problem until the 21 Aug 2026 Ultra 2 firmware. Owners also reported that a Haval Dargo allows a phone pairing only while the box is in Android Auto mode, and a Haval Jolion in neither mode. In Android Auto mode the box no longer uses the car’s GPS receiver.

Install a different official firmware build

  • Advanced
  • Time: 45 minutes
  • Worked for 2 of 3 reports

Warranty warning: this uses developer or engineering access. Follow the undo steps afterwards; some sellers refuse warranty claims on units with debugging left enabled.

  1. Note the firmware date under Settings → About.
  2. Ask Carlinkit support ([email protected]) for the official build for your exact model: the previous Android version, or a fresh copy of the current one.
  3. Install it with the local update in the FOTA app; the FOTA update guide covers each step.
  4. Test incoming calls before you reinstall your apps.

A TBox Plus owner in a Hyundai Santa Fe had calls that worked once and then went silent both ways, with no car audio afterwards. Going back from Android 13 to Android 11 fixed it. Another TBox Plus owner had incoming-call problems after installing an update from an unofficial source, and fixed them by reinstalling from the official build.

It did not help a TBox Plus owner with an iPhone 17 Pro Max whose FaceTime calls were silent; the January 2026 build changed nothing for them.

Pair with the box's second Bluetooth name

  • Safe
  • Time: 10 minutes
  • Worked for 1 of 1 report
  1. Remove every pairing as in Fix 1.
  2. On your phone, scan for Bluetooth devices with the box running.
  3. If you see an entry called QCOM-BTD in addition to the box’s own name, pair with QCOM-BTD.
  4. Test an incoming call.

A TBox Ambient owner in CarPlay mode found incoming calls silent whenever the phone was paired to the “TBox Ambient” entry and working when paired to QCOM-BTD. Another owner with the same box had no QCOM-BTD entry and no problem. The fix held for the first owner for about a week before the silence returned, so treat it as something to try after Fix 1.

Things to try (unverified)

  • Turn off media audio (A2DP) on the phone’s link to the box. In the phone’s Bluetooth settings for the box, switch off media audio and keep calls. Music from your phone will no longer play through the box. One owner tried it and it did not help on its own.
  • Turn off assistant wake phrases. An always-listening assistant can hold the call audio; see microphone not working on calls. Owners with silent incoming calls usually had these off already, so it is a check, not a cure.
  • Restart the head unit after a silent call. One owner whose music stayed muted after a silent call got it back only by restarting. That recovers the audio, not the call.

If nothing works

Write down the box model and firmware date (Settings → About), your phone model and operating-system version, the car’s make, model, year and head unit, and the protocol you run. Note whether only incoming calls fail, and whether a call app over the internet behaves differently from a normal call.

Send that, with a short video of a failed call, to the seller or to Carlinkit at [email protected]. If your car cannot keep its own Bluetooth while the box is connected and none of the fixes hold, taking calls on the phone is the honest workaround; start here if you are considering a box that suits your car better.

Related fixes

Did this work for you?

Tell us which fix worked (or didn't), with your box, firmware date and car. Reports are how fixes get confirmed and re-ranked.

Send a report

Changelog

  • Last reviewed against new community reports:
  • Confirmed by 8 community reports on Carlinkit TBox Ambient, Carlinkit TBox Ultra 2, Carlinkit TBox Plus.
  • Page updated:

"Confirmed" means a community member reported that the fix worked on their unit. We have not tested it on our own hardware. How we verify.