Spotify stuck in "Car View" when using Bluetooth

So I installed a new Kenwood DMX1057XR head unit, it's generally very fast and has some nice features.

But when paired up with my Android phone over bluetooth there's an issue: Spotify refuses to display anything beyond their "Car View" interface. This means that all I get is the song title, play/pause, Back/Skip. That's it. (Phone = Samsung Note10+) No album art.

When playing same content from USB I get everything: Album art, play controls, browse/search button. I'm able to flip through my entire library without restriction.

Same with Android Auto! I can play Spotify through AA and the interface is far more feature-rich. I can view my playlists, search by first letter, browse, anything. Has album art.

I've tried:
- Updated HU firmware to latest
- Setting the "Car View" option in Spotify to "Never" on my phone
- "Forget" my Bluetooth connections and then pair from scratch

I would stay within Android Auto 100% of the time but it seems to shut down every time I turn off the vehicle, HU comes back in Standby mode. It takes a while for things to enter AA mode again, rather inconvenient.

Another clumsy workaround is to pull out my phone every time I get into the vehicle and make sure I'm on the desired spotify playlist. That list will start to play if I connect via BT - and indeed this part at least is automatic and audio will resume where it left off. However I still get just the minimal play interface.

Questions:
- Is this normal with Spotify and BT? Everyone else have this too?
- Or is this just with my Kenwood DMX1057XR HU?
- Do you know of a way to force Spotify to obey that little "Disable Car View" setting they provided?
- Anyone know how to remain in Android Auto mode 100% of the time? How to keep it from going into Standby when I turn off the vehicle?

This is the Spotify over Bluetooth view I see:
(stock web photo - but note, very spartan audio control...)





Spotify over AA. You can press a button to browse directly from here, or press "back" and see full Spotify interface.
(Some random web photo)

 

That’s pretty standard for all these new multimedia head units.my pioneer unit in the 4Runner works similarly and others as well.

Why would they try to reinvent the wheel when you can just go to AA/CarPlay?

 

Yes, you have a point. (Yet I know the necessary controls are present in the HU since other sources may be fully controlled, they're not just enabled for Spotify)

Well on my HU using AA results in the unit waking up in 'Standby' mode. Need to find a way to fix that.

 

Yes. That standby mode thing is definitely not good.

 

Will call Kenwood today