How Do You Turn Off the Radio?

I have the feeling this is a stupid question, but for the life of us my wife and I can't figure out how to turn off the stupid radio, and how to keep it from turning on every time we start the car. Yes, we've both perused the owner's manual and can't find an answer.

Problem 1: Every time I get in and press the start button the radio comes on. I DO NOT WANT IT TO DO THIS. If I want the radio to come on I will turn it on when I want it on. We cannot figure out how to stop this behavior.

Problem 2: I press the physical radio volume button to turn off the radio and all it appears to do is Pause the radio which then, after some set period of time, will begin playing again all by itself. I DO NOT WANT IT TO DO THIS. I'm not sure if this is a bug or I can't find some obvious way to simply turn off the radio, but it's getting increasingly irritating. Why does it come on again by itself? How do I stop it?

Problem 3: After pressing the volume button to turn off the radio (which evidently only pauses it per #2 above), a message says something like "To turn the system off and go to Low Power Mode press and hold" . I do so, and rather than just turning off the radio the whole freaking center screen goes blank. ALL I WANTED TO DO WAS TURN OFF THE RADIO AND HAVE IT STAY OFF.

Sorry for the SHOUTING but this is driving me nuts.

Please tell me there is some simple way to turn off the radio that I have somehow overlooked. Thanks in advance.

Turn the volume down. Done!

I was switching the audio source to something else like USB (and I did not have anything connected to USB). Can't remember if that 'stuck' after re-starting the car.

We really need an FAQ at the head of this forum. .

Yeah, it's a weird issue. There is no "on/off" button. Instead, it's a "mute" button. The problem is, it doesn't stay "muted" when you turn the car back on. The only way to have it stay silent is via the volume knob. I suspect this is fixed in the current infotainment version, updated via a dealership.

dandrewk said:

We really need an FAQ at the head of this forum. .

Yeah, it's a weird issue. There is no "on/off" button. Instead, it's a "mute" button. The problem is, it doesn't stay "muted" when you turn the car back on. The only way to have it stay silent is via the volume knob. I suspect this is fixed in the current infotainment version, updated via a dealership.

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Speaking of the updated version of the Infotainment System, what is the latest version? I purchased my Bolt mid-May and the Infotainment System version is: 14.1.0

scbolt said:

dandrewk said:

We really need an FAQ at the head of this forum. .

Yeah, it's a weird issue. There is no "on/off" button. Instead, it's a "mute" button. The problem is, it doesn't stay "muted" when you turn the car back on. The only way to have it stay silent is via the volume knob. I suspect this is fixed in the current infotainment version, updated via a dealership.

Click to expand...

Speaking of the updated version of the Infotainment System, what is the latest version? I purchased my Bolt mid-May and the Infotainment System version is: 14.1.0

Click to expand...

That is the latest version.

Just press the Phone button on the steering wheel to turn it Off, and it will remain that way when you restart the car.

Thanks for the replies.

@EldRick: Upcoming snarkiness is not directed at you

Press the Phone button to turn the radio off? Really, GM? Really?

(shrug)

Okay, at least there IS a way to turn the radio off, thanks again.

Yeah, I know. Who at GM thought up that fine example of hidden behavior?

EldRick said:

Yeah, I know. Who at GM thought up that fine example of hidden behavior?

Click to expand...

LG actually. They made that system. Funny as how they have WebOS in house and also use Linux to great accolades but this system...

I push the power button in the middle of the volume knob.

Sorry, was that too simple?

samiam95124 said:

I push the power button in the middle of the volume knob.

Sorry, was that too simple?

Click to expand...

As noted a lot of places on this site, that only mutes the volume. It states that when you press that button. It does not power off the receiver or any of the audio. As such, if you are playing music from USB and press that, the music continues to play.

It doesn't help that the label of the "mute" button shows the "power" symbol. No wonder folks get confused.

Okay, so when I press the "phone mute" button on the steering wheel the radio does turn off and stays turned off even after a restart! That is great ... thanks much for that suggestion!

That said, the speaker icon on the infotainment screen (top right corner) seems to indicated that the system has simply been muted and the radio is not really turned off.

Is that really the case? Not sure if there is a real difference, since it achieves the end goal of not having the radio start to play every time you start the car ... but how about other things where I do want the audio, e.g. GPS voice when using Android Auto? Will that play properly in this mode where the radio is off?

I will try out that experiment as soon as I get a chance, but was curious if anyone may have already tried that.

dandrewk said:

It doesn't help that the label of the "mute" button shows the "power" symbol. No wonder folks get confused.

Click to expand...

Exactly. That is blatantly the wrong use of that icon.

Call Chevrolet's Infotainment team at 855-478-7767
(Press "3" for the MyLink department and have the last 8 digits of your VIN handy)

Tell the agent that you are unsatisfied that your Bolt EV can't remember your Infotainment's MUTE setting when you start your car.

They will tell you your vehicle is operating as designed; that the Infotainment system always "turns on" when you start your vehicle.

Politely re-direct them to the actual problem: the system UN-MUTES every time you start your car, even if it was muted throughout your vehicle's previous drive or if you deliberately muted the Infotainment system just before turning the car off.

They will probably tell you that the Infotainment system reboots every time you start your car, and so it's normal for some settings to go away. You can remind them that the Bolt's Infotainment system successfully remembers all kinds of other things, such as previous Source, Station, even Volume! Ask them why "mute" is the ONLY setting that gets forgotten in between reboots.

Again, it's important to use the word "mute." The agents will get tripped up if they think you're complaining that the Infotainment system "comes on" (or "powers up") on startup; of course it does! If you tell them "the radio turns on," they'll just fall back on "operating as designed" as a way of trying to get you off the phone.

I can confirm that a Chevy Malibu (loaner from my dealer) and a 2017 Chevy Volt do *not* do this; that is, they respect the "mute" setting across vehicle startups.

Lastly, don't let anyone on the forum try to convince you that this is 'normal' or that it's just a situation of you not knowing what the pushbutton on the volume knob is for. It's a bug (as evidenced by the rare instance where the Bolt *does* respect the previous mute setting) and it needs to be fixed!

IF WE DO NOT CALL CHEVROLET, THIS WILL NEVER GET FIXED.

The Bolt EV radio operates the same way as the Spark EV. There has been more than one occasion where I wanted to punch the thing. It's clear the UI is lacking.

Zoomit said:

The Bolt EV radio operates the same way as the Spark EV. There has been more than one occasion where I wanted to punch the thing. It's clear the UI is lacking.

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WHAT?!!? My Spark EV radio does NOT turn on every time I turn on the vehicle. If the radio was off when the car was turned off then it does NOT turn itself on the next time I drive the car .

The Bolt's audio/infotainment system is completely new and has nothing to do with any other setup from GM.
It's never been used on any other car GM produces. You can not compare it to anything else, like the Volt or Spark :!:

I can compare it to anything I want. I do realize that the entertainment system is different (and thus comparison is warranted!).