You should test a different phone to see if it’s caused by the phone or by the multimedia system. To update the MZD connect you only need a 4GB USB stick and 45 minutes time, battery charger recommended.

 

dont have another phone to try right at this moment but did a little research on android 8.1 and found a recommendation to just reset the stored network settings from the phone and delete the device from the car

seems to have worked, just tried it in my driveway a few times and it doesn't seem to go through the reconnect procedure each time

will have to see if it works long term

for reference - in android phone -went to settings, system, reset options - reset wifi/mobile/bluetooth and also reset paired devices in the car under custom options(i think?)

re-paired and cycled car a few times, worked fine

crossing fingers

 

As you discovered, it is actually stated by Mazda under multiple scenarios to follow the procedure to delete and reset the phone ID to the car. Something else to keep in mind is your current firmware version being a few years old. Mazda did make some fixes to the phone connections in the later versions as it pertained to some new model phones and OS. In case you buy a new phone and have connection issues again this is something to keep in mind. You would also need to follow this procedure of deleting and resetting your ID with a new Mazda firmware update or Android OS update.

As I have mentioned several times, we tend to overlook the several quick fixes with our electronics today, including our cars and immediately want to start dismantling our hardware. Not stated but always highly suggested, any google based android app update should result in a phone restart. Google apps can/will change the stability of the phone as they are all connected to the operating system and could affect connections to the car. Additionally, we also forget the simple quick fixes of restarts, resets, reboots, pulling the battery (hitting the on button) and clearing the electrostatic memory, clearing caches and cookies will frequently fix our issues as we would with a MS PC.

I do all my updates manually for this reason so I know what's going one, but even then still restart my phone every couple of days as a simple reset.

 

I have the same problem with my Nokia 3.1 Android 8.1.0 (the same android version), I used to have a HTC One X before, with Android 4.2 and I never got this issue with it. Seems like a problem related to Android 8.1.0 which necessarily needs a corrective update from either parts, Android or Mazda Infotainment. Another issue with my new Android 8.1.0 phone is that sometimes contacts are displayed with their phone numbers without names, in the recently called list on Mazda infotainment, even though the names of these contacts are already saved on the phone...:frown2:

 

as a quick update - it has been working flawlessly for me since i cleared the wifi/bluetooth connections on both my phone and car as i described in my previous post

i havent seen the contact issue you describe but i swear i had made favorite contacts within the mazda several times only to come back later and they were gone, i havent looked at that in a while