Sirius XM issues on a 2019 CX-5 GT

Linzer

Member
:
2019 CX-5 2.5T AWD GT
I'm experiencing a pretty annoying issue with Sirius XM on my 2019 CX5 GT: upon starting the car (and waiting about a minute or so for the boot routine to complete) Sirius XM will not always work and the screen will display a message similar to "Siriu XM channels unavailable". In 80%-90% of the cases Sirius XM works. A few observations: if I select anything on the infotainment menu before allowing the system to finish the boot routine it's almost guaranteed that Sirius XM won't work and will display the above message.

I suspected an antenna issue of some sorts but while the system displays the unavailability of Sirius XM channels, I have no issues tuning into the, I think free, Sirius XM channels - there are about 10 free (?) channels upwards of channel 310.

Resending the signal request doesn't fix the issue. The only procedure that helps sometimes is turning the system off and wait for a few minutes, but again it's a guessing game if Sirius XM works after that. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

Worth mentioning is that prior to my CX5 GT I owned a 2015 Mazda 6 GT and I never ever had an issue with Sirius XM in that car.

I called Sirius XM about this and, as expected, they said the issue is not with them but rather with my unit in the car and I should raise this with Mazda.

Following that advice, I had Mazda dealer update the firmware to the latest one available but that hasn't fixed the issue either.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Any thoughts?
 
I'm experiencing a pretty annoying issue with Sirius XM on my 2019 CX5 GT: upon starting the car (and waiting about a minute or so for the boot routine to complete) Sirius XM will not always work and the screen will display a message similar to "Siriu XM channels unavailable". In 80%-90% of the cases Sirius XM works. A few observations: if I select anything on the infotainment menu before allowing the system to finish the boot routine it's almost guaranteed that Sirius XM won't work and will display the above message.

I suspected an antenna issue of some sorts but while the system displays the unavailability of Sirius XM channels, I have no issues tuning into the, I think free, Sirius XM channels - there are about 10 free (?) channels upwards of channel 310.

Resending the signal request doesn't fix the issue. The only procedure that helps sometimes is turning the system off and wait for a few minutes, but again it's a guessing game if Sirius XM works after that. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

Worth mentioning is that prior to my CX5 GT I owned a 2015 Mazda 6 GT and I never ever had an issue with Sirius XM in that car.

I called Sirius XM about this and, as expected, they said the issue is not with them but rather with my unit in the car and I should raise this with Mazda.

Following that advice, I had Mazda dealer update the firmware to the latest one available but that hasn't fixed the issue either.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Any thoughts?

Free trial period ?
 
I was thinking about that too and I mentioned it to Sirius' XM helpdesk. However, my trial period ended a few days ago, I'm now regular subscriber, but the issue persists.
 
Did Sirius try a refresh for your vehicle's system already? If not, you can try to see if that helps at all:

https://care.siriusxm.com/retailrefresh_view.action#/refreshradio

I would guess (??) that if the free stations work fine but not the actual ones you are paying for, it may not be something with the GPS signal/antenna, but rather with the system itself being seen as activated by their server or satellite (wherever that "handshake" occurs).
 
Yes, they did refresh the signal. It's something I did/do quite often from the Sirius XM website but it doesn't really help.

At times I was inclined to think that the issue is related to parking the car in an underground garage with no satellite reception and therefore it kind of hangs searching for Sirius XM.
However, besides the fact that this morning it happened again while the car was parked outside with no obstruction to the satellite, my previous Mazda 6 GT never had this issues after being parked either underground or under a clear sky.
 
I don't park in a garage or underground and have had that issue once in the 4 weeks I've owned my 2019 GT Reserve.

I've subscribed to XM Radio since the early days, and have never seen this happen on the various receivers I've had over the decades (in-dash or stand alone). There have sometimes been delays on those receivers while the radio updates, but the on-screen message said that it is Updating (not "Unavailable"), and the music starts playing when the update is finished. When I got the "Unavailable" message in my CX-5, XM did not work until the next time I restarted the car (which reloaded the software.)

I've had issues with other Infotainment features not always loading properly, even if I give it plenty of time before using any of the features. I even wait before turning on the Bluetooth in my phone so it won't disrupt the s/w load. Features load fine some of the time, and don't load properly other times until I turn off/restart the car. Once they load properly, they work without disruption.

It's as though Bill Gates designed it...you gotta pull over and reboot.
 
Last edited:
I don't park in a garage or underground and have had that issue once in the 4 weeks I've owned my 2019 GT Reserve.

I've subscribed to XM Radio since the early days, and have never seen this happen on the various receivers I've had over the decades (in-dash or stand alone). There have sometimes been delays on those receivers while the radio updates, but the on-screen message said that it is Updating (not "Unavailable"), and the music starts playing when the update is finished. When I got the "Unavailable" message in my CX-5, XM did not work until the next time I restarted the car (which reloaded the software.)

I've had issues with other Infotainment features not always loading properly, even if I give it plenty of time before using any of the features. I even wait before turning on the Bluetooth in my phone so it won't disrupt the s/w load. Features load fine some of the time, and don't load properly other times until I turn off/restart the car. Once they load properly, they work without disruption.

It's as though Bill Gates designed it...you gotta pull over and reboot.

My experience exactly (when XM doesn't work). When I picked up the car in early January I had this issue maybe once or twice during that month. But over the period of four months of ownership, it happened way too many times for comfort. The good news I'm reading from your posting is that most likely the infotainment in my car is not defective, but rather 'works as designed' <sarcasm>. BTW, the Canadian 2019 CX5 GT package is marketed as Reserve in the US.
 
My experience exactly (when XM doesn't work). When I picked up the car in early January I had this issue maybe once or twice during that month. But over the period of four months of ownership, it happened way too many times for comfort. The good news I'm reading from your posting is that most likely the infotainment in my car is not defective, but rather 'works as designed' <sarcasm>. BTW, the Canadian 2019 CX5 GT package is marketed as Reserve in the US.

I would not say this is "works as designed," I believe it to be a software issue and not a hardware one...assuming that your XM does not stop working once it loads properly, and it does not magically start working if it failed to load at startup.

I've posted my XM Voice Recognition issue before: when the software loads properly, I can use VR to change the station by saying "XM Jazz." If the VR has not loaded properly, then saying "XM Jazz" takes me to a random station, or I sometimes get the VR lady saying "You must insert a USB device containing audio files." Once loaded properly, it always works. If not loaded properly, it never works until the next time I start the car (reload the software).

Regardless of whether or not the station name recognition works, VR always responds to the station number: "XM 76" The problem is that I don't remember all the station numbers...but by necessity, I'm getting better at it. If Favorites listed the number alongside the name, it would make learning the numbers a little easier.

I have no idea if the rest of the Infotainment VR commands work properly, since this is the only one I routinely use.

I am waiting to see if I accumulate other issues before taking it in to the dealer to have it looked at. The only fix I can think of is to have the software reloaded. I don't know if they can do this, or if there's any risk to having it done (introduction of different/worse bugs).

As an aside, I was reading a different Infotainment thread and someone there implied you can reboot the system by concurrently holding down NAV+Return+Volume on the console (sort of a CTRL+ALT+DELETE). I did not ask to have this confirmed, and I have not tried it yet, but I will next time VR does not load properly.
 
I'm experiencing a pretty annoying issue with Sirius XM on my 2019 CX5 GT: upon starting the car (and waiting about a minute or so for the boot routine to complete) Sirius XM will not always work and the screen will display a message similar to "Siriu XM channels unavailable". In 80%-90% of the cases Sirius XM works. A few observations: if I select anything on the infotainment menu before allowing the system to finish the boot routine it's almost guaranteed that Sirius XM won't work and will display the above message.

I suspected an antenna issue of some sorts but while the system displays the unavailability of Sirius XM channels, I have no issues tuning into the, I think free, Sirius XM channels - there are about 10 free (?) channels upwards of channel 310.

Resending the signal request doesn't fix the issue. The only procedure that helps sometimes is turning the system off and wait for a few minutes, but again it's a guessing game if Sirius XM works after that. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

Worth mentioning is that prior to my CX5 GT I owned a 2015 Mazda 6 GT and I never ever had an issue with Sirius XM in that car.

I called Sirius XM about this and, as expected, they said the issue is not with them but rather with my unit in the car and I should raise this with Mazda.

Following that advice, I had Mazda dealer update the firmware to the latest one available but that hasn't fixed the issue either.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Any thoughts?

Canadian here with a 2019 Signature.

This happened to me JUST this morning.

I can confirm that is has nothing to do with trial periods, because I had an active subscription on my Mazda 6 that was transferred over to the new CX5 last month. THey tacked on the 3 month trial to the end of my current subscription.

Mine was working perfectly fine last night when I parked the car. Turned the car on this morning, and the FM radio came on (which I *never* listen to).

When I tried to switch to SiriusXM, I got the same message as you got "Channel unavailable".

However, channels 300-306 were there, and were listenable.

I initially tried to re-send the signal (something you can do yourself from your siriusxm Online account), waited about 30 minutes, then I cold-booted the system (Return button, mute and NAV pressed together I think?).. System rebooted, and problem still existed.

Got into work, parked, came in for about 45 minutes, and decided to go out to try to troubleshoot.. Switched on SiriusXM, and voila - everything was fine.

I'm going to mention it to the dealer when I take it in the first service JUST to have it documented, but I believe its a software issue versus a hardware issue.

As mentioned above by someone else, I THINK it might have to do with how quickly you try to change the Infotainment screen when turning it on first time. I'm going to be more cognizant about letting it completely and 100% boot up before I start mucking around with it to see if its an end-user issue lol.

MIGHT be an ID10T error on my behalf.
 
As mentioned above by someone else, I THINK it might have to do with how quickly you try to change the Infotainment screen when turning it on first time. I'm going to be more cognizant about letting it completely and 100% boot up before I start mucking around with it to see if its an end-user issue lol.

MIGHT be an ID10T error on my behalf.

I have had issues with intermittent Voice Recognition working for XM Radio. I also had XM fail to load once. It's not because we're trying to interact before the software has fully loaded...I've given it a good 5-10 minutes down the road without doing anything before trying VR, and have had it fail. I even make sure to leave my phone's Bluetooth turned off so as to not hit the system right off the bat, and it makes no difference.

I don't think the infotainment software loads properly all the time. I have yet to try the cold boot...I forgot you have to hold those three buttons down for a full 10 seconds, so my single attempt at rebooting failed. Mazda must subcontract this out to Bill Gates ;)
 
I'm experiencing a pretty annoying issue with Sirius XM on my 2019 CX5 GT: upon starting the car (and waiting about a minute or so for the boot routine to complete) Sirius XM will not always work and the screen will display a message similar to "Siriu XM channels unavailable". In 80%-90% of the cases Sirius XM works. A few observations: if I select anything on the infotainment menu before allowing the system to finish the boot routine it's almost guaranteed that Sirius XM won't work and will display the above message.

I suspected an antenna issue of some sorts but while the system displays the unavailability of Sirius XM channels, I have no issues tuning into the, I think free, Sirius XM channels - there are about 10 free (?) channels upwards of channel 310.

Resending the signal request doesn't fix the issue. The only procedure that helps sometimes is turning the system off and wait for a few minutes, but again it's a guessing game if Sirius XM works after that. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.

Worth mentioning is that prior to my CX5 GT I owned a 2015 Mazda 6 GT and I never ever had an issue with Sirius XM in that car.

I called Sirius XM about this and, as expected, they said the issue is not with them but rather with my unit in the car and I should raise this with Mazda.

Following that advice, I had Mazda dealer update the firmware to the latest one available but that hasn't fixed the issue either.

Has anyone experienced a similar issue? Any thoughts?

Had my Signature since New Year's Eve and this happened to me for the first time on Saturday.
If it happens again, off to the dealer it goes.
 
I have had issues with intermittent Voice Recognition working for XM Radio. I also had XM fail to load once. It's not because we're trying to interact before the software has fully loaded...I've given it a good 5-10 minutes down the road without doing anything before trying VR, and have had it fail. I even make sure to leave my phone's Bluetooth turned off so as to not hit the system right off the bat, and it makes no difference.

I don't think the infotainment software loads properly all the time. I have yet to try the cold boot...I forgot you have to hold those three buttons down for a full 10 seconds, so my single attempt at rebooting failed. Mazda must subcontract this out to Bill Gates ;)

Ironically, this happened a day to me after the NAV system failed totally.

I had 2 issues with the nav system the day before: (to note, I had just updated the maps)

1) The screen went black. Literally went black and was unresponsive. It was still giving me turn by turn instructions though. Eventually, the screen 'recovered' itself, however which was weird.
2) Later that day, I went into a car wash and came out, and when I did, the NAV system was stuck as if I was at the car-wash. I had to physically soft-boot (Return button, Mute and NAV pressed together I think), in order to reboot he system.

Ironically, it was the next morning that the SiriusXM failed to load.

You might be right, I think there might be an issue with the infotainment system not loading properly all the time.
 
Ironically, this happened a day to me after the NAV system failed totally.

I had 2 issues with the nav system the day before: (to note, I had just updated the maps)

1) The screen went black. Literally went black and was unresponsive. It was still giving me turn by turn instructions though. Eventually, the screen 'recovered' itself, however which was weird.
2) Later that day, I went into a car wash and came out, and when I did, the NAV system was stuck as if I was at the car-wash. I had to physically soft-boot (Return button, Mute and NAV pressed together I think), in order to reboot he system.

Ironically, it was the next morning that the SiriusXM failed to load.

You might be right, I think there might be an issue with the infotainment system not loading properly all the time.

I commented elsewhere that I had this sequence of It Works/It Fails:

-My last trip of the day did not work
-Next morning: Worked
-90 minutes later left that destination: Did not work
-Drove to a store, shopped for 5 minutes, came out & started the car: Did not work
-Drove across the street to get gas, started the car up to leave: Worked
-Drove to the grocery store and shopped, started the car up to leave: Worked
-Got home, hung out for several hours, started the car up to leave: Did not work

The thing is that the last week or so, it worked 90% of the time and failed rarely.
But I'm retired, and do not drive every day. When I do drive, it's usually hopping from one store/gas station to the next (several successive restarts of the car).

Again, the occasional failure is when using VR and saying "XM [station name]." Saying "XM [station#]" never fails. No other feature has failed (no blank screens), but I don't use other Infotainment stuff.

I have not taken it in to the dealer. I'm waiting to see if other issues arise.
 
Last edited:
I thought I'd update you on my experience on this..

SO, again this morning, my Sirius isn't working on my 2019 Signature.

It worked last night all the way home, and when I went out this morning nothing. Only channels that were working were 300-317 or something. None of my subscribed channels were showing or available.

Ironically, yesterday I got a carwash. This is the second time that this has occurred AFTER a car-wash.

I'm going to go out to my car later on and see if its working (last time this happened, I parked it at work for an hour and then checked and everything was back to normal).

This is extremely annoying.. I don't know how going through a carwash would affect SiriusXM the NEXT DAY, or whether or not it's just coincidence that this occurred after carwashes.

I also noticed that when in Carplay and trying to navigate to the "Artists" section of my music, it would ONLY show me the Previously played artists and not the full list of artists.. so.. I really really really don't know. I'm lost.
 
Ironically, yesterday I got a carwash. This is the second time that this has occurred AFTER a car-wash.

I don't know how going through a carwash would affect SiriusXM the NEXT DAY, or whether or not it's just coincidence that this occurred after carwashes.

If you do go to your dealer on this issue, definitely mention the possibly related car wash factor. I mean, unlikely in a more modern car, but maybe possible that moisture is getting into/onto something that's causing a problem with the Sirius box or the connections/antenna's ability to connect and confirm your unit as being subscribed. It just seems odd that it has happened both times soon afterwards.
 
Ironically, yesterday I got a carwash. This is the second time that this has occurred AFTER a car-wash.

So how many times has it happened unrelated to a car wash?

I've only had the one "Complete Failure to Load XM" on my Reserve, but the intermittent Voice Recognition issue I've had still persists.

As an aside, I don't use the NAV very often, and when I loaded a Destination in it last week and it timed down to begin the trip, it failed to give me directions (nothing on the Infotainment screen, nothing on the HUD, no voice directions). I could bring the route up in the system, so it plotted the path...it just wasn't sharing. So as I was driving, I decided to pull into a gas station and reboot the system. All it took was for me to turn slightly in the opposite direction of the destination, and the thing woke up: "Recalculating Route." Then the directions came up, both displayed as well as spoken.

I've never had sophisticated systems like this. I wonder if they're all this flaky.
 
So how many times has it happened unrelated to a car wash?

I've only had the one "Complete Failure to Load XM" on my Reserve, but the intermittent Voice Recognition issue I've had still persists.

As an aside, I don't use the NAV very often, and when I loaded a Destination in it last week and it timed down to begin the trip, it failed to give me directions (nothing on the Infotainment screen, nothing on the HUD, no voice directions). I could bring the route up in the system, so it plotted the path...it just wasn't sharing. So as I was driving, I decided to pull into a gas station and reboot the system. All it took was for me to turn slightly in the opposite direction of the destination, and the thing woke up: "Recalculating Route." Then the directions came up, both displayed as well as spoken.

I've never had sophisticated systems like this. I wonder if they're all this flaky.

I suspect that they're not all this flaky - the Infotainment on the CX-5 (and inherently any Mazda's apart from the new 3) are just horrendous. They're slow, and way too much clicking and scrolling and stuff.
 
If you do go to your dealer on this issue, definitely mention the possibly related car wash factor. I mean, unlikely in a more modern car, but maybe possible that moisture is getting into/onto something that's causing a problem with the Sirius box or the connections/antenna's ability to connect and confirm your unit as being subscribed. It just seems odd that it has happened both times soon afterwards.

Definitely will.

Does anyone know where the SiriusXM module IS on our car? I know the antenna is clearly on the roof, but where is the actual receiver? It must be behind the dash?

I would think if it WAS water contamination or moisture, that the issue would only have happened right away - but both times it was literally the next day.
 
I commented elsewhere that I had this sequence of It Works/It Fails:

-My last trip of the day did not work
-Next morning: Worked
-90 minutes later left that destination: Did not work
-Drove to a store, shopped for 5 minutes, came out & started the car: Did not work
-Drove across the street to get gas, started the car up to leave: Worked
-Drove to the grocery store and shopped, started the car up to leave: Worked
-Got home, hung out for several hours, started the car up to leave: Did not work

The thing is that the last week or so, it worked 90% of the time and failed rarely.
But I'm retired, and do not drive every day. When I do drive, it's usually hopping from one store/gas station to the next (several successive restarts of the car).

Again, the occasional failure is when using VR and saying "XM [station name]." Saying "XM [station#]" never fails. No other feature has failed (no blank screens), but I don't use other Infotainment stuff.

I have not taken it in to the dealer. I'm waiting to see if other issues arise.

I've had this happen a couple times since I posted this, and everytime it's happened (despite me having got a carwash the day before), the ONE thing I noticed I had done was plugged my phone in to Carplay WHILE the Infotainment system was still booting up.

I'm wondering if the best-practice would be to let it completely boot before connecting my phone?

Have you noticed any similar behaviour with yours?
 
I've had this happen a couple times since I posted this, and everytime it's happened (despite me having got a carwash the day before), the ONE thing I noticed I had done was plugged my phone in to Carplay WHILE the Infotainment system was still booting up.

I'm wondering if the best-practice would be to let it completely boot before connecting my phone?

Have you noticed any similar behaviour with yours?

I had the same thought. I don't use my phone all that much, and never for anything other than a phone (or a mobile HotSpot at home).

I have only connected my phone to my car via BlueTooth, and do not connect it every time I'm in the car.

I have had the VR issue when my phone was not connected at all.
 
Back