VLC stops playing when connected to car via bluetooth if it's paused or I turn off and turn my car back on

When I have my phone connected to my car audio using bluetooth, if I shut off my car then subsequently turn it back on, my phone reconnects but the audio will not resume. I also noticed this happens if I pause the playback for any reason for more than a minute. For example, if I'm in a drive through at Dunkin Donuts, I will get my coffee and when I look back at my stereo, it gives me the standard message that no audio file is selected.

Typically, with other audio apps, if you turn your car off and then turn it back on, when the phone reconnects it just picks up where it left off. Up until a few weeks ago, this was how the app acted, but one day it just stopped.

If I turn off my car and turn it back on, the phone reconnects, but it's like I haven't selected an audio file to play. I can use the pull down menu and see the app is still in the background, with the last playing song listed and a play button. But when I hit that play button, it momentarily turns into a pause button, then goes back to a play button. It will never resume the audio. In order to get audio to start again I have to open the app, find my artist/album/song again, and choose to play it from the app being open in front. It will continue to play until I pause it again or turn off my car.

I am not getting any app crashing messages, the app otherwise works just fine except for this one issue. I thought maybe I messed up the app permissions somehow, so I uninstalled and reinstalled the app but the same thing is happening.

Steps to reproduce

1. Connect to car audio
2. Start playing a song
3. Turn the Car off
4. Turn it back on and let bluetooth reconnect
5. The song does not start playing and can't be unpaused from the pulldown menu without opening the app and selecting the audio from the interface

Screenshot / video

Context

App version: 3.5.3

Android version: 13

Device model: Google Pixel 5

App mode

Smartphone