CarPlay troubles...ideas?

Discussion in 'Audio Hardware' started by head_unit, Sep 12, 2019.

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  1. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    This is in a VW Alltrack, which frankly does not have the best infotainment implementation. I've started having trouble connecting to CarPlay:
    - On plug-in a "USB Connecting" message appears then drops immediately
    - Sometimes the connection was dropping and CarPlay would vanish
    This is in the last maybe month and a half, spanning an iPhone 5c AND an iPhone 7, plus a variety of cables. At lest some of which worked in a Chevy Volt I occasionally drive. Then last week things seemed OK, now back to no connection.

    I've started wondering if there is some phone setting making a problem? I have the setting to accept CarPlay while locked* ON, but today when my brother texted me he got an automated
    "I’m driving with Do Not Disturb While Driving turned on. I’ll see your message when I get where I’m going" message, which was the first time and I certainly did not turn that on today.

    *I guess I can turn off passcode entirely and see what happens as well.
     
  2. Sevoflurane

    Sevoflurane Forum Resident

    Is the car’s USB socket okay? If you try a USB stick with music on does that work? I don’t have the same car / phone as you, but as you have ruled out a cable problem i’d want to exclude a physical problem with the USB socket. I do use CarPlay on a Mitsubishi with an iPhone XS Max and have found it very stable.
     
    head_unit likes this.
  3. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    Ah, good idea, thanks! I can also try connecting little clip players I have.
     
  4. Hershiser

    Hershiser Forum Resident

    I have similar issues connecting 100 percent of the time with car play in our VW Tiguan 2017. Seems to only way to get it recognize when this happens is to do a power off of the phone wait a few moments and then turn it back on.
     
    head_unit likes this.
  5. charlie W

    charlie W EMA Level 10

    Location:
    Area Code 254
    I've had this problem in my 2018 Honda Civic of intermittent CarPlay connections. First of all, CarPlay will only work with 1 USB port in the Honda. The second USB port will see the iPhone as another media player. I have tried a few solutions like using a different Lightning cable with my iPhone 7. Sometimes, I got it to work after doing a hard re-boot on the iPhone then connect it to the car. Then I tried it from the other end by shutting down the car, letting it sit for 30 minutes or less then re-starting the car. Actually, that usually works. One trip to the dealership and I couldn't replicate the problem for them.
     
  6. I just bought a 2019 VW Golf Sportwagen (same wagon IIRC) and had some similar issues. I now forget the exact message but essentially it said it did not recognize the device. I think it had something to do with the auto launch feature on the phone. Matters were made worse as we were constantly toggling between my Android and my girlfriend's iPhone. Everything seems ok now and I think it's more to do with your app settings on your phone than it is the infotainment system. Although I could always be wrong and I did nothing but curse at the VW, even brought it back to the dealer, where it behaved perfectly for the tech and his phone.
     
    head_unit likes this.
  7. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    Is that consistent? Or does even that fail sometimes?
    And on another note, is your Tiguan also so stupid that you can't tell it to "Call 333-666-9999"? (I don't mean via Siri, but the car. I can tell the car "Call mom" etc but not dial a number in one step, SO dumb).
     
  8. head_unit

    head_unit Senior Member Thread Starter

    Location:
    Los Angeles CA USA
    mmm, what do you mean by that exactly? I have a feelign maybe it is phone related, rather pray it is because I'll buy another phone if I have to but after over 10 years testing this kind of stuff I know the dealer will be clueless. I turned off my passcode but that didn't do it, sigh.
     
  9. Hershiser

    Hershiser Forum Resident

    It started acting flaky now playing my iPod Nano connected to USB. It recognizes it but will not play. It toggles between play and pause but nothing happens.

    I haven’t tried telling it to dial a number. I usually say the contact. I will try tomorrow.
     
  10. jbmcb

    jbmcb Forum Resident

    Location:
    Troy, MI, USA
    I've had similar issues with an old iPhone 5 and a 2017 Chevy Volt. It ended up being a cable problem - swapped out the lightning cable with a a new one and it worked much better.

    Also, I've found that if you wait to disconnect the phone until after you turn the car off, the re-connect process when you plug it back in goes much smoother/faster.
     
    Kristofferabild and head_unit like this.
  11. Circling back here to update my previous posts. All my problems disappeared when I upgraded from the old Galaxy s7 edge to a new Galaxy S10+. We continue to switch between an iPhone 8 and the Galaxy without issue.
     
  12. Jim0830

    Jim0830 Forum Resident

    I had a similar issue with my 2015 VW Jetta. Both Apple and VW looked into it deeply and it was never fixed. Each time iOS was updated I hoped it would be fixed. I tried different phones and different cables with no added success. VW did a reset of the software in my head end and downloaded new firmware for it with no success. It would just happen. I spent time with some senior level Apple support people out at my car trying different things with my iPhones and settings on my head unit to no avail. The only thing that worked some of the time was restarting the iPhone. I would sometimes have to disconnect it and wait 5 or 10 minutes before trying the restart again.

    Sadly the solution was the 2019 Jetta I got when I had to renew my lease. I have never had any problems with my iPhone Xs or 11 Pro Max.
     
  13. Kristofferabild

    Kristofferabild Forum Resident

    Location:
    Denmark
    An Apple certified lighting cable solved all my problems.
     
  14. dougotte

    dougotte Petty, Annoying Dilettante

    Location:
    Washington, DC
    Newer vehicles handle CarPlay better. Our 2011 Prius doesn't handle CarPlay, but I can stream music from the iPhone via the Bluetooth input.

    Our 2019 Volvo works flawlessly. As charlie W noted above, it only works on one of the USB inputs, by design.
     
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