This is a strange situation and I doubt anyone will have any solution, but I’m hoping maybe I’m wrong.
We updated my son’s iPhone from a XS to an 11 Pro.
Since then, it will not connect reliably with his 2013 Dodge Dart (the entertainment system is called “UCONNECT”).
Apparently the must be some kind of difference in the Bluetooth between the two iPhones, although I haven’t seen much about that online.
Sometimes he can get it to pair, but once the car is shut off, it won’t reliably reconnect.
This worked flawlessly with his XS.
We’ve tried rebooting the iPhone, un-pairing / re-pairing it with the car, we even brought the car to the shop to see if there was a software or firmware update available for the car radio system.
Other ideas?
I thought that plugging the iPhone in via USB would be an alternative, although not nearly as convenient. Turns out that the Music app on the iPhone is completely stupid when hooked via USB. It stops whatever is playing, and starts playing his music library from A-Z. Apparently this is a long-standing issue with the music app on the iPhone and USB connections to cars, but nothing has been done to fix it. (Maybe Apple assumes everyone will eventually be using CarPlay?)
Anyway, this is super frustrating and aggravating.
The start playing from the beginning happens with BT too. I thought I figured out that it did it in my car but not my SOs, however it just started doing it there too. No rhyme or reason to it. Incredibly annoying.
I have a 2016 Honday Civic with high end dash/radio features. It’s really an Android tablet. V4 something or the other. I’ve had 2 separate updates while under warranty. But the issue with many car makers and dealers is they treat the updates
as “parts” and if your description of the issues doesn’t match the official reason for the “part” to be replaced many dealers will not apply the updates. I got to get all the updates to mine just before the factory warranty ended when it got stuck in rear
view camera mode while playing a podcast from my iPhone and driving down the road at 60mph. With a few odd menus overlaying the rear view image. I was able to get a picture of it after pulling over. Dealer applied all updates without charge.
But as to connecting via Bluetooth I’ve always had intermittent issues. Many times they would be solve by re-booting the car console. (Yes there will be a way to do it buried somewhere in the instructions.) Also a NETWORK reset of the phone
would make things better. Various iOS releases and phones made the issue somewhat better or worse. Started with an iPhone 6s, then an X, now an 11pro. All could/can be counted on to not connect 1 to 3 times a month.
I have a 2012 Subaru Forester. I had a similar problem with my iPhone 6. The workaround I found online was to connect it using verbal prompts on the car’s system rather than pressing button on the headunit. When I had to upgrade my phone last year after the 6 died, I again reconnected using voice prompts to the car rather than the buttons on the head unit.
Given this Subaru oddity, if you have alternate ways to connect to the car you might try them. I can think of no good reason for what I have described to be true, but it reliably fixed the connection problem I was having.