I feel like a right mug. Availability of CarPlay was a major factor in my latest car purchase decision. Then, within a matter of months, Apple managed to break CarPlay for me and many others with its release of iOS 14.6. I am usually cautious about Apple OS upgrades, but I didn’t see warnings about this anywhere before upgrading to iOS 14.6. Only afterwards, and only where motorheads hang out. Why aren’t Apple users complaining about this? More importantly, how do we get Apple to fix this?
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My husband and I both have used Car Play since we downloaded 14.6, and we each have an iPhone 8+ We have not had any problems so far.
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Can you be more specific? What about it is broken? Does it just not load at all when you connect to your vehicle?
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In what way are you having problems? Mine is working fine with a iPhone 11Pro and a Toyota.
I was happily using my iPhone 12 Pro Max with a Honda Jazz 2021 hybrid (in the US, it’s called a Honda Fit 2021 hybrid) via Bluetooth. Once set up, CarPlay worked automatically so long as the phone was in the car. If I needed to charge the phone, I could plug it into the USB. Now it’s possible to connect it via bluetooth as a phone or an audio device, but when I attempt to activate CarPlay, it cannot connect to the phone. I’ve started from scratch, rebooted everything, tried switching Siri on and off as recommended in some quarters. Turns out, if I delete all pairing between the car and the phone I can sometimes get CarPlay up when I attach the phone via USB.
Elsewhere, I am seeing reports like these:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/252846937?answerId=255414710022
and several Reddit threads.
As I understand it the use of Bluetooth for Carplay is a recent development and only works for some vehicle models where the manufacturer has enabled this feature. It seems that iOS 14.6 has broken this link for some vehicles. Maybe an update to 14.6 will fix it or it may require a vehicle software update.
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Interesting.
I found that with my iPhone XS and 2020 Honda HR-V it randomly disconnects when using Google Maps. I always connect with a USB cable.
Sometimes it plays music while not able to connect to Maps.
There really hasn’t been any distinct pattern that I’ve been able to identify.
It happens randomly.
My wife’s iPhone 11 Pro Max (whatever) seems not to be affected.
I see the same thing in a 2018 Kia Sedona (using an iPhone 6+, iPhone 7 and iPod Touch 7). I’ve always assumed that the USB cable connection is what’s flaky, since the radio reports a complete USB disconnect/reconnect whenever it flaps.
As a workaround, I frequently connect my iPod via the headphone jack to the car’s aux-in connector and clip my phone to a vent (using its own display and speakers). It works, but CarPlay is nicer, when it doesn’t act flaky.
When we bought our Toyota almost two year ago, the salesman stressed that Car Play was a built in feature.
As soon as this thread came up, my CarPlay has been inconsistent. I also was attributing it to a cable problem, will replace it but keep an eye on the thread and updates.
There will be a CarPlay specification that car manufacturers are supposed to implement. A possibility is that they haven’t implemented it properly but managed to get to get it working with trial and error for earlier versions of CarPlay. Now Apple have changed something in CarPlay that means they now have to do it properly. Apple sometimes changes things for good reason, like security, but it still should work. The other possibility is that Apple has changed something that means CarPlay no longer meets the specification. I expect it is the former. They may have been more forgiving over incorrect protocols and now they aren’t. I would be telling the car company, especially if the car is under warranty, and if they don’t do something then if there is a consumer affairs complain to them. Complain also to Apple, as they may be more interested and probably would be able to sort out what is happening faster. If all else fails, try and get one of the companies that specialises in class actions interested.
Yes, there are specifications, but auto manufacturers don’t seem to care. It is the same for the (I assume simpler) iPod interface.
Most cars I plug my iPods into have problems. Random disconnects (sometimes requiring me to disconnect the USB cable to recover) are common. Crashing the iPod (requiring a force-restart to recover) is common with many cars and my iPod Classic. And other similar problems. It’s often far better to just run an audio cable from the headphone jack to the car’s line-in jack than to use the USB interface.
I’ve reported these bugs to the car manufacturers and to Apple. The car manufacturers don’t seem to care about bugs in the radio firmware. Apple doesn’t seem interested either (and I don’t think it’s Apple’s bug because the crashes never happen when it isn’t connected to a car).
There’s certainly no shortage of Apple technologies that developers worked to implement but eventually gave up on when Apple seemingly never got them right (Sync Services pops to mind immediately), so I wouldn’t count on it not being Apple’s fault. On the other hand, I’ve had much the same results as David C with both iPod Classics and iPod Touches connecting via USB or Bluetooth just as a music player - devices randomly restarting (mostly the iPod Classics), or apps closing suddenly switching back to iTunes instead of what was just playing (iPod Touches).
My guess is it’s some of both; Apple can’t possibly test on every piece of hardware their devices they connect to, and possibly not even doing as good a job as they could, and car manufacturers not caring so much about a good experience as being able to list Apple connectivity as a bullet point in a sales brochure.
Hopefully it’s Apple’s fault, and hopefully word makes it out to the general public; they’re much more likely to implement a fix if people start to get the impression that CarPlay is unlikely to work in general than an individual car manufacturer is likely to make a fix if it’s something specific to their implementation, news of which will never have as much of a public impact.
First, just what IS a “right mug?”
Second, I’m wizened enough to remember when the poster child for the frailty of partnerships was not the first issue cover of Macworld Magazine (or maybe it was the second—a group photo of the then-in-ascendency CEOs of the nascent personal computer hardware and software companies), but rather a list of Elizabeth Taylor’s husbands. I’m pretty sure we’ll see more and more of this sort of thing).
My own personal affront is an apparent fraying of relationships between Audi and Google. My initial exposure to that romance was occasioned by VW Dieselgate, the adjudication of which enabled my spouse to acquire a fabulous 2017 Audi A4 equipped with Google Earth maps—hard to get lost when your navigation software shows you realistic 3D images of the buildings you’re passing. I was so impressed that I ended a 30 year relationship with BMW and took up with an Audi RS3 mistress (admittedly, her charms were MUCH more visceral, emerging from that 5 cylinder power plant, transmitting its glorious torque via a truly amazing dual-clutch gearbox to an amazing AWD system, precisely suspended. It made commuting to one remote work assignment over a 3000 foot climb over an almost deserted mountain pass a religious experience.
But, still, there was also those Google maps, lighting my way.
So, when it came time to abandon sedans for an SUV shared by a retiree couple, there was no choice other than an Audi (admittedly downsized in athleticism, but still wowing all who entered by the Google Earth display).
But, then, some time in the last 18 months, Google and Audi severed their relationship, and the Google Earth display is no more, and apparently will not be revived for pre-2019 Audiis marketed as enhanced by this delightful bit of video wizardry.
Cause for an expensive divorce settlement, with the proceeds not going to an aggrieved partner, but to the “victims” of the relationship? VW, Audi, and even Porsche have been down that road before, but on that occasion it’s because their pursuit of business success at the expense of truthfulness offended the wrong people (the EPA, during an administration that cared about such things).
I suspect that in the current Car Play instance, it’s just because the developers of the infotainment systems at so many car companies have to deal with the whims of so many “updates” foisted on them by the biggies in the personal electronics workspace, and that it probably will come out OK for both, but apparently the Google vs. Audi relationship is truly Kaput.
One question that comes to mind is: “Do aftermarket stereos have the same problems?”
I would think that makers of stereo equipment are going to be far more concerned about the quality of the stereo system than makers of cars.
Unfortunately, it’s much harder to replace a factory radio these days than 20 years ago (and if you do, you often lose important features like in-dash USB ports and wheel-mounted controls), so I have never had an opportunity to test this theory. Does anyone here use a modern aftermarket stereo in their car? What do you think of its iPod/CarPlay experience?
I went through a period of changing out cable more or less at random in the hopes that one of them would work that day with an iPhone and Car Play in a 2020 Honda. Haven’t had a problem with that, though, for at least the past 6 months.
Instead, I experience chronic failure of Waze, which will accept a destination and then go into endless ‘beachball’ while telling me to “Proceed to Route…”
The kludge I’ve happened on is to launch the Waze app directly from the phone instead of the car’s touchscreen and then immediately quit it. At that point I get the Waze icon up on the car’s display and when I tap it, it asks whether to continue the chosen trip. I confirm and then it works normally.
Aftermarket stereos seem to be falling by the wayside. I have a CarPlay system in our 2017 Civic, and when I looked into the possibility of putting an aftermarket CarPlay system into our 2014 Odyssey, I was basically told that aftermarket systems don’t really work with recent Hondas because so many of the car’s controls are part of the built-in system and its screen. (In my car, all the climate controls are handled through the touchscreen of the built-in system.)
I’ve generally been happy with CarPlay; my biggest issues have been unrelated to the car part of the interface. Since I subscribed to Apple Music, Siri really doesn’t seem eager to play music from my library that’s stored on the iPhone–I have to very explicitly ask for the music to be played “from my library” and even that doesn’t always work. Also, I had issues with playlists – first some of my playlists showed up as empty on the phone, and then all but one playlist just completely disappeared. I turned “Sync library” off, restarted the phone, turned it back on, and after a day or two my playlists were back on my phone. Some of this may be because my iMac is stuck at High Sierra, so the syncing from that side may not be as reliable as it would be if I could get up to date.
Dave
Just to be clear: CarPlay worked just fine when I first got my car (Honda Jazz/Fit hybrid) in March. It was wireless CarPlay, and it started up automatically so long as the iPhone was in the car. All manner of Apps worked with it, and the phone was integrated with the car’s controls. With the upgrade to iOS 14.6, it suddenly did not work any more. After all too much trial and error I’ve found CarPlay can work via USB so long as there is no hint of Bluetooth pairing between the phone and the car.
‘Right mug’. British slang. In British slang a ‘mug’ is a person who is easily deceived, a fool, a blockhead. ‘Right’ in this context in British usage would be closest to American ‘real’. So you could translate ‘right mug’ as ‘real dupe’. Sorry to have been arcane.
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I only have wired CarPlay in my 2019 5th gen Toyota Avalon hybrid. But when I paired via Bluetooth, behavior was flaky and argued with CarPlay. I turned pairing off and never turned it on again. I just got used to plugging iPhone in. Originally iPhone 7+ until upgrading it to iPhone 11 fall 2019.
I’m still within 2 year warranty and could report to Toyota, but it isn’t worth bothering for me. Toyota has also issued quarterly software updates for their system. I could retry Bluetooth pairing to test, but again it isn’t worth the bother.
P.S. I LOVE British Slang. 
Made my day when you posted that. My fave is “would you like a fag?”, meaning a cigarette. Still used?
A book from 1970 mentioned “right sod” and “sod off”. 
The Harry Potter books were more authentic and enjoyable with the British (or Canadian) editions because of the vernacular and the proper mythology before it got messed up by the American publisher. So keep doing what you’re doing and don’t apologize @deborah ! 
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