iPhone won't work well with Pioneer DEH-5900IB Car Stereo

Welcome to the forums.

The iPhone is not an iPod, and the dock connection outputs are different, there is no doubt about that. The one and only thing I can suggest is you might try the universal dock just released -- try plugging a dock connector into that and see if it doesn't "fool" the situation by keeping some of the pins out (I kind of doubt it will work but if you are interested I can try this myself next week as I ordered two of these for other uses, and I do have a similar car stereo setup for my iPods which work fine for my Nano but will not work for the iPhone).

Hi Mike (and swkim - I seem to be following your posts on various forums!). I'd be very interested in any solution to this as well:

I just received my Pioneer DEH-7900BT receiver, installed it, and am having the EXACT same problem that swkim and other users are reported to be having using their iPhones (and in some cases newer iPods) with a connected Pioneer CD-I200 ipod adapter! The very first time I connected the iPhone to the receiver, it worked great - I was able to scroll through the playlists and songs, etc. However, like others, 9times out of 10 after that I get the dreaded "error-A0" message on the Pioneer display and I can't see my playlists (although the music will automatically resume playing and I can skip to the next/previous tracks with the receiver but am unable to see any details of those tracks). The iphone/ipod on initial connection will ask me whether I want to switch to the airplane mode (to which I say no). Then the music will play immediately, and then the Pioneer receiver will showed the message "error a0" with no playlist and the iPhone/iPod will indicate that it is not charging. I could still change the song by using the navigation button (i.e. by clicking the wheel left or right side) though. I've tried a multitude of patterns of trying to get it to work - engine on/off, iPhone on/off, resetting the iPhone, resetting the Pioneer receiver, switching sources, and trying different timing sequences between each of these - there seems to be no pattern! - suddenly, every 9th or 10th try, one of these sequences of resetting will suddenly work and I'll have full menu display functionality on the receiver that remains functional for the duration that my iPhone is connected (even if I switch sources ie. to Tuner and switch back to the iPhone). Just like swkim, an easy way to tell if the receiver is going to have the 'error-A0' problem is when the battery indicator on the iPhone stays the same and does not change to the 'charge' status (indicating that it isn't charging). On the rare occasion when there is no 'error-A0' and the pioneer receiver displays the playlist correctly, the battery indicator on the iPhone changes to the 'charging' status, so the whole functionality must be linked somehow - it almost seems to be acting similarly to my PC in that when there is a software or USB error and the iPhone is not recognized, it won't charge either... I wager the problem might be an issue with the iPod driver in the Pioneer receiver?

Any help/tips would be appreciated!! I can't imagine it's a damaged receiver given that others are having this problem.... one person in an Apple thread mentioned that the 'error-A0' resolved after they replaced their receiver with a new one, but I wonder if that was a different cause...

I havn't tried the receiver with my regular Video iPod yet - I'll see if the same 'error-A0' issue comes up for that in my case like it has for others. This problem was verified using my iPhone..

I'll bet your iPod will work just fine with it.

I tried the universal dock with my Alpine iPhone unit and it did not work at all -- same issues (Do you want to run in airplane mode?).

Since my Nano and other iPods work fine with it I'm sure it's down (again) to the pins of the iPhone being very different -- the same plus more and the iPhone seems to know when they are connected.

This probably has the same problems (but is worth a try):

http://www.carplayer.com/

Hey swkim... I just spent an hour outside fiddling around with the iPhone/Pioneer and I think I may have found a temporary workaround... let me know if this works for you!:

With the car ignition on, and no iPhone attached to the CDi200 cord, for this first time only (to get out of the 'Error-A0' rut) reset the Pioneer reciever (on mine it involves pushing that small indentation with a pen on the front of the receiver). Hard-Poweroff your iPhone (holding the top button until the red slider comes up to power off the iphone and go ahead and turn the iphone off). The receiver should be on in its reset mode (ie. demo mode or whatever). Now, plug in the CDi200 cord into the powered-off iPhone. It should activate the iPhone. Don't press any buttons - just let it power up by itself. In 100% of the cases i've tried this way, the Pioneer Receiver will switch to the iPod state and stay in the Ready functional mode until the iphone fully boots up, and then it will start to play, charge and work normally without the dreaded error-A0!

Now - the trick to getting this to work each subsequent time without having to reset the receiver each time (because if we have to reset the receiver each time it would be pointless - our tuner settings are gone, possibly BTooth settings gone if your receiver has that option, etc):

When you're ready to stop the car or turn off the ignition, do so. Feel free to detach the faceplate, etc if necessary. the Iphone in the cases I tried were still attached to the CD-i200 cord as I turned off the machine. After the receiver powered off, I unhooked the CD-i200 cord from the iPhone. When I was ready to start it up again, I first turned on the ignition, hooked on the receiver faceplate, and allowed it to boot up (no need to 'reset' the receiver). The trick is though that I made sure the iPhone is now hard-powered off again before attaching it to the CD-i200 cord. Now, attach the powered-off iPhone to the cord. it will cause it to turn on and boot up again... but now (in 100% of the times I've tried so far), the receiver will now see it in its Ready state and will work!

Anyways, let me know if this works for you. If this does, it would suggest that the problem may be with how an iPhone left powered-on tells the receiver where to resume playing a song. The upside of this workaround is that it doesn't require a reset of the receiver each time (thankfully) and, while connected in a working state (ie. non error-A0 state), it also survives Source changes so one is free to change to the TUner mode, etc, and back to the ipod source. The downside though is that one has to hard-power off the iPhone each time before connecting it to the receiver (annoying but not a biggy for me as long as this works), and instead of resuming from the spot in the song last played, it starts from track1 since the iPhone was reset (also not a big deal for me). The other downside I found is that, if the order sequence of the above workaround is changed and I end up with an 'error-A0' message, then I have to go back and reset the receiver (annoying since I'd lose my Tuner settings, ?possibly my Equalizer settings, and ?possibly my BTooth device settings on my DEH-7900BT)...

Mike - I also went the other way and tried a really old iPod dock (generation ?2 back when the iPods were 15GB) that normally gives the 'do you want to run in airplan mode' message when the iPhone is docked in it. When the old dock is connected to the CD-i200 Pioneer cable on the receiver, the receiver suddenly shows this 'USB-ready' message. But when I put the iPhone in the old dock (that is connected to the receiver), the iPhone go the 'airplane mode' message as expected but it would neither charge nor would the receiver even recognize that anything new was being attached (ie. no Ready or no error messages) - so no go with the older docks either...

[Edit: sorry to get your hopes up - the above WAS reproducible... but I left the car for about 4 hours, came back, started the ignition, and the below workaround no longer works. I can't for the life of me get the Error-A0 message to go away no matter how I plug/restart the receiver/iPhone 😟 I'll give it a few more days but I think the receiver is going back to the store... may have to wait until the new year when Pioneer releases receivers that are truly compatible with the newer iPods/iPhones...]

Edit: Ugh, sorry to get your hopes up - the below WAS reproducible... but I left the car for about 4 hours, came back, started the ignition, and the below workaround no longer works. I can't for the life of me get the Error-A0 message to go away no matter how I plug/restart the receiver/iPhone 😟 I'll give it a few more days but I think the receiver is going back to the store... may have to wait until the new year when Pioneer releases receivers that are truly compatible with the newer iPods/iPhones...

Tim,

Do you suppose that interface (that I linked the URL to) would work with your Pioneer?

It talks as if it would pass the right info -- it might be worth a check before you send your receiver back.

Hey Mike - I had a look at the ipod car adapter you linked to. Hmm, it looks like it would allow the iphone to be connect to the receiver, but no track/playlist info would be passed and the only thing the receiver might be able to do is forward/reverse between tracks (which the current Cd-i200 does even when it is malfunctioning). The car adapter you linked to has the benefit of probably being able to charge properly...

Unfortunately I wonder if Pioneer even knows of the current iPhone/CD-i200 adapter issue at all - since Japan is mainly CDMA, there aren't any/many Japanese iPhone users to warrant any attention back in Pioneer headquarters...

Today I tried registering my iPhone to the receiver's Bluetooth and it worked like a charm. It may be enough to get me to keep the receiver despite its incompatibility with the iphone, with the hopes that somoene will come out with a workaround. Interestingly, when I first registered my iPhone via bluetooth with the Pioneer receiver, I then attached the CD-i200 adapter and voila the iPhone was working properly via the iPod functions! It survived many shutdowns, power offs, etc. I came back hours later to reconnect my iPod - no go, the error-A0 again! It's very frustrating.. there appears to be no pattern. It just comes and goes...

Wow -- your efforts reminded me of what it was like to live on the bleeding edge of technology.

In my old age I've stopped that -- just wait now for things to catch up to me rather than try and figure them out. But I am in awe of your energy.

Thanks - yeah, the big letdowns of course are when one jumps into it only for the 'fixed' revision to pop up on retail for the same price only a month later. Hopefully if that ever becomes the case for this Pioneer receiver, it'll either be something I can send in for a firmware upgrade (since I don't recall Pioneer ever having firmware upgrades downloadable for car receivers though they do it for their own home AV receivers). That being said, I sadly doubt that Pioneer will do much about it until the iPhone becomes prolific in Japan, which it probably won't for a long while since there is no CDMA version of the iPhone... Just wish I knew what the pattern was that allows the DEH-5900IB and DEH-7900BT receivers to work sometimes with the iPhone, and not the other times...

Well, just got off the phone with Pioneer support (just on a whim). The fellow on the line was adamant that the issue is an iPhone/new-iPod issue and that i would have to wait for a 'driver' update by Apple. He suggested trying a new 'CD-i200' ipod adapter, but that was about it. Pioneer, according to him, has no plans on trying to do a driver/firmware fix as they feel it is a problem on the 'Apple' side, but stated that he was aware that people were having issues with getting the iPhone, itouch, or classic Ipods to work on them. sigh... the Btooth works so wonderfully too. Will mull it over the weekend but I think this Pioneer receiver is going back to the shop and I'll have to look for something that's guaranteed to work (ie. the newer Alpines, Kenwoods).

If anyone is attempting to use the Pioneer receivers with an iPhone, iTouch or the new 'Classic' iPods, I highly suggest NOT getting either the Pioneer DEH-5900IB or the Pioneer DEH-7900BT as Pioneer has no plans on fixing either receiver to make them compatible.

Sorry about that, Tim.

While it doesn't work with the iPhone, my Alpine (a very early unit that was one of the first to offer "iPod" compatibility) works fine with my nano and I really like the quality of the unit. I don't know how the newer Alpines compare feature wise but overall I wouldn't hesitate to recommend the company to anyone looking for a great car stereo, and I'm sure they are more interested in compatibility as they are always on the bleeding edge.

Hey Mike! Thanks for the tip on the Alpines. I have indeed (just in the last 5minutes) initiated a return authorization on the Pioneer unit back to the seller (JR.com). So sad... I really liked the unit otherwise (and the bluetooth works amazingly well). But shelling out $300 when I can't hook my iPhone to it killed it for me. I'll be looking at the newer Alpines for sure... while the newer ones actually LIST compatibility with the iPhone (wow!), unfortunately none of them seem to have BTooth built in - the BT addon that would be required (Alpine KCE-300BT) is $240 itself (ouch)... this Pioneer unit was only $299...