Apple CarPlay problem with 2019 Acura RDX and iPhone X

I noticed I wasn’t experiencing this issue when connecting my work phone (iPhone XR) to Apple CarPlay, but constantly experienced it with my personal phone (iPhone XS). Both are updated with the latest iOS update. The difference, I have the Acuralink app installed on my personal phone, the phone that kept disconnecting every couple minutes. I deleted Acuralink since I wasn’t subscribed to it anyways. After deleting the app, my personal phone did not disconnect on my 1 hour commute into work. That’s a first. I’ll need more time to test out this theory. Hopefully this works. Has anyone else tried deleting the Acuralink app, and has it resolved the CarPlay issues?

I'd recently taken my RDX into the dealership. They claimed they reset the infotainment system. However, I noticed that all of my radio stations were still programed. So, I followed the instructions to reset it. After the reset, I waited for everything to boot completely. Then I plugged in a genuine Apple USB cable, and my iPhone X. Things worked, and have remained stable. I'm sure I'll have to try it again once Acura / Apple roll out updates. But I'm cautiously optimistic with this.

Best of luck everyone.

After months of trying different things with no success, I also did the complete Factory Data Reset on the infotainment system over the weekend. I didn't lose the OTA software update that came out in November, but all settings and other data were wiped.

Amazingly for the first time since October it has actually been stable with no dropouts for about three days with several trips and three 30 minute commutes. I am cautiously optimistic. You would think that if this was all that was needed to fix the issue (which is a big safety issue), they would post a technical bulletin or article for dealers and owners.

Are others having success with this?

Frustrated_Acura_Carplay wrote:

After nearly a year of struggling with my 2020 RDX and Iphone XS Max with repeated carplay disconnects reconnects and disconnects, trying new cables, updating the InfoTainment system, resetting my phone. I finally solved the problem. I bought an Android Phone. It has been working seamlessly for over a week and Android Auto actually seems to be a better interface, where google maps leverages my HUD with turn by turn directions. I am still transitioning from an Iphone to an Android, but the carplay issues are gone.

It's a bummer that an Acura issue made you compromise your general security like this. The reason people are seeing success after Entertainment System Resets is an issue with the partitions within the Entertainment storage. A lot of caching goes on locally with maps and cover-art with no real system of cleanup. This cache dynamically expands until ALL of the storage is taken. There is no mechanism in place to dynamically shrink, a major oversight by Acura (or Alpine who actually makes those systems for Acura). So, Basically: Resetting is formatting and putting all the partitions at a size they should be.

When you plug in your iPhone it loads CarPlay FROM the iPhone, CarPlay does not exist in the infotainment system.... it is loaded from the iPhone every time you start CarPlay. CarPlay needs minimal space to run with minor caching. If the infotainment system is bloated then it cannot effectively cache and will not work correctly.

This is purely an Acura issue, you will run into this with your Android phone as it caches 3-4 times the amount of data. Which means you'll run into this issue 3-4 times as fast.

Hey There- I was the one who wrote about the fuse. My screen was stuck in the disclaimer screen and would not turn off even when the car was off. I called Acura- useless. Then contacted my brother in law who is a mechanic with another dealership. Long story short He advised my husband to swap out the #37 15A audio fuse. My husband did this and an hour later I was back up and running. You can find the exact location of the fuse in the manual. I have not had any issues with Car play since. But still this is the last Acura I am leasing. Love the car but not the headaches associated with audio. Good luck all. Hope this helps

Andy7269 wrote:

Hey There- I was the one who wrote about the fuse. My screen was stuck in the disclaimer screen and would not turn off even when the car was off. I called Acura- useless. Then contacted my brother in law who is a mechanic with another dealership. Long story short He advised my husband to swap out the #37 15A audio fuse. My husband did this and an hour later I was back up and running. You can find the exact location of the fuse in the manual. I have not had any issues with Car play since. But still this is the last Acura I am leasing. Love the car but not the headaches associated with audio. Good luck all. Hope this helps

Same as a factory reset.

Have 2 Acuras with the same issue. You MUST use an Apple cable. Any other brand will drop connection.

UPDATE: I went to the dealership for an unrelated issue and asked the tech if they could do something about this glitch. I have a 2019 Acura RDX and an iPhone X running latest iOS version. After having to fill in the dealership on the situation (they claimed knew nothing about it...) they offered to look into it. When I got the car back they said they did not find anything wrong but did an update on the Acura Software and did a "reboot" of the car system after that and it seemed to have helped! I have not seen the issue back since but once (knock on wood) . I did not do a wipe on my phone nor was that recommended to me though. Acura of course blames Apple and I am sure Apple blames Acura. We'll see how this goes, hopefully they can fix this soon, its really annoying when it happens.

Well, I did the factory data reset and haven't had any disconnects in about 2 hours of driving. Even if it's a few week fix, I'm happy resetting again. Only take a couple of min to get my stuff set up again. I wish for a permanent fix, but this will work for now. Thanks for posting Slackmack.

I tried a second reboot of the Infotainment system using YouTube instructions on my car but did not fix the CarPlay disconnect issue. After the second reboot I drove the car for 10 minutes and CarPlay disconnected and then reconnected 3 times making CarPlay unusable.

I called my local Acura dealer and they said they have gotten 15 calls on the CarPlay disconnect issue in the past month. Service rep said it is happening on both RDX and MDX models. He said Android auto is working OK but he is hearing about the issue a lot on CarPlay.

He said hopefully the upcoming software update will fix the issue but he said that could be a number of months off but he said Acura has not told them when the update will be.

MACThornhill, it shows up as a red number 1 on System Updates icon. New version is D.1.1.4.

If you do not see that then you should probably call Acura or your dealer to ask why it is not showing up for you. As you mentioned, maybe they have not released in Canada yet

Brian,

I will try that by making sure the USB connection is as tight as possible every time I plug in the phone and report back what I find.

The symptoms I was seeing over the last few days is that you would plug in the phone when I started the car, it would connect for a few minutes then disconnect and then connect again after about 5 minutes and kept doing that cycle the entire time I was driving around.

This morning I did try pushing in firmly on the USB connection and I did not have any disconnects as I drove around for about an hour. So will keep trying that over the next few days and see what happens

This is a known issue with the 2019 RDX. I've been going back and forth with Acura Client Relations department and they just got back to me today and said they don't have an ETA for the fix, but it "should" be by the end of the year - no guarantees. For me, the infotainment system (which is one of the main features that I bought the car for) is completely useless with this known defect.

You should file your complaint with Acura. Their Client Relations number is 800-382-2238

Good luck

Dave

I originally thought the disconnects were due to a faulty cable as well. I took a fairly new cable that I use (flawlessly) in my 2019 TLX and put it in the RDX for a couple days and had tons of disconnects. I put the cable back in the TLX and there were no issues. After discussing the issue with some Acura mechanics who are familiar with the situation, it turns out that there are some bugs in the software related to CarPlay and the infotainment system/user input system (trackpad) that is causing the infotainment system CPU to get overloaded, causing things to slow down, processes to crash (like the iPhone connection thread), and potentially crash the entire system. Think about when you open a browser tab on your computer and go to a site that has bad javascript and causes the rest of your browser to slow down or crash (and possibly crash your OS) - that's what's happening here.

The next time you lose your connection (CarPlay/Charging), unplug the lightening side, turn the plug over and re-insert. I got $5 that says it works :)

As for Album Art, that works fine when connected through CarPlay. Bluetooth CarPlay is not supported. I *belive* it will work with a direct Bluetooth connection, but it's been so long since I used the Bluetooth, I forget.