Apple CarPlay problem with 2019 Acura RDX and iPhone X

Thanks for the update Brian.

After the update on Wednesday, I’ve used CarPlay for another couple of hours yesterday and today and I have not had any disconnect issues. Again I am running iOS 12.4.1 with an iPhone XS.

So far seems to be a big improvement in the reliability of CarPlay.

Where is everyone getting this update? I went to system update on Infotainment system and says I am up to date? Does it update itself? I am in Canada - would think if Acura has update would be everywhere?

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

The update for Canada owners will probably come a little later. Acura Client Relations tech support can hopefully give you a more definitive answer. For now keep checking when you’re connected via WiFi.

Since the factory reset back on 7/18/19, I’ve had no music dropouts (this was my number 1 complaint). However, the frozen left screens came back after about 2 weeks. Last week I updated to D.1.1.4 and seems to be more stable. So far so good. My only issue so far is frozen menu screen using Amazon music within CarPlay. The one method to rectify this dozen screen is to shut down/restart iPhone. But overall, I’m pretty satisfied with the performance of latest update. Oh I’m using XS Max running 12.4.1.

The CarPlay disconnect problem came back again for me on the past 2 days.

I updated to D.1.1.4 last Wednesday, worked ok until yesterday. Since then CarPlay has disconnected repeatedly (about 15 times in past 2 days).

Back to using Bluetooth

I will try iOS 13 when it comes out.

Mine worked for a short time, and now keeps disconnecting too. So much so, that I am not using it and have returned to using my phone (in the cup holder for navigation) and Bluetooth (for phone and music). Really unsafe! And, super disappointing after waiting essentially 8 months for fix on a brand new car.

I'm having a lot of disconnects, but it's a "hard wire" issue, I believe.

This never happened prior, but for some weird reason, the USB port seems to be much more sensitive, with the recent upgrade. If I jostle the wire in any way, it disconnects. I find it hard to believe it's related to the upgrade, but it never happened before.

As for the operation of the Upgrade, it's about 95% there, in my opinion. There are few glitches with the trackpad, particular after getting a phone call. It seems to take a while, for the call to "go away" and for the trackpad to be properly operational. It's hard to explain what it does, but it does sort of "freeze". Also, there a few other glitches, when switching from a call, back to music. Nothing hugely inconvenient, but not perfect.

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

As I've said numerous times, it's sometimes hard to distinguish between what's related to Acura's system and what's part of the Apple System.

Apple updated the Beta 13 Software, 2 days ago. The problem with the USB port, seems to be gone. I have not had a disconnect since the Update. Today, I "jiggled" the connection to the USB and still didn't get a disconnect.

I'm back to being reasonably satisfied with the recent Acura update.

I have taken about 16 short trips in the car over the past 2 days. 9 of those trips CarPlay worked ok, but 7 times I got a CapPlay disconnect within the first couple of minutes of driving the car. One of the trips it disconnected multiple times. On a couple of those trips I was not actually doing anything in CarPlay, I just had connected my phone but was listening to an FM station and the CarPlay icon went grey as it disconnected.

This is was with a new lightening to USB cable and I made sure cable was tightly connected to the USB port every time. Also at no point was I moving the cable when it got disconnected. So I have to conclude that Acura Infotainment update D.1.1.4. still has not fixed the CarPlay disconnect issue at least as far as iOS 12.4.1 is concerned.

When CarPlay works, I like it, but too many disconnects is a big issue for me.

To me, it behaves like the Infotainment system somehow get overloaded and disconnects the CarPlay session. When the disconnects happens it tends to be in the first 5 minutes after car is started and if you get past that point you are generally good for the rest of the ride.

My Experience with this problem over a couple of months is sometimes it works fine for a couple of days in a row, but then over the next few days it will disconnect multiple times. So it’s a strange issue and it is hard to know what triggers the disconnect.

On Thursday when I called Acura saying that D.1.1.4 did not fix the issue the person I spoke to said there has been some “heated meetings” where Acura mid level managers have been trying to get Acura upper level managers to devote more resources to this issue but they Acura upper management has still not put enough focus on the issue. They have been getting a lot of upset owners calling them about this so I encourage anyone that has the issue to keep calling them to put more pressure on them to fix it.

I told the Acura client relations person that this is a ruining the Acura reputation of reliability and he agreed with me. So keep calling them about it. The more phone calls of angry owners they get the more pressure it put on them.

It is really frustrating to spend $50,000 on a car and have these kind of issues.

I will try iOS 13 when it comes out to see what difference it makes.

Sad news for those of us hoping iOS 13 would fix this problem. It doesn’t. The CarPlay connection fail we’re all complaining about still occurs in the RDX 2019 when I use my iPhone XS with the public beta of iOS 13. iOS 12 also dropped the connection with my previous phone, an iPhone X. This does not happen with my wife’s phone, an iPhone CE running iOS 12, nor did it happen when I used my phones on iOS 12 and my Apple cables in a rental car. Fortunately, the car is leased, and I don’t plan to lease another Acura when this lease is up. I don’t know about you, but this is supposed to be Honda’s premium auto, and you would expect that they would be able to get it right, and that if the problem is Apple’s then Honda would stay on Apple’s case until this got fixed. There are hundreds of complaints and no solutions.

I can't speak to the iPhone X, but I can tell you that my iPhone 8, running the latest Beta, is fairly solid. I've had 1 or 2 drop outs in the last 24 hours. Each time I checked the USB cable, and it was partially out of the connector.

If I were still having problems, I would:

Delete my phone from the infotainment system. Delete the Bluetooth connection from the phone. Do a hard reset of the phone and a hard reset of the infotainment center ... then start everything from scratch.

I'm just speculating a bit here, but I bet that would fix the majority of issues. As I've said, I'm about 95% there with my phone connection. A couple of infrequent hiccups, but nothing unmanageable.

Thank you for the suggestions, but this is not a user problem. There are hundreds of complaints on different fora on the net. I’ve done each of these things a dozen times, on earlier occasions. Bought new replacement Apple brand cables, bought iPhone XS to replace IPhone X, hard reset on iPhones and infotainment system (love that YouTube “how to”!) tried all cabling and phones on rental cars, with no issues. Wife’s earlier model iphone works fine with CarPlay on this Acura. This is some kind of issue with the interplay between later model iPhones and the Acura. It is on Acura to fix, or to get Apple to fix.

My iPhone is a 6xPlus, and I have all the same problems with connectivity as the newer models. At this juncture, I am no longer using CarPlay and am only using Bluetooth. As I stated in previous responses, this is really disappointing and really unbelievable that neither Acura or Apple fix this. I bought my 2019 Acura in December and have not been able to use what I was sold.

I bought my 2019 RDX a year ago this past August. I have an iPhone 6+ using up to date software. As I posted earlier, I had problems for months. The problems ran the gamut of those mentioned here. I posted a YouTube video showing how to reset. I had to run the reset twice, one right after the other, but the fix has worked for months. The only problem I’ve had is that every three or four weeks it will disconnect but reconnect by itself immediately. I mention all of this again because when the new iPhone arrives, I’ll be getting one. This may help answer the question of whether it’s the phone, the Apple software or Acura.