iOS 13 Apple Music and BMW's iDrive problems

The @AppleSupport account on Twitter is staffed by useless knobs. They just told me to “remove the phone from any third party case you are using and let us know if that solves the problem!”

Then they tried to walk me through how to use CarPlay. 3 times. Despite me saying the car does not have CarPlay. I guess Apple no longer supports vehicles without CarPlay and we should all upgrade our vehicles to Apple approved models.

Completely useless knobs. A waste of time.

2017 Audi TTS owner with exactly the same issue. Everything was fine until 13.1, now I can't change or skip tracks at all. This definitely means I'm going to wait months before ever updating my iOS again. This bug alone completely obviates any benefit I got from iOS 13

Same on my car. iPod nano works fine. Bluetooth and USB connected iPhone on I drive won’t change tracks on thumbwheel on steering wheel. My car was just updated with lasted BMW software last week, and I would think BMW will take months to update the older I drives (non car play) to fix what Apple changed. Apple obviously updated something regarding the basic functionality of music and tracks, shuffle, play etc. some apps I have that integrate with music won’t shuffle songs anymore since iOS13 release. It’s Apples problem, and they need to make basic functionality for music playback a standard protocol that does not change. I am submitting bugs to both Apple and BMW. I assume Apple car play on BMW works with thumb wheel on steering wheel. If not, BMW are charging a fee for Apple Car Play now and the service doesn’t work as advertised. What a mess. The fact it broke in BMW, Audi, Mercedes, etc. makes me think Apple really released a massive music bug and updated Music without telling anyone about it. Now it’s broke, and they will take forever to fix.

Here's a quick question for people experiencing the issue when trying to change tracks while listening to a playlist when running iOS 13.1.x.

Where did you create the playlist? Was it on the iOS device? Was it in iTunes and copied over?

I wonder if someone were to create a new playlist on their iOS 13.1.x device, if the problem would persist?

Also, if anyone happens to have installed macOS Catalina, then try creating a new playlist there, and copying it over to your iOS 13.1.x device and see if that works.

My thought process on this is that Catalina kills off iTunes, and in turn that removed the support of XML files used by people for iTunes, and I thought that maybe that could be related to what is happening, and if a playlist was created (maybe even just edited) on Catalina that it might "fix" the problem. I suspect it won't, but could be worth a shot.

I am having exactly the same issue! Worked fine until IOS 13.

Also noticed, most of my contacts apart from ones saved to the car, come up as numbers rather than the names!

my HUD display also won’t let me change the song as well as the idrive rotary selector. I have to use the arrows on the console if I want to skip a playlist song.

Frustrating doesn’t cover it!

Contacted them on twitter and got this drivel.

"Thanks for letting us know. We understand your frustration with this issue, and we want to help you get pointed to the right direction.

It’s best that you reach out to your car manufacturer about this issue to see if there will be able updates coming soon on their end."

Just sent your suggested response to Apple...hopefully that will help. I am glad to see that others have been having the same issues as myself. I must have reset my phone and bluetooth numerous times before finding this thread. I haven't tried any of the work arounds yet (i.e. using the Apple Watch, etc.), but plan on seeing if any might work. I have a 2016 BMW X3 and I remember that when the iPhone 7 came out I had problems then too. I'm not sure if there was also a new IOS released at the same time or not. At that time other cars besides BMW were also having problems. I made many phone calls, Apple was blaming BMW and BMW was blaming Apple, and it took months before things were finally back to normal. Let's hope this gets cleared up quickly.

For all those without an Apple Watch, I’ve seen to have found a very annoying temporary workaround.

if you download the app “Miximum”, it lets you start playing your Apple Music playlist from that app. It actually triggers the running off the standard Music app in the background As soon as it starts playing, minimise the app and enter the music app. From there on you can continue to use the music app and forward and rewind your music. However, you can’t change playlists without going back to the app, etc. It’s just a way to kick start a playlist.

DEFINITELY not a fix. But better than nothing

When IOS 13 came out in the beta testing stage this happened on one of the earlier builds I have a bmw not with Idrive but with a genuine bmw stereo and usb and I have the same problem where I can’t skip tracks using the steering wheel or stereo when playing a playlist, when ios13 was released to the public it worked fine and as soon as 13.1 came out it happened again, I’m running the beta software on my older phone and it’s still doing the same thing on the test software so they still haven’t fixed it

Clever idea! This worked for me on my iPhone. I set a playlist to play when I started a "run" in my running app (MapMyRun), started the "run" and then stopped it after the music started. The music then stopped, but when I went to the Music app and hit play, I was able to control playback from my steering wheel/the console knob thereafter. I even stopped the car when I went into a store, and then when I plugged my phone in again afterwards, the controls still worked.

This will be obnoxious to do until Apple fixes the bug, but at least I can control a playlist without fumbling on my phone while driving.

I posted previously to report the issue with my BMW but now I can also report that the issue occurs with my Toyota FJ Cruiser. If I plug my phone into the USB port I can’t control the music IN ANY WAY. The steering wheel AND head unit don’t work. If I connect via Bluetooth, I can control the phone’s playlists

Yep we have a 2016 BMW 528i Touring and I updated my iphone 8 Plus last night and today lone behold I cant change tracks with the steering wheel controls. Buttons on stereo still work though. I do hope Apple sort this ASAP.

Same here with fellow BMW owners that have iDrive. I am based in the UK.

Updated my iPhone 8 Plus to 13.1.2 on Monday, works perfectly with my Pioneer Car Play head unit in my DC5 Type R.

I plugged the phone into my 2015 F30 335d this morning (9/10) and I could just pick a song from my own playlists but can’t change using the control on the steering wheel. I can skip via the next and previous using the iDrive rotary switch. Oddly enough it works fine if the selection is all the songs. I am lucky enough that I have no issue with Bluetooth bar the sound being quieter than before. Also cannot skip songs on Bluetooth either. It is defo an Apple issue, my car has the latest software.

Same here with 2019 Mini Cooper JCW since iOS 13. It's seriously p i s s i n g me off! Neither Aple or Mini have any fixes, and from what I have understood, nobody at Mini has been contacted by Apple to help solve the issue with Apple's software!