Apple CarPlay keeps disconnecting (2021)

Folks.

I have owned a 2020 Palisade and a 2021 palisade with the same issue of wireless carplay dropping. I travel for work every week and this week i rented a GMC with wireless carplay as well. As I am driving down the road, the system gave me warning (Hyundai system does NOT give this warning) that "wireless interference" is affecting the carplay connection. And sure enough, the phone disconnected from the car system for a period of time, then reconnected. It was the first time I have ever seen a warning come up explaining why Carplay was about to Crap-Out. Im not super smart but that tells me that the issue isnt Apple nor is it Hyundai. Its a technology isse that cannot really be solved due to interference in some areas. Unfortunately it seems like something we have to live with if your vehicle ONLY supports wireless car play.

I was able to fix this by looking at common issues with the IOS update. TURN SIRI OFF AND BACK ON and your phone will connect no problem.

Well I was messaged by the local Hyundai dealer here in Melbourne yesterday that an IOS update (IOS15) from Apple will fix the issue and that it’s coming in September and then Hyundai are also going to be releasing a further fix for the wifi issues in the car’s head unit. They said this will be released in September around the same time as the Apple update. Way too long to have to wait to get this sorted for everyone I think although mine’s been way more stable following what I last posted to do.

I have perused Hyundai Australia on this and they have confirmed in writing that this is an Apple issue and does not represent a manufacturers fault so accept no liability, they have advised that perhaps the IOS 15 update may help rectify the CarPlay issue but I would need to contact Apple not them.

I'm having the same issues and was hoping 15 would fix it but it hasn’t. I did buy a wireless adaptor and so far it hasn’t crashed with that. I noticed on the release notes that some CarPlay updates were not delivered in 15 so maybe the next release will fix that. I agree it’s incredibly frustrating.

Bought a brand new 2021 i30 in March, and have had this issue plague me from day one. The dealer repeatedly told me it was my fault for not updating the phone, and when that became too hard a lie to peddle they began to blame Apple. Flash forward to a couple of weeks ago, and NCAT (The NSW Civil Administrative Tribunal) has ordered that they fully refund the car, as it is not repairable by the dealer. Communications between Apple and Hyundai have thus far gone nowhere.

If you take this path, don't forget to request they also pay any penalties from the financing arrangement. I forgot, and it has now extended this issue again.

1) Make sure you have iOS 15.0.2 installed

2) Check with your dealer as to whether there are any applicable updates to your entertainment system

Note bug fixes for 2022 models may be longer than usual in coming as the supplier of the entertainment systems has changed and is now nVidia.

Hi, update, after trying new mfi and iPhone leads, no success, I used a can of compressed air, then WD-40 contact cleaner, a few times inside the USB socket, power off, left overnight, it’s been two days, but it’s working, had a long journey through France yesterday, it didn’t disconnect, it might not have solved the issue, but fingers crossed, if it fails again, I’ll be back on here.🤞

Here is what I've seen. I just purchased a new 2022 Kia Soul. I am seeing the repeatable 'certain area' disconnects at one specific spot on my daily drive. It is my feeling it has to do with the 'WIFI' CarPlay connection that auto manufacturers have gone to. Being in the IT field, there are many outside factors that can affect a WIFI signal and I believe the issue is there. The manufacturers made a big mistake in making the cars 'WIFI only' instead of allowing the choice between WIFI or cabled. I have owned 3 Kia Souls and this is the first with an issue. The two previous cars connected CarPlay through the USB connector and never had an issue. You can never rely on a connection that can so easily be hampered by outside interference. Ultimately, it looks a bit like the fault of both sides, the car for relying exclusively on WIFI with interference issues and Apple for not being able to recover from the disconnect without a phone restart and a car restart. I don't see an easy fix for stopping WIFI signal issues but it will be up to Apple to fix the phone's recovery from the interruption. The ultimate fix would be to make the USB connection and alternate option again. That can only happen if they didn't remove any circuitry that allowed the connection.

There is one specific issue that is the most troubling and that is the disconnect while using WIFI that happens in a specific location without question. What needs to be understood is that there are two different aspects to what is going on while CarPlay is being used, 'audio stream' and 'phone projection'. Being in the IT field, I am always looking at the complete picture to figure out what is causing an issue. Here is the 'known' factors in this issue.

1. Cable doesn't matter. In most of these situations, the CarPlay feature has been disabled from the USB port. (I say 'disabled' and not 'removed' because it has been proven the feature can be turned on.)

2. The drop does not completely break CarPlay. It does completely break 'phone projection'. Once past the affected area, audio streaming will start to work again. Projection does not and will just show a black screen or the phone will fail to connect.

3. There is no recovering from the issue without shutting the car off and allowing the WIFI to power off.

On 'Point 1', like others, I have changed the CPU Variant in the Engineer's menu to turn the USB CayPlay option back on. In my case, CPU Variant 1 worked (4 did not). With option 1 selected, I got USB CarPlay but no WIFI option. I'm sure there are other CPU options that will enable both but didn't want to mess with it. I did notice that in the CPU Variant I used, my GPS when using Maps was acting a bit funky. I assume that is from some other setting that got enabled in that CPU Variant that the car didn't like or wasn't set up for. I did change it back to the original setting and the GPS issue went away. While using the USB CarPlay, I had no issues with the connection when driving through the affected area and had no assumption that I would. Side note, it looks like each CPU Variant is just a collection of settings for different car configurations. Each Variant will turn on and off settings based on the car’s features and options.

Point 2, You can tell that CarPlay is still connected by looking at the home screen on the head unit. Plus, if you were using navigation on your phone at the time of the disruption, your phone’s screen would be showing ‘turn by turn’ directions and not the map, as the phone assumes the map is being projected to the head unit.

Point 3, I haven’t spent much time on this one. Usually, after a ‘location’ disruption, I get to my destination, do what I need to do and, by the time I get back in the car, it works again. I have tried after getting home from work to spend a little time trying to see what is needed to get it to work again (I drive past the disruption point on my daily commute) but have yet to figure it out. In my car (2022 Kia Soul), almost every action affects the system. If I open the door and get in, as soon as the door closes, it fires up the WIFI connection and the phone is connected before I ever put the key in the ignition. Even the key has some affect on when the system activates or deactivates. After getting home, I have shut the car off, removed the key, opened the door (to kill the head unit), closed the door, locked the car, and then reversed the process, as if getting in the car to go somewhere. In that amount of time, the connection issue is still there. If I fire the car back up and try to project the phone, it will not. It is only after an unknown extended amount of time that it all works as it should. The only thing I can assume is that the WIFI or the system as a whole needs a few minutes to fully shut down. I have returned to the car in as little as 5-10 minutes and it will work fine.

In any case, these are the things I have found in trying to troubleshoot the issue. Whatever is causing these ‘area specific’ disruptions, it is, so far, an unrecoverable event, at least until the car has been shut off for a short amount of time. Rest assured, when I take my car in to get it addressed, they will have a very complete picture!! LOL

I have this same disconnection issue. Have had many calls with Apple without any solution. There latest request was for me to contact the local Hyundai deal to find out if the router was a single or dual band. It may disconnection is caused by wireless interference and if the vehicle only has a single band router then it is not “robust “ enough to stop interference. I have no idea about this and doubt if I will get a response from Hyundai. I think most routers for in home use are not single band

no one seems to have an answer to this issue. I have a 2021 Santa Fe that has support only wireless Carplay and I have constant disconnections at one location, In my case the Iphone loses the wifi connection with the car and the map screen goes blank with a message the the phone is not responding. Eventually the wifi will reconnect but the phone projection to the car will continues to be blank, I have spent hours on the phone with apple only to get more frustrated.

All Hyundai are saying that I must be driving through a dead spot and that is causing the problem. They could offer to answer as to why the phone did not reconnect etc.

I feel that there is a problem with the wifi router in the vehicle but no one even wants to talk about that.

As in my case my Santa Fe only operates with a wireless carplay or a wired android connection. The wired android works fine and a wired carplay in a Nissan Kicks also works without any issues in the "so called " dead spot.

I feel it is a Hyundai wifi issue but no one seems to even want to address the issue.

When I buy my next car this will be one thing that will be checked as this issue will be a deal breaker

Wrong. Software is up to date. As I said it happen only in specific geographic locations. There is likely a source of radio interference and the way apple and Hyundai have chosen to implement carplay are at fault. Sadly a simple wired connection would alleviate and eliminate this problem. Otherwise Apple and Hyundai need to put their heads together and figure out how to defeat this interference which disconnects the wireless connection. But thank you for your suggestion but I've undertaken nearly every troubleshooting step short of throwing the phone against a wall and buying a POS Samsung product. Off really prefer not to return to Android.

Hi guys. Well I went into Mobile then mobile data options and turned on allow more data on 5G by going to data mode. It seems to have improved things. Not dropping out as yet!!!

Well new phone arrived, no more drop-outs, now works perfectly 👌