Apple music keeps buffering on Carplay (Volkswagen car issues) - Part 2
I would like to follow up the topic which was started by "ikonik_x" on Aug 11, 2020 8:22 AM, so that other people who may face issues with Apple Music on Apple Carplay on VAG cars may have benefit from it. I could not reply in that topic, because it was closed.
I think Apple and Volkswagen Group should put their hands together to fix these kind of issues, because it's really a major problem, which affects a lot of people.
Link to the first post: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251678141
I am driving a Volkswagen Golf 8 and had minor issues with Apple Carplay, like glitching. Every song once or twice the music glitched which was pretty annoying, and makes listening to music unenjoyable.
Then eventually, the car needed to go for service, because some things needed tot be fixed, and so I also told Volkswagen about this Apple Carplay issue. They went ahead and looked into it, but couldn't really fix the problem. It also almost looked like they didn't want to put too much effort into it, because the problem didn't occur on Android phones. I though had the problem with my iPhone XS Max, and my partner with her iPhone 11 too.
Volkswagen then told me to update me iPhone to the latest version, which I did, and after connecting again the glitches were still there. It eventually even only made things worse, to the point that Carplay wasn't usable at all anymore.
I then finally had no other option the to reset my Volkswagen MMI to factory settings, which of course disabled all "online" features (We Connect). From that point on, Carplay connected flawlessly, I drove around for an hour or so, and had no issues at all.
Until today, when I re-enabled my "online" profile on the car (which also takes a lot of time) and finally reconnected my iPhone XS Max with Apple Carplay. Pretty soon other issues arrived, such as a totally black screen when "tapping" on Carplay on the screen in my Golf 8.
I then had to put my iPhone in Airplane mode, reset the MMI of the Golf (by holding the ON / OFF touch button of the MMI), remove my iPhone from Carplay in the MMI and reconnect my iPhone with Carplay.
From then on Carplay 'worked' again, although I faced a new problem which was posted in the previous post by "ikonik_x". The music kept buffering each song or so. Every song or every other song the buffer would appear, and would last for about 10-20 seconds.
This was indeed solved by disabling the "Integrated dataconnection (eSIM)" (I am translating from Dutch, not sure if this is the same name in other languages).
So, it seems (not sure if true) that once in a while, or maybe continuously, the eSIM of the car was being used when streaming music from Apple Music. I was able to listen more than 3 songs without buffering.
When I re-enabled the "Integrated dataconnection (eSIM)" the buffering re-appeared after about 1 song.
I have no downloaded songs in Apple Music, and I am not using a cable. Although using a cable does not seem to help either.
So, very long story, but I hope it will help other people, because I had been searching forever to find a solution for this problem. I still need to monitor this because I haven't been able to play music for a couple of hours yet.
If the problem lies in the issue with the eSIM, I think Apple and Volkswagen need to look into this and find a solution on how to avoid this situation.
In my case it makes sense, because the problem did not occur after resetting to Factory Default Settings and when not connecting to the "We Connect" system yet.
Please reply to this topic if you are having the same (or different) issues, and if the problem is resolved (or not) by applying this workaround.
Thanks so much, and good luck with fixing!
