iOS 15.1 broke connectivity to my car stereo

exact same car, exact same problem. an option i’m looking at is to get a bluetooth adapter…it plugs into both the usb and headphone jack in the car and you can connect the phone by bluetooth. there’s also an option to get a bluetooth receiver that plugs into the car lighter; you connect to it with your phone by bluetooth, and then you can select an empty fm channel and it will broadcast to that channel, but i’ve read that the sound quality is less than that of the headphone jack.

definitely a pain!

I started experiencing the same issue with my iPhone 12 Pro in my 2012 Cruze since updating to 15.1 last night. Looks like us Cruze owners got lucky. I’ll be downgrading to 15.0.2 until a newer update comes out; hopefully the issue will get fixed with the next update!

Have any of you having this issue tried shutting off Bluetooth via Control Center to see if that makes any difference?

Just something to try out of curiosity:

Use Bluetooth and Wi-Fi in Control Center - Apple Support

For what it’s worth, the vehicles named in this thread, notably the Cruze, seem to have experienced this issue on and off several times going back to the iPhone 4 as well as with iPod Nanos.

Thanks.

I had a working theory that when the head end could see it as a BT device it wouldn’t connect as an iPod over USB so you could charge AND stream via BT.

I can’t imagine what it is about the Cruze that causes this, though as I stated if you search you will find scattered reports of it happening with iPhones as old as the iPhone 4 along with the iPod Nano.

The phone is recognized as an iPod in my 2011 Toyota, so it’s not a universal issue.

Have you tried shutting off BT and making sure the radio has no BT association with the phone?

2015 Chevy Cruze here. Same exact issue. I have a work cell that’s an 8 plus. I had yet to update it and it still works fine. Plug in my 12 pro after the 15.1 update and nothing. It will charge but will not play the audio. Since the other devices that aren’t updated work. This is clearly an iOS 15.1 issue. Apple please fix this. As an Uber driver I depend on this feature

FYI I’ve been in contact with apple support about this for the last 5 days. Ultimately they acknowledge now this is a problem & the engineers are trying to rectify the issues. But there is no promise that it will be fixed or indeed by when. Just got to keep looking out for another iOS update

I am having the same issue with my iPhone 7+ interfacing with my stock Audi radio using an Enfig adapter which replaces the factory CD changer with iPhone compatible USB/3.5mm connectors. I have a Brodit (now rebranded as a ProClip in the US) phone holder with an integrated Lightning Connector to USB cable built in. This has worked for me for the past 7 years that is until I upgraded my iPhone 7+ to 15.1. Resetting All Settings on the phone does correct the issue however it is not a permanent fix. It work for one session. That is until I undock the phone from the Brodit mount. Then it stops working until it is reset again. When it stops work it does not work with my iHome alarm clock either. It totally disables the audio output from the Lightning connector until the rest process is completed. The only thing I can think is that the phone is somehow checking for an "apple certified" cable and the cable on the Brodit is not certified. BTW the exact same thing is happening with the work phone, an iPhone X. This fiasco certainly has me considering an Android phone for my 5G phone upgrade. I can't believe Apple has released a version of IOS that would do this to its customer base. I keep waiting for the release of the next version of code to see if it corrects this issue before committing to a new iPhone.

Update: Fixed it. I did a full reset of my iPhone (not erase completely to factory new). Before I did it, I performed a full encrypted backup to my computer so my passwords would be saved. After that, CarPlay connected without a hitch.

Didn’t have to re-enter too many passwords, just some authentication with some apps, like FaceID and banking. (What made me try that is I tried connecting my husband’s iPhone w/iOS 14 and it connected perfectly in a minute or two.) Mine is still working, hope it doesn’t break again. I don’t know if this will solve everyone’s CarPlay issue since we all have different cars. I hope it does. I believe it’s the phone, not the car. Some people use a simple wired connection that always worked before. My car connects wirelessly (2021 BMW X5 w/iDrive 7, same software as when I bought it new) I regret updating my phone. I usually wait a couple of months due to bugs, but I eventually got 15.0 and it was fine, but the updates after that must’ve caused the problem.) Hope this helps.

I received a PDIM error message after updating to 15.2 and trying the USB cable. After reading how everyone else was successful with the update, I decided to reset my Apple Music and now I can confirm the 15.2 update works in my 2011 Camaro RS LT2.

Same I have a Camaro too, you have to down grade the software 15.0.2 or lower. Mines world now . Stay away from 15.1

I was with a senior advisor with apple for an hour and he told me to change the usb cable to

mfi cable. Hopefully it will work

I have the exact same issue -- iPhone 12 mini, after upgrading from 14.8 to 15.1. This seems to affect the older USB iPod play/control interface as a whole. My 2013 Chevy Cruze (pre-CarPlay, identical interface to yours) is affected, as is a small personal audio box/speaker that has a lightning interface and buttons for play/pause, previous/next track, etc. An identical iPhone 12 mini still on 14.8 works fine in both, but my 15.1 iPhone 12 mini seems to now be wholly incompatible.

I agree this is obviously a bug in 15.1 (and possibly earlier 15.0/15.0.x releases -- I skipped over all those personally)

i have a 2012 chevy cruze and i’m experiencing the same issues with the iOS 15.1 update. i spoke with several different people today regarding this issue, and they’ve basically put me through the ringer. i even spoke with a senior advisor over the phone, shared my screen, and we went through all my settings. i had to open my camera at one point so they could see everything going on. they kept asking about carplay even though i explained multiple times that my car is 9 years old with a traditional radio, and i was connecting through an old iphone charger through the USB port.

long story short, they’re requiring me to use an iphone without 15.1 to see if it works to then take my/all of our cases to engineers to classify whether it’s a software issue or not, which it is. my only other *temporary* option is an aux cord, but we all know we aren’t able to skip songs from the SRC which is dangerous af.

i’ll keep anyone who cares updated because this is annoying.

This happened to me, too!! I have a 2013 Cruze with that same radio and my iPhone 12 Pro Max stopped connecting via the USB port after updating to iOS 15.1. I have an iPhone XR for work and it doesn’t have the iOS 15.1 update, and it connects perfectly fine. Something with the software changed.

Like, I get it. It’s an old car. But at the same time, it’s not like we’re asking for much. No other version of iOS caused this issue, not even iOS 15.0. Apple, instead of telling us to get new cars or car radios, how about fixing what you screwed up instead.

The output of the phone is connected to the Aux input of the car stereo, via a (proprietary MB) lightning<->auxiliary cable.

The car stereo input is set to ‘Aux’.

In my case, the Spotify and Apple Podcast apps appear to be playing on the phone, but there is no audio on the car stereo.

Control is ONLY on the phone, no control from the stereo interface.

Note: my problem was resolved with the near nuclear option: ‘Reset All Settings’. Not so for others.