New iPhone not recognized by car via USB

I had deleted my iTunes because I was using YouTube Music. You need at least one song in your iTunes app. In order for the Infotainment system to recognize your iPhone when you connect it using a USB cable you MUST have at least one song in your phones iTunes app. My iPhone XS Max on iOS 12.X.X was having the same issue and as soon as I put a song into iTunes, it worked.

Had the same problem, figured it was an issue with the 15.1 update. I have an XR iPhone and a 2012 Buick LaCrosse. Always hooked it up via USB to listen to apps. Stopped working after that update. Looked it up, found this forum and just wanted to add that I had to choose to update to 15.2. (for those that may not know, they stagger out the updates to different individuals, so there may be an update available even if it doesn't tell you there's one. should be able to go to your General Settings on your phone and look under Software Update) After updating to 15.2, it connected to my car like it used to. I've seen others say the update to 15.2 didn't work for them, I wouldn't know why. Could try the bs restart the phone and use a different cable idea....

I contacted support, who said they patched it in the iOS 15.2 upgrade. I updated and its working for me now.

Hi there runjc,

We understand you're experiencing an issue with connecting your iPhone to your car, and we'd like to share a resource that can help.

Take a look at it here: How to connect your iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch to your car

Specifically, check the section below:

"Connect using USB playback

1. Restart your device and your car.
2. Make sure that your device is unlocked and on the Home screen.
3. If possible, try to connect using another cable or USB port. Check the manual that came with your car to learn how to connect an Apple device.
4. Check your charging port for any debris or damage. Make sure that your charging cable is properly inserted into the port.
5. Update your device.
6. Make sure that your stereo is using the latest firmware from the car manufacturer. Check your car's manual for more information.
7. Try playing audio from a different app. If you can't play audio from a third-party app, contact the app developer for help. If you can't play audio from an Apple app, contact Apple Support."

Cheers!

So I don't know if this will fix your issue, but I had this problem awhile back.

Did you by chance recently remove your 'Music' app? In my case, my iPhone 8? maybe stopped connecting to my radio via USB. It was a Pioneer early flat screen model.

Eventually one day, I wanted to buy an album, so I did so on iTunes, and it was stored in my 'music' app. To my disbelief, I plug in my phone, and boom the album started playing on my radio. I changed over to Spotify, boom that works too.

There's something about not having the music app, or not having anything in the music app, that makes your radio not recognize it's an 'iPad' or whatever, and that was why mine wasn't playing. Ever since, I've kept the app and the album, and for the most part, aside from faulty cables, I've had no issues with my radio and iPhone.

Hope that helps someone

Hey guys ! I figure out the issue. You would have to update your phone to the new iOS 15.1.2 . I just did and everything is working how it should be. Good luck and hope this helps.

I just updated to 15.2 and it works with my 12 now.

15.2 fixed the issue for me , thank heavens 👍

Did you do the update to 15.2? It worked for me. I noticed that there is now another update, 15.2.1, that mentions it fixes other issues with car play.

Finally got mine solved! None of the OS updates fixed it, but erasing and building up my phone from scratch worked, which is/was a pain but I got my jams back!

I had this issue too. It was that update. Then the following fixed it and now it’s happening AGAIN. Then they just updated to 15.4.1 which I was hoping would fix it once again but it has not. I have been digging online since it happened months ago and it actually seems to be happening to many all over.

Will not connect via USB to 3rd party music apps. If you let it connected long enough I noticed a very quick message of “Device Not Recognized” quickly pops up in my 2015 Cruze. And it’s not just my car. Does it in any. Does it with two different iPhone models I have and another 2 also different from my that my daughter and her boyfriend have.

I have both an iPhone 13 pro and an iPhone Xr, my iPhone Xr works perfectly in my 2016 Mercedes GLE, via the USB connection, the music is selectable from the car controls, my iPhone 13 pro doesn't work, I cannot use the car controls to select any music, the car controls find music but nothing happens when you select anything, another strange thing, all of the albums don't align with the artist when viewing via the car, this doesn't happen with the iPhone Xr, when I unplug my iPhone 13 and view music, all aligns.

so weird ! Try to restart your phone or turn it off for a min then turn it back on. See what happens.