Apple CarPlay not working with iPhone 15 (USB-C issue?)

In my case iOS 17 has never worked! (iPhone 15 Pro Max)

iOS 16 works with another iPhone and same infotainment system (car Hyundai Ioniq 6). Cables have not proven to be at issue.

Waiting for AppleCare Engineering to respond to analytics file uploaded.

Thanks, Bruce

Just swapped cables for USB C to A and adapters. Plugged into "A" port into 2 different vehicles. NOW WORKS.

Was it 17.1, new cables, or faulty adapters? No say.

Thanks for all your comments and as they say "stay tuned".

-Bruce

Great, but I’d be surprised if you have consistently first connection success.

I’ve never not had it connect, it’s just takes numerous plugins, from the phone and the vehicle. But, having to plugin, plug out continuously is obnoxious, and I am convinced it here’s an iOS bug still not addressed.

If this is an iOS issue, it would affect every single person who uses CarPlay with iPhone 15. But it's not. I have iPhone 15 Pro and 15 Pro Max and both work flawlessly in our two cars, every time we plug them in. You've come to the wrong conclusion. It's either a cable issue as you suggest it works, then doesn't work. Or it's an issue with your infotainment system. The thing is there are so many different infotainment system out there and many of them never get an update, until a user has an issue. And there are so many different cables out there and not all of them Mfi Certified.

You should contact your automobile manufacturer and also contact Apple for help. And maybe try a difference Mfi (Made for iPhone) cable.

This is not a vehicle system issue. Neither mine or my wife’s phones work in our jeeps. However there are peoples that are on the forums that have the same phones and jeeps and theirs do work. This is even using apples supplied cable. So to blame the vehicle doesn’t ring true either. Same can be said about cables. Some have tried different ones and it worked while others do not. So at this point, no one really knows why.

I am using the iPhone 15 max Ti in a 2019 chevy blazer that has dash mounted USB-A and USB-C ports. The C worked fine with the older iPhone XR and the lightning cable. The same C port is random with the C to C cable with the iPhone 15. I had thought the new 15 was pulling too much current for the blazers C port but I have a dash cam plugged into the A port just below and it stays powered. The rear console has a C port and it shows charging of the iPhone 15 (its not a data port) so its probably not a current issue. The conclusion has to be the iPhone 15 software is randomly working with the blazer infotainment system. It was working last night so I marked the C cable ends as it was connected and working to see if its something to do with the cable. I'll try an aftermarket USB-A to C cable next and another GM car with just A ports to see if a similar issue occurs and get back to this thread.

Lobsterghost1, thank YOU! Been reading all over and it was very helpful to realize I needed to change name of my phone from prior phone, and delete the connections off the infotainment center on Genesis G80. You rock.

I'm very glad to hear this helped you! The first thing I do when I get a new iPhone is delete it from my infotainment center, then rename the new iPhone and never once have I had an issue getting CarPlay to work.

Take care and thanks for coming back with your good news!

When you remove the previous phone from the infotainment system and rename it, the infotainment system doesn't go looking for the previous phone. So yes, I'm saying this works whether wired or via Bluetooth. You can believe it's absurd, but it certainly has worked for me every time.

As to your intermittent issues, does your car use USB C or USB A? I bought a new USB A to USB C cable for my car, which has been incredibly reliable, with no intermittent issues at all.

This is the cable: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0C3B73MWX?psc=1&ref=ppx_yo2ov_dt_b_product_details

In the three pages, several people have chimed in with issues not necessarily related to just USB C.

You can be skeptical, which is fine. What you can't do is suggest what I've done and now verified by another user didn't help. It may not help you or solve your issue. There are so many variables involved from different infotainment systems, many of which haven't been updated in a long time, to different cables, some of which may not work for Apple CarPlay. At the top of this page is a user tip submitted by a senior member of this forum, which describes very succinctly, the issues one can be confronted with in cables.

Thank you all for the robust discussion. My CarPlay issue has been resolved on two vehicles.

Installed iOS 17.1. Replaced my cables with a USB-C to USB-A Belkin cable USB IF (Implementers Forum certified).

Deleted iPhone 13, Installed iPhone 15 Pro Max successfully. Reinstalled iPhone 13 successfully. Two phones connected to CarPlay on 2023 Hyundai Ioniq 6.

Did the same on 2021 Toyota Hylander Hybrid successfully.

The trick now is to find good quality content for 2 vehicles with CarPlay!

-Bruce

ok been using the 15 iPhone and same 2019 blazer and its been working last few times. So start the vehicle and wait for the normal bluetooth connected message and first plug the USB-C into the dash port and than into the phone. Its been working without doing anything to update either the GM infotainment system or the iPhone. Now the next trick will be connecting it to a 2019 Stingray which only has USB-A ports.

try this first. plug one end of the Apple USB-C into the vehicles USB port, start the vehicle, wait for the infotainment screen to finish doing its startup (about a minute) than plug the USB-C into the iPhone. My GM system makes a short jiggle noise and the carplay then shows on the screen. The USB-C cable has current and connection detection chips in them. This could be the major reason why sometimes it works and sometime it doesn't.

Caution, USB-C cables are not all the same because the C refers to the connector's physical shape, pin count and it being symmetrical (can be plugged in either end and/or be rotated). USB-C cables can have different uses. The standard spec USB-C that meets the USB-IF standard and the one Apple sends with the iPhone 15 has a data transfer rate similar to USB-3 about 5 or 10 Gpbs (type 2 has 5 wires called hi-Speed and type 3.1 has 15 wires called Superspeed) and carries 5 Volt power at either 3.0 or 5.0 amps (15W and 25W). This spec is for a one meter aka 3 foot cable so longer ones will have lower data capability.

Special device supplied USB-C cables can also have higher power included to run hard drives, fast charging and carry HDMI signals. So that said when using a C it has to be designed for a specific use such as data transfer and wattage at a minimum. When buying a new one that is not an Apple part make sure it meets the USB-IF standard. They also contain a chip to allow it to work with different devices such as hard drives and video. There are many versions that have various wattage and data transfer capabilities.

https://web.archive.org/web/20161220102924/http://www.usb.org/developers/presentations/USB_DevDays_Hong_Kong_2016_-_USB_Type-C.pdf

Hi, so it seems to be the sequence of connecting. First start up the vehicle and wait for the infotainment to fully boot up. Plug the USB-C into the car first with nothing on the other end. Then unlock the phone and plug it into the other USB-C cable end, after a second there will be a connect vibration and the car system should show the green Apple Car Play app on the home screen. I used a USB-A to C from a wireless charging pad and that worked in the older vehicle without a C port. I bought a cool USB-C to C cable from Amazon that has adaptors for USB-A on one end and the Apple lightning on the other. That worked as well. The Apple USB-C to C that came with the phone works as well.

Sadly it's often due to software issues in the head end in the vehicle.

A great example is this summer a friend and I traveled on a vacation and used our iPhone 14s connected to the car via CarPlay.

On one day nothing we could do would convince the vehicle that the iPhone was connected and to sync CarPlay to it, it would treat it as a USB device only.

We stopped for a brief break at a local grocery store, and when we came back to the car after it being shut off for ten minutes, it brought up CarPlay immediately. 🤷‍♂️