Apple CarPlay no longer works with My BMW X7 (2021) using iOS 17.3.1

The below fix seems to work followed by an ignition cycle

1. Press and hold the Vol knob until the console screen turns black and reboots. This is a basic reset. 

I’ve had this happen on all my BMWs -it’s a thing

@CapitalOats, THAT IS THE SOLUTION!!! You are my hero! That worked perfectly. I disconnected and re-paired about 15 times with no success and could not understand why wireless CarPlay would no longer function but I could still connect to BMW’s Connected Drive. The reset with the volume knob is the answer.

To add a couple of details. I had the ignition on and did not have to cycle the ignition BUT you do have to hold the volume knob a long time, about 20 seconds. When it came back up, I went to Mobile Devices, tapped on my iPhone and then changed the connection method to ‘Apple CarPlay’ and it connected right away; took 3 seconds.

I had this problem with my iphone x. And then I got the 16 pro, installed the backup from the old phone. Still same problem, even after using the volume knob on my bmw to reset everything or forgetting the device. Turns out it was because of the backup😂. I deleted the backup (factory reset) from my iphone 16 pro and it worked back again. I reinstalled the backup and it stopped working again😂😂. Don’t ask me how this is possible.

I was having issues with my CarPlay, suddenly it disconnected with my phone and would not come back up. I deleted my phone, paired it again, and it would only connect to BMW idrive but not CarPlay. I called Genuis and had to reboot the system.

With the vehicle running and in park, hold down the volume buttom on the radio until the screen goes completely black. This could take up to a minute. Once the screen is black, release the volume buttom and let it reset. Do not jump ahead, let the navigation maps fully come back on and then follow the prompts (also make sure you phone has been paired again before you do this, if you deleted it). CarPlay should pop back up and when you make a phone call and the volume comes back through the speaker you are good to go! This is the only thing that worked for me and I literally tried EVERYTHING!

Hope this helps someone who needs it!

Just happened to me when my 2021 X5 was upgraded to 03/2025.30. Solution for me was this:

1. delete phone from car
2. forget bluetooth id of car on the the iphone.
3. turnoff the car and turn back on.
4. held down volume knob for 20sec to reboot idrive.
5. turn off car and back on.
6. start the pairing sequence. Also made sure wifi was on for the car.

and I did a little dance in between rebooting idrive and starting the car which I'm sure helped. ;)

I just fixed mine. So what happens when you connect to CarPlay, is there’s a connection being made to your car via WiFi, so if you check your WiFi, you’ll see a connection to your car with a error message. You need to forget your cars wifi > forget your car in CarPlay > and try to reconnect then and this should fix it.

Hello, I was having an issue with my wireless Apple CarPlay on the BMW iDrive 7 system, it all got fixed when I turned on the WiFi hotspot in the iDrive system and connected my phone to its hotspot, this fixed my issue and wireless Apple CarPlay worked as it should, hope it helps!

If you have just started using new phone and your new phone is a backup from old phone then you've to reset your network settings to make this work.

I was in this scenario where I upgraded from iPhone mini 13 to Pro and my CarPlay was not working anymore. I tried to connect it more than 10 times, tried everything but no luck. When I reset my network settings in my iPhone, it quickly connected.

As well as doing the above, what fixed it for me was going into the WiFi settings on my iPhone and deleting the “BMWxxxx CarPlay” network.

What worked for me was deleting the BMW WiFi connection (forget)and then when reconnecting turn on the “auto-join” button, I did also reset by holding down the volume button and deleted my iPhone device and re-added it.

Thank you! Your fix did it for me. I had to hold the volume button down for quite a while before the co sole restarted, maybe 20-30 seconds. But it worked !

Hi mate had this when I upgraded my iPhone, you have to delete the saved WiFi information in WiFi settings on your iPhone as it was transferred from your old phone backup

I tried every recommendation listed below repeatedly for hours without success. I reset my network settings on my iPhone and it connected immediately to the BMW. Give that a shot.

Just to add my take on this, 540i 2017. So I had this issue of disconnects, though mine seemed to deteriorate over time. First started dropping after a week, then 3 days, then every day. I tried everything, all the rests etc. So I discovered that the only way to get it to reconnect was the next day after last used, I had to drop wifi and BT, then reconnect BT then wifi. Car would happily run CarPlay, no issues throughout the day even after stopping and parking etc. next day problem was always back. After reading many forums and comments, as with most people I agree it is the phone, not the car that is the issue. Mine is now fixed I believe, been running now for over a week with no issues. So in the end, mostly out of frustration I changed location services, possibly the Alexa app( seen other comments about this). I went through all my apps and turned location to ‘Only While Using’ for all apps that I did not need it on for, additionally I made sure hotspot was off and the only BT device was the car and watch. Hopefully this might help someone.

as suggested by Capital Oats above, press and hold the vol knob is the solution