CarPlay with iOS 18 Broken

UPDATE:

After writing the response below , I saw a suggestion in another thread that turning off the VPN connection on my phone might solve the problem - and it did! Seemed like a counterintuitive solution to me but I'm not complaining.

Anyone still having the same problem might want to try disabling VPN on their phone, resetting all pairing settings, and trying again.

Keeping my original message below for search purposes in case anyone with the same specs as me is having this problem.

---

ORIGINAL RESPONSE:

Same issue here with my iPhone 15 Pro with iOS 18 on a 2019 Honda HRV Sport.

CarPlay using a wired connection was working perfectly through iOS 17.7.

After updating to iOS 18, the car no longer recognizes the phone.

Unpairing and repairing the phone in car system settings, unpairing car settings from CarPlay settings, using different (all genuine Apple) cords – none of these solutions work.

So I have to assume it's a bug/incompatibility issue with Carplay in iOS 18 and my car.

Hopefully someone from Apple will see this and point us towards a solution, or that Apple fixes the issue in the next iOS update.

FINAL FOLLOW-UP: My Nikon cable is USB-A 3.0 to USB-C... the cables we used previously were only USB-A 2.0 to USB-C... not enough bandwidth to carry the data. Get online at Amazon and get yourself some USB-3.0 or better to USB-C cables and your problems should be solved.

Folks I just tried the cable suggestion and bought onn USB-C to USB Cable. On back of box it says “transfers data while charging.” I plugged it into my car with my iPhone 16 with ios18 and my CarPlay worked immediately and everything is back. Thanks to the folks who previously posted about getting the cable that transfers data while charging.

I had the same problem (with iphone 16 and IOS 18 update) and spent endless hours trying all kinds of things to fix it and finally tried what was suggested by others in this thread to get a new charging cable that transfers data and as soon as I put the new cable in my car jack and attached my iphone, CarPlay was immediately back to normal. You just have to hunt through the USB A to C cables and find one that says "data transfer" on the box -- so not just charging but also data -- that's the trick.

I just fixed my issue with wired CarPlay that would connect but just play on my phone speaker but CarPlay did show up on car screen and controls worked but played again only on phone speaker. So after updating to iOS 18 I did make vocal shortcuts under accessibility. Not voice control VOCAL SHORTCUTS. Disabled and deleted those shortcuts and it worked fine. Hope this helps someone

CONCLUSION:

I was the cables... at least in my case... the very thick Nikon USB-A to USB-C cable appears to be able to carry charging energy, and data, as well. And apparently the smaller, white and look like Apple cables, only supply charging capabilities.

So those of you faced with this paradox: try getting yourself an "Apple Approved USB-A to USB-C" cable designed to charge and supply data.

P.S. Someone else on this problem support thread had brought up the "cable issue"... I just confirmed it.

just fixed my issue with wired CarPlay that would connect but just play on my phone speaker but CarPlay did show up on car screen and controls worked but played again only on phone speaker. So after updating to iOS 18 I did make vocal shortcuts under accessibility. Not voice control VOCAL SHORTCUTS. Disabled and deleted those shortcuts and it worked fine. Hope this helps someone

What finally worked for me was new data + power USB-A/USB-C cables and having both cars forget my phone and my phone forget both cars. Then connected with the cable, accepted CarPlay, and refused Bluetooth. Now I can use wired CarPlay from my iPhone 16 Pro running iOS 18.0.1 on both the vehicles and it seems reliable.

I can confirm that it is cable issue.

my issue is CarPlay can be performed with wireless only. Wired CarPlay will not work at all. (Just do charging only but no CarPlay connected)

Even after updating to iOS 18.1 didn’t fix until I’ve swap the apple certified USB-A to USB-C cable. (Power + data transfer capable )

So, my opinion for wired issue, that’s worth to take a look at your cable.

You need to acquire a newer USB-A 3.0 to USB-C cable and CarPlay will worked wired again. The issue is your existing cable does not have enough bandwidth to charge the phone and support iOS 18 or 18.1.

I concur: you need a USB-A 3.0 or better to USB-C to get the data to transfer. Our cables were USB-A 2.0 only... My Nikon DSLR USB-A 3.0 to USB-C worked just fine in both of our cars.

This totally and immediately fixed it: Disable (under Accessibility) "Vocal Shortcuts" and disable any you may have enabled. THIS is the issue causing the majority of Carplay issues after upgrading to IOS 18 (BTW: it wasn't fixed with IOS 18.0.1 either). My issue with CarPlay was odd: when I plugged my phone in, the sound would only come out of the center console speaker, none of the other speakers around the car. To temporarily fix that, I would have to ask Siri a question and then cancel. 50% of the time that restored all of the speakers in the car. If it didn’t, and I tried to do it too often, then nothing worked at all! This fix, (disabling Vocal Shorcuts) however, instantly restored full accessibility to my CarPlay. If this works for you, too, PLEASE let Apple know by leaving a comment for them in their suggestion/comments section.

I had the exact same problem as you and here's what I did...

CarPlay does not work with the microphone on. If you see an orange dot at the top of your iphone screen, your microphone is on. It may be that an app has it on, but for me it was Vocal Shortcuts. Go to Settings then Accessibilities then make sure Vocal Shortcuts is turned off.

I just fixed my issue with wired CarPlay that would connect but just play on my phone speaker but CarPlay did show up on car screen and controls worked but played again only on phone speaker. So after updating to iOS 18 I did make vocal shortcuts under accessibility. Not voice control VOCAL SHORTCUTS. Disabled and deleted those shortcuts and it worked fine. Hope this helps someone