CarPlay not working with iPhone 16 Pro

This worked and will probably work for most of you. It wasn’t data transfer cable. it wasn’t content and privacy restrictions. I had to follow the steps outlined above in that order. I plugged phone in, got popup on phone about allowing carplay, and approved and then I had carplay. Thank you so much for sharing!!!

Why? iPhone 16 is USB-C and most cars are USB-A.

Try an Apple/Belkin charger.

This is not true. It’s the cable

Settings-Focus-driving-while driving-activate with CarPlay

I bought a wireless CarPlay adapter from Best Buy, works perfectly!!

What worked for me my 16 and 2019 Audi was to go into WiFi settings on phone, connect to the car wifi and turn on connect automatically.

So here was my fix for my Ford. I did not have to reset anything or jump thru hoops. What I found is, when I got my iPhone 16 I tried to connect with a USB type 2 cable with a USB c to my phone. Couldn’t communicate. My simple fix was going back to the original usb type 2(my 2020 truck connection ) and bought a $5 e75( old iPhone plug) to USBc off Amazon. Plugged the usbc into my 16 pro max and the e75 into that. Worked and CarPlay started in my truck. Seems the communication channel works thru the e75 pin out but not thru direct UsBc. Plug this into you usbc on your phone and your old e75 from your cable you were using into the slotted end

[Edited by Moderator]

I think I figured out where my issue is with CarPlay not working. I use WiFi for my CarPlay connection and the iPhone seems to disconnect from the WiFi since there isn’t data. If I keep my phone open to settings, and then once the CarPlay disconnects, I can manually select that WiFi network again and the CarPlay immediately reconnects and works for another 5 minutes.

The same issue is true for another device I own that uses a WiFi network to function but doesn’t have data. It’s like the iPhone senses that there isn’t data and then tries to change to another WiFi network or decides to use cellular, which is weird since I am actively having input from this network (it’s a medical device camera that is giving a video to my phone). I have to forget the regular WiFi networks that are also there so my phone doesn’t try to change over to them.

For me, it seems like some type of WiFi system setting on the iPhone 16 that is causing the CarPlay problems.

If you already have a solid data/charge cable that you are certain was working before in your car with a previous iteration of iPhone, it is likely NOT a USB-C type cable, hence the need to attach an adapter to it so that it will be usable with your new iPhone 16 -- which as you properly note ONLY works with USB-C. Many users are buying the Apple USB-C to Lightening Adapter (USB-C to Lightning Adapter - Apple) because their prior phone used a lightening plug that inserted into their phone, with the other end being a USB-B plug that went into the car via (again) a data/charge cable. Using your old cable, you just need to attach this adapter to the old cable and it should work well with your new iPhone. Many users in this thread report doing that and it works totally okay. I'm one of those users. The only other thing I had to do in my vehicle was I did have to reset my car's internal "infotainment" (i.e. entertainment/audio/visual/etc) system again to default settings and set up the phone again as a new device, and then add back all the other car settings that you want. Hope this helps.

hi , once removed the old iPhone , make sure that Siri is activated then go in settings iPhone car play and follow the instructions press vocal control and as if by magic the iPhone will be connected in CarPlay . My car is BMW serie 1 WiFi CarPlay

After a lengthy back and forth with Apple that’s still not resolved…. The last tech (6 in total now plus two supervisors) they came back and said they were sorry but the stereo in my 2008 Toyota Corolla is obsolete with the iOS 18 on the new iPhone 16 that I just purchased. Everything works except the microphone. Had I have known this, I never would’ve made the upgrade from my 11 pro max. They forced me to upgrade because my apps wouldn’t update without the iOS 18 update but my phone was too old to receive it then this 💩 it’s really wrong. They said there are over 800 car models that are now obsolete with this issue and sent me an email with them. I’m shocked at how this has played out. Not everyone has modern cars and from the looks of the complaints, there’s going to be a lot of angry people experiencing the same thing all over the world. Unacceptable Apple!

This worked for me too. Once I did content privacy restrictions it connected without any problems! Thanks for the information!

Why usbc to lightning?

I used small USB-C to usb adapters on our 2020 Telluride and it worked