carplay not connecting on 2019 CRV ex

I've tried "everything" and even a service person at the Honda dealership had no further ideas than what I already tried. I do see a couple things, however, on this similar issue thread that I had not tried so will do them and hope for the best.

Carplay has been perfect since day one...back in 2019...up until a couple days ago when this strange issue suddenly happened.

Dealer reset the system, so I had to add the phone again etc and (iphone 14 pro max) even with updated phone ios it made no difference.

It does "work" with bluetooth but no carplay images on the screen. I guess honda link is active but that does not help with gps views.

I saw a device online that says it will connect carplay without plugging in the phone...the device goes into the port that the phone would go into but, while it Sounds like the problem would be solved with that, it might still mean that carplay has to be working better in order for this 'connecting device' would be useful.

I asked at the Honda dealer if they could look into it but...the appointment to do that is $240+, for labor, so...I am going to still explore more d-i-y methods!

The strange thing, sort of 'encouraging' but ultimately not, is that the carplay icon comes up on the dash view and also in the screen window...but BRIEFLY, and even where it says Carplay, the touch screen menu does not connect it but it just vanishes and there's the blank screen again, well not totally blank because there is a menu but it's not the carplay version.

Any ideas?thanks