iPhone 15 Pro connects to car's Wi-Fi instead of home network

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Level 1

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iPhone 15 Pro connects to car's Wi-Fi instead of home network

I have a "dongle" for Apple CarPlay in my car. It connects automatically and I can use CarPlay without touching a thing.

The problem is that the car keeps this dongle powered even when the car is shutdown. And for some reason, even after I get home to a super fast Wi-Fi network that is connected to the Internet, my phone chooses to connect to the car's Wi-Fi that never had an Internet connection.

It does that at random times and I have to frequently manually connect it to the home's Wi-Fi, but a couple of hours later I find that the phone is using 5G for Internet connectivity because it dropped the home Wi-Fi and reconnected to the car.

iPhone 15 Pro with iOS 18.5

[Re-Titled by Moderator]

Original Title: Wifi Connection Priority

iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 18

Posted on Jul 1, 2025 9:22 AM

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Answer 1

KiltedTim

Level 10

231,250 points

Jul 1, 2025 9:41 AM in response to user971

It happens... Modern vehicles 'check in' occasionally to report their status and location, powering on the bluetooth and wifi. That's so that you can use the app from the manufacturer to do things like lock and unlock the car, remote start, etc.

Mine does this sometimes. The only real solution is to unplug the wifi dongle when you get out of the car and plug it back in when you get in.

The WiFi isn't the actual culprit here, though... your phone actually connects to the dongle by bluetooth first, which kick off the wifi connection.

I'm betting this will never happen to you if you're out of bluetooth range of the car.

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iPhone 15 Pro connects to car's Wi-Fi instead of home network

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