CarPlay stopped working after iOS 26 update.

I have an iPhone 16 Pro and a third party head unit with CarPlay which has been working flawlessly for over two years with two different iPhones, an SE and my current iPhone 6 Pro. The morning after I updated my iPhone to iOS 26, the Maps screen did not appear on the device as it normally would and instead, a connection error screen appeared. I tried repeatedly to reconnect without success and in the evening, I found various accounts of how this problem had arisen in iOS 26 beta releases and that it might be fixed by resetting everything, forgetting devices etc. well, I sat in my car for an hour doing just that. I managed to connect to the device via Bluetooth and WiFi and when I tried to initiate CarPlay, the device appeared. When I selected it, a CarPlay screen came up which I okayed and then the device disappeared from the CarPlay settings.


I gave my old SE to my girlfriend and there is no problem when I try to connect with that but it doesn't work with my £1000 iPhone 16 Pro literally since I updated to iOS 26.


I think it is fair to say that the iOS 26 update broke and I'm pretty annoyed.

iPhone 16 Pro, iOS 26

Posted on Sep 17, 2025 7:14 AM

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Posted on Dec 7, 2025 7:05 PM

I had a similar issue when I upgaded the iOS to 26 on my phone. After troubleshooting for about 2 hours I finally figured it out. On your phone, go into Settings -> Screen Time -> Content & Privaacy Restrictions -> Allowed Apps & Features, and turn on CarPlay. Somehow the iOS update had changed toggled the setting to 'off'.

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197 replies

Oct 4, 2025 3:56 AM in response to Alf Megson

Still not working for me on Ford Sync. iPhone is sometimes recognized when plugged in, and sometimes not. Carplay crashes after a few minutes with or a frozen screen or completely disconnecting. Seems to happen more often when Google Maps or Apple Maps is running. Restarting device, reconnecting etc. doesn't help. Hope it will be fixed very soon!


Ford Sync 3 version 3.4

iPhone 17 Pro

iOS 26.0.1

Oct 4, 2025 9:14 AM in response to Alf Megson

i have an iPhone 16 Pro Max and a Pioneer aftermarket top of the line ApplePlay (or Android) head unit with a navigation screen. Using Waze and audio through Apple Music, I periodically lose audio for the music. I can’t get it to turn back on until I turn the car and therefore the unit off and on again. Since that is difficult to do a lot of the time while driving, I went long times without sound and was very irritated. I then found that if I select the main screen, go to the Nex icon on the Pioneer, select Bluetooth (which doesn’t work), hit the settings icon, then select Apple CarPlay from the dropdown menu. Next I select CarPlay through the main screen and go to Apple Music to turn the music back on. Then finally back to Waze.


This will work for an indeterminate period of time, however. I have had some long drives and have had to do this too frequently. It’s random on time between it happening from 15 minutes to an hour. I hope this helps some with a temporary fix but that Apple can get the bug fixed quickly and release the next update. When I reported this problem to Apple, the advisor told me that he waits a bit to upgrade to new major versions of iOS due to the initial bugs like this and I’m going to do the same next year.

Oct 8, 2025 1:06 PM in response to Alf Megson

2015 Dodge Challneger and a wireless Car Play dashcam device:

Talking to people via carplay or my car's stereo (UConnect) has a garbled connection. I sound like a robot to people, but I can hear them fine. This happens if I am connected to only one of the devices also. This started when I installed iOS26. I have a iPhone 17 Pro Max now, so I can't downgrade to iOS18. Will just have to wait on them to fix this and continue to use my airpods in the car until then.

Oct 8, 2025 6:16 PM in response to Alf Megson

Worked just fine until today. Randomly stopped working on ios 26.0.1


this many people having the same problem…. What an absolute trash software update. Let’s release a completely broken update .


my car keeps telling me my iPhone 15 pro, which has worked until today with no problems, is now saying my iPhone 15 pro is not compatible with Apple CarPlay. Really? My iPhone 15 pro isn’t compatible with CarPlay? What a trash company

Oct 14, 2025 12:06 AM in response to Alf Megson

Can someone from Apple comment on this thread and let us know if this is a known issue and if they're working on a fix? I find it very concerning that CarPlay has worked flawlessly for two to three years, and that an incremental iOS update to iOS 26 renders CarPlay completely unusable. Even more concerning is that Apple hasn't been able to hotfix this issue within two months.

Oct 15, 2025 3:41 AM in response to Alf Megson

My issue is a little bit different from the original post, but nonetheless similar in a sense where the issue started happening after upgrading to iOS 26.0.1.

  1. I own an iPhone 15 Pro and have a USB type-C hardwire connection Carplay to my 2024 Tiguan, and Carplay in terms of connection, maps, music all work well.
  2. However, microphone through Carplay or Bluetooth connection to the car will not work.
  3. When I call someone, or when someone calls me, and I use the speaker / microphone via carplay or the car, the other party cannot hear me.
  4. Also, I cannot use the Carplay microphone to use Siri either.
  5. If I use my iPhone's speaker or Airpods, I can call and talk to people like normal. I can also use Siri if I use iPhone's speaker or Airpods
  6. I've tested Carplay on my 2024 Tiguan using my niece's iPhone 15 Pro which has iOS version 18, she has no issue with the microphone

This is pretty frustrating to say the least. We need a fix to these random Bluetooth issues that we are having with iOS 26.0.1 update

Oct 15, 2025 10:20 PM in response to holls at whidbey

Hello, I have a 2018 mustang gt sync 3. I also bought a usb a to usb c anker cable for my new iPhone 17 pro max. My CarPlay has been freezing randomly and just stops playing music and closes out of CarPlay as well. Did you have the same experience? Did you fix your issue already? I turned off my widgets today and will see if that works! Let me know! Thanks!

Oct 16, 2025 5:34 PM in response to Brandon2021

Just a quick note to thankyou for your "widgets" fix for CarPlay vs IOS26. I spent many frustrating hours in my driveway trying to get ios26 and CarPlay to stay connected. I even looked up how to go back to iOS18 (you can but it's easier to buy a new phone). Your widgets trick was my "Hail Mary" and it seems to be working perfect now. Again, thankyou so much.

Oct 26, 2025 11:34 AM in response to bosko23

A mi tampoco me funciona, después de un mes utilizando el iPhone 17 pro , he probado de todo y sigo sin poder conectarme correctamente, como mucho dura 5 minutos conectado, es muy frustrante.

a parte de otros problemas que trae este modelo.

sinceramente muy arrepentido de haber comprado este modelo, de momento el peor iPhone que tuve.

y también la poca ayuda por parte de Apple.

Oct 29, 2025 3:47 PM in response to Jacobo Cota

UPDATE... On the way back home, it disconnected again after a minute of driving.

I "forgot" the carplay device and the bluetooth device.

After re-pairing to my car stereo, it happened again.

After that, i went to the settings section where you "restablish network settings" and did that without forgetting the blueetooth and carplay device. It seemed to work... i disabled the Widgets just in case... I'll see if this worked when a leave work in a couple of hours.


Is my phone defective?

is it a software glitch?

is it a design issue?

it's been a month and can't get my phone to work right... My iPhone 15 with iOS 26.0 worked ok with my stereo...


iPhone 17 with iOS 26.1 RC

Apple Watch Ultra 2 with watchOS 26.0.2

Atoto F7 XE head unit

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CarPlay stopped working after iOS 26 update.

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