Pixelated Apple CarPlay screen on iPhone 17 Pro Max with Mercedes BClass W246

Following advice from others I purchased this new - Ottocast TV Mate- from eBay UK, for £37. Plug the ottocast unit into the CarPlay USB A port in the car and connect once using WiFi. IPhone connects to CarPlay seamlessly and is wireless. Amazing and very easy. All functions work. HMDI

port not needed. This is only

required if you want to mirror an app from

your iPhone but does not provide CarPlay functionality. Thanks all.

Hi,

This happened to me too after switching to a new iPhone. I found a temporary fix. When the screen becomes pixelated, go back to the main CarPlay menu and open the Mercedes app. It will take you to a black screen with an option to reopen the CarPlay menu. Select CarPlay again, and the issue should be fixed for a while. However, this is not a permanent solution. Apple needs to fix it.

I run all the developer updates on the iphone 17 pro max. This hasn't been updated in 26.3 that will be released.

The only work around without a separate device is putting the screen in the split mode where the map is showing on the left side. I call it the window mode. If it pixelates, you have to unplug it, plug it back in and quickly go to window mode. It's annoying you can't full screen it.

FWIW, this took about 7 months for Apple to resolve on the iphone 16 pro max when it came out.

This is happening on a 2019 GLC300. My daughters 2026 Civic is fine and my Audi is fine. I personally think its a screen resolution issue. I think Mercedes screens are not standard and Apple hasn't coded it correctly.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0DRS4HJYB?ref_=ppx_hzsearch_conn_dt_b_fed_asin_title_1

I have purchased this Ottocast unit for my 2018 C300 and it works pretty well. My phone connects to it wirelessly, no remote needed. I only use it for CarPlay, and it's fine. Our issue is with Apple, not Mercedes, it is on Apple to have properly coded the iPhone 17s and it this whole issue is a miss on their part. They need to write a patch in one of their upcoming updates. This is something they do all the time as we all know, very unlikely that Mercedes will make any changes to the system being used in the head units of older models. My humble opinion.

I have a Mercedes A200, 2018 and get a pixelated screen with my iPhone 17 pro plugged in. I tried 3 different leads and tried troubleshooting as do directed by Apple support. No joy. Spoke to Apple again. They are aware there is a software issue that is affecting CarPlay compatibility for a number of car manufacturers. Expect an iOS update to resolve…

Hi All,

Just a bit of an update for those of you who may be interested…..

I have now tired both the ottocast play2video ultra and the getpairr go 2.0 both devices are pretty much the same, the second one generally being cheaper. (They are ai box wireless adapters).

I can confirm that both devices fix the distortion on CarPlay in my 2017 Mercedes. My device in non touch screen and thus made setting up pretty difficult (but possible) so it’s not without its faults - there’s other features such as YouTube/Netflix etc you will need a remote to set up the WiFi if you don’t have a touchscreen. You will also need a remote to do system updates.

It works but not without its problems, it’s boots reasonably fast but seems to want to share a warning message and ask you to set the language each time (not easy without a touchscreen screen) and then you have to open the CarPlay app….

I will be emailing the developers about its faults and hope they can set up a direct boot to CarPlay, which would be awesome!

Hope this helps some people with their frustrations while apple pull their finger out.

Please do not recommend replacing the cable or wireless adapter. It will not fix the problem and will only mean users chasing a costly upgrade solution that does not work. This problem is caused by dropped bits or corrupted data on the digital video output from the phone. The only partial solution I have found is that using the split screen will reduce the severity of the issue. Apple will not publicly acknowledge the problem and directly me to Mercedes when I contacted them. Hopefully they are working on this in the background, and we will see a solution in a future release.

I’ve purchase the amazon bundle ottocast play ultra + remote. The Ottocast on amazon has an input for the remote’s receiver. This allows you to use the remote in the Ottocast (android) interface to get set up, which is fairly quick. From there I only use the remote when I start the car just to select ‘CarPlay’ as one of the options in the Ottocast. This method is not quite as slick as a direct connection to the vehicle, but until Apple tweaks the iOS (this is an Apple issue, my iPhone 17 pro max works fine in my wife’s 2025 GMC vehicle with CarPlay) this solution will work. Thanks to the users in this thread for that suggestion

Everyone needs to report the bug here

https://www.apple.com/feedback/iphone/

I have a bluetooth controller coming from the US Amazon store some time this weekend so I am looking forward to trying it. I did get the GetPairr working however but without the remote I can't correct some of the settings for the device but CarPlay is functioning. I have been using it for 3 days and I have had ZERO issues with pixelation (knock on wood). For me, this adapter has seemed to fix the problem and adds some fun extras. I would recommend this as a solid workaround.

Update 09-Dec-2025: Apple engineering support called me to say that, after reviewing the logs they extracted from my iPhone 17 Pro Max while connected to the car (GLA 180 2018), that they identified the issue and is in talks with Mercedes. However, during the call they said that because the technology evolved, they would need to add backward compatibility. So I'm assuming there are a couple of potential fixes for our issue:

1. car manufacturers update the software, which would be bad for us customers because Mercedes will charge us one hour of service (AUD 330) to update the software. By the way, Apple paid for that service but Mercedes installed the same version, saying that was the latest version.
2. Apple will update iOS 26 to support older car models.

They also said there's no estimated date for a final resolution.

Today I moved from my iPhone 14 Pro to iPhone 17 Pro and got the same issue. The car is a 2016 W246 Mercedes B180. I use the Carlinkit 5.0 wireless connection. Changing to a wired connection does not help.

There are no problems with the iPhone 14 Pro or iPhone 16 Pro Max. All iPhone are running up to date iOS 26.3. Apple must fix the issue.

Same issue wired or wireless via carlink 5.0. However when wired I have found if you turn off the WiFi it works as normal. Not ideal but will do until a permanent fix is available.

After much trial and error,

I've found a trick to improve CarPlay:

making a phone call using WhatsApp or another high-bandwidth app solves the problem.

In my case, after hanging up, everything works perfectly for about 30-40 minutes,

and leaving a call open works flawlessly for the entire trip. It's not a perfect solution,

but it improves what we have.

After much trial and error,

I've found a trick to improve CarPlay:

making a phone call using WhatsApp or another high-bandwidth app solves the problem.

In my case, after hanging up, everything works perfectly for about 30-40 minutes,

and leaving a call open works flawlessly for the entire trip. It's not a perfect solution,

but it improves what we have.