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

Same issue here on a A200 2016 W176 with a new iPhone 17 pro max on ios 26.0.1.

Tried with the official USB A to lightning + official lightning to USB C set up and the car play isn’t recognised on the device

Tried a made for iPhone Beats USB A to USB C cable and the result is the same.

Tried a generic USB A to USB C and the car play connects fine but then is either pixelated or crashes after a period of time. Tried this across several cables like this and got the same. Also tried it with a friend’s new iPhone 17 pro max and got the same issues.

Tried the reset network connections fix via the settings menu and no change.

No issues at all when I had my iPhone 12 Pro Max with lightning cable on the same car driving to pick up the new 17!

Hi,

Ive tried quite a few wireless adapters with no luck, they just remove the need for a wire…..it’s still the same connection. However the Ottocast play2video ultra and the getpairr go 2.0 do fix the issue, (getpairr is £40 on Ali express), these have a whole new android UI so it completely updates the software system of the car.

It is not the display that’s the problem, it’s the software/hardware in the Mercedes.

The ottocast play2video ultra is on amazon (not the cheapest place to get it from though) it’s cheaper with free returns on ebay

Here’s the Amazon link https://amzn.eu/d/iDPzwz6

If you want to use the features like YouTube/Netflix you will also need a remote (if you don’t have a touchscreen)

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.

I tried all different high quality cables as well as the previously working lightning cable + official Apple Lightning/USB-C adapter and nothing fixed the fuzziness on my 2019 Mercedes GLC with iPhone 17 Pro iOS 26.1.

So my workaround is to use an old iPhone 13 Mini (inexpensive 2nd hand) and leave that permanently connected by Lightning/USB-A in the glove box. For an easy life I put a cheap Saily eSIM on it, otherwise it could use my main phone as a hotspot.

This gives me everything I need including Maps, WhatsApp (linked device), Podcasts and Music and although the phone itself is always locked/secure in case of theft, its maintains its trusted handshake with CarPlay and runs perfectly/instantly without me having to touch the phone. If this setup could also do phone calls on my main number ("calls on other devices") it would be perfect and I'd love not ever having to plug my main phone in again. But it can't do phone calls, so I make do with using WhatsApp for voice calls instead.

Not perfect, but almost, and maybe that helps someone until this issue is patched out.

It does fix the issue temporarily. Thanks for sharing the tip.

I bought Ottocast and it fixed the issue! Finally can use it fully.

Hi, which Ottocast’s device did you buy? Please, further information

Thought of doing this

Does it work well? I have one and it disconnects very frequently.

any updates on 26.2 ?

26.2 didn’t help.

It looks worse than iOS 26.1 😪