How can I prevent CarPlay in my Subaru from automatically starting to play a song from my stored Music every time it connects to my iPhone (via Bluetooth)? I want to be able to decide whether or not to listen to music (and which music) - not being forced to listen to the same music over and over every time I start up the car with my iPhone in my pocket. I am using Bluetooth just for the voice directions on Maps apps.
iPhone 15 Pro, iOS 26
Disable Handoff: Go to Settings > General > AirPlay & Handoff and toggle Handoff off. This prevents your phone from trying to "pick up" music you were listening to on another device (like a HomePod or Mac) as soon as you get in the car.
Screen Time Restriction: If you never use the Apple Music app, you can "hide" it by going to Settings > Screen Time > Content & Privacy Restrictions > Allowed Apps and toggling CarPlay or Music off (though this is a nuclear option).
P.S.: I found one way to stop the car from starting up Music by requiring FaceID for Music to start up on my iPhone. This did the trick - but it was a short-lived victory: instead of Music, the Bluetooth connection of my iPhone to my car simply triggered another app to start up - Podcasts - and proceeded merrily with a random podcast (which I haven't listened to on purpose for ages). It appears that my car entertainment system is geared towards ADHD teenagers who cannot live one minute without (even random) background sound/music - whether in a store, a restaurant or while doing homework. For now, my only solution is the one above (turn volume off) or simply unpair the phone and the car (which causes me more annoyance than it is helpful).
Thank you for your response. Unfortunately, none of your proposed solutions did the trick - turning "Handoff" in "AirPlay & Continuity" (which is what it is called in iOS 26.1) off did nothing to stop the autoplaying of songs from my iPhone as soon as I turn my car on. Your "nuclear optIon" didn't work, either - in "Allowed Apps & Features", "Music" isn't even listed, and turning off CarPlay doesn't seem to do anything. (As an aside, "CarPlay" is really an odd app - it is nowhere to be found on my home screen - even when I search for it - and it doesn't seem to have its own "Settings" - but it does get listed among the "Allowed Apps & Features" list and in other places).
My issue in any case is not so much "Handoff" or "Continuity" - I am entering my car with the Music app closed and nothing playing - yet as soon as the car recognizes the iPhone, it somehow triggers Music to start up, select a (more or less) random song and begin playing it, even if I haven't listened to that song in a long while. It may be more of an idiosyncratic behavior by my Subaru, so I guess for now I'll just keep the volume down and once I need to interact with my iPhone (Maps, read-aloud messages, hands-free conversations) I can manually stop whatever is playing in Music and turn the volume back up. Unsatisfying but workable...
How do I stop CarPlay from auto-playing Music?
