Recently bought the Pioneer SPH-DA120. Got it installed, but when connecting the Lightning cable, the head unit sees my iPhone 5s as just an iPod. CarPlay is enabled and when I connect my wife's 5c it activates CarPlay just fine. Any clues as to why my 5s doesn't get CarPlay to work?
iPhone 5s, iOS 8.3
Got my sph-da120 installed last night, before bolting it down I started to test ports and I had the same problem. Found this, a few others, and couldn't find an answer. While sitting there, I erased my phone and all contents, set it up as new and it worked fine. Restored apps from a backup and it stopped working again. Set the phone up as new, reloaded my apps and music manually and it's working perfectly. iphone 6, 128gb, ios 8.3, sph-da120 firmware 1.08. 1.07 is all that was on the download pages but I think 1.08 is out there somewhere for download. A few google searches may find it if you need it.
I ended up restoring my phone to factory settings, then using my backup to set it up again. Reset all Bluetooth connections, network settings, etc. I hooked it up, same issue. I gave up for the night, the next day on my way to work, I plugged it in since at least Pandora worked, and it suddenly registered CarPlay. It's strange, only thing is that the AppRadio I still can't get working cause it still says incompatible USB when running thru the digital AV adapter. So, gotta see what will get that goin now.
I run an AppRadio 4 (DA120) with an iPhone 6+ w/IOS 8.3 and everything works perfectly in both CarPlay mode and AppRadio mode.
The latest firmware is available on the Pioneer download page as 1.07 (new units indicate 1.08 but they are the same image and the number was changed by Pioneer to indicate the head unit production date). Pioneer claims they will not be providing a 1.08 for download for the DA-120.
For a variety of problems check the Pioneer output and smartphone settings as well as look at the iPhone settings for display, the Pioneer head should show (under General below "Siri"). Carplay requires iPhone 5 or later.
Some common AppRadio 4 issues:
I Had the same issue almost. I have the same head unit. Installed it and CarPlay worked. I added the mlb app which is supposed to be CarPlay compatible. carplay stopped almost immediately. Deleted mlb and it worked again.
Carplay not working on Pioneer SPH-DA120
