8.4 Broke my Pioneer CarPlay.

I am also having issues with carplay and the 8.4 iOS update.. I have a pioneer 4000nex, an iphone 6, and an iPhone 6plus with the firmware current on the pioneer. luckily i only updated the iPhone 6 plus to iOS 8.4 because i had i feeling for some reason that the new "music" app in the 8.4 update would mess things up with carplay and i think i was right....! I have my iPhone 6 with iOS 8.3 working perfectly fine with the carplay on the pioneer, unplug the iPhone 6 and plug the iPhone 6 plus in and nothing, non off the carplay functions work. I'm able to play music and charge my phone but non of the actual carplay functions like siri, or maps, or messages, or music, or "HANDS FREE" calling work at all through the pioneer like they should.

So since my iPhone 6 with iOS 8.3 works just fine and my iPhone 6 plus after iOS 8.4 update doesn't work at all and carplay is an apple feature/product put into car stereos, I would have to come to the conclusion that its an issue with iOS 8.4 update and not pioneer...

I ended up talking to a senior advisor at apple, we went through all the troubleshooting steps and nothing worked. She then said she will fill out a ticket and send it to the engineering department to see if they can resolve the issue with carplay and iOS 8.4 update and will get back to me to let me know.

I will update when or if i hear anything back!!

Anyone know if the 8.4.1 update has fixed the problem? Nothing seems to mention Carplay or Pioneer in the upgrade notes.

I have upgraded my iPhone 5S to OS 8.4.1, and my Pioneer AVIC NEX 6000 to the latest firmware, and CarPlay still does NOT work.

I upgraded my iPhone 6 to iOS 8.4.1, and still found that CarPlay on my AVIC-F60DAB didn't work.

I took my iPhone to the retailer who installed my F60, where they had a new AVIC-F70DAB, an AVH-X8750BT, and an Alpine ILX007 on display. It worked perfectly with all 3 of those head units! One of the guys at the retailer then got in touch with a Pioneer rep, who advised that someone else with an iOS 8.4.1-equipped iPhone and an F60 was having no issues.

I'm guessing that a batch of faulty components in these units is causing the problems. I hope my F60 can be fixed, since I really don't want to shell out for an F70 after less than a year!

Okay so after months of struggling with ios 8.4, no help from either Apple or Pioneer, please find below a number of 'quick fixes' which hopefully will help some if not all of you experiencing problems. I will provide a brief overview of my problems just in case someone from Apple or Pioneer decide to wake up and address the problem.

How it all started

Firstly I am using a Pioneer Navigation Unit F60DAB which I purchased earlier this year. I was previously using ios 8.3 with my iPhone 6 Plus with no major issues. After updating my device to ios 8.4 to take advantage of the new 'spectacular' apple music my Pioneer device kept freezing, crashing and became unusable. This wouldn't be so frustrating however, when you are in the car and driving the last thing you need/want is to be trying to figure out why your stupid head unit has decided to go on strike.

What I decided to do

My first thoughts were to try and restore the device to ios 8.3 as I was convinced my iPhone was the problem, specifically the new update. I sadly missed the window to downgrade my device and contacted apple who tried to diagnose the problem, however they told me that it was a hardware problem which was complete s***. After connecting another iPhone with ios 8.4 to my car and experiencing the same problems, I proved the valuable apple geniuses wrong, but at that point they were clueless and provided no further help.

I then contacted Pioneer’s engineers who stated that apple car play just sits on the screen of the Stereo, and the ‘brain’ of the operation lies within the phone, therefore there wasn’t anything Pioneer could do to try and resolve the matter.

Quick fixes

I tried a number of things to try and get my phone and Carplay to not freeze and I found the following methods to be relatively effective:

1. Check your Pioneer head unit has the latest firmware installed. This is a general guide which may help some of you update your device(http://www.pioneerelectronics.com/StaticFiles/PUSA/Car_Electronics/Firmware%20Up date%20Files/Expanded%20Android%20Auto%20Compatibility/Firmware%20Update%20Instr uctions_AVH-4100NEX_FINAL.pdf). The file names will be different and some of the steps depending on your device, but it is useful as general guidance if you have never updated your device before. You will need to first check the firmware on your device and compare this to the latest firmware on the pioneer website for your device. Please do not follow these steps exactly as it may not be relevant for your device, but I have included this link for general guidance/illustrative purposes only.
2. Check you are using a genuine apple cable to connect your phone to your car. I was originally using a cable I had in my car, but then switched to my home chargercable which came with my iPhone and this dramatically improved my Carplay issues.
3. Before you turn your car/device on, go onto your iPhone and start playing music first. Once you’ve turn your car one and your stereo has loaded, plug in your device to the car. For some reason when I play music from my phone and then plug in the device it seems to work and not freeze.
4. The latest quick fix I tried was to turn my car on, let my Pioneer unit load up, turn on my navigation for the device to calibrate correctly and then plug my iPhone in. I think the Pioneer unit doesn’t have masses amounts of power so letting the device load up first, establish its GPS connection for the Satnav and just settle before plugging in my iPhone really helps.
5. Another point to stop the freezing and crashing is to just use the device slowly. I know it sounds like a simple thing to do and also a bit annoying because you want to use the device how you like, but when you keep switching between screens and tasks, it just becomes too much for it all.

If anyone has any questions please just reply to the thread and I will try my best to help, however just to note I don’t work for Apple or Pioneer, nor do I have any expert knowledge…I’m just an annoyed customer who has spent a lot of money for a product which was designed to stop distractions on the road, but who has ended up with the complete opposite.

C'mon Apple/Pioneer, sort it out.

A friend of mine has an Alpine stereo - same problems! Keeps dropping out etc. after iOS 8.4, no changes with 8.4.1.

Hard to say if it is something Alpine/Pioneer hasn't followed, or if Apple has made changes.

And Parrot just dropped out as well, they had a promising HU coming up.

Seems like CarPlay is dying before it's even started...

Nope. From what I have read, the upgrade appears to have 'broken' Carplay.

I'm guessing that Pioneer will have to do a firmware update before it is actually fixed, if it is fixed at all.

You could download the beta and test?

AFAIK Pioneer won't support half of their HU's anymore. Makes no sense!

If anything it should've been a different ROM or similar for the CarPlay section if it is indeed this vulnerable for official updates. The ROM could include Apple-based FW, meaning that they internally in their unit have to not only support the CarPlay standard, but also a CarPlay firmware, which could be updated from iPhone f.ex.

and not only be CarPlay compatible, but actually BE CarPlay.

That way you wouldn't suddenly have some units from some brands that doesn't work with this and that iOS device.

I've just tested my iOS 9-equipped iPhone 6 on my AVIC-F60DAB. Worked a treat! To make sure the first time was no fluke, I turned everything off, disconnected my iPhone, then turned everything back on again and connected my iPhone. It even remembered what I was last listening to.

Hope you all have the same result.

Cheers.