Problems connecting Carplay with VW Golf MK 7 2016

I'm having the same issue: CarPlay iPhone not Recognized.

Since at least 8.0.3.

I have a 2016 VW Golf (I specifically waited for the 2016 for CarPlay, and paid a premium over the 2015 which is essentially the same car). About two times a week, It simply will not recognize the iPhone (5s, 9.0.2). I am using an official known good Apple cable. 80% of the time it works (albeit with some annoying buggy behaviors that I assume will get fixed at some point, but that's another post) But sometimes, like today, I plug the phone in and I get the "reading USB device" message, and nothing happens. I disconnect and reconnect, nothing happens. I reboot the phone, no go. I reboot the head unit by holding the power button for 30 seconds, and that doesn't work either. Rebooting both devices and trying again - same.

I've had the car in to VW - they see no issues, and there are no software updated for MIB II.

I have no way to determine what the issue is. It's always done this since 8.0.3.

How do I get this to work reliably? How do I even begin to figure out where the problem actually is?

Extremely frustrating.

Apple car play wasn't working on my new Golf either. Worked fine for the dealer and my wife's phone. Tried swapping cable, no go.

I read in another thread that Onavo and other vpn apps were an issue, and I had one of these. I deleted the vpn app and the profile, restarted phone. Yay car play now works with a variety of cables.

so good.

Is your phone paired with the Bluetooth in the car? I have unpaired mine and deleted the car from the iPhone. So far it seems to work. BUT I need it to work consistently for a week before I call it fixed. I can live with that solution because when carplay works it is nice (excepting the Siri issues, that's another thread), and I don't need BT, and the SD cards still work, but having to get rid of BT seems like a drastic solution, and as I said I'm not sure it ever works - could just be a coincidence.

My head unit locked up earlier trying to hook up the phone via USB. After unplugging the phone the screen stayed in AppConnect "select a device mode" and was unresponsive. The screen stayed on after removing the key and locking the car. I had to hold down the power button until it shut off...

I'm really starting to feel like this is a VW MIB II software issue, but I have no proof yet. I've had the car into VW - completely useless is the best thing I can say about any VW service department I've visited over the years, I will post an update either way...

I have the same configuration and the same issues:

VW Golf 7 model year 2016 discover pro mib 2

iPhone 6 of my wife works out of the box

my iPhone 6 plus does not work

an iPhone 6 plus of a friend works out of the box

even after hard-resetting the my iPhone 6 Plus and configured as a new iPhone did not solve the problem

I tried out 3 original lightning cables from apple. All of them work correctly with the iPhone 6 but don't work with my iPhone 6 plus

I have no clues where the problem is located? Is it a software issue on the iPhone, a hardware issue of my phone or a hardware or software issue with the cars radio?

I'm becoming increasingly convinced that it's the head unit. I get weird behaviors without carplay. A common one is that the volume control ceases to function until you reset the head unit, for example. I'm pretty disappointed that none of the controls on the steering wheel work with carplay, other than volume. Couple all this with the fact that you have to plug the phone in, and Siri doesn't really work all that well, and, well, meh. I only use carplay for long trips now - the phone and music functionality in MIB2 is actually pretty good, and I don't particularly want text messages when I'm driving, dictated or any other way (as a side note is is really that hard to recognize a URL and just say "link to page <title>" rather than read out the whole thing character by character?). The only thing I miss is maps, and I only need that on long trips anyway. My biggest disappointment is I could have gotten a 2015 for a $2000 discount over what I paid for a 2016, which is essentially the same car, the only difference is carplay and a backup camera. Totally not worth it.

I have a 2016 GLI (Jetta) and it has CarPlay issues as well. It will work several times, then refuse to connect to the 'unrecognized device'. It will get stuck in a loop, trying over and over. The phone will make the beep that you hear when you plug it into charge every few seconds as the VW CarPlay disconnects and reconnects as part of this cycle. The only way I've found to fix it is to push the power button in on the radio and hold it in for several seconds until the radio (MIB II system) reboots. After that, it will work for several trips again until the process repeats. I'm sure that this is a VW radio issue as I've tried different iOS versions, different cables, rebooting the iPhone, etc. Nothing works outside of rebooting the radio.

Did you ever find out how to fix your iPhone/CarPlay issues? I have a 2016 VW Bug and I'm having the exact same problems. VW nor Apple can seem to fix it. I have lightning cord from Apple, reset my phone, and start and restart my car when this happens. Also, I make sure not to text or talk on phone while I'm sitting in my car before starting it and plugging it in. Still happening 10-20% of the time. Very frustrating.

Resurrecting a slightly older thread but I connected to my 2016 GTI no problem but not after a change of iPhone cable. I grabbed in a hurry what turned out to be my iPad cable this morning thinking there would be no difference but this proved to be incorrect. The cable gave a warning on my work pc of over going above a power threshold. (Rough german translation) and refused to charge my iPhone. The iPad cable doesn't function with the car at all.

The iPhone cable I keep at work functioned without an issue. I had also turned of Bluetooth as was previously suggested too. Hope that helps somebody.

Read my road to a fix: VW get your **** straight!! Re: Carplay not working on my iPhone6 ios 9.2.1 and the VW GTE Passat Discover Pro 2016

As IOS 9 arrived only yesterday I would guess that VW are going to have to update their end for it.

Then complain to VW, they have had plenty of time to fix it since 8.4 debuted.

Search this site for CarPlay and VW, I can only find your post so doubt that it is common, try Google for a wider search.