CarPlay Maps not going into night mode

When Best Buy installed my Alpine i700, the installer said he had to program the unit to work with my vehicle. I don't know what that means but the display does dim or brighten depending on available light, and the unit lets me adjust how much I want it to dim and crank up full brightness. Steering wheel audio input controls work. It has nothing to do with the phone. You may remember before CarPlay, navigating using your iPhone at night changes the screen to night mode. I navigated for years using my phone. It's what sold me on CarPlay.

My phone all on its own, outside of my vehicle, will not shift to night mode. It only makes sense that connecting to my Alpine would not change how my phone works.

Not every vehicle has the wiring in place to supply that information to the head unit.

The Kenwood DDX6902S that I installed connects to the "ILLUM" lead, possibly labeled "Dimmer Control Wire". It is usually Orange with a White stripe, but not always. That line is used to notify the head unit that the lights are on, which usually dims the display slightly, and if the firmware was written to be compliant with Apple's APIs, will put the maps into night mode when active.

I decided to read up on how iPhone interfaces with the head unit. I recommend people do the same. My understanding from the articles I found by googling is that the head is not performing any functions other than displaying a stripped down version of the iOS on your phone, controlled by the iOS CarPlay app built into iOS. It's basically a touch screen back to limited functionality while driving a car. To access specific car features requires touching that icon that takes you to your cars unique options, or in my aftermarket case, to radio features I can use without the phone connection. Apparently there is no computer per se in the head but rather more like relays acting on instructions from the phone.

Will be interested to hear others understanding after their research.

That's an oversimplification, but essentially correct. In the case of things like switching to night mode when the headlights are on, there is some information fed back to the phone beyond what's been tapped, etc.

Just called jvc and they said it's an apple issue. I am on iOS 8.2 beta 6. I did notice I don't think the installer connected the dimmer wire as turning the lights on doesn't dim the display when the unit is set to sync. I now have Dim set to on but still no night mode on Apple maps.

If this lead isn't connected, does that mean we don't get night mode? I'm not sure the installer connected that as my radio only dims if I go into settings and turn dim on as apposed to sync.

That will probably depend on the receiver to some degree, but I'm guessing that's where the problem lies, yes. Manually dimming the display isn't the same thing.

How does the answer of the wire not being connected explain why multiple people on here said night mode has kicked on, like when going into tunnels and the autolights kick on or sometimes when pulling in their garage. That would make perfect sense if the head unit never went into night mode. But it has happened, just unfortunately never at night Lol.

I appreciate all you are trying to explain, I really do so I hope I dont come off the wrong way.

I'm also experiencing that it worked before the update and now glares bright light into my eyes at night, making it very distracting.

This is my first post on Apple.com communty forums. Does Apple not monitor this? I see 3 pages of posts and lot's of "me toos" and no post that looks like anyone from Apple gives a darn.

To those who are playing the "pass the buck game," it is incumbent on Apple to protect the user's experience. It used to work and now doesn't. It's not my job to figure out is some obscure hardware feature properly implemented. I'm not a car technician, a hardware engineer or a software programmer. They can provide a button that turns it to night mode. The phone knows where you are, what time it is, and when the sun sets. They can dim the display based on that. There are a dozen solutions that could be easily implemented by a company that cares to address the experience a customer paying $700 for a smart phone has. "It's not my yob / fault," doesn't work here.

I second everything dharmaprotector just said. He found a way to describe my feelings on the issue perfectly.

Either that, or let me use Google Maps on the thing. Google maps on android worked just fine 🙂

Agreed. So we need to be communicating directly with Apple at this point. They do not read these posts

I recommend this. I submitted a support ticket via their chat. Was very easy and convenient. But obviously the more people that do the better.

Just so I am clear... Are we sure night mode has nothing to do with wether the illumination wire is or isn't connected to the car? I believe mine isn't connected. Are we saying most everyone is having issues since iOS 10? I'm on 10.2 beta 6 Ave no night mode.

I forgot to mention. I called JVC who makes rent head unit I have and they claim night mode is a function of the phone not the head unit. However I had apple maps go into night mode, then plugged my iPhone 7 into the lightning cable connected to the receiver and maps reverted back to day mode.