CarPlay Overrides my Radio Stations in 2016 Accord

Question

Level 1

13 points

CarPlay Overrides my Radio Stations in 2016 Accord

If I get into the car (2016 Honda Accord) and plug the phone in, many times Pandora will start automatically. I saw the other thread. However, the problem goes on further. Recently when I plug in either Pandora or Apple Podcast or Apple music will also auto start. It's like they all want to restart at the same time when plugging into the Accord. I then "pause" whichever CarPlay audio is playing and try to switch to a radio station. The station stays on a second or two, but then the CarPlay apps takes over the audio channel again. I have even tried to force stop the app on my phone and it will restart again and again. The basic problem is CarPlay overrides what audio input selection I have made even if you force close the apps. Very annoying and can be very distracting when driving. Honda and Apple better get this figured out. Any other suggestions, other than uninstalling the audio apps?

iPhone 6s, iOS 10.2.1

Posted on Mar 15, 2017 2:23 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Best reply

sab2624 Author

Level 1

13 points

Mar 17, 2017 12:44 PM in response to sab2624

I've tried this, but still have the audio CarPlay apps take over. Today I left the car with the FM radio on. When I got back in the radio started, but then Apple Music took over by itself. Apple CarPlay and Honda systems are not playing well together.

Reply

Answer 2

sab2624 Author

Level 1

13 points

May 3, 2017 9:49 AM in response to rsolfest

Here is the latest update.

I took to Honda to demonstrate the problem at it occurred 100% of the time. They said they have never seen the issue and could not reproduce the problem using other iPhones on my car. They escalated to the Honda Tech Line and their advice was to factory reset the radio. After I did that the problem still remained and Honda said it was not their problem.

I took the phone to Apple Genius bar and explained the problem. iPhone h/w passed all diagnostic tests. The only advice they had was to restore the device back to factory setting and install iOS 10.3.1 again. So far this last step has resolved the issues, with a lot of pain in the backup process.

My theory is that between the multiple iOS updates between 10.2.x and 10.3.1 building on top of each other the iOS file system got into a strange state, especially in this last 10.3.1 update. It appeared that the Honda radio looked at the phone as external drive; i.e. USB therefore the Carplay media was treated with high priority in the system. On my Carplay upper screen it would show "NoName" on the screen, rather than an album, as if it was a memory drive plugged into a computer.

Welcome to the world of technology integration into cars. When all else fails factory reset and start over.

Reply

Answer 3

rsolfest

Level 1

9 points

Mar 15, 2017 3:55 PM in response to sab2624

I have correlated similar behavior on my 2016 Honda Accord to only when I left the car last and it was playing iPhone audio (e.g.: podcast, music). If i last used CarPlay (e.g. Maps or Home screen) with the radio, it will naturally start with the FM radio again.

Reply

Answer 4

rsolfest

Level 1

9 points

Apr 23, 2017 8:36 AM in response to sab2624

Thanks for sharing the video. It answered many questions that I had. This looks to be a quirky issue that has never been witnessed on my 2016 Honda Accord with my iPhone 7. I don't have any suggestions for you other the ones below that you may have already tried.

POSSIBLE CAUSE THEORY: Bad/intermittent connection with the Accord and iPhone. I have experienced some intermittent charging disconnect/reconnect issues with my iPhone's Lightening jack. The Apple Store used a small paint brush and was able to remove a fair amount of lint that was jammed into the end of my jack. This enabled my Lightening cable to insert fully again and not have connection issues. I now do cleaning about every 6 months on my own.

- Clean out your iPhone's Lightening port (at Apple store) or with a clean/dry small paint brush

- Swap out your current Lightening cable

HARDWARE ISSUE: Issue with your car or your iPhone. Since I am not seeing this issue, I conclude that this is not a system wide issue with 2016 Accord using CarPlay. The good news is that this issue appears to be easy to reproduce.

- Try using another iPhone from a friend/spouse to replicate the issue. If it still happens, then I would take your case to Honda. If it doesn't occur over a sufficiently long testing period, I would take your case to Apple. I assume that either company will first ask you to do the testing above with a cleaned Lightening port and alternative cable. In either case you have the well documented YouTube video.

Good Luck - I would be very frustrated if I were in your situation.

Reply

Answer 5

sab2624 Author

Level 1

13 points

May 5, 2017 11:01 AM in response to sab2624

Bad news. The issue has returned after I put my backup back on the phone. Bottom line is that this can be solved if you do a factory restore but not use the data backup. There apparently is something specific in my personal backup that is causing the issue. I tired my phone in another Honda and it had the same problem, so this appears to be a phone problem. I've also tried removing all my iTunes music, turned iCloud music sync off, and tried Carplay in airplane mode with no affect. I have an open ticket with Apple now and they are being very helpful in trying to find a solution.

Reply

Answer 6

scyu6058

Level 1

4 points

Aug 2, 2017 10:57 PM in response to soarpoon

Happened in VW Tiguan 2 too. I have just re-installed fresh 10.3.3 and would try tomorrow. Very annoying. Apart from taking over control from Radio, it also took control over Media playing (I was then using SD card to play songs).

Reply

Answer 7

Oct 3, 2017 6:27 PM in response to soarpoon

This sounds very much like my CarPlay issue. I have a 2017 chevy Trax bought in july. I plug my phone in to bolt cable to charge and CarPlay automatically starts. That's ok. However if I'm listening to Sirius or radio and I pick up my phone and go in to any other app like Facebook it causes my "Source" to change to iPod and it starts auto playing my iTunes. It's seriously annoying! I tried to mimic this with my husbands iPhone in my car and it doesn't do it. My only guess is there is some setting that says iPod has priority?

Reply

Answer 8

haynzy15

Level 1

4 points

Oct 12, 2017 8:20 AM in response to sab2624

I have this problem as well with my 2016 GMC Sierra Denali. I use an Apple cord, I have done multiple updates and multiple resets of my phone and nothing seems to work. GMC just points their finger at apple, but I feel like this is a software issue with my radio. It is very frustrating to be paying for XM radio and have every song be cut off twice from my phone.

Reply

Answer 9

sab2624 Author

Level 1

13 points

Nov 29, 2017 10:48 AM in response to soarpoon

Thanks for tip. For 2016 Accord with an iPhone 6s, the 11.1.2 upgrade did not help the situation. The phone switches the radio back to media and the radio station can't be used. Wish the upgrade worked. I've switched to using TuneIn full time for all my radio stations and given up using the Honda radio.

Reply