ios 11 will not connect to car stereo with usb or bluetooth.

I solved this issue with the following steps:

1. Disconnect usb/lightning cable from your phone

2. Powercycle your phone by powering off and powering on.

3. Open Apple Music and play any downloaded song. You must have at least one song in your Music App. If not, sync one song from iTunes or download from iTunes Store.

4. Connect USB/lightning cable while music still playing on phone.

5. Watch and listen as the audio magically transfers from your phone to your car audio.

Tip: If you’re Spotify user, remember to follow the same procedures by starting up the Music app first. I was unable to play any audio from my phone, regardless Music, Spotify, YouTube and etc. It somehow resolved after following the steps above.

I was having the same problem - USB data connection to car stopped working after the iOS update and generated the message “USB ERROR” in one car and “Version Not Supported” in another (both Hondas). This resolved briefly (one day) after a patch update was released, but then quit again. None of the suggestions posted online worked for me. Then, when having trouble getting my iPhone to serve as a personal hotspot for my iPad at a conference, I googled that problem. One suggestion was to reset the network settings. I did that and it worked to reestablish the hotspot connection between devices. When I got back in the car an hour later and plugged the same phone into USB to charge, the USB connection was suddenly working again for data as well. I now have music back in the car.

Hope this helps

I have a Jensen and it was doing the exact same thing. I was able to find a workaround though. There basically are two main ways your car's head unit connects to the iPhone via USB:

1) Through the iPod Accessory Protocol (IAP) which allows for playing music, displaying album art on the screen, skipping tracks, etc. This goes for the built in music app on the phone as well as any other music apps such as Spotify.

2) Through the External Accessory Framework. This would be used where your car's head unit has direct integration with an app in some way, through a custom protocol. For example, if you have a Pandora app on your car's head unit it would communicate with the Pandora app on your phone through the External Accessory Framework. This would allow for Pandora's custom thumbs up / thumbs down to function through the head unit.

Since iOS 11, the External Accessory Framework has been in various states of broken-ness causing your car's head unit to malfunction with these integrated apps. What I have discovered is, if you delete ALL apps on your phone that would use the External Accessory Framework with your car it allows for the IAP protocol to function correctly. So, for each app on your head unit that provides any sort of iPhone integration, delete it. This includes any apps you have from your car's manufacturer (Ford, Kia, GM, etc) as well. Without these apps on your phone, the head unit in the car will not be able to launch and/or communicate with the apps via the External Accessory Framework, leaving the IAP protocol for music.

In my case, I have Pandora on my head unit and this is the only app that would be using the External Accessory framework. After deleting that app, my head unit does not lock up or behave strangely as it did before.

KiltedTim wrote:

The interface in your car was intended to connect to an old style (non iOS) iPod, not an iPhone. In the past, the media interface in iOS was 'close enough' that it worked in many vehicles.

iOS has continued to evolve, however and it no longer works in many vehicles.

There's nothing Apple can do about it.

Disagree - There is an interface standard in existence supported by Apple for some time now. It was broken in iOS10 for a while, then fixed. Seems Apple has broken it again in iOS11. I suspect Apple will fix eventually, but it perhaps not a priority. Either that, or Apple should officially report they have dropped support (seems unlikely at this point).

My interface still works intermittently on my 2012 MINI JCW - probably 50% success rate with a MINI 30-pin cable and an Apple 30-pin to lightning connector.

Still suggest everyone that has issues to open a ticket/case with Apple, or use the bug/feature request form on their website.

I had the same issue with my iPhone 8 Plus, iOS 11.1, Hyundai i30. I updated to iOS 11.1.1 last night and everything seems to be back to normal. I can connect via USB. Hope it works for everyone else

@walk0080 Did you read the post I was replying to? My reply was in response to someone who is completely dismissing the OP's issue and making the very unfair assumption that Apple has no responsibility here. An issue that many of us are having. I found that insulting and was simply voicing my displeasure of the very unhelpful response.

Anyway...

The problem is intermittent for me as well. Sometimes I plug in my phone and it comes right up. Other times I have to plug it in 20 times before it gets recognized. And other times it completely locks up my head unit. No controls work, screen is frozen. The latter is especially frustrating because I have to cycle my car's ignition to get it to reboot. If I'm in the middle of a commute then I have no functionality from the head unit for the duration of my trip. Very annoying. Also when it locks up the head unit my backup camera does not show on the screen which is a clearly safety issue.

Things I have tried that have been suggested & do not help, at least in my case.

- Resetting network settings

- Resetting all settings

- Turning off bluetooth before connecting via usb

- Rebooting the phone before connecting via usb

- Disabling wifi, bluetooth, and cellular before connecting via usb

- Closing the music app before connecting via usb

- Closing all apps before connecting via usb

- Ensuring there is at least one song in my library

- Power cycling the phone

- Using a different cable

- And may other combinations of connecting, enabling/disabling settings, patting my head and rubbing my stomach, etc, etc, etc....

I have been researching this for about 3 months now (since I installed the new head unit in my truck). From what I have read from the many posts here and on the developer forum is that it is related to changes to the External Accessory Framework that were introduced in iOS 11. Lots of vendors are dealing with this at the moment.

I think I'm about to install the iOS 11.3 public beta on my phone to see what that does. One of the posts I read said that 11.3 fixed the USB connectivity issue with the Ford Sync system so maybe it will be fixed for other brands as well.

After turning the car and the phone on and off, reconnecting each time it resolved itself.

Unfortunately it's not Apple's responsibility to fix it. Apple releases beta versions of software months in advance so that manufacturers (such as Kia) can test it on their systems. If there's a problem then it would be Kia that needs to release a firmware upgrade to be compatible or warn their buyers about the potential issues you could encounter by upgrading. However, most vehicle manufacturers could care less about your stereo system being able to connect to your phone and usually only test with the newest vehicles being sold.

If Kia contacts Apple then they can get help on updating their firmware but don't be surprised if Kia does nothing about it.

I submitted a but report to Apple today.

IOS 11.2.5 seems to has broken USB control on my MINI JCW (2012 / R56). Either "accessory not supported" error, or playback is fine for a few minutes with Apple Music, then disconnects. Refuses to connect until I disconnect all cables and reboot the iPhone7. I also use Plex for music and again if no error, playback may be OK, but in this case USB control is non-functional (forward/back buttons on head-unit and steering wheel do not respond).

I use the MINI/BMW USB/line-in to 30-pin cable... along with an Apple 30-pin to Lightning adapter to my iPhone7. This setup has always been a little flaky (my head-unit says "iPod" - to give you an idea how old the tech is - from 2006 maybe), but this same problem came about during a previous IOS upgrade (IOS9 maybe on an iPhone6s?).

My workaround for now is to select "line-in", choose a playlist and play. If I want to select next track, tap my Apple Watch screen with Now Playing app. Not ideal as I tap the Watch without looking at it (we can't touch our phones while driving over here - big fines).

The interface in your car was intended to connect to an old style (non iOS) iPod, not an iPhone. In the past, the media interface in iOS was 'close enough' that it worked in many vehicles.

iOS has continued to evolve, however and it no longer works in many vehicles.

There's nothing Apple can do about it.

Hi

I have not contacted Nissan, why did you assume I had??

I have now solved the issue and it is good old Apple sneaking software in to make you use their products and not one of their competitors. I had not signed up to Apple Music and did not use the Music App on the iPhone. I play music through Deezer which stopped working. However as soon as I sign up to a free trial of Apple music and download one single, low and behold my phone now connects to the stereo and I am able to play music again through any medium. Am I being cynical? I don't think so

اعاده

I have the same problem on my iPhone 6s, iPod touch (latest gen) and iPad Pro 9.7. All running iOS 11.0.3. My car is a Audi A3 cab 2015 with AMI (Audi Music Interface) connection. I use the original Audi AMI to 30-Pin adapter, with a genuine apple 30-pin to lightning plug. Everything was working great before iOS11. It just says "the connected device is not supported", after 5-10 minutes of trying to connect. This is obviously an iOS11 failure. Now I have to play audio over bluetooth and use the phone to scroll through podcasts and albums while driving. Thanks Apple!

I have a similar problem with the difference that when I plug in the usb it just starts to play music on the phone while the graphics and controls are still shown on the car display (2016 Jaguar with InTouch Pro system)!?! If I play via Bluetooth it works but as soon as I connect the USB cable/charger it shuts down the Bluetooth connection and starts playing trough the phone speakers. It all worked perfectly before the iOS upgrade. Now I can not play music from my phone and charge it at the same time. Very frustrating 😟