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

Thank you. Apple's policy is to make changes that degrade the ownership experience of potentially millions of customers and pass the buck to the auto manufacturer? I've got the wrong device. Adios, Apple.

I have a similar issue with 2 vehicles. My Tacoma has a Kenwood DPX502 with a 30 pin Apple connector cord attached as XMedia. I connected flawlessly with my iPod and iPhone 7 until iOS 11.2. Now I get the message that the device is not supported. I can get the iPhone attached periodically after connecting/disconnecting. Once playing, songs are started, then restarted. They play, but the iPhone restarts the songs periodically. I have the last issue on my 2015 Lexus RC. Bluetooth doesn't sound as good as a hard connection. I'll try USB next.

Hardly. Any handshake is a two way street - if Apple chooses to make modifications to their interface protocol or similar it’s their responsibility to ensure backwards compatibility. You can’t have an interface standard that changes silly nilly. Nobody wants a device that stops working due to an OS upgrade. Considering this worked perfectly fine before iOS 11, I guess this is either a) an unforeseen break that could/should be rectified in a future update or b) an intentional end of support of legacy car music system interfaces. The latter arguably should be notified to customers prior to iOS upgrade so customers can choose whether to make the upgrade - was there a disclaimer to that effect? Ps. My music system Audi concert no longer works on iOS 11. Ds.

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).

I love my Apple products but the arrogance of you Apple fanboys really is unbelievable sometimes. You imply that Apple never makes any mistakes or introduces bugs into iOS and that it's always the other manufacturer's problem. Please. If you do some research you will find that there are many makes and models of cars having USB connectivity issues beginning with iOS11. And many aftermarket head units are having problems as well, including mine. So spare us from the Apple "holier-than-thou" attitude. It's not a specification change with the external accessory framework in iOS. This is a bug and it's Apple's responsibility to fix it. Period.

@jkbrowne - Nice job insulting users on the forum. :-( Did you file a bug report with Apple yet or contact their support to get the problem recorded? I did recently (and I did the last time years ago this happened and it did eventually get fixed).

The problem is weirdly intermittent with my car (2012 MINI JCW). One trip I could only use line-in for audio. Return trip USB control was fine (using PLEX or Overdrive). Using Apple Music basically just doesn’t work - it disconnects from USB after a minute or two.

Here’s hoping enough people report the bug to get this fixed soon.

@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.

I bought the iPhone X in October 2017 and it played my music and displayed onscreen and worked through my steering wheel controls. After the last 2 updates(iOS) It only plays music through USB and the display reads Files not found. Does not work through controls on the steering wheel any longer. This really makes me rethink my apple purchases. Sad that it worked before and then an update and it no longer works. My car is a 2012 Chevrolet Equinox. The iPhone X is my 4th phone in this vehicle and now it doesn't work correctly. 😠

Samantha777 wrote:

I bought the iPhone X in October 2017 and it played my music and displayed onscreen and worked through my steering wheel controls. After the last 2 updates(iOS) It only plays music through USB and the display reads Files not found. Does not work through controls on the steering wheel any longer. This really makes me rethink my apple purchases. Sad that it worked before and then an update and it no longer works. My car is a 2012 Chevrolet Equinox. The iPhone X is my 4th phone in this vehicle and now it doesn't work correctly. 😠

Did you contact Apple support and open a ticket? The more people that complain, the faster this might get fixed.

Do you know anything about this issue with Pioneers? I have a FH-S701BS that was working perfectly with the USB connection, until I updated my iOS to 11.2.5. Now I have to unplug and replug each end of the USB/lightning multiple times to get it to work at all to play music. I don't like to use bluetooth, it eats too much battery.

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.

I don’t have a car app and don’t have Pandora. Used to quite a while ago but not anymore and he app is gone from my phone. The head doesn’t have a Spotify app but maybe that one could still be causing problems?

Before iOS 11 usb worked perfectly to charge and listen to Music app. Using iPhone SE in Suzuki swift 2013 with Apple cable. If turn off car while iPhone conectes to usb and the start the car again the iPhone will charge and play music for 10 seconds and the automatically disconnecte and not even charge!. Why break the things that work Apple?, USB to charge at least should work!. Apple updated and the broke it, pardon me, but it is Apple fault.

Same problem here. Lightning to 30 pin adapter to Nissan custom cable. Worked until I was having quirky issues with my iPhone 8 and did complete setup as new. Now it says in bold letters - THIS ACCESSORY IS NOT SUPPORTED. Firmware update from Nissan on a 2011 car? Good luck. I couldn't get them to give me a firmware update years ago. I thought it might have been my old 30-pin/lightning adapter because I was experiencing drops. Replaced it - exact same problem. Siri says it's playing, iPhone is charging, when I switch to IPOD(yeah, its that old), it connects for a few seconds and drops with 'IPOD NOCONNECT'. I think it's exactly what the other poster said about the interfaces on the phone... I've tried his suggestion but it hasn't improved. Opening a ticket with Apple Support.

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.