CarPlay disconnecting

I've reported my frequent disconnect issues previously on this thread. Last night, CarPlay disconnected during a phone call, and I just finished the call on the handset and hung up. Then my 2018 Audi Q5 MMI would not play any audio. Anytime I adjusted the volume, it popped up the graphic for adjusting the volume of the "phone call." In other words, the head unit continued to think a phone was attached to it and actively making a call, even though the phone was disconnected (no cord, no bluetooth), I had restarted the phone, and obviously CarPlay was not active on the MMI (head unit). I had to reattach my iPhone XS and make a call and then hang up to "reset" the MMI to release the phone call.

The reason I mention this is that events occurring with CarPlay during the disconnect persisted on the MMI, whether the iPhone was attached or not. Clearly, with all the reports of issues coming and going in association with iOS updates, the iPhone software is playing a role. But now I increasingly wonder if the CarPlay app (installed on Audi, BMW, Subaru, etc head units) has its own stability issues. As such, version "X" of CarPlay on vehicle "Y" may be a bad combination with an iPhone with iOS "Z."

Hopefully that made sense. And it may explain why some solutions work for some folks and not for others... because there's 2 versions of software and 2 kinds of hardware in play. As I've tried everything on my phone that others have suggested, I'll see if my dealer is willing to update the software.

Thanks all...

I am having the same issues. I have a iPhone 7 Plus and a kenwood DDX9017DABS in my car so that I can have CarPlay. After performing Apple update the Phone will disconnect after 10seconds or less and won’t connect again.

It might reconnect if I reset the audio system but disconnects again shortly after.

I have even bought a new cable to see if that works. Didn’t make a difference.

Tried all the settings changes that are explained when searching for an answer. That didn’t make a difference.

Apple please update iOS to resolve this issue. I wanted Apple CarPlay to make my driving habits safer, I am finding myself looking at the screen a lot more to try and resolve the problem.

I am having the same issues except with a 2018 Hyundai Sonata. Have tried different cords and there is only one USB for CarPlay with this car. Sometimes, when iphone is first plugged in, car does not even recognize it. Have to unplug and replug until it recognizes phone.

I have a 2019 Acura RDX, iPhone XS, have changed out my cables, and all software is updated and reboots are done and every time I take or make a phone all it answers but in a few minutes it disconnects from car play. The phone then shows the Acura car app, and I have to just use speaker on phone.

I was having this issue too. No matter what I tried, nothing seemed to work. Then I noticed when I opened my Settings, there was a switch for VPN (Virtual Private Network) that I had never seen before. VPN was on. I decided to switch it off, but almost immediately it switched back on by itself. After some investigation, I discovered it was associated with the AT&T Mobile Security app that I also recently downloaded. I deleted the app, the VPN switch disappeared entirely and my CarPlay seems to be functioning without any connection issues.

The bottom line is it is a Apple CarPlay issue. They don’t respond on the forum or even have a separate topic for CarPlay support. What does that tell you about their commitment to CarPlay. Never thought I would would stop being an Apple fan but this has been going on too long.

I have been a frequent complainer here because I have two recent model Subarus that have serious CarPlay stability problems - crash after crash after crash with 3 different iPhones. Based on that, it is easy to describe the problem as a "CarPlay" problem. However, over the past several months, I've driven several rental cars extensively that had CarPlay - that had no problems. Most recently, a Chrysler 300 and before that, a Jeep Sahara. Based on this experience, it becomes more difficult to isolate the crashes to "it's an Apple problem" since my iPhone works well with several different cars but not with my two Subarus.

I speculate the problem is an interoperability problem between certain versions of the navigation heads in various vehicles and CarPlay. I believe both of my Subaru models (2018 Outback, 2019 Impreza) have a Harman Kardon nav head. This same OEM nav head is used in a lot of other cars - likely the cars that many of you reading this have.

I am trying to find out who the OEM is for the Jeep and Chrysler - the cars that CarPlay worked fine in.

you might be right. I have Honda Ridgeline (many Honda victims on this thread) that disconnects randomly often, or does not connect at all. I've tried all kinds of "fixes" but the problem persists. Please update your findings if you have any more info. Not sure what NAV head unit the Honda Ridgeline uses. Thanks for you efforts. It's a dangerous issue having to reconnect carplay all the time.

In addition, the companies that make navigation heads, like Harman Kardon, make multiple different models. It is possible that one model has no problems and another model does. As an example, from their website, they claim to be a supplier for Subaru, Jeep, and Chrysler. As noted in my earlier post, I am having trouble with 2 Subarus and no problem with a Jeep or Chrysler.ow

As someone that works in the technology industry, I know the most difficult of problems to solve are when multiple parties need to collaborate on the solution of the problem - in this case the automobile manufacturer, the navigation head manufacturer, and the phone manufacturer. Each party wants to blame the other.

There are two different way CarPlay connects to your the infotainment system in your car: Wired (typically through USB port) and Wireless (uses Bluetooth to initiate connection and transfers data through WiFi). For folks with wired connection, I recommend making sure the Lightning connection port on your phone is free of lint or debris. It is common problem for it to fill up with lint over time, eventually causing connectivity issues for the lightning cable.

BMW only offers wireless CarPlay (at least in both of my 2018 BMW models). Wireless disconnections are different, and I haven't found a way to reliably address the issues I am having. I've tried the suggest remedy of switching into airplane mode via settings, and the switching back, rebooting phone, restarting car. It did work for a while but problem returned during a long drive. Still trying to debug this. Apple recommend returning phone to factory settings, and setting up as new phone. Then add apps as needed and note if adding/using particular app is associated with issue starting.

Steps for returning to factory settings and setting up as new phone:

back up your phone: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT203977

restore to factory settings: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT201252

The above answer does not really solve the problem. I have an iPhone 7 running the latest version of iOS12 and a brand new Honda CR-V. There is only one usb port that works with carplay. I have done all the reboot, restart, change cable, update iOS, etc. stuff. Honda even changed out the USB port. But the carplay continues to disconnect, usually between 3 and 5 minutes after the carplay has first been connected. I then unplug and replug the lightning cord between 1 and 3 times, and eventually it settles down and stays connected. This is a silly situation. There is something unstable in the software connection between carplay and the iPhone. Either that or there is some interference that causes carplay to disconnect. BTW - the disconnect is not dropping phone calls (that is bluetooth anyway), it is using maps, playing music on iTunes or Spotify, playing podcasts, and that sort of thing.

I did a hard re-boot ios 12.1.4, iPhone 7, Honda Ridgeline 2017 that had previously hundreds of disconnects; since the hard reboot of the phone I have had zero disconnects, going on 4 days now. fingers crossed....

ok - spent some time on a chat with apple support before resorting to har reboot. I ahd already done all the steps of software update, different cable, etc and isolated the problem to my phone. Solution was to rename the phone and to forget the car. when i reconnected with the cable to the car, the phone resynced to the car with the new name. drove around for several minutes past the time when the phone would usually disconnect. this time there was no issue and no disconnect. will monitor this. but this may just have done the job. very happy.

The troubleshooting is so difficult because there are days when it doesn’t happen at all and then days when it does it every 1-3 mins ... I don’t know how or why that would’ve fixed it but I can connect a Android to the system and have never had it miss a beat ... it’s not the headunit it’s something within the iPhone that’s causing it ... similar to how all iPhones have freezing and glitch issues at 100% battery but still connected to power not always but sometimes ... and I’ve had every single iPhone except for the skip over the 8 ... I thought it was notificationsnonmy phone because it hadn’t done it in a while when one day my wife messaged me via google hangouts while I was driving and the exact moment her notification came in it disconnected but, I couldn’t duplicate that same result ... I think it’s almost time to move on from Apple, I’ve been with them since the original iPhone but I use my vehicle a lot and having one of the main features I picked out not working because of the phone, is disheartening ... the photo is of me driving down the road and the phone not only disconnected but caused the entire unit to restart ... this happens occasionally as well ... I don’t know how but there’s got to be a way this thing is tracking logs in the backend but I don’t know how to extract them and fully analyze without screwing anything up AND I should never have to do it in the first place ...

I have this issue since I moved from iPhone 8 to 8 plus. I have read the thread almost all of the reply’s and my conclusion is that it must be an iOS release issue. In my case it started jappening in a BMW X3 without CarPlay (only Connected Drive) just after the first time I connected the new 8 plus, and now recently in a Tiguan 2019 with CarPlay. So it looks like nothing to do with CarPlay itself but between certain car brands and the iPhone connection. And looks like it doesn’t matter if it’s cabled or wireless.

The recently stated solution seems logic (if Apple really released a patch) so I will try to delete the phone in the cars and add it again to see if that solves the problem, I’ll be back.