CarPlay Disconnecting - iPhone XS Max

Well I installed the 12.1.1 update yesterday, did a reset on the network settings, and the problem recurred this morning. For my Honda CR-V whilst playing downloaded media (that's on the phone) connecting or disconnecting wifi or cellular data causes a carplay interruption or disconnection. I can cause the failure by doing this. There can be power supplied in parallel by a wireless charger and it makes no difference. An iPhone 6 in the same vehicle runs cleanly.

I can confirm after updating my xs max to ios 12.1.1 that the issue hasn’t been solved yet. After almost 2 months with the Xs, this is ruining my experience. What such an annoying issue!

(A5 Sportback 2018)

It’s been a while since I have posted to this thread. I have a 2018 Audi Q7. A couple of months ago it seemed that Audis were the only cars impacted by this issue, but all the recent posts point to this being a widespread problem across many different car manufacturers. As impractical as it is, the only solution that has partially worked for me is to connect the phone when it is at 100% charge. I managed to have Waze remain connnected during a three hour road trip when the phone was fully charged. That said, as soon as a call came in and I answered it, the phone disconnected a minute later, reconnected itself 30m seconds after that, and then stayed connected for a couple of additional hours. Unfortunately, even at a full charge, it appears that the only way to keep some stabiilty is to run one application at a time. Impractical and unacceptable. Btw, I have found that if the phone is below 90%, there is no shot of it staying connected for any length of time, even if CarPay is sitting at the menu screen idle. A formal acknowledgement of this problem by Apple (with the prospect of an imminent fix) would at least help to mitigate the frustration of its customers who keep trying onerous troubleshooting steps which don’t correct the problem or who are resorting to spending additional money to purchase hardware such as USB voltage meters which may have negative long term effects on the battery.

For those in Australia this USB voltage meter has fixed the problem for me

https://www.amazon.com.au/COOWOO-Multimeter-Chargers-Capacity-Banks-Black/dp/B0787TYM4C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1544518157&sr=8-1&keywords=usb+tester

Agree that it's linked to power/charging management issue on the XS Max. When plugging in at full charge (or very near full charge) CarPlay works fine for me. When plugging in at a lower state of charge, the phone will connect and disconnect repeatedly but will eventually stay connected (once charge reaches near 100%). Super irritating. Would be nice to have someone acknowledge the issue.

2018 A4; XS Max

Just thought I’d toss in my 2¢ here. 2006 VW Jetta owner here (swapped in a newer VW headunit w/CarPlay), who also upgraded from a 7 Plus to an XS Max. My 7 Plus had not one single issue with CarPlay (a year and a half of usage since I upgraded my headunit), and the second or third time I plugged my XS Max into my car, it displayed the connecting message on screen for ~10 seconds (usually only takes one or two when it connects successfully) before it started playing my music, but with no video on screen. The only solution is to restart my phone and then plug it back in. Since then it’s a gamble whether or or not I’ll plug it in and it just works, or I’m forced to reboot and try again. Once it’s connected it does remain connected (thankfully) but I’d say easily more than 50% of the time I’m rebooting it for it to display on screen properly.

There may be more than one cause and hence more than one solution. On my XR power was not the problem - I put on a wireless charger and it didn't help at all. My problem was network connections coming and going (as they do when you're driving). I think iOS 12.1.1 is better, so check that you have that. Reset network settings to start clean there. VPN was causing trouble for me, so I disable that when driving. I also disable wifi while driving. With those done I get good behavior from CarPlay. Engaging airplane mode was a solid but impractical solution, but helped in diagnosis. Let us know if you find a solution.

I still had the same repeatedly disconnecting issue with my iPhone XS Max iOS 12.1.2 

I updated to the beta 12.1.3 last night. I have completed 6 trips today using carplay and have not had a single disconnection.

I am using an Apple OEM lightning cable and I did not change the cable or the USB port that I am plugged into.

Same issue here too.

I have done everything I can think of to get it to work and no joy. The phone just buzzes when plugged in. Sometimes it holds for 10/15, most times it 2 seconds.

I don't get the issue in my Wife's Golf GTD (2018 model), so I am assuming this is an Audi issue. Perhaps the USB ports are not putting out enough power for the Max?

I have raised it with my local Audi dealership, see if they can help.

2018 Audi Q5 + XS Max with same symptoms here. It dropped constantly after I switched out from a X. Happy to report that turning off WiFi in the car made CarPlay stay connected. (Also should nite I am not paying for WiFi, presumably others are not either in this case.) Thank you to those on this thread for posting.

All I know is after I uninstalled it Carplay get access a lot faster.

Everything works and Heart Radio Pandora and SiriusXM are coming up in full mode.

I have complaining about this for a while thru the Dev Program ..

With no response I may add.

Since I did and upgrade on the iPhone I have not hopped back on the Dev Team.

I don’t see the 2018 Audi S4 CarPlay compatibility here > iOS - CarPlay - Available Models - Apple

New thread created: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8587775

UPDATE: Have been using USB y-splitter (https://www.amazon.de/gp/product/B009EAF0RU/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00?ie=UTF8&language=en_GB&psc=1%29) for past month, not a single disconnect since. Power (red) plug is connected to car's second USB port.

I should add that I first purchased the car in October of 2017 (although a 2018 model). At that time I had an iPhone 7. The issue never emerged until sometime after I upgraded to an iPhone XS in September 2018.

It is difficult to determine if the cause is the iPhone XS, an iOS software issue or an update to the Audi MMI. The car has been in for routine service at which point the MMI could have been updated, but I can’t be sure. Unfortunately Audi points the finger at Apple and provides no assistance to solve this issue. We as the consumers are the unfortunate ones with brand new cars and phones that don’t work properly. Please help Apple.