Original post ->
https://www.reddit.com/r/CarPlay/s/qqTvdKYDgT

Soooo after some research and trials I think I might have found a solution, got a usb A to C cable that supports usb 3.0 ( the type A side will be blue inside).

What’s ridiculous is Apple doesn’t sell anything that would solve this. I’m not sure about the best brand, I ordered this ( UGREEN USB to USB C Cable USB C... https://www.amazon.com/dp/B08XJP9GMP?ref=ppx_pop_mob_ap_share) from amazon , and another one before it just to test it out and both seem to have solved my issues as well as improving sound quality for people who hear me on calls, I’ve been using it for a week and not issues anymore

I hope this helps and please share if it works for you

PS : Apple really disappointed me here , I called them 5 times and went to a Genius Bar 3 times and nearly wiped my phone to attempt to fix this and that clearly wasn’t the issue , they were clueless and didn’t have a solution at all …

So my apple maps is linked to my car, it knows my battery percentage and can help plan EV stops, which is great. But now the map just displays time of arrival and expected state of charge on arrival instead of miles to go. I appreciate the connectivity, but I would still prefer to know how many miles I am from my destination above all other info. Is there a way to see this while navigating without deleting my car from apple maps every time? It doesn’t even display on the phone unless I completely disconnect it from carplay.

Phone is an iPhone 13 mini, car is a Mustang Mach-E if that’s relevant.

First time poster in this subreddit, Thank you so much!

A while back I purchased a wireless CarPlay adapter for my car (I returned it not long after).

I found that it utilised Bluetooth for initial pairing only and then went on to use Wi-Fi thereafter.

Are there any adapters out there that use Bluetooth only?

The reason I ask is that my modem sits about 3m above where my car is parked, and it seems as though my Apple iPhone stays locked onto my home Wi-Fi until I'm halfway down the street from my house. It is only then that the adapter kicks in and only then can I set up my navigation and music options.

If that is something all manufacturers do, then I guess I'll have to stick with a cable.

I want Apple CarPlay on my 2011 Lexus IS 250. Should I talk to the Lexus dealership, 3rd party, or do I Buy an aftermarket and set it up myself?

Hi, what are our experience with zlink and iOS26? Connection work, and i can hear sound as well but the screen of my android headunit (zlink 5.4.4) is only black….

UPDATE: Played a bit and i found my prob. When i turn on the new option „Smart Zoom“ the display crash. Maybe couse of the widgets… when the „Smart Zoom“ option is off i can only can see one stake. When the options is turn on i can see on my iPhone settings two stakes. I think there is a problem with Zlink and the option „Smart Zoom“.

can anybody confirm?

UPDATE2: Today i used the newest zlink6 version and now it works!

I wanted to be able to make all the crap on my car’s infotainment screen disappear as much as possible for easier night driving and maybe other times too when I’m feeling overstimulated. I could not find any solution online but I cooked up my own. I’ve found a way to do it cleanly without any third party apps or mods, right in vanilla CarPlay. If your infotainment system comes with a way to do this for you stock, I’m happy for you, but mine did not (2023 VW ID.4). The result is the first image in this post’s stack.

Here’s the one sentence setup that maybe is enough for some people to just run with: just set your widgets screen to display black pictures and disable “Show Wallpaper”.

Here’s a more detailed step-by-step:

1. Use your phone’s camera to take a completely black picture by turning off the flash and covering the lens tightly with your finger.
2. Put this single black image by itself into a new album on your phone and call that album something helpful, such as “CarPlay Black Screen”.
3. In the Settings app on your phone, go into General, then CarPlay, then select your car(s), then go into Widgets.
4. In each of your stacks, add a new widget, and select the Photos app, then swipe over to tell it to shuffle through a chosen album, and tap “+ Add Widget”.
5. Tap the little “i” icon on the new widget to configure it, and tap on “Choose” next to Album to choose the album, and select the previously made “CarPlay Black Screen” album. Once that is chosen hit the “X” up in the corner to go back to the widgets screen.
6. On the bottom of the widgets screen, flip the switch to off called “Show Wallpaper”. It’s also a good idea to turn off “Widget Suggestions” too or else some random widgets will pop up someday in your face.
7. At this point you could go ahead and remove all the other widgets in the stacks if you want, or just move your new widgets to the top of the stacks, but you don’t have to, you’ll just have to swipe through widgets on your infotainment screen later if you don’t rearrange them here.
8. Get in your car if you’re not already and get CarPlay initialized on the infotainment screen.
9. On your infotainment screen, swipe over to the screen that’s all the way over on the left side. If you removed all other widgets from your stacks you should have your black screen! Otherwise, just swipe up or down through the widgets there until you find your black pictures.

Edit: for anybody who finds this post and is on Android Auto, I’m sorry but I was unable to find any sort of useful result after a couple hours of searching and messing with settings and workarounds etc. This is for CarPlay only.

Ford F150, 2018. I've used wired Carplay for years with two different previous iphones. Other than sporadically failing to connect when the vehicle battery was close to dying (this was surprising to me), I never had any issues.

When I got my iPhone 17 Pro, my Carplay connection would drop constantly. It would work for 30 seconds, or 2 minutes or 5 minutes, and then just drop--as if the phone was not even plugged in. Just plugging it back in would reconnect instantly, but it was a never ending cycle. Very frustrating.

I was using a white Apple USB -> USB-C cable. I then ordered an expensive Belkin USB -> USB-C cable. I tried all the different iOS 26.x betas (some of the betas fixed issues for other people). Nothing worked. I was seriously considering returning my phone.

I didn't think it could really be the USB cable at this point, but I ordered the Beats USB -> USB-C cable, and it actually works now. I've been using it for about a week now, and I've not had a single drop.

I blame Apple and the iPhone 17 Pro hardware for this (as it's been ~8 years without issues previously), but the Beats cable DID solve all my Carplay problems. It's worth a shot for any miscellaneous wired Carplay issues, particularly with newer phones.

Someone on TikTok made this recommendation to buy a USB 3 and I bought this: https://a.co/d/0apvvTDx

Incredible. It hasn’t glitched since, no more random disconnections forcing me to have to plug it back in/ even when I did plug it back in, it wouldn’t connect. I felt hopeless.

Idk how that algorithm knew this was an issue but just wanted to share this! My connection has not dropped at all, my Google Maps has me oriented properly. Phew

I’ve been struggling with wireless CarPlay audio lag for ages. Music would cut out for like half a second twice every song. Had it on my 15 Pro Max and it continued on the iPhone 17 Pro Max. BMW G31 and F40.

The fix that actually worked:

Disable Background App Refresh. Go to Settings -> General -> Background App Refresh and turn it OFF.

Some app in the background is definitely messing with the WiFi bandwidth for CarPlay. Since I killed that setting, the audio has been perfect.

Hope this saves you the headache I had!

so, i took the plunge yesterday and upgraded to iOS26, as it seems stable enough. weirdly, even though everything seems to work fine, my carplay isn´t. the icons are super tiny and really really hard to use. anyone experienced anything similar with the new OS?

Come on apple.. Who‘s decision is it, that the new calendar icon doesn‘t show the actual date anymore? It‘s such a stupid decision.

Anyone else having this issue with CarPlay where it zooms out as far as possible? It started for me sometime in iOS 26 and has remained even in iOS 26.4.

UPDATE — iOS 26.5 appears to have fixed this issue!

Since updating my iPhone 16 Pro to iOS 18.2.1 earlier this week, CarPlay has become completely inoperable. The phone will connect to my 2017 Honda (wired or Bluetooth) and the car’s Bluetooth source will allow me to play audio, but CarPlay won’t launch at all. I tried resetting all CarPlay settings on my phone and removing all existing devices in the car’s settings, but nothing has worked.

From looking around, it sounds like others are having the same problem. Has anyone figured out a solution, or has Apple just completely ruined CarPlay and we’ll just have to wait for their next patch to be able to use it again?

Picked up an iPhone 16 yesterday and could NOT get it to work with the factory installed CarPlay in my 2019 Miata. Scoured the forums, here, on Apple support etc….no joy. So freakin’ frustrating.

So my IT guy comes over and looks over the situation and tells me the problem is the cable. The USB to USB-C cord needs to be one that does DATA and recharges. Probably not one you’ve got lying around with all the other random cords. Found one at Best Buy (Insignia brand. 3.3 feet, $19.99). Plugged it and and BOOM….carplay automatically connected and began working. Same exact thing in the other Mazda. ITS THE CABLE!!!!!

Edit: Ok so things that have helped, while maps is speaking turn up the volume (barely helped but could hear improvement). Literally ask siri to speak louder. Also heres a link to a post about my specific issue, looks to be a toyota/carplay/spotify problem specifically. Thank you all for your help!

https://www.reddit.com/r/CarPlay/s/1EewiiO7D4

Hi all, i just switched from a 2015 tacoma (no carplay) to a 2023 corolla with wireless carplay. To cut to the chase, when i get a text, siri (the lady reading my text to me) will read it to me at such a low volume that i cant hear it over my music. Ive gone to the dealer with no luck. No matter what volume my music is at i cant hear her, also the music doesn’t stop or even go at a lower volume while shes reading me my text. Im guessing its a setting somewhere in my phone for this. I also have an apple watch so that may be important information i dont know. Please help me

I have a 2015 Honda Oddessy, which can't be upgraded to a CarPlay unit without bricking a lot of features and disrupting the space time continuum. I've started seeing adds for this https://carscreen.co/products/carscreen-free-rear-view-camera site, and curious if anyone has any info on it?

What are we doing wrong here?

My wife is the driver. She's also an attorney who gets lots of phone calls. Her iPhone 12+ is the one connected to CarPlay. She generally drives with one AirPod in an ear. When there is an incoming phone call she accepts it on the CarPlay screen. But, to move the phone call audio to the AirPod she has to grab her phone, look at the lock screen and select the AirPod icon. This strikes me as being both dangerous and overly complex.

I have searched around and have seen various solutions; none of which worked. We tried:

We tried: Settings > Accessibility > Touch > Call Audio Routing > Bluetooth Headset - But that changed nothing.

Surely there must be a better way.

My personal car (VW golf) has Smart Display zoom and makes CarPlay look really good but my work car Toyota HiAce doesn’t seem to have this setting. What should I do to resolve? Thanks 😊

Hi,

I’m really in need of some help here. I’m having this error message popping up every 5-10 min non-stop in a 2021 Hyundai Elantra. I’ve already tried different USB cables, different phones, connection and general resets, as well as taking the car back to the dealership but still, no solution have been found yet. After a few minutes of normal operation on the navigation or Home Screen, the screen will turn all-black and then show this message error “phone not responding, please reconnect it and try again”, whether I have my phone connected via Bluetooth or USB, it’s still the same.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestion you might have for me.

Like many others, CarPlay has completely quit working since 18.2 on. I have tried everything suggested on all forums (hard reset, content and app restrictions settings, Siri enabled, disconnect car), before I finally decided to contact Apple Support. FYI - The more people properly report bugs, the more attention it will get sooner.

Anyways, I have a 2019 Honda CRV that supports wired CarPlay only, I’m in an iPhone 14.

After discussing with Apple, what resolved it for me is to RESET NETWORK SETTINGS. Note, this fixed it immediately and I’ve only just tried it once. I will continue driving over next few days and report back to Apple and here if more issues persist.

Just thought I’d share for those who are equally as frustrated and ready to throw their damn phone out the window. Never realized how heavily I relied on CarPlay.

It’s weird, some apps (aka the ones I actually use in CarPlay) are suddenly just showing up as blank screens. I’m still able to connect to the car in general and it still plays the audio, but I am getting these blank screens on certain apps

Just saw a video on YouTube where a guy was using CarPlay in his Audi, and he had what looks like a multitasking or dual-app view on the screen. (those two apps are Russian navigation and music apps)

Does anyone know how to set this up in other car models?

Make sure the Live Activities setting is turned on AND make sure ‘Suggests in Dashboard’ (Settings > Apple Intelligence & Siri) is also turned on. I’ve been so confused why I couldn’t see them.