Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

MilleDav01

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 21, 2012
117
28
I have an 2021 Kia Seltos Ex SUV. 7,000 miles on it. Purchased last June. I am having so many issues with my phone staying connected to apple car play. Of course apple says its Kia's problem and Kia says its Apples problem so I am getting nowhere. I am 99.9% sure its the car, but I just want to come here just incase.

Problem:

Connect iPhone to apple carplay. Disconnects. Reconnects. Disconnects. Reconnects. Randomly. No set time frame. It could happen once every 2 minutes or once every 20 minutes. It never has a patters. Sometimes it does not reconnect and just sits there until I unplug and replug the lightning cable. I am very frustrated because I miss turns using navigation, my phone is constantly vibrating with the disconnect/reconnect scenario and im tired of not being able to enjoy my music. I am worried that this is going to break my phone with the disconnection issues. Kias only solution was that I purchase a $70 kia branded lightning cable, I did, because my frustration was 10/10. Guess what happened ? Nothing, still disconnected/reconnected. Returned. They said their machine said that the car is fine, but clearly something is wrong.

All apps (besides navigation or music) are closed. All apps closed prior to connection to car.
Restart phone prior to getting into car.
Start car with USB plugged in.
Start car and then plug USB in.
Restored my phone to factory new.
Bought new apple branded lightning cable.
Bought 3rd party lightening cable.
Reset head unit in car to factory settings.
Apple replaced my phone under warranty after only two months thinking it could be charging port (It wasn't)

The frustration is real, i've googled and have no really come up with much. It seems to be getting WORSE which leaves me to believe that it is that car USB itself and not the phone but i don't know. What am I suppose to do or say to get this issue resolved?
 

heyyitssusan

macrumors 601
Feb 9, 2014
4,003
10,221
I have an 2021 Kia Seltos Ex SUV. 7,000 miles on it. Purchased last June. I am having so many issues with my phone staying connected to apple car play. Of course apple says its Kia's problem and Kia says its Apples problem so I am getting nowhere. I am 99.9% sure its the car, but I just want to come here just incase.

Problem:

Connect iPhone to apple carplay. Disconnects. Reconnects. Disconnects. Reconnects. Randomly. No set time frame. It could happen once every 2 minutes or once every 20 minutes. It never has a patters. Sometimes it does not reconnect and just sits there until I unplug and replug the lightning cable. I am very frustrated because I miss turns using navigation, my phone is constantly vibrating with the disconnect/reconnect scenario and im tired of not being able to enjoy my music. I am worried that this is going to break my phone with the disconnection issues. Kias only solution was that I purchase a $70 kia branded lightning cable, I did, because my frustration was 10/10. Guess what happened ? Nothing, still disconnected/reconnected. Returned. They said their machine said that the car is fine, but clearly something is wrong.

All apps (besides navigation or music) are closed. All apps closed prior to connection to car.
Restart phone prior to getting into car.
Start car with USB plugged in.
Start car and then plug USB in.
Restored my phone to factory new.
Bought new apple branded lightning cable.
Bought 3rd party lightening cable.
Reset head unit in car to factory settings.
Apple replaced my phone under warranty after only two months thinking it could be charging port (It wasn't)

The frustration is real, i've googled and have no really come up with much. It seems to be getting WORSE which leaves me to believe that it is that car USB itself and not the phone but i don't know. What am I suppose to do or say to get this issue resolved?

Do you have multiple USB ports in the car? Maybe trying another one to see if that will resolve the issue?
 
  • Like
Reactions: asus389

Taz Mangus

macrumors 604
Mar 10, 2011
7,815
3,504
I have an 2021 Kia Seltos Ex SUV. 7,000 miles on it. Purchased last June. I am having so many issues with my phone staying connected to apple car play. Of course apple says its Kia's problem and Kia says its Apples problem so I am getting nowhere. I am 99.9% sure its the car, but I just want to come here just incase.

Problem:

Connect iPhone to apple carplay. Disconnects. Reconnects. Disconnects. Reconnects. Randomly. No set time frame. It could happen once every 2 minutes or once every 20 minutes. It never has a patters. Sometimes it does not reconnect and just sits there until I unplug and replug the lightning cable. I am very frustrated because I miss turns using navigation, my phone is constantly vibrating with the disconnect/reconnect scenario and im tired of not being able to enjoy my music. I am worried that this is going to break my phone with the disconnection issues. Kias only solution was that I purchase a $70 kia branded lightning cable, I did, because my frustration was 10/10. Guess what happened ? Nothing, still disconnected/reconnected. Returned. They said their machine said that the car is fine, but clearly something is wrong.

All apps (besides navigation or music) are closed. All apps closed prior to connection to car.
Restart phone prior to getting into car.
Start car with USB plugged in.
Start car and then plug USB in.
Restored my phone to factory new.
Bought new apple branded lightning cable.
Bought 3rd party lightening cable.
Reset head unit in car to factory settings.
Apple replaced my phone under warranty after only two months thinking it could be charging port (It wasn't)

The frustration is real, i've googled and have no really come up with much. It seems to be getting WORSE which leaves me to believe that it is that car USB itself and not the phone but i don't know. What am I suppose to do or say to get this issue resolved?
It sounds like it is the CarPlay USB connection. At the dealer try your phone in a different car, and model of car, and see if the issue still happens. Wow $70 cable. Hope you can get your money back.
 

Moakesy

macrumors 6502a
Mar 1, 2013
576
1,209
UK
Try a friends phone to see if the same problem exists. If it does, it’s not the phone it must be the car.

Then check the USB port with a dumb device (so not a phone) but something that will show if it’s charging. Is there intermittent problem as you drive around (loose wire somewhere)? Could be at the usb end or the back of radio end.

Sounds like no one is going to help you, so will be a case of elimination by yourself.

I had a car with a intermittent electrical fault and it was an absolute nightmare for both me as owner and the garage who were trying to fix it. Turned out to be a loose connection in the fuse box. Took nearly 4 months to identify where it was.
 
  • Like
Reactions: ericwn

MilleDav01

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 21, 2012
117
28
Try a friends phone to see if the same problem exists. If it does, it’s not the phone it must be the car.

Then check the USB port with a dumb device (so not a phone) but something that will show if it’s charging. Is there intermittent problem as you drive around (loose wire somewhere)? Could be at the usb end or the back of radio end.

Sounds like no one is going to help you, so will be a case of elimination by yourself.

I had a car with a intermittent electrical fault and it was an absolute nightmare for both me as owner and the garage who were trying to fix it. Turned out to be a loose connection in the fuse box. Took nearly 4 months to identify where it was.
same problem for them too.
 

MilleDav01

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 21, 2012
117
28
Have you checked to see if there is a firmware update of some kind available for your car?
Yes, updated to no avail
Try a friends phone to see if the same problem exists. If it does, it’s not the phone it must be the car.

Then check the USB port with a dumb device (so not a phone) but something that will show if it’s charging. Is there intermittent problem as you drive around (loose wire somewhere)? Could be at the usb end or the back of radio end.

Sounds like no one is going to help you, so will be a case of elimination by yourself.

I had a car with a intermittent electrical fault and it was an absolute nightmare for both me as owner and the garage who were trying to fix it. Turned out to be a loose connection in the fuse box. Took nearly 4 months to identify where it was.
Tried another. Same thing.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Moakesy

asus389

macrumors 6502
Sep 11, 2019
341
236
USA
Probably a bad USB port on the car. See if they will change it and see what happens. Back before COVID when I traveled and rented lots of cars, this was a common problem. Some cars, even nearly new ones, had bad ports. Seemed most common in Chrysler and Hyundai/Kia cars. Maybe there was a common supplier of bad ports? IDK.
 

yticolev

macrumors 6502
Sep 27, 2015
298
274
Most of the time this problem is pocket lint in your iPhone port. Take a paperclip and dig it out (really compacted so you cannot just blow it out). Connection can work fine at home as you are not jiggling it like in a moving car.
 

MilleDav01

macrumors regular
Original poster
Jun 21, 2012
117
28
Most of the time this problem is pocket lint in your iPhone port. Take a paperclip and dig it out (really compacted so you cannot just blow it out). Connection can work fine at home as you are not jiggling it like in a moving car.
thanks, unfortunately, I thought this too, I also thought I had a dead pin inside, but I had apple replace the phone under warranty for me about a month ago and the issue didn't resolve.
 

Caesars

macrumors 6502
May 16, 2013
318
134
When it connects / disconnects / reconnects over and over, do you hear the charging sound every time?

When the iPhone is plugged in it makes a charging sound. If you are hearing that over and over it leads me to believe it’s a bad connection. CarPlay freezing off and on could be software related but your phone actually charging / not charging / charging again is usually (not always) hardware.
 

teeshot44

macrumors 65816
Aug 8, 2015
1,128
894
US
I had an issue with my car's infotainment unit which restarted itself at will. Not a Kia, but this is what happened. I had installed an OTA map update on my car for two states. Immediately after which the restarting issue arose. Over 3 months, the dealer had not a clue. They had no new updates available and no new updates were available OTA. Filed a claim for a new head unit. While that claim was processing, I searched and found an online software/firmware site for my vehicle (Nissan in my case). Low and behold, there was an update available that had been published two months earlier that address a bad map update for one of the states I had updated. Downloaded it, installed it by USB, and all was well. Went to my dealer, and showed him what happened. They couldn't explain it. They still had no information on any update, and no service bulletins. Gave him the USB I had created from the Ford website and the dealer successfully used it to repair 3 other customer vehicles. He finally received a TSB two months later. I'm betting you've got something similar going on.
 

Rauler11

macrumors newbie
Apr 30, 2021
1
0
did you find a fix for this problem, I am currently dealing with the exact same issues with my CarPlay. I am dealing with the dealership but they don’t seem to have any clue on how to fix it.

thank you
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.