CarPlay Carplay cannot handle a large music library

[ktimamue]

I just bought Sony XAV-AX200 to use with my iPhone 7 plus in a 2007 Volkswagen Golf (Rabbit).



And it turns out that carplay can’t deal with my 50 000 song icloud music library.



I’m very disappointed with this as all the advertising led me to believe that carplay is akin to a projector for your iphone, that it doesn’t do anything itself but projects what’s on your phone onto the car stereo screen.



But it turns out that’s not the case when it comes to Apple’s Music App. My music library works flawlessly on my phone, but not with carplay. It keeps trying to do something and failing.



First it takes 5 minutes to load the playlists. Then when I click on the playlist another 5 minutes to start it. During these times the screen becomes completely unresponsive. And once it finally starts playing a track as soon as I click ‘next’, it jams again and takes minutes to change the track and it often crashes completely so I have to start the process again.



So basically my music app starts jamming and crashing as soon as I connect it with carplay. My analytics data section if full of ‘music.cpu_resource’ log entries where it says my cpu usage is around 80% over 180 seconds. Also there are standard music crash logs. And there are about 10 ‘stacks+music’ logs from a single session. All of them say ‘reason: scene update watchdog transgression: com.apple.music exhausted real (wall clock) time allowance of 10.00 seconds…..’



All the other apps on carplay like podcasts, maps and such work flawlessly but as soon as I click on ‘Music’ the whole carplay jams, and my screen stops responding.



I am using an official apple cable, the latest ios 12.1, and the sony is updated with the latest firmware.



I’ve tried most things I know from my experience with apple products:



-reset all settings

-restore as new

-forget car (in carplay settings)

-change cable



None of this fixed the problem. As soon as the icloud music library is switched on, carplay is in permanent beachball mode.



The only way to use it successfully is to switch off icloud music library. Then it works fine. But that’s obviously not a solution. I’m paying for Apple streaming service and Apple’s car interface to be able to listen to my music.



I’ve read quite a few forum posts with other peoples experiences similar to this, but no solution yet. I find it completely baffling that apple would give you a service like apple music, expecting you to keep adding music to it, and then it would give you carplay, an interface for your phone that cannot handle a large music library. This is shocking to me. Why didn’t anybody mention that carplay apparently has it’s own memory and it just cannot handle an icloud music library with 50 000 songs in it. I wouldn’t have bought this stereo to use with carplay.



So I apologise for the long post, just wanted to explain the issue from all angles.



Since my apple product knowledge is limited, is there anyone out there who knows more about the inner workings of carplay, who could possibly give me some pointers about how to solve this and be able to use it successfully?



Any help would be greatly appreciated!



Many Thanks

 

[smithrh]

Don't just look to forums for help, get in touch with Apple directly.

 

[ktimamue]

Thanks. I guess you're right, I should. It's just that I'm sick of their answer to every question: 'Restore it as new bla bla..'

 

[tromboneaholic]

I just bought Sony XAV-AX200 to use with my iPhone 7 plus in a 2007 Volkswagen Golf (Rabbit).

-reset all settings

-restore as new

-forget car (in carplay settings)

-change cable

Have you looked at the receiver?

It's not a Sony, but I was having similar issues with CarPlay in my wife's OEM Honda entertainment system. I reset the stereo to factory defaults. I also turned off bluetooth on the receiver since I didn't need it, but it was trying to connect anyway. I also turned of Android Auto since we didn't need that either. That was a year ago, and it's been working fine.

Once you reset the stereo to factory default and turn off any features you don't need, forget the car in CarPlay on your phone to make a fresh pairing.

 

[ktimamue]

Have you looked at the receiver?

It's not a Sony, but I was having similar issues with CarPlay in my wife's OEM Honda entertainment system. I reset the stereo to factory defaults. I also turned off bluetooth on the receiver since I didn't need it, but it was trying to connect anyway. I also turned of Android Auto since we didn't need that either. That was a year ago, and it's been working fine.

Once you reset the stereo to factory default and turn off any features you don't need, forget the car in CarPlay on your phone to make a fresh pairing.

Thanks, that’s acually a very good suggestion. I havent thought of that

 

[tromboneaholic]

Thanks, that’s acually a very good suggestion. I havent thought of that

Good luck. I know how frustrating the demons can be...

 

[PeteLP]

Have you tried using it with the maps app on screen by accessing it only through Siri voice controls?

Your problems might all be from iOS bugs related to code used when populating the carplay screen (when u have such a large number of tracks). I believe such code really is running on the phone, but may be different code than iOS uses when populating the phone’s screen (as opposed to the carplay screen.)

So a workaround might be avoiding those bugs by never displaying the music app on screen. Try doing everything by voice command keeping maps on screen all the time. If that works you’ll be able hear most of your apple music choices. Personally I prefer using Siri with carplay for my music access anyway. Not ideal, but it could get you most of what you want. This workaround might well work with the now playing app on screen as well.

You should be able to access any track, album, artist or playlist with voice commands

 

[ktimamue]

Have you tried using it with the maps app on screen by accessing it only through Siri voice controls?

Your problems might all be from iOS bugs related to code used when populating the carplay screen (when u have such a large number of tracks). I believe such code really is running on the phone, but may be different code than iOS uses when populating the phone’s screen (as opposed to the carplay screen.)

So a workaround might be avoiding those bugs by never displaying the music app on screen. Try doing everything by voice command keeping maps on screen all the time. If that works you’ll be able hear most of your apple music choices. Personally I prefer using Siri with carplay for my music access anyway. Not ideal, but it could get you most of what you want. This workaround might well work with the now playing app on screen as well.

You should be able to access any track, album, artist or playlist with voice commands

Thanks. That's interesting, I haven't thought of displaying the data as a potential problem. I'll try all that tomorrow when I have the time to test it properly

 

[ktimamue]

So it seems it's apple's fault and not Sony's. I just tried my phone in a 2018 honda civic and carplay jams in exactly the same way. I need to find out how to report bugs to Apple and possibly get some response from carplay engineers. I couldn't really figure out how to do that yet..
[doublepost=1543536979][/doublepost]

Have you tried using it with the maps app on screen by accessing it only through Siri voice controls?

Your problems might all be from iOS bugs related to code used when populating the carplay screen (when u have such a large number of tracks). I believe such code really is running on the phone, but may be different code than iOS uses when populating the phone’s screen (as opposed to the carplay screen.)

So a workaround might be avoiding those bugs by never displaying the music app on screen. Try doing everything by voice command keeping maps on screen all the time. If that works you’ll be able hear most of your apple music choices. Personally I prefer using Siri with carplay for my music access anyway. Not ideal, but it could get you most of what you want. This workaround might well work with the now playing app on screen as well.

You should be able to access any track, album, artist or playlist with voice commands

Hey I really appreciate your advice, I think you're onto something here. It looks like my carplay works a lot better when the music app is not displayed. I need to do some further testing but it definitely looks like there is less jamming. Now just need to figure out how to get to Apple with this bug and hope that eventually they fix it.

 

[tromboneaholic]

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

 

[ktimamue]

https://www.apple.com/feedback/

Thanks, I’ve seen that but was looking for an actual bug report where i would get a response. I don’t think they respond to feedback. I could be wrong

 

[PeteLP]

Hey I really appreciate your advice, I think you're onto something here. It looks like my carplay works a lot better when the music app is not displayed. I need to do some further testing but it definitely looks like there is less jamming.

Now just need to figure out how to get to Apple with this bug and hope that eventually they fix it.

Very glad to hear that. Happy to help. Please let us know how apple responds, and what method you used to reach them. (feedback or otherwise)

 

[ktimamue]

Very glad to hear that. Happy to help. Please let us know how apple responds, and what method you used to reach them. (feedback or otherwise)

Will do. Also, on a possibly related note, Sony just released a firmware update a few days ago which only states 'improved carplay functions'. I doubt it's got anything to do with my particular problem, but will give it a go.