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CarPlay CarPlay disconnects and reconnects

iPhone 14 Pro with iOS 26.0.1 in a 2020 Toyota Rav4 Hybrid LE.
In the Music app, when I go to my library and select "artists" it will not show my entire library...it only shows a list of "recently added". If I filter the Artists list to favorites, it also only shows "recently added". Even worse, when I touch the name of any artist, it doesn't go to a list of albums, it randomly plays one single song. Never had a single issue even close to this on my 2017 Kia Sportage.

I've tried five different Apple and Anker cables, I've restarted the head unit, removed my vehicle from the CarPlay section on the phone in settings>general>CarPlay. I've soft reset my phone.

After further testing...

When the Rav4 is in EV mode (like at a stop light), it shows the artists/albums/etc. correctly. slowly driving and keeping it in EV mode keeps it correct. The second the gas engine kicks on, the display changes to "recently added" and the second I slow down enough to go back to EV mode, the display automatically switches again to the correct information.

I'm at a complete loss trying to make sense of this...and I can replicate the issue 100% of the time.
 
I have an issue with wireless CarPlay where I get split second audio dropouts. Could be one in every two minutes or five in 30 seconds. Infuriating.

Happens on my 17Pro but I didn’t test it on my old 15Pro with iOS 26. So I don’t know if it’s the phone or the software.

Re-paired the phone about 6 times but the issue persists everytime I use CarPlay.
 
thanks for beta testing folks!*

i'll upgrade to 26 only when absolutely have to.

*sucks that new hardware forces regular people to be beta testers because they have no choice but to use 26!
 
Been having the disconnect issue with my iPhone Air on 26.0.1. I literally can't use CarPlay at all due to the issue since I switched to iPhone Air. No issue with 16 Pro on 26.0.
 
Even further testing on mine...

iPhone 14 running iOS 17, iPhone 15 running iOS 18.3, and iPhone 14 Pro running iOS 26.0.1 and also iOS 26.1 beta 2 all display the exact same behavior. In fact, I've narrowed it down to any speed below 5mph the full Artist list shows up correctly and alphabetically in my Library but the second the vehicle hits 5mph or above, the screen changes from the alphabetical artist list to "recently added" and the artists no longer have a sub-menu to go into albums or songs.
 
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I wanted to share a possible fix…plug your device in, especially if it’s a new device, and let the phone connect to CarPlay wired. Then, move back to wireless CarPlay. I was having issues with this before and decided to plug in to charge the phone wired and haven’t had any issue switch CarPlay dropping since.

Maybe it works, maybe it doesn’t, but it’s worth the try.
 
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Wireless CarPlay issues here, too. My wife and I have the exact same new iPhone 17s, both running 26, both driving the same 2020 BMWX1.

My phone connected perfectly the first time, is still fine. But my wife's phone kept getting hung up at the initial setup. I eventually deleted my phone, and turned it off, thnking that was causing problems, but that didn't seem to make a difference for her set up. Eventually, after a dozen or so tries, it finally "locked in". And it worked normally for a few days, but now her phone has magically disconnected again. Even though it's listed in the Infotainment menu as "connected".

We never really had issues with CarPlay up until now, and it's odd having something that worked so well, and that we relied on daily, becoming such a pain. It's also odd that it's happening to the exact same model phone, same OS, etc.
 
Is anyone still experiencing this issue. 26.1 didn’t fix it, so I even installed 26.2 beta. I still have the issue where it connects for a few minutes and then kicks me off to a regular BT connection.

This is driving me nuts, it was working fine for years, and now with the iPhone 17 and iOS 26, it’s completely broken and no one seems to care. Does no one use wireless CarPlay?
 
funkyT80 said:
Is anyone still experiencing this issue. 26.1 didn’t fix it, so I even installed 26.2 beta. I still have the issue where it connects for a few minutes and then kicks me off to a regular BT connection.

This is driving me nuts, it was working fine for years, and now with the iPhone 17 and iOS 26, it’s completely broken and no one seems to care. Does no one use wireless CarPlay?
Click to expand...

I had this issue early on with my 16PM and 26.1 in a ‘25 Ioniq 5. It seemed to resolve itself towards the end of the 26.1 beta cycle and hasn’t done it with either beta on 26.2.
Maybe it’s car specific.
 
funkyT80 said:
Is anyone still experiencing this issue. 26.1 didn’t fix it, so I even installed 26.2 beta. I still have the issue where it connects for a few minutes and then kicks me off to a regular BT connection.

This is driving me nuts, it was working fine for years, and now with the iPhone 17 and iOS 26, it’s completely broken and no one seems to care. Does no one use wireless CarPlay?
Click to expand...

My wife's car uses wireless Car Play, and that's gotten better w/ updates.
My car uses wired, and that's gotten way, way worse recently.

So frustrating.
 
I've noticed two issues with CarPlay:

1. Maps would inconsistently drop as well as not being able to use the web browser while parked. I think I have this narrowed down to Trend Micro's Web Guard interfering as, removing that, Maps is fully responsive and I my car was in the car wash and I brought up the browser on the phone and was able to browse. I've yet to try YouTube music to see if it now loads completely. Do you have anything like Trend, McAfee, or other antimalware systems using VPN installed as Web Guard appears to intertwine with VPN?

2. When trying to use voice search, with CarPlay (wireless) I keep getting "device is still (setting up)" response. If I tap albums or artists to find then tap on an album or artist, that's consistently working perfectly. This MIGHT be due to having too many songs on my iPhone (31GB) and I had this problem when I had Android on a previous car in 2013. I'll try paring down my collection (selective removal should be fun) or at least trying to use CarPlay in USB to see if it works that way. (If I don't use CarPlay, I don't recall if I can use voice search as I was tapping away, but the car's built-in media player's time bar/scrubber does work. But I'm perceiving that as a separate issue not necessarily related to this.)
 
funkyT80 said:
Is anyone still experiencing this issue. 26.1 didn’t fix it, so I even installed 26.2 beta. I still have the issue where it connects for a few minutes and then kicks me off to a regular BT connection.

This is driving me nuts, it was working fine for years, and now with the iPhone 17 and iOS 26, it’s completely broken and no one seems to care. Does no one use wireless CarPlay?
Click to expand...
I love carplay too much to risk upgrading from 18.7 to 26.1 until the latter is 100% stable😬. I also like the simple carplay UI in 18.7. Currently everything works perfectly, my phone connects wirelessly every time without having to touch the phone or infotainment, no drop outs or issues.
 
Antaris said:
I've noticed two issues with CarPlay:

1. Maps would inconsistently drop as well as not being able to use the web browser while parked. I think I have this narrowed down to Trend Micro's Web Guard interfering as, removing that, Maps is fully responsive and I my car was in the car wash and I brought up the browser on the phone and was able to browse. I've yet to try YouTube music to see if it now loads completely. Do you have anything like Trend, McAfee, or other antimalware systems using VPN installed as Web Guard appears to intertwine with VPN?

2. When trying to use voice search, with CarPlay (wireless) I keep getting "device is still (setting up)" response. If I tap albums or artists to find then tap on an album or artist, that's consistently working perfectly. This MIGHT be due to having too many songs on my iPhone (31GB) and I had this problem when I had Android on a previous car in 2013. I'll try paring down my collection (selective removal should be fun) or at least trying to use CarPlay in USB to see if it works that way. (If I don't use CarPlay, I don't recall if I can use voice search as I was tapping away, but the car's built-in media player's time bar/scrubber does work. But I'm perceiving that as a separate issue not necessarily related to this.)
Click to expand...

For my issues, both were resolved by removing the third party VPN. Maps works great and I can voice navigate my iTunes library with ease. No CarPlay stability issues in 30-minute trips. Am using a 17PM with iOS 26.1. (Scrubber issue remains but using the built-in audio player is a workaround, though I'm spending more time getting used to the iOS player via CarPlay instead.)
 
Mine resolved with a firmware update on my portable CarPlay unit. I have no idea if it was coincidence, iOS being forced to reload the device’s car play information (I had delete/reset many time), or it needed something in the actual firmware to work uunder ios 26.
 
The frustration continues...my CarPlay issues have not resolved with any of the recent updates. I'm wondering if the issue is specific to this device and whether a new 17 Pro could resolve the madness. No guarantee but wondering if it's worth the exchange. Some people are obviously not experiencing these problems with their 17 using iOS 26. Right?

17 Pro/iOS 26.2 (23C5027f)
 
Had a similar disconnect issue with Ford Ranger (SYNC3, wired) and my iPhone 16 Pro Max in the early 26.0 betas with using a number of wireless CarPlay dongles. Same issues with the wife's iPhone 15 Plus in the Ranger. The issues persisted when we moved the setup to her Ford Edge (SYNC3, wired). Interestingly, while both cars were updated to the latest firmware, the firmware versions were different for each car.

We determined that it was definitely iOS 26, as when plugged it, it worked flawlessly on both cars. We encountered tie same dropout symptoms with all permutations of phones and wireless dongles.

Using the default wired connection in both phones to the two cars cleared the issues up.

I've since updated my vehicle to a '25 Bronco Sport with SYNC4 wireless CarPlay and have had no issues.
 
Last edited:
JungleNYC said:
My wife's car uses wireless Car Play, and that's gotten better w/ updates.
My car uses wired, and that's gotten way, way worse recently.

So frustrating.
Click to expand...

Wireless CarPlay has been working fine since installing iOS 26.1. I have a 2021 Hyundai Santa Fe Limited and use an older CarLinkit . The only issue I have, and it’s not really an issue, is that I get a CarPlay setup screen for a moment before it connects.
 
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