Why is CarPlay so Finicky?

[Buadhai]

My wife and I recently took delivery on a 2023 Toyota Corolla Altis Hybrid. (I have no idea why Toyota Thailand includes Altis in the name of the car.) It came with a multimedia system that supports wireless CarPlay. Getting CarPlay to work has been a continuing hassle.

We had no trouble pairing each phone via Bluetooth. The phones see the car and the car sees the phones. Its easy to use the car to play music or make phone calls. Getting CarPlay to work is another story. Sometimes it connects immediately and sometimes not at all.

Yesterday we drove 440K from our house to our condo. (Actually, "we" is incorrect. My wife drives and I sit.) My iPhone 14 Pro was connected to CarPlay the entire way. If we made a pit stop, CarPlay started right up again when we resumed our journey.

Today we were driving out to lunch and I was unable to get either phone to connect to CarPlay. The phones and the car are still paired. The car knows the phones by name, but the CarPlay icon on the apps screen remained frustratingly inactive (grayed out).

After lunch I looked at the multimedia app screen and, miracle of miracles, the CarPlay icon was active. I selected it and my wife's phone showed up in CarPlay. We did absolutely nothing to fix this except have a lovely Thai seafood lunch next to an orchid lined lagoon.

What is the correct sequence of steps to connect an already paired phone to CarPlay?

Yes, Thai Toyota dealers always overdo the vehicle handoff.

 

[Kottu]

It should connect automatically. Carplay uses wifi. If tethering is on, it may not work properly. To be honest, wireless solutions are still unreliable even in 2023.

 

[Buadhai]

It should connect automatically. Carplay uses wifi. If tethering is on, it may not work properly. To be honest, wireless solutions are still unreliable even in 2023.

In this case both phones can connect to the car via Bluetooth right away. Neither has tethering enabled. So, the wireless part is working. It’s just that CarPlay won’t connect to the already connected phone.

 

[Buadhai]

Here’s what we have observed. If there are two phones in the car with Bluetooth turned on and even if only one phone is connected to the car, CarPlay will not work until you turn Bluetooth off on the phone that is not connected. I know, this makes absolutely no sense. But that’s what we observed.

 

[Kottu]

Here’s what we have observed. If there are two phones in the car with Bluetooth turned on and even if only one phone is connected to the car, CarPlay will not work until you turn Bluetooth off on the phone that is not connected. I know, this makes absolutely no sense. But that’s what we observed.

Remove bluetooth pairing.

 

[Buadhai]

Remove bluetooth pairing.

Sorry, but I don’t understand what you mean.

 

[Frankfurt]

CarPlay is finicky especially the wireless connection. True for most car models. Every update (iOS or CarOS) bears the risk of new issues. I also learned that CarPlay sometimes does not work when a VPN is active on the phone. Just trial and error…

 

[Buadhai]

It seems a shame that one has to summon daemons and invoke arcane incantations in order to get semi-leading-edge hardware/software to work.

It was quite simple when I could just plug my iPhone 6 into the AUX port on my ancient Toyota Vios. It was not technologically impressive, but it never failed.

 

[Buadhai]

This problem continues to plague us. We finally got it so that CarPlay would connect to the iPhone of whoever entered the car first. Until it didn't. Today my wife had her phone turned off, but CarPlay wouldn't connect to my phone. It's still shows up as a paired phone, but no matter what we tried, I couldn't connect my phone to CarPlay.

It shouldn't be this hard.