[AnneSoCal]

Hi all,
I just got a new iPhone and although I was able to pair the Bluetooth with the car, it won’t work with CarPlay. I hit the App Connect button and it just won’t connect. My previous iPhone worked fine. Has anyone had this same issue?

 

[Froggy]

Hi all,
I just got a new iPhone and although I was able to pair the Bluetooth with the car, it won’t work with CarPlay. I hit the App Connect button and it just won’t connect. My previous iPhone worked fine. Has anyone had this same issue?

You need either wifi or a hardwire usb connection. Bluetooth doesn't carry enough bandwidth.

 

[EV_hokie]

I sometimes have to reboot my 13 Pro to get CarPlay to connect, at first it will just repeatedly say ‘unable to connect’. A quick workaround for me has been to connect to Bluetooth first and then connect to wireless CarPlay.

The connection for wireless CarPlay is WiFi based, so you do have to make sure WiFi is on in the phone settings and that WiFi scanning is enabled in the infotainment settings.

I’m frustrated though that it doesn’t “just work” every time. Sometimes it does and it’s great, but about half the time I get what’s described above.

 

[bcarraher]

I am using iOS 16 beta on my iPhone. Until the latest update, CarPlay was excellent but now will not connect. That's why its called beta. It's a gamble what will and will not work until bugs are worked out.

 

[Huey52]

It's more likely the latest "must have" security iOS. These phone-car intercommunication things often get out of sync. Eventually a dot-x edition comes out to realign.

Although I carry a USB-C to Lightning cable for direct connect just in case, the BT is fine for my iPhone 12 mini to CarPlay needs most of the time. I didn't opt for the cost-bearing WiFi hotspot once my short initial subscription expired.

You need either wifi or a hardwire usb connection. Bluetooth doesn't carry enough bandwidth.

Hi all,
I just got a new iPhone and although I was able to pair the Bluetooth with the car, it won’t work with CarPlay. I hit the App Connect button and it just won’t connect. My previous iPhone worked fine. Has anyone had this same issue?

 

[jason330i]

Hi all,
I just got a new iPhone and although I was able to pair the Bluetooth with the car, it won’t work with CarPlay. I hit the App Connect button and it just won’t connect. My previous iPhone worked fine. Has anyone had this same issue?

Since it’s a new phone I would say check your settings to see if CarPlay is enabled properly.

 

[Frank3]

Sounds like you've set it up wrong. I have the latest iPhone with the most current iOS and CarPlay works just fine.

 

[Manybees]

Also remember that wireless CarPlay requires that both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are enabled on your iPhone. And your iPhone cannot be connected to a Wi-Fi network such as the one that‘s installed in the ID.4 because wireless CarPlay uses the Wi-Fi connection to send data to and receive data from the car’s infotainment system, and the Wi-Fi radio in the phone can only be connected to one Wi-Fi system at a time.

 

[WolfpackBill]

I"ve never had any problems with my iPhone connecting with iOS 16 beta. One thing you can try is to reboot the infotainment and your phone. That may clear things up.

 

[McMark]

Also remember that wireless CarPlay requires that both Bluetooth and Wi-Fi are enabled on your iPhone. And your iPhone cannot be connected to a Wi-Fi network such as the one that‘s installed in the ID.4 because wireless CarPlay uses the Wi-Fi connection to send data to and receive data from the car’s infotainment system, and the Wi-Fi radio in the phone can only be connected to one Wi-Fi system at a time.

wireless car play works just fine in my car and I don't have wifi enabled.

 

[rcppharmd]

I am using iOS 16 beta on my iPhone. Until the latest update, CarPlay was excellent but now will not connect. That's why its called beta. It's a gamble what will and will not work until bugs are worked out.

I’m using the most recent iOS 16 beta and haven’t had problems connecting. Maybe try restarting your phone 🤷‍♂️

 

[fireboy92k]

CarPlay is tricky to explain in wireless mode. And Apple and their suppliers (really there are only a handful of companies that make most audio head units like Harmon or Audiovox) also seem to be very tight-lipped about it.

From what I've been able to understand, it uses both BT and WiFi. It uses BT to do a secure handshake with the car over which your phone then connects to a hidden WiFi (i.e. nonbroadcast) network between your phone and the head unit in the car. This is a network specific to mirroring a display from the phone that we can't see but is otherwise a virtual screen (i.e. no processing in the head unit, just video decoding, display, and touch control). In the back, the iPhone 'hides' this network, as it doesn some other connections, so it's not viewable on the phone screen.

Also, my understanding is that in this specific case the phone can connect to both the car and another wi-fi at the same time.

The iPhone in particular has an odd way of handling disconnects/shutting off Wi-Fi and BT. If you use Control Center, those don't really turn them off, they just disconnect everything. To turn it off really, you have to go to Settings How To Completely Turn Off WiFi On Your iPhone | Ubergizmo. Airplane mode from Control Center only turns off the cell phone.

Anyhow, I'm not having any issues with 15.6.1. Make sure you don't have Wi-Fi disabled in Settings (vs Control Center).

 

[RiS]

Hi all,
I just got a new iPhone and although I was able to pair the Bluetooth with the car, it won’t work with CarPlay. I hit the App Connect button and it just won’t connect. My previous iPhone worked fine. Has anyone had this same issue?

Did you restored your data from your old iPhone, or did a factory reset of the car settings?
You might need to pair it again with your car.

Look for the car name in both bluetooth and CarPlay settings and remove them. Then, pair it again with bluetooth and it should ask if you want to use CarPlay with it

 

[fireboy92k]

Proof, if you needed it, that wireless CarPlay uses Wi-Fi as I noted. Turned it off while in use in the car. This is through Settings. And while enabled the phone shows no active Wi-Fi connectivity.

Turning off Bluetooth at this stage had no impact on the existing connection.

 

[Dougie01]

CarPlay is tricky to explain in wireless mode.

I've had the car forget my phone once, I think, in the past month. Otherwise it has worked reliably. I use Maps and Siri a lot.

There are lots of possibly related complexities. For example, I have the car's Verizon WiFi plus my phone's T-Mobile cell, so you might think CarPlay and Siri would have no problem connecting to their various servers, but sometimes they do.

Another small point is that in the documentation somewhere it mentions that the phone charging pad is also an antenna enhancement pad. I suppose there is a local RF connection of some sort to the phone that finds its way to the car's antenna(s) in the tailgate? Before seeing that I was usually keeping my phone in my pocket, but now I put it on the charging pad even if it doesn't need charging.

Edit: Above claim retracted unless I find that documentation.

And then also I have a USB cable that is helpful on longer trips where the phone is using a lot of battery for navigation. I plug in the phone and then put it on the charging pad and let the two charging circuits fight it out between themselves.

 

[fireboy92k]

First I’ve heard of the wireless charging pad also be a cell phone repeating area. But anything is possible. It is an otherwise horrible place to put a phone if you want to maintain cell phone connectivity as there is a lot of steel and aluminum in the way otherwise.

Maybe @Plant Peon or @VW TECHNICIAN know.

The only issues we’ve had to date are when wife and I are both in the car. The connect is first in. So whomever the connection gets too first wins. To switch, you have to ‘open’ the VW App from the CarPlay screen which takes you back to the app where you can choose the other phone.

 

[Plant Peon]

First I’ve heard of the wireless charging pad also be a cell phone repeating area. But anything is possible. It is an otherwise horrible place to put a phone if you want to maintain cell phone connectivity as there is a lot of steel and aluminum in the way otherwise.

Maybe @Plant Peon or @VW TECHNICIAN know.

I think there may be some conflation between the wireless charger and the RF key area in the cup holder.
There is not a lot of metal in the center console. Mostly plastic so it shouldn’t interfere much more than any other place in the cabin.

 

[ezfe]

I don't have wireless carplay in my Subaru, but whenever I have trouble it's cable-related. The lightning cables sometimes drop the data connection when fidgeted, even if power remains steady.

 

[fireboy92k]

Yeah, it's a serial communication protocol (USB and WiFi both) delivering a complex data encoding made up of video made up of I frames and P frames (Test: H.264 I vs P Frame Impact (ipvm.com). Anything that disrupts that video stream causes the whole thing to go sideways and have to stop, renegotiate the connection, and start over again... overrun a buffer, have another task take too long, etc. etc. etc.

I don't have wireless carplay in my Subaru, but whenever I have trouble it's cable-related. The lightning cables sometimes drop the data connection when fidgeted, even if power remains steady.

 

[Huey52]

Doesn't help the OP per se, but I just used Apple Maps via CarPlay to navigate to a destination. BT connectivity. I do leave WiFi active on my iPhone itself, but don't have it setup in the ID.4.

I even used the steering wheel voice activation button to have Siri plot the course.

iPhone 12 mini on the latest iOS.

My iPhone is MagSafe connected via @mochalatte 's console stand so well away from my unused charging pad.

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wireless car play works just fine in my car and I don't have wifi enabled.

I think there may be some conflation between the wireless charger and the RF key area in the cup holder.
There is not a lot of metal in the center console. Mostly plastic so it shouldn’t interfere much more than any other place in the cabin.