dparm

I'm at my wit's end with CarPlay refusing to start properly or hanging. It's happened intermittently ever since I got the car, but as I've had a string of rentals for work over the past few months that worked FLAWLESSLY, I'm thinking it's time to have the dealer take a look.

This has been happening since I got the car almost 2 years ago. In that time, I've had three phones: iPhone 6s Plus, iPhone X, and now the iPhone Xs Max. Have used multiple cables (all OEM Apple) and tried both center console ports. The phone is always on the latest iOS software and rebooting the phone makes no difference. Have tried removing and re-adding the car from the CarPlay list many times.


Problem 1:
I plug in the phone, get the ding that the phone is charging, but CarPlay never starts. Tapping "Projection" does nothing or gives the message about connecting a device with USB. Unplugging it and replugging it in a few times usually does the trick. Power cycling the nav system doesn't work.

Problem 2:
I plug in the phone, get the ding that the phone is charging, and see CarPlay on the nav screen. But tapping the CarPlay icon does nothing. It beeps to register the tap, but CarPlay never starts no matter how many times I press it. Power cycling the nav system has no effect. I typically have to unplug and replug the phone to get it to work.


Has anyone had their dealer diagnose a problem like this? I just know that when I go in there, it won't be reproducible at that time or they'll just say it must be something with wrong my phone and blow me off.

direct007

I had the same issue and it took a few different cables but I got it to work. I use the USB port in the space behind the screen.

Sixgun95

Mine does it once every 25x's or so. Shut the car off, restart - sometimes works. Other times not. Shut the car off for a short period of time and its good for another 25x's or so. Electron Magic! Thank good the instruments in my helicopter don't do that!!

LarryFL

Do a title-only search on "CarPlay" (or "Car Play" ) and you will see you are not alone. I think the best suggestion, but didn't work for everyone (nor I), was; Make sure your phone is unlocked before plugging in USB, and then start car.

G'luck.

Paul Bunzey

Are you unlocking the phone? Mine will not start until the phone is unlocked.

dparm

I have that setting enabled. I think it's called "allow CarPlay while phone is locked" or whatever.

HorsePower Junkie

I've had Zero issues with this, ever.

...oh wait, I have the 21st century communication device called Andriod


.

defaria

Your best bet it to ensure you have a good DATA cable.

dparm

Per my original post, I have had this problem with three separate OEM Apple cables.

It almost never happens to me in rentals...Malibu, Sonata, Optima, Taurus, whatever.

Foosh

I have those issues occasionally. Unplugging and replugging in the lightning cord to the phone always resolves it quickly on the first try for me. I've been surprised how well it works, and I now use it all the time now that Google Maps and Waze are CarPlay compatible.

I suspect this may be a GM integration of CarPlay issue rather than an Apple/iPhone/Carplay issue per se. I base that suspicion on the fact that it works in my wife's car first time every time.

It reminds me of the fact that my memory seat doesn't always return to the exact pre-set position 1 out of 4 times , and I have to press the button again to get it there.

defaria

As I stated, it must be a DATA cable, not a charge only cable. I guess if the cable works in a rental then it's a data cable and should work in the car. Other things it might be would be the connection but that seems highly unlikely and a trip to the dealer may be in order. Of course, I can easily see them blaming something other than the car...

If you figure it out let us know...

JFJr

car, so maybe
I have that setting enabled but I have to manually unlock my phone at times. Good advice to unlock phone before plugging in. I'm not using an Apple cable in the car so maybe that is an issue.

aj98

I think part of it has to do with the amount of time the car is off.
I have to unlock my ipod every morning in order to get the audio, otherwise, it will not play, but it will charge.
On screen, the ipod says "unlock to use this accessory" or workds to that effect.

If I make a number of short trips, or trips with short stops, then I do not have to unlock the ipod when I restart the car.
If its off for more than about an hour, gotta unlock it.

The whole point is to try to prevent cracking the phone. (If the lightning port is disabled, then you can't use cracker tools.)
Yea, you can turn off theat feature, but....

Now if you are paired through bluetooth instead of the cable, thats another story

mschuyler

CarPlay is not a GM product. The dealer is not going to care nor want to deal with this third party add-on.

mcoomer

I don't use CarPlay but I think you're running into a problem that affects a lot of people. I have trouble getting Android Auto to connect every now and then, and don't even get me started on iPods. I've tried 3 in this car and they all behave differently. I'm not so sure that making your external devices play nice with the car was a big priority for GM. Just my opinion...

cheapthrills

If the carplay icon is viewable but unresponsive I hit another icon, like the useless weather, then go back to carplay, works every time, which is frequently. I also sometimes have to unlock the phone even though that is enabled on my phone.

2019GSTX

I’m not gonna discount anything everyone else has said but I had the same problem as well as not being able to see or download the available Apps.
It wasn’t until I restored factory defaults and reset everything back up did I get satisfaction. Apps loaded and Car Play has been flawless, when hooking up before car start.

speed4tu

Ever now and again mine will just randomly disconnect, after about 10 seconds it will come back. Also occasionally it just won't work at all. I have a Harley with an aftermarket Sony head unit in it with Carplay and it always works flawlessly.

dparm

CarPlay is not a third party add-on, it's a native capability in the built-in head unit. It's their head unit that doesn't properly detect connected devices or can't even launch the necessary app.

monicatomokc

As for "Problem 1": I have had the same problem in both my 2016 Yukon and the Vette, using the official Apple cables (even bought three new, "Official" Apple Cables for all three cars we have that have CarPlay capability). It appears that if I wait for the car displays to fully boot-up before plugging in the IPhone, it works. If I plug it in before the car displays boots up, that's when the phone shows it's charging but doesn't fully light up the projection icon.

As for "Problem 2": If you're saying that the "Projection" icon lights up and you tap it the CarPlay icons appear, but when you tap the CarPlay icons, sometimes they don't activate, I've have that problem also. This happens on both my GM products AND the the same happens when I plug it into my wife's 2017 Ford Escape!! I just keep tapping and eventually they respond. I called Apple about it and they said it was a problem with either my phone or the software in the vehicle. ALL THREE VEHICLES?? Come on.... So I thought, okay, maybe it's my phone (IPhone 7), so I tried my wifes 6S Plus; same problems. Maybe not quite the same problems you're having, but problems none-the-less.

As for taking to the dealer, no. My Vette is a 2014 and I did the "HMI Module, Radio Tuner, USB Port" swap-out myself, but as for my other 2 vehicles that came with the CarPlay capability from the factory, I figured I'd just be wasting my time.

It's annoying, but I can live with it since once the function I need is activated, everything works fine. It's just getting there that gets a little frustrating!!

Good luck!!