Okay, those CarPlay problems are real

[scoopman]

This morning, Mr. Cheese completely refused to start CarPlay.

I did everything obvious in increasing levels of doing each of these:

• I deleted my phone from the list of phones
• I deleted my car from Settings > General > CarPlay > Forget car
• I rebooted Sync
• I re-paired BT first and answered yes to all the right things to start wireless CP
• I used a legit white Apple lightning USB-A cable after deleting all the entries

NOTHING WORKED.

The only conclusion -- which appears to be correct -- is that when CarPlay couldn't connect to the Mach-E (and the phone thought CarPlay was started, but the Mach-E's CarPlay stack wasn't functioning properly), CarPlay on the phone got into a strange state where it was unhappy and wouldn't properly initiate again. I couldn't get the phone to reset itself and stop whatever service was still running.

The only thing that worked to restore CarPlay properly was that I:

• Deleted car entry on CarPlay
• Deleted phone entry on the Mach-E
• Rebooted Sync (via steering wheel)

and

• I rebooted the iPhone (hold power + vol down, then slide to turn it off)

This last step (rebooting the iPhone) was THE ONLY thing that seemed to reset the state between the iPhone and Ford Sync. I'm wondering whether any of the other delete entry steps was actually necessary, because it seemed clear the iPhone was in a broken state in terms of CarPlay and was not restoring itself.

Thought I'd post this learning, and I won't be as quick next time to only blame Ford for CarPlay initiation unreliability issues.

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[Logal727]

This morning, Mr. Cheese completely refused to start CarPlay.

I did everything obvious in increasing levels of doing each of these:

• I deleted my phone from the list of phones
• I deleted my car from Settings > General > CarPlay > Forget car
• I rebooted Sync
• I re-paired BT first and answered yes to all the right things to start wireless CP
• I used a legit white Apple lightning USB-A cable after deleting all the entries

NOTHING WORKED.

The only conclusion -- which appears to be correct -- is that when CarPlay couldn't connect to the Mach-E (and the phone thought CarPlay was started, but the Mach-E's CarPlay stack wasn't functioning properly), CarPlay on the phone got into a strange state where it was unhappy and wouldn't properly initiate again. I couldn't get the phone to reset itself and stop whatever service was still running.

The only thing that worked to restore CarPlay properly was that I:

• Deleted car entry on CarPlay
• Deleted phone entry on the Mach-E
• Rebooted Sync (via steering wheel)

and

• I rebooted the iPhone (hold power + vol down, then slide to turn it off)

This last step (rebooting the iPhone) was THE ONLY thing that seemed to reset the state between the iPhone and Ford Sync. I'm wondering whether any of the other delete entry steps was actually necessary, because it seemed clear the iPhone was in a broken state in terms of CarPlay and was not restoring itself.

Thought I'd post this learning, and I won't be as quick next time to only blame Ford for CarPlay initiation unreliability issues.

Yeah, you usually just have to reboot the iPhone when this happens. I haven't had it happen in a while though. I'm sure now that I've said that it will happen today haha.

 

[azerik]

If the phone was wonking out the other steps probably only helped Sync catch up. Major IOS updates usually bork mine. But usually because my phone is Car Played to 4 cars and if my wife and I leave at the same time I might connect to either car.

 

[kdonnel]

Since the 4.1.x series of updates CarPlay has been spectacular.

Any issues I have had since then have been Apple issues not Ford issues.

 

[Logal727]

Since the 4.1.x series of updates CarPlay has been spectacular.

Any issues I have had since then have been Apple issues not Ford issues.

Same

 

[cbcasas]

This past weekend I went from SoCal to Fresno and back and had to restart my headunit/iPhone about 3 separate times. I'm not even shocked that this is still an issue....

 

[azerik]

My car play drives me nuts now.
I start the car, in my driveway the car plays the radio, that's what it was on last, Good car.
I put in rev, music goes off, Bad Sync
Back out of the the driveway, put in D, Car play screen pops up, no music, Bad Sync
Audio is in limbo, FM is off, Bad Sync
I hit the Fm button audio comes on, Good sync
I get 3 houses down the block it goes back to car play and starts playing music from Spotify, Bad Sync
I click the FM button again Music back on Good sync.

I think it's all just a ploy to get me to listen to the UFO speaker as I drive down the road a little.

 

[Homer007]

Ever since iOS 16 I've had to reboot my phone more often to get Carplay/Waze to work properly. I did just get 16.3.1 installed over the weekend and haven't had to do it so far this week, but that could just be coincidence.

 

[Neil4Real]

Since 4.1.3, I haven't had a single CarPlay issue. I'm assuming your phone is also on the latest iOS?

The easy solution for me when CarPlay wouldn't work was to put the phone into Airplane mode. What seems to happen is the phone holds the WiFi connection for a really long time after you turn the car off and it causes it to not be able to connect via BT or CarPlay.

I've noticed that if I'd go into a store and stay within range of my car and come out, it would fail, because WiFi never fully disengaged. So I got in the habit of turning off my CarPlay, toggling Airplane mode for about 5 seconds then turning it back off. Reliably fixed the CarPlay issue.

I'm not sure if it is fully on Ford or the Apple side. The latest iOS update finally allowed me to actually disengage CarPlay when the car is off! Before when toggling WiFi back on, it would say this will disconnect CarPlay, to which I'd hit okay, only for it to instantly re-engage with "CarPlay," which was the fake, phantom connection. Now when I hit okay, it actually disengages and doesn't instantly reconnect.

 

[scoopman]

Latest iOS and forgot to mention I also did airplane mode for 5 minutes in an attempt to cause the CarPlay stack to tear down properly. Didn't work.

 

[Jeffvisor]

A better reboot of the iPhone is to press volume up, then volume down and then hold the power off button and continue to hold it until you get the Apple logo then let go that usually fixes all Apple related issues. Don't swipe continue to hold power off past that until you get the Apple logo. It's a more comprehensive reboot.

 

[Mirak]

Same

Same.

 

[TheSleepyDad]

A better reboot of the iPhone is to press power up, then power down and then hold the power off button and continue to hold it until you get the Apple logo then let go that usually fixes all Apple related issues. Don't like hold power off past that until you get the Apple logo. It's a more comprehensive reboot.

Hard reboot is the only worthy reboot.

 

[benk016]

I have the same issues with Android Auto. Its a 50/50 on if Sync needs rebooted or the phone.

 

[acosmichippo]

Since the 4.1.x series of updates CarPlay has been spectacular.

Any issues I have had since then have been Apple issues not Ford issues.

I've had the opposite experience. on 3.5.4 CarPlay had been solid. I've had more issues with 4.1.2 in a month than I ever did with 3.5.4.

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