iOS CarPlay audio randomly muted on startup

[mach-cd]

This happens to me, occasionally, when my phone has volume turned all the way down before I plugged in. If you disconnect car play, turn volume up, start playing the music, then reconnect it usually fixes the issue

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[zooka]

This is a common issue, on even other ford vehicles. There evidently is a fix coming from Ford

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/apple-car-play-audio-issue.19886/

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/carplay-problem-no-volume.92828/

https://www.mustang7g.com/forums/threads/carplay-audio-intermittently-silent.161849/

 

[Kyle]

I have a 2023 MME Premium and an iPhone15 with iOS18 running. This problem has existed for most of the last year or so (and earlier iOS version(s))

CarPlay Audio:
When starting the car, CarPlay connects, but at random times, the audio will be muted, as if some kind of handoff to the car audio system failed. I used to reboot the phone, but I read somewhere that simply going to the iPhone settings-> CarPlay-> Mach E and turning it OFF and back ON fixes the problem - the audio returns. It works. But it's a little hard to do when driving of course! Everything else looks normal. Just no sound from phone or car.

Has anyone experienced this? I was hoping that iOS18 would fix it, but no luck. Perhaps I should delete the car from the the CarPlay Settings and add it back. There are times when it doesn't happen for many starts and then other times where it happens every few starts. Any advice? Thanks.

 

[Kyle]

I've had the same issue. I'm not a big tech guy but I would do the same thing thing after the car is running, shut the nav down and redo it with success most of the time. I thought that it has always been a thing between apple, google and Ford not letting the other ones stuff work together. With all the updates with all 3 I would be surprised if it will ever work like it should.

 

[pcaw2003]

Yes. I use the car’s settings->devices->switch to bluetooth phone and then switch back to CarPlay to “fix” it.

This is what I do too. Annoying, but so far it’s worked every time to fix the glitch.

 

[LivelyLime]

My handsfree way of fixing it is calling out to Siri to turn off WiFi, and then doing the same turn WiFi back on. Once back on, wireless CarPlay reconnects and I have the audio back. It's the least annoying thing short of a proper fix from Apple or Ford.

 

[Mustang Jedi]

Happens to me too. I just go into the phone in settings on the car and turn the CarPlay off and then back on again and it always comes back.

This is my fix as well. I usually have to do this every other day or so.

 

[SalsabyJake]

Yesterday, I tried only putting the car in gear after the CarPlay had appeared on the screen. But the muting happened anyway one time. Resetting Sync worked once for me and not another time. My Sirius expired, but maybe I'll try switching back and forth from that. The wide variety of conditions for the audio to go out described by others seems to indicate a more random "handshake" problem between CarPlay and Ford Sync. Ford should address this with Apple!

 

[SalsabyJake]

iPHONE shortcut for quicker reset of CarPlay:

Okay, I've added a shortcut to get to the CarPlay Setting with one touch, in order to reset it more readily...

Reference Video: Direct_Setting_Shortcut_Video

Here is the specific URL path to CarPlay in Settings needed for the shortcut:
prefs:root=General&path=CARPLAY

With this on my Home screen, I can tap it and go directly to CarPlay settings. However, I was unable to go to the "Mustang Mach-E" sub-setting, so you still have to tap that to get to the toggle switch

Enjoy and safe driving

 

[SonicBlue]

Yes. I use the car’s settings->devices->switch to bluetooth phone and then switch back to CarPlay to “fix” it.

This is what I do, too. If anyone knows of a faster method, please share. Yes, this happens several times a week.

 

[T-Money]

I have a 2023 MME Premium and an iPhone15 with iOS18 running. This problem has existed for most of the last year or so (and earlier iOS version(s))

CarPlay Audio:
When starting the car, CarPlay connects, but at random times, the audio will be muted, as if some kind of handoff to the car audio system failed. I used to reboot the phone, but I read somewhere that simply going to the iPhone settings-> CarPlay-> Mach E and turning it OFF and back ON fixes the problem - the audio returns. It works. But it's a little hard to do when driving of course! Everything else looks normal. Just no sound from phone or car.

Has anyone experienced this? I was hoping that iOS18 would fix it, but no luck. Perhaps I should delete the car from the the CarPlay Settings and add it back. There are times when it doesn't happen for many starts and then other times where it happens every few starts. Any advice? Thanks.

This happens to me randomly, about once every 2 weeks. I stumbled on a solution several months ago. I just touch the FM Radio tab (I believe it is red and at the bottom of the screen while you are in CarPlay mode). Then I let the radio play 30 seconds to 1 minute, then switch back to CarPlay. It usually does the trick. I don't know why it works, but it does.

 

[Maui]

interesting... I'll have to pay attention to this scenario and see if that is when my sound doesn't work. It isn't that often so something like this makes some sense to me.

So it happened today... and yes I was backing up with the camera on while CarPlay was initiating its connection. So no sound.

I then tried a different approach. Went to the "phone list" in the car and hit the CarPlay button/icon which caused it to stop the connection and then selected it again. This time it came back and worked.
This is the fastest approach I have found.

 

[AhardFSU]

So I don't have a fix for the OP, but I'll chime in to say that it happens on occasion to me. And I'll clarify and say that it's not every week or day. But I do have those situations where Car Play connects and I get no sound from Spotify or whatever I'm playing thru Carplay. Typically, if I toggle the Bluetooth or Car Play setting on and off, I will get sound from Spotify.

The issue I encounter everyday, and the one I don't think the OP was referring to, is that everytime Car Play connects, whatever I'm listening to on SiriusXM becomes muted. I have to change the SiriusXM station in order for SiriusXM to become unmuted.

 

[ReverendPete]

It happens fairly regularly for me as well, and it seems to be most prominent after a short stop, where I hope out of the car and go into a store to grab something, and barely 2 minutes has passed when I come back to the car.

I used to do the Sync reset, but be careful if you do that, because part of that process is holding the volume down button down, so there were a couple of times that I realized that after I thought it hadn't worked, all I needed to do after the reset was to turn the volume back up.

But as others have mentioned, what seems to fix it for me is to switch to radio and back. It seems like it maybe resets the audio processor when you do that, and it has worked for me every time I have done it (and I don't seem to need to spend any time on the radio, as soon as audio comes out from the radio station, switching back to CarPlay works just fine...)

Glad to hear that there's a potential fix in the works!

 

[azerik]

My audio is on but soundless when I key on 75% of the time now. However if I don't do anything with the main screen it actually shuts off the audio about 30 seconds after starting the car. Doesn't matter for me, CP, FM, XM it'll shut it off. My phone surely isn't causing that.

This is a common issue, on even other ford vehicles. There evidently is a fix coming from Ford

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/forum/threads/apple-car-play-audio-issue.19886/

https://www.bronco6g.com/forum/threads/carplay-problem-no-volume.92828/

https://www.mustang7g.com/forums/threads/carplay-audio-intermittently-silent.161849/

SOON!

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