Apple Car Play: Music volume stays loud when listening to text messages

[Frylock221]

I feel like the CarPlay experience in the Tacoma is so far from what it should be that they shouldn't be able to say it supports CarPlay. It doesn't work as it's intended and half of the time when I try to reply, the voice to text doesn't even catch what I am saying. Doesn't matter if I mute the Audio first or not, and have tried when windows are completely rolled up and it still misses the bar on text to speech. Anyone else seeing that issue? I recorded the issue using my iPad and uploaded the video to my Apple support case as well as letting them grab the logs from my iPhone. Basically trying to get them to say nothing is wrong with my phone, it's a problem with the Toyota Infotainment system so they will also look at this issue. A very poor software release by Toyota, seems like they barely even tested it before putting it out as a production release!

Funny you mentioned this because over the last 2-3 weeks I’ve noticed an increase in the issues I’ve had. Sometimes flat out not connecting, two times the screen has just been completely black except for the backup camera, forcing me to turn off the truck completely and back on to get it to come back up (holding down the volume knob does not force a restart like normal). Not incredibly happy with the experience so far.

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[vtdano]

So I've almost had my '24 Taco for 1 year now and I just went in for my 20K maintenance and while waiting I saw a marketing advertisement for Audio Multimedia. I laughed because under Apple Car Play it states "Pair your compatible iPhone to get directions, make calls, send/receive text messages - all while maintaining focus on your drive'. THIS IS A LIE!! When asking the dealership about this issue, they have nothing to report. My case with Brand Engagement was closed, and attempts to reopen were worthless. I spent 45 mins talking to someone at Brand Engagement and he said it is the position of Toyota Brand Engagement that this is working as designed. I told them Apple Support stated that Car Play is not working as they intend it to work in the safest manner possible. I have submitted this information to the NHTSA as a safety concern with the diagnostic repair invoice from Toyota saying it's working as designed, and the email reply from Apple stating it's not. I went ahead and reported Toyota Brand Engagement to the BBB after seeing that marketing pic, stating that this was a misleading purchase, as Toyota Advertises Car Play in all of their vehicles to allow you to maintain focus on your drive. No idea if I will get anywhere, but still trying to fight the battle for all of us!

 

[Frylock221]

So I've almost had my '24 Taco for 1 year now and I just went in for my 20K maintenance and while waiting I saw a marketing advertisement for Audio Multimedia. I laughed because under Apple Car Play it states "Pair your compatible iPhone to get directions, make calls, send/receive text messages - all while maintaining focus on your drive'. THIS IS A LIE!! When asking the dealership about this issue, they have nothing to report. My case with Brand Engagement was closed, and attempts to reopen were worthless. I spent 45 mins talking to someone at Brand Engagement and he said it is the position of Toyota Brand Engagement that this is working as designed. I told them Apple Support stated that Car Play is not working as they intend it to work in the safest manner possible. I have submitted this information to the NHTSA as a safety concern with the diagnostic repair invoice from Toyota saying it's working as designed, and the email reply from Apple stating it's not. I went ahead and reported Toyota Brand Engagement to the BBB after seeing that marketing pic, stating that this was a misleading purchase, as Toyota Advertises Car Play in all of their vehicles to allow you to maintain focus on your drive. No idea if I will get anywhere, but still trying to fight the battle for all of us!

Appreciate you fighting the fight. It’s a joke that every brand I’ve owned can lower the music volume when using CarPlay except Toyota.

 

[Jerrod20]

Anything ever come of this? Still an issue in April 2026.

 

[vtdano]

Anything ever come of this? Still an issue in April 2026.

Jerrod,

I have been back-and-forth with Toyota Brand engagement on this issue for almost 2 years, it's a struggle. Please open a case with Toyota brand engagement, they look at the issue when more people report it. They did extend my warranty because I have been screaming about it for so long, yet they don't have many updates whenever I call. I just reported two other issues, you might test these yourself. If you make an outgoing phone call and your dash board shows you the person's name and telephone number, then you get an incoming call, or make another call, it will show the same name but a different number. Another issue I noticed is when I have an alarm on my phone go off while connected to my Taco CarPlay, it shows phone call when it's not actually a phone call, and it changes from my Sirius XM input to my phone. This absolutely shows they did not integrate the phone into CarPlay the way it is supposed to be integrated. I continue to fight the battle but big corporate doesn't seem to care. I also reported Brand engagement to the BBB and I opened a safety concern with the NHTSA because I am fooling with my Radio far too often while driving because their system was so poorly designed. Let me know what they say if you call them and open up a case. You can reference any of the information in mine, as well as stating you know this has been reported to them for almost 2 years and it affects every single model Toyota and Lexus, but works perfectly in other vehicles. I would also ask for Vanessa, she has my case and she will know exactly what your complaint is.

 

[Jerrod20]

Jerrod,

I have been back-and-forth with Toyota Brand engagement on this issue for almost 2 years, it's a struggle. Please open a case with Toyota brand engagement, they look at the issue when more people report it. They did extend my warranty because I have been screaming about it for so long, yet they don't have many updates whenever I call. I just reported two other issues, you might test these yourself. If you make an outgoing phone call and your dash board shows you the person's name and telephone number, then you get an incoming call, or make another call, it will show the same name but a different number. Another issue I noticed is when I have an alarm on my phone go off while connected to my Taco CarPlay, it shows phone call when it's not actually a phone call, and it changes from my Sirius XM input to my phone. This absolutely shows they did not integrate the phone into CarPlay the way it is supposed to be integrated. I continue to fight the battle but big corporate doesn't seem to care. I also reported Brand engagement to the BBB and I opened a safety concern with the NHTSA because I am fooling with my Radio far too often while driving because their system was so poorly designed. Let me know what they say if you call them and open up a case. You can reference any of the information in mine, as well as stating you know this has been reported to them for almost 2 years and it affects every single model Toyota and Lexus, but works perfectly in other vehicles. I would also ask for Vanessa, she has my case and she will know exactly what your complaint is.

I will do that but the crazy thing is my wife’s 2025 RAV4 Limited Hybrid works perfectly fine. Whenever interacting with Siri it lowers the media volume of whatever is playing DRASTICALLY like every other car brand and makes it totally usable. This proves to me that Toyota does know how to implement this they just simply chose not to on the newer platform. The RAV is an older platform (until the brand new ones this year) so I think it’s just the newer software that is affected.

 

[vtdano]

So I finally got a definitive answer from Toyota Brand Engagement. I had to go through 4 different representatives, but one guy finally told me the answer. They are not planning to fix this. Toyota see the Apple Carplay not muting music while playing or recording text messages as working as designed. Yep, we are stuck with it. I recommend anyone annoyed with this to contact Brand Engagement to simply say "This sucks" but if you are willing, go to Apple like I am going to. I plan to ask Apple, how Toyota can advertise their vehicles with Apple Carplay when it does not work as Carplay is intended to work. That's false advertizement on Toyota's part and if they don't plan to fix it, maybe Apple will hold them to some accountability. I also reported some other bugs in their piss poor infotainment system, let me know if you experience them:
1) On your dash HUD when you get a phone call, you will see the CallerName and the CallingNumber in the middle at the bottom. The next call that comes in to your iPhone it will show the same CallerName, but it will update the CallingNumber. They said this is not right.
2) If you have an alarm go off on your iPhone while you are driving, it will show up on the dash HUD as phone call, and it will also change the audio input to your phone (I listen to SiriusXM most of the time) and you have to hit the Mode button to get back to your previous input.
3)Anyone else using a different input that their phone when it's connected to Carplay notice sometimes it will randomly change to the phone input when you don't change it?

Sorry I didn't have better news, I tried for all of us. I will let you know if I get anywhere with my conversations with Apple, but Brand Engagement support is constricted by their company policies to only help to a certain extent, they will not entertain any new feature requests nor can you escalate your concerns to a manager. Its a very poor customer service standpoint, I told my rep, "so you are telling me if I don't want to deal with this I have to get rid of my Tacoma and get a new vehicle?" He said he was not telling me that, but he can tell me that is the position of Toyota this this is not a flaw or bug, it is working as the engineers designed it to work.

 

[Ironhide]

So I finally got a definitive answer from Toyota Brand Engagement. I had to go through 4 different representatives, but one guy finally told me the answer. They are not planning to fix this. Toyota see the Apple Carplay not muting music while playing or recording text messages as working as designed. Yep, we are stuck with it. I recommend anyone annoyed with this to contact Brand Engagement to simply say "This sucks" but if you are willing, go to Apple like I am going to. I plan to ask Apple, how Toyota can advertise their vehicles with Apple Carplay when it does not work as Carplay is intended to work. That's false advertizement on Toyota's part and if they don't plan to fix it, maybe Apple will hold them to some accountability. I also reported some other bugs in their piss poor infotainment system, let me know if you experience them:
1) On your dash HUD when you get a phone call, you will see the CallerName and the CallingNumber in the middle at the bottom. The next call that comes in to your iPhone it will show the same CallerName, but it will update the CallingNumber. They said this is not right.
2) If you have an alarm go off on your iPhone while you are driving, it will show up on the dash HUD as phone call, and it will also change the audio input to your phone (I listen to SiriusXM most of the time) and you have to hit the Mode button to get back to your previous input.
3)Anyone else using a different input that their phone when it's connected to Carplay notice sometimes it will randomly change to the phone input when you don't change it?

Sorry I didn't have better news, I tried for all of us. I will let you know if I get anywhere with my conversations with Apple, but Brand Engagement support is constricted by their company policies to only help to a certain extent, they will not entertain any new feature requests nor can you escalate your concerns to a manager. Its a very poor customer service standpoint, I told my rep, "so you are telling me if I don't want to deal with this I have to get rid of my Tacoma and get a new vehicle?" He said he was not telling me that, but he can tell me that is the position of Toyota this this is not a flaw or bug, it is working as the engineers designed it to work.

Thank you for going the extra mile to try and resolve this issue.

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