Apple CarPlay randomly disconnects

[Randyg]

Ever since my first 'free' year of services expired, I have had issues with my Apple CarPlay. It will sometimes disconnect in the middle of a song. I will have to go into settings/devices and reconnect my phone by selecting the CarPlay toggle. This seems to only happen once per drive but I am not sure as I haven't had many long drives over the past year. My phone is a 16 Pro and is always updated. I'm pretty sure the truck firmware is up to date. Any ideas? Thanks. I have six months before my two-years are up and I need to address every bug I can.

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[TacoFreak]

I seldom had any CarPlay problems until my free connect subscription expired. I didn't want to pay a monthly subscription so I let it end because CarPlay gave me the nav and music that I use the most anyway. But after the subscription ended CarPlay was a basket case. It was never connected when I first started my truck, and sometime it took multiple tries to reconnect it. I couldn't use voice commands to do that either, which had always worked before.

It should not make any difference, but once I picked the connect subscription back up it now works perfectly again. I have no idea why that changed it, but $15/month was less frustrating that constantly fighting to keep CarPlay connected. I have an iPhone 15 with up to date software and the only thing that changed was that subscription ending.

 

[trailhunger]

It’s a 5G UWB issue from what I can tell…does this to me in the city where there’s a band overlap but did a long trip through the Rockies to visit family, the connection was ironclad on the 4G/5G towers that way never a single drop unless I was in a dead zone but the phone never disconnected.

I don’t pay the sub, I have a kill switch and an air tag buried in the truck.

 

[MustardTiger]

I have similar issues with random disconnects, random unsolicited switches between modes, and of course refusing to connect after a remote start. Hoping that Toyota issues some kind of update because it’s quite the distraction to deal with while driving…

 

[TacoWill]

Ever since my first 'free' year of services expired, I have had issues with my Apple CarPlay. It will sometimes disconnect in the middle of a song. I will have to go into settings/devices and reconnect my phone by selecting the CarPlay toggle. This seems to only happen once per drive but I am not sure as I haven't had many long drives over the past year. My phone is a 16 Pro and is always updated. I'm pretty sure the truck firmware is up to date. Any ideas? Thanks. I have six months before my two-years are up and I need to address every bug I can.

I seldom had any CarPlay problems until my free connect subscription expired. I didn't want to pay a monthly subscription so I let it end because CarPlay gave me the nav and music that I use the most anyway. But after the subscription ended CarPlay was a basket case. It was never connected when I first started my truck, and sometime it took multiple tries to reconnect it. I couldn't use voice commands to do that either, which had always worked before.

It should not make any difference, but once I picked the connect subscription back up it now works perfectly again. I have no idea why that changed it, but $15/month was less frustrating that constantly fighting to keep CarPlay connected. I have an iPhone 15 with up to date software and the only thing that changed was that subscription ending.

I noticed the same thing. Rarely had any issues at all with CarPlay and my phone connecting until my 1 year subscription expired. Now I'm getting the occasional disconnect or just refusing to connect at startup. I've had to restart the head unit a few times to get it to connect. I'm glad it's not happening all the time, but it's annoying all the same.

 

[CharlotteBlue]

Maybe it’s just mine, but I found that there’s a weird conflict between Apple CarPlay and the Toyota app. Every time I start the car, I hit “ignore” on the pop up from Toyota on my phone and it works fine.

There’s also a problem connecting to wireless CarPlay if I leave Bluetooth off on my phone (which I need to do often to keep my AirPods from disconnecting from my laptop for work calls).

 

[n118nw]

I used to have this issue at the exact same spot on my morning commute. Turns out there was a T-Mobile WiFi SSID at a Home Depot along side the highway (I have t-mobile) that was just strong enough for my phone to automatically switch to that WiFi source as I passed by, thus killing the CarPlay connection. I regularly go to this home depot so I was able to view the SSID and then tell my phone to never automatically connect. Since then I haven't had CarPlay issues.

 

[WKTJR1]

The most common issue I have is that the phone isn’t connected at startup, but going back into the settings usually fixes it.

I’ve had the rare occasion where the phone wouldn’t connect at all, and I had to restart the truck to get it working. Otherwise, I’ve had good luck with the system.

 

[TacoFreak]

@WKTJR1 Does your truck still have the $15/month service or did you let it expire. When I let mine expire my CarPlay became flaky as hell, and I resubscribed just so I could quit swearing at my truck. lol

 

[Will721]

I've also experienced inconsistent connectivity issues with Android auto/carplay. While it may be an interference issue, I also lean more towards thinking it's an overall design failure specific to these trucks. I say that, because I have android auto in several vehicles including both aftermarket and OEM. I've never experienced connectivity problems like this truck has, even from other Toyota models like the wifes 24 Corolla.

Definitely not a deal breaker just a mild irritation. Today on my 30min drive to work it lost connection and reconnected 3 times. It hasn't done it in several weeks, but randomly has had issues since I've bought it. The wifes car has NEVER had an issue on the same drive (I drove it daily for a few months) nor on any roadtrips.

 

[Congo]

Maybe it’s just mine, but I found that there’s a weird conflict between Apple CarPlay and the Toyota app. Every time I start the car, I hit “ignore” on the pop up from Toyota on my phone and it works fine.

There’s also a problem connecting to wireless CarPlay if I leave Bluetooth off on my phone (which I need to do often to keep my AirPods from disconnecting from my laptop for work calls).

I had this issue, I deleted my toyota app and downloaded the Lexus app and it fixed the issue!

 

[WKTJR1]

@WKTJR1 Does your truck still have the $15/month service or did you let it expire. When I let mine expire my CarPlay became flaky as hell, and I resubscribed just so I could quit swearing at my truck. lol

Yes, I let it expire.

 

[TacoFreak]

Yes, I let it expire.

I know this is just a single example and maybe it doesn't mean much, but my whole CarPlay experience changed when my subscription ended. It was seldom connected when I first started my truck, took multiple connection attempts to get it working and then would randomly drop out while driving. I started the service again and magically it all works as before.

A charitable read would be that Toyota did a bad job of implementing this interface, but I wonder if they broke it on purpose to encourage us to keeping that subscription. Either way it is not something that they shoud be proud of.

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