Help w. Carplay

[trd_fee]

Can anyone tell me how to get my car to connect to CarPlay automatically every time? Recently hasn’t been doing it at all but it use to automatically connect here and there

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[horbit]

Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Device name , toggle the button that says “Use for Apple CarPlay“ on. I have seen this toggle off when preventing the phone from connecting on the iPhone side.

 

[horbit]

Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Device name , toggle the button that says “Use for Apple CarPlay“ on. I have seen this toggle off when preventing the phone from connecting on the iPhone side.

Also wireless carplay uses WiFi, so make sure on your iPhone WiFi is enabled, and the carplay network is set to Auto-Join (click the i symbol on the network to see the option).

 

[L-2]

Apple Carplay and my 2025 4Runner Trailhunter is intermittent as it doesn't disconnect every time.
I've found on 4 hour non-stop road-trips, I might be connected for ~3 hours and Carplay just disconnects while listening to Music/Pandora/iHeart.
I might then go to Bluetooth devices and reconnect my iPhone.

Another thing which is annoyingly unreliable is playing music from my library. On other vehicle systems, I can usually go to "MUSIC"; then ARTISTS; then get choose artists from after the screen shows a list of the alphabet. My iPhone usually doesn't show this list, which again, is normal on other vehicle Carplay-capable systems. On my 4Runner, it may or may not show up. Instead, it would merely show a list of recently played artists.

When starting out on a 4+ hour drive, it's no time to be trying things like disconnecting/reconnecting/restarting iPhone/etc. Sometimes I will initially get the alphabetical list of artists, but after choosing that one artist, I won't be able to return to that menu.
Hopefully, Toyota will someday-soon be able to issue a user-installable over-the-air update.
Thankfully, Carplay with my Pandora app has been reliable.

One potentially complicating factor is I generally use a plug-in Garmin GPS unit which connects to the wifi and my iPhone. Perhaps I'll try not turning on this Garmin GPS unit the next time I drive somewhere. I've just liked that Garmin GPS unit with its large screen and provided-info more than either Apple's Map app or Google Maps app. (I don't even know if Toyota has some type of built-in navigation which comes within this head-unit.

 

[trd_fee]

Settings > Bluetooth & Devices > Device name , toggle the button that says “Use for Apple CarPlay“ on. I have seen this toggle off when preventing the phone from connecting on the iPhone side.

Yea I’ve done all of that I even forgot the device and reconnected. It’s crazy it’s this complicated

 

[jimbo285]

One issue I have overcome is my phone will be connected to my home wifi when I start the 4Runner and wont connect until I select the wifi “Smartphone” that the toyota uses. Make sure smart phone is in auto join and home wifi is not. Still have to cluck the “use for carplay” toggle sometimes.

 

[Lamuncha]

Maybe a bit more than 5 months of running this thing and carplay still just drops out.
I do know of several Sirius dead spots in the area where carplay craps out- to be expected I guess.
Leaving the car with the phone on me almost always results in a few more minutes in the parking lot unscrewing the thing.
Should not happen.

 

[Dead Horse]

Android auto does this same crap.

And it seems to go even more dumb whenever my wife is in the car with her iPhone. Constantly dropping, it skips while streaming music, and frequently doesn't connect at all when starting. Oh, and it'll tell me to plug the phone in too.

 

[trd_fee]

This is another issue I ran into (if the video uploads)

 

[watchbuzz]

If you remote start and your phone isn’t within range of the car…. CarPlay won’t kick on. You have to enable it via the settings.

 

[brumey]

I use a cable. 100% reliable. Use the port on the top right side of the head unit. I choose to do this because I have the Car Wi-Fi enabled. My iPhone cannot connect to wireless Carplay and the Car WiFi hotspot at the same time. So, cable for me just works.

 

[Joestac]

Android auto does this same crap.

And it seems to go even more dumb whenever my wife is in the car with her iPhone. Constantly dropping, it skips while streaming music, and frequently doesn't connect at all when starting. Oh, and it'll tell me to plug the phone in too.

Yep. Very odd as my Subaru never had an issue.

What I have not figured out is when I am driving in town, I live outside of Austin, my connection skips and frequently drops all together while playing music like an old skipping CD. When I get out of my town, the connection is fine and even going into Austin it stays connected. I first thought it couldn't handle the data loading the maps and running the music at the same time, so I turned off 3D buildings, but then it should also disconnect when driving into Austin as the map is more populated.

What I do notice is I have two very large radio towers on the edge of town and my uneducated guess is that is somehow causing interference with the wifi signal in the car. If I turn the music on after I get about 100+ yards away from the tower it seems to work. I might just start using the cable to connect and stop wifi all together.

 

[RunnerRocks]

Android auto does this same crap.

And it seems to go even more dumb whenever my wife is in the car with her iPhone. Constantly dropping, it skips while streaming music, and frequently doesn't connect at all when starting. Oh, and it'll tell me to plug the phone in too.

With cable or bluetooth ?

 

[Dead Horse]

With cable or bluetooth ?

Bluetooth.

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