iPhone 17 Pro New Phone iPhone 17 (Pro) - New Carplay Issue - Continuous Restart

[dmccombs]

I hope folks here help. I've got a frustrating issue. Has anyone else experienced this or can provide suggestions?

Issue:
My Carplay plays for a minute or two, then disconnects, then restarts. This is continuous.

History:
I've had carplay running on this car for years now without issue. I was running the IOS 26.0 production version on my 16 Pro. Until Friday, everything was rock solid. No issues.

On Friday, I got a 17 Pro. With that I had to update the IOS to the the IOS 26 Release Day version. This is when I started having problems with Carplay continuously rebooting. Nothing on the car changed so either the phone has a problem or there is a bug in the Release Day version, or a file is corrupted on my phone.

I don't have any wifi or bluetooth dropouts when I'm on my home network or other bluetooth devices.

Things I've Tried:
I have restarted the phone and car several times.

In the car setup, I removed all my phones so the car showed no phone (clean slate). I also removed the carplay connection on the phone (clean slate). Then I started from the beginning and added carplay again. The phone connects to the car fine, and Carplay works as expected for a minute or two, the disconnects, then reconnects, the 1-2 minutes later it restarts.

Help?: Do you any suggestions aside from wiping my phone and reloading from icloud? I have 2 watches connected, lots of files, so doing a full setup again would take a couple hours by the time I reconnect devices, passwords, etc.

 

[estabya]

Curious what the device you’re connecting to is. Is it a factory or aftermarket car stereo?

I have the same issue here with an iPhone Air on a Pioneer DMH-1500NEX, but my wife’s factory Subaru stereo works fine.

Never had CarPlay issues before, including with my 15 Pro on the iOS 26 public beta. I’ve messed with a ton of settings but found no solution yet. I have not tried wiping the device and starting over.

 

[armandsarkani]

Are you wearing an Apple Watch while you are connecting to CarPlay? I am noticing the same issues - actually with any Wi-Fi network, including wireless CarPlay. But only in a specific scenario: when wearing an Apple Watch and unlocking my iPhone, Wi-Fi will completely disable itself and disconnect from the network (it turns off for a second according to the Settings app). Then it will try to re-enable and re-connect. This happens with wireless CarPlay as well, manifesting in a disconnect and reconnect. But only when wearing the Apple Watch, which is very strange. There is a Reddit thread about this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1nlenlp/iphone_17pm_wireless_issues

Are you having a similar issue?

 

[dmccombs]

Curious what the device you’re connecting to is. Is it a factory or aftermarket car stereo?

I have the same issue here with an iPhone Air on a Pioneer DMH-1500NEX, but my wife’s factory Subaru stereo works fine.

Never had CarPlay issues before, including with my 15 Pro on the iOS 26 public beta. I’ve messed with a ton of settings but found no solution yet. I have not tried wiping the device and starting over.

I use the Carlink Wireless adapter, that connects to the WV factory infotainment system.. It worked fine for 3-4 years until I upgraded the phone/software on Friday.

 

[dmccombs]

Are you wearing an Apple Watch while you are connecting to CarPlay? I am noticing the same issues - actually with any Wi-Fi network, including wireless CarPlay. But only in a specific scenario: when wearing an Apple Watch and unlocking my iPhone, Wi-Fi will completely disable itself and disconnect from the network (it turns off for a second according to the Settings app). Then it will try to re-enable and re-connect. This happens with wireless CarPlay as well, manifesting in a disconnect and reconnect. But only when wearing the Apple Watch, which is very strange. There is a Reddit thread about this:

https://www.reddit.com/r/iphone/comments/1nlenlp/iphone_17pm_wireless_issues

Are you having a similar issue?

I am wearing an Apple Watch, but I don't have any issues staying connected to my home wifi. I also went for a walk in with my airpods which connect via bluetooth, and the connection was solid for the full hour. My issue seems to be related only to Carplay.

Thanks for sending the reddit link. Folks there seem to have a variety of issues, many related to wearing an apple watch. I will try again without the watch, and I'll watch the reddit link.

Maybe we need a software update to fix this. It could take a month or so. I'm not going to be happy if I can't use Carplay for a month because I upgraded. Upgrading is supposed to be a positive experience. I'm not running any beta software so all major functions should be working, right?

UPDATE: I did retest without wearing my Apple watch and still had the restarting issue. I then let my phone lock via timeout, then reopened the phone. The second I reopened the phone, carplay restarted. Oddly, I tried this same test by pressing the on/off switch to lock the phone. When I did this, then reopened the phone, carplay did not restart. I'll have to do more testing, but I think we have a serious bug.

 

[Apple_Robert]

I use the Carlink Wireless adapter, that connects to the WV factory infotainment system.. It worked fine for 3-4 years until I upgraded the phone/software on Friday.

Carlink is the problem.

 

[dmccombs]

Carlink is the problem.

I doubt that it's Carlink. Carlink has worked perfectly well with my last 3 phones and several IOS updates. The problem started right after upgrading to the iphone 17 Pro, with new Release Day build.

I'll keep an open mind though as folks on reddit have numerous issues. some use Carlink and some don't.

 

[jz0309]

I got a 17PM on Friday, setup in Apple Store via iCloud (mistake), tried to set it up when I got in the car to no avail, restore was still in progress on the phone so I shrug it off.
So yesterday I took the phone into the garage to set CarPlay up, to my surprise, it connected. Went for an errand later in the afternoon and no issues.
Car is a 2024 Ioniq 5 but I am using a wireless adapter for a year now that also worked fine with my 13PM on ios26 for a week.

I don't know what to suggest to you, seems you have done everything I would have ;(

 

[eXoenDo]

I'm having similar issues with USB CarPlay. I have a 2019 Honda HR-V. It hangs on connecting. I've removed the car from CarPlay on the phone, and the phone from CarPlay Settings on the car. If I plug it back in, sometimes it will work then but it is about 50/50 for me. When it doesn't work, I repeat the process and try again until it works. But the moment I get it working, if I shut my car off, I have to repeat this process again and again when I get in next. I also had no issues with iOS 26 on my 16 Pro Max. I submitted Feedback to Apple with CarPlay Logs, hoping they catch the bug and fix it quickly.

 

[ektrey]

I'm having similar issues with my iPhone 17 Pro using wireless CarPlay with my Pioneer DMH-W2770NEX. I reset the network settings, which did not fix the issue of the continuous restarts.

 

[Jackbequickly]

Carlink sounds suspicious to me.

 

[dmccombs]

Carlink sounds suspicious to me.

The more I read the Reddit threads, the more I think that Carlink is not the issue. There is a thread there with lots of folks having the same issue with wired carplay. There are other thread were folks are having issues with their wifi or bluetooth having continuous restarts, not involving carplay at all. All these issues are on the 17 phones.

I am beginning to think it's tied to the wifi/bluetooth chip in the new phones, and Apple having to update the drivers or other code to accommodate the new chips. Either way, I hope Apple pushes a fix soon.

 

[TheRealAlex]

CarPlay was NOT working (wired) on my 2023 AMG Mercedes yesterday Mercedes pushed an OTA update that restarted my infotainment system mid drive. Now it all works no issues even snappier now.

 

[dmccombs]

CarPlay was NOT working (wired) on my 2023 AMG Mercedes yesterday Mercedes pushed an OTA update that restarted my infotainment system mid drive. Now it all works no issues even snappier now.

Are you using an iPhone 17?

 

[flipjlo]

Same problem. It’s a bug with WiFi with Apple Watch on

 

[NetRocker]

The more I read the Reddit threads, the more I think that Carlink is not the issue. There is a thread there with lots of folks having the same issue with wired carplay. There are other thread were folks are having issues with their wifi or bluetooth having continuous restarts, not involving carplay at all. All these issues are on the 17 phones.

I am beginning to think it's tied to the wifi/bluetooth chip in the new phones, and Apple having to update the drivers or other code to accommodate the new chips. Either way, I hope Apple pushes a fix soon.

Hi!
You need update CarlinKit Firware.

 

[Bazooka-joe]

CarPlay was NOT working (wired) on my 2023 AMG Mercedes yesterday Mercedes pushed an OTA update that restarted my infotainment system mid drive. Now it all works no issues even snappier now.

That’s interesting as I haven’t had an OTA update for my 2024 AMG SL55 since last July. I haven’t had any CarPlay issues with my new phone or iOS 26 though.

 

[dmccombs]

Hi!
You need update CarlinKit Firware.

It was working 100% fine for years, until Friday when I upgraded to the new phone, and I am using the latest firmware. Apple needs to fix it's Wifi/Bluetooth driver so it works with the existing Carplay devices. Carlinkit isn't the only Carplay device that stopped working because of this "upgrade".

If they want people to use their proprietary Carplay, they need to do upgrades that don't break the existing units. IF they want Carplay to fail to be accepted, then they of course can do upfrades that break many of the existing Carplay devices.

Along with this upgrade, many folks wifi stopped working with their home and business wifi. Should all those hiomes and business wifi unit get upgrade to go along with Apple's "upgrade"? No...Apple needs to fix the new chip/software to work correctly.