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A Random Disconnect Is How CarPlay Becomes a Bigger Nightmare Than Android Auto

There are plenty of Android Auto users out there who’ve had enough with Google’s app, planning to switch to CarPlay because they expect nothing but a fully reliable and flawless experience.
Apple CarPlay interface 1 photo
Photo: Screenshot from YouTube video
And yet, this isn’t what everybody’s getting on CarPlay, as the random disconnects happening every now and then seem to be plaguing more devices.

I encountered the same thing in my car, only that in my case, it occurs on rare occasions; simply unplugging and reconnecting the iPhone does the trick and isn’t such a huge pain in the neck. For others, however, the whole thing happens regularly, which turns CarPlay into one super-frustrating experience overall.

More specifically, the random disconnect takes place all of a sudden for absolutely no reason. At first, I believed the reason for these occasional losses of connectivity was the cable, despite the fact that I used the original Apple cord that shipped in the box with my iPhone 11 Pro to power CarPlay.

I replaced it with another Apple cable, and the random disconnecting still happens, so getting another cord certainly doesn’t produce any results.

Users on reddit claim the whole thing is happening in their cars regardless of the iPhone model or the cable they use. The iPhone 12 is also affected, it seems, so it’s pretty clear the problem doesn’t necessarily come down to the device connected to the head unit, but possibly to CarPlay itself.

At this point, the good news is this isn’t a very widespread issue, so not everybody has to deal with the random disconnects when running CarPlay on the head unit. But the bad news is that those who do have no workaround to turn to, as a fix that brings things back to normal doesn’t seem to exist.

A new iOS update is projected to go live next week, so here's hoping we'll also get some improvements for this problem.
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About the author: Bogdan Popa
Bogdan Popa profile photo

Bogdan keeps an eye on how technology is taking over the car world. His long-term goals are buying an 18-wheeler because he needs more space for his kid’s toys, and convincing Google and Apple that Android Auto and CarPlay deserve at least as much attention as their phones.
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