Photo: autoevolution
This isn’t the first time we’re hearing about music apps cutting out in the car, but in this case, the workaround isn’t necessarily a compromise that everybody might be willing to do.
First and foremost, the whole thing seems to affect Apple Music on CarPlay exclusively, as most users claim switching to Spotify works exactly as they expect it to work.
This seems to signal there’s a problem in Apple Music, but on the other hand, the glitch only appears to exist in Volkswagen Group models, according to this thread on Apple’s forums.
In theory, what happens is as simple as it could be: when connecting their iPhones to the head units in the vehicle, CarPlay launches fine and works correctly, but when starting Apple Music, the audio starts cutting out in a second. In some cases, it actually plays a song for a few seconds before it starts buffering just like it would no longer have Internet access.
While no official workaround has been provided, and neither Apple nor Volkswagen acknowledged the error, users have tried pretty much every little suggestion out there, including even heading over to the service center where no solution has been found either.
Eventually, someone discovered a fix that not everybody is really willing to embrace: disabling We Connect, a premium service offered by Volkswagen, seems to bring things back to normal, allowing Apple Music to play audio normally without any hiccups.
Needless to say, turning off We Connect isn’t exactly the best workaround to be able to listen to some tunes while driving, especially because many people are actually paying for this service.
So right now, CarPlay users with a new Volkswagen are forced to go for a difficult compromise, though for many of them, the alternative is much simpler: just switch to a different music app at least until Apple or Volkswagens comes up with a fix.
This seems to signal there’s a problem in Apple Music, but on the other hand, the glitch only appears to exist in Volkswagen Group models, according to this thread on Apple’s forums.
In theory, what happens is as simple as it could be: when connecting their iPhones to the head units in the vehicle, CarPlay launches fine and works correctly, but when starting Apple Music, the audio starts cutting out in a second. In some cases, it actually plays a song for a few seconds before it starts buffering just like it would no longer have Internet access.
While no official workaround has been provided, and neither Apple nor Volkswagen acknowledged the error, users have tried pretty much every little suggestion out there, including even heading over to the service center where no solution has been found either.
Eventually, someone discovered a fix that not everybody is really willing to embrace: disabling We Connect, a premium service offered by Volkswagen, seems to bring things back to normal, allowing Apple Music to play audio normally without any hiccups.
Needless to say, turning off We Connect isn’t exactly the best workaround to be able to listen to some tunes while driving, especially because many people are actually paying for this service.
So right now, CarPlay users with a new Volkswagen are forced to go for a difficult compromise, though for many of them, the alternative is much simpler: just switch to a different music app at least until Apple or Volkswagens comes up with a fix.
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