A bug hitting a number of iPhones leads to random crashes of the Apple Music app whenever the smartphone is connected to a car.
By the looks of things, the other symptoms also include the iPhone overheating, obviously leading to other problems such as UI lag and other apps freezing in CarPlay.
The issues don’t necessarily seem to be widespread, but they do affect the latest-generation iPhones, including the iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and iPhone 11. The latest version of iOS doesn’t seem to include a fix, as users whose iPhones are fully up-to-date also experience the bug.
Posts on Apple’s forums indicate that the issue first appeared in December when the Apple Music app just started to crash or failed to play music when CarPlay was active.
One iPhone XR owner says they took the device to Apple’s Genius Bar, where it passed all hardware tests.
“Discovered that music app has background activity, even when phone is not in use (music app or otherwise). To the point that when I detected my phone getting hot I would note the battery use for the music app, ten minutes later it will have had an extra 10 mins background activity. A couple of times it will have had a few hours background activity,” one iPhone owner explains, adding that restarting the iPhone was the only temporary workaround.
Others explain they reached out to Apple only to be offered similar workarounds, with the problems usually coming back after a few days. Some add Apple has already acknowledged the problem and promised a fix, but the recently-released 13.3.1 doesn’t resolve this behavior.
"Fingers crossed that it is fixed before I switch to Spotify, or smash my phone out of frustration," one iPhone owner said before installing this update.
Of course, the only workaround available at this point is to just give up on using Apple Music with CarPlay, which for subscribers obviously isn’t a very convenient solution. A new iOS update is expected in the coming weeks, but at this point there’s still no confirmation this issue would be addressed.
The issues don’t necessarily seem to be widespread, but they do affect the latest-generation iPhones, including the iPhone XS, iPhone XR, and iPhone 11. The latest version of iOS doesn’t seem to include a fix, as users whose iPhones are fully up-to-date also experience the bug.
Posts on Apple’s forums indicate that the issue first appeared in December when the Apple Music app just started to crash or failed to play music when CarPlay was active.
One iPhone XR owner says they took the device to Apple’s Genius Bar, where it passed all hardware tests.
“Discovered that music app has background activity, even when phone is not in use (music app or otherwise). To the point that when I detected my phone getting hot I would note the battery use for the music app, ten minutes later it will have had an extra 10 mins background activity. A couple of times it will have had a few hours background activity,” one iPhone owner explains, adding that restarting the iPhone was the only temporary workaround.
Others explain they reached out to Apple only to be offered similar workarounds, with the problems usually coming back after a few days. Some add Apple has already acknowledged the problem and promised a fix, but the recently-released 13.3.1 doesn’t resolve this behavior.
"Fingers crossed that it is fixed before I switch to Spotify, or smash my phone out of frustration," one iPhone owner said before installing this update.
Of course, the only workaround available at this point is to just give up on using Apple Music with CarPlay, which for subscribers obviously isn’t a very convenient solution. A new iOS update is expected in the coming weeks, but at this point there’s still no confirmation this issue would be addressed.