Wireless Apple Carplay quits working

Jonathon Blue · January 13

I’ve owned my ‘24 Sierra 2500hd since July ‘23. No issues with CarPlay until a few weeks ago when I went through about 45 minutes of OnStar reps trying to help me out. We pretty much deleted and started from scratch on both the truck and my iPhone 15. With my phone I had to go into settings a few times and confirm stuff was toggled on or off. In the truck, they pretty much had everything deleted and start me as a new owner.

A work ticket was submitted because their steps didn’t fix the problem. A few days ago, I get a voicemail answering the work ticket instructing me to take it to the dealer for further troubleshooting. Sure, when I get time off from work I’ll have to spend half a day down there letting them break something else (long story). So bottom line, my car play still doesn’t t work.

I’m sure somebody out there has the fix. Please chime in.

sigmonster · January 15

It is almost humorous. CarPlay has a mind of its own--it works randomly about 1/2 -3/4 of the time. It usually does work if I reboot the radio. I have Wi Fi hotspot "on" and got an unlimited data plan to see if that would help. At least Google Maps works with the data plan. It would be nice if there were a more permanent fix.

Jonathon Blue · January 15

Tell me about it, I tried the hard wire method on an 8 hour trip this weekend and guess what? I got my CarPlay to work. Of course it took some setting changes where I had to delete my truck from my phone and delete my phone from my truck then link them back together. So yeah, it worked. Until I was 2 1/2 hours into my trip then the entire infotainment screen went dark. Luckily the truck was still operational and didn’t shut down on me and of course, since I was driving, once it rebooted itself (3-4 minutes) I couldn’t connect anything because the truck was not in park. I drive another hour to the next stop and had to reset the connections again

GMC has really got to fix this; and me taking off from work to get a 2024 truck fixed pisses me off.

sigmonster · January 20

Well, I have made some progress. I restarted my phone and deleted My Chevrolet from Bluetooth and WiFi. I deleted my phone from the truck. I then started syncing them again following directions and prompts from the Infotainment system. It has been two days and thus far it is working as it should. I do have a data plan and have the trucks WiFi is turned on as is sharing with phones. Hope this helps some one.

Jonathon Blue · January 20

That’s great news. I too have been able to connect wirelessly over the past few days. Since restarting and resetting phone and truck I was still unsuccessful. I reluctantly used the USB Cord for a few days and then a couple days ago when I hopped in the truck to go somewhere in a hurry, my music and Waze was active on the infotainment screen. It took me a minute to realize I never plugged the phone into the USB. We’ll see how long it lasts.

__Roy__ · January 24

Same problems. It works sometimes. Very unstable.

ember1205 · January 24

I just had something occur to me... for the folks having issues with wireless CarPlay - do you have your truck set up as a WiFi hotspot and is your phone configured to use that network?

I'm wondering if GM was smart enough to combine the two networks behind the scenes so that your phone can access both the WiFi interface needed for the screen mirroring functions to the Infotainment AND have access to the Internet over the same WiFi network...

__Roy__ · January 24

Mine is not. I don't pay for wireless on the truck after the trial ran out.

To give more information car-play is also unstable when pugged into usb jack (using correct data-cable).

BowtieOwner · January 24

11 minutes ago, ember1205 said:

I just had something occur to me... for the folks having issues with wireless CarPlay - do you have your truck set up as a WiFi hotspot and is your phone configured to use that network?

I'm wondering if GM was smart enough to combine the two networks behind the scenes so that your phone can access both the WiFi interface needed for the screen mirroring functions to the Infotainment AND have access to the Internet over the same WiFi network...

I only had the initial free month of the WiFi hotspot. My issues started once that initial trial was complete, but I don't know if that is just a coincidence.

BuckWallace · January 24

I wonder if this is just Google's way of giving the middle finger to Apple since the GM infotainment system is Android/Google-based. Android Auto has always worked great.

ember1205 · January 25

3 hours ago, BuckWallace said:

I wonder if this is just Google's way of giving the middle finger to Apple since the GM infotainment system is Android/Google-based. Android Auto has always worked great.

Android Auto is crap, too. And the entirety of how the Infotainment actually operates is garbage overall. What's more likely is that CarPlay can't properly operate on a substandard platform.

__Roy__ · January 25

I really hope someone from GM sees this.

Its a bad experience for a $75k truck

BuckWallace · January 25

3 hours ago, ember1205 said:

Android Auto is crap, too. And the entirety of how the Infotainment actually operates is garbage overall. What's more likely is that CarPlay can't properly operate on a substandard platform.

I'm not implying that AA is better than CarPlay, just saying maybe Google didn't give much attention to making sure CP runs great on this system.

Not sure what you mean by "Android Auto is crap". Are you saying you don't like AA or that it also runs poorly in your truck?

Edited January 25 by BuckWallace
Typo

ember1205 · January 25

6 hours ago, BuckWallace said:

I'm not implying that AA is better than CarPlay, just saying maybe Google didn't give much attention to making sure CP runs great on this system.

Not sure what you mean by "Android Auto is crap". Are you saying you don't like AA or that it also runs poorly in your truck?

What I mean is... it's crap. I get the opportunity to experience it in a variety of vehicles including my own truck (wireless) and car (wired, but with a wireless adapter I installed) and pretty much every rental I have when I'm traveling. While the overall convenience factor is good when it works, there are far too many inconsistencies and stumbling points with it due to how it's implemented in every different vehicle out there. Add to that being at the mercy of the automaker to have installed a proper connectivity system (USB, WiFi, Bluetooth) that is properly prioritized and the potential for issues rises exponentially.

Add to that Google doesn't make it easy for you to know what version of the software is in your vehicle, what associated components are on your phone, how to ensure they "update together", or how to update anything in the car itself. What happens when you can't / don't get an update OTA or under the warranty, the vehicle is 6, 7, 10, 15+ years old and is 0% compatible with whatever version of AA components are running on your Galaxy S35 at that point?

My overall experience with AA is that it's "ok" at best and trying to troubleshoot any sort of issue is near impossible because there are simply too many players and parts involved in its operation. I did have a significant problem with it in my truck, but I'm chalking all of that up to yet another failed OTA update from GM that caused a major issue for me but not QUITE bad enough to brick it. It took multiple rounds of griping at the dealer and getting Chevy involved before they would run full diagnostics to actually find a corrupted software install in the main communication gateway on the truck... Oddly, though, AA starting working again before the truck went to the dealership for the repairs.

I've been saying for years that GM has no clue how to write software. This has been evident from the various odd things that their software does (or doesn't do) in the vehicles that will make anyone that understands software design even a little just shake their heads. GM has finally admitted that they're terrible at it by handing the entire platform for the Infotainment over to Google. And it's gotten worse because of that "being at the mercy of the automaker" thing.

Have you ever spent any time going through the various options of Android Auto? Have you figured out that there are settings available to you that do absolutely nothing? Example: You can configure it to start automatically all the time, start automatically if it was used on the previous drive, or let the vehicle choose whether or not to auto start it. Exactly where is that setting in the vehicle to auto start AA on connection? It doesn't exist. And before anyone says that you can adjust that setting from the vehicle, you're right... but what you're changing is the setting on the phone.

In all seriousness, Google has done a generally respectable job of ensuring that their platform (Android) operates appropriately to support third-party apps. And in the case of the iPhone / CarPlay, the only thing that needs to run is the screen mirroring functioning (pretty much the same for Android). Apple is the bigger hardass here in that they don't like allowing things like their screen mirroring function to operate on non-iOS platforms.

WTF Chevy · January 31

On 1/24/2024 at 9:26 PM, ember1205 said:

Android Auto is crap, too. And the entirety of how the Infotainment actually operates is garbage overall. What's more likely is that CarPlay can't properly operate on a substandard platform.

I got my 2024 Silverado 3 weeks ago and I'm having the same issue since my purchase. It's not just CarPlay. With CarPlay disabled, my Bluetooth connection randomly stops on it's own but just disconnecting it and reconnecting it via infotainment center it would fix it. The other day I was on a 2 hr trip and CarPlay disconnected 5-6 times using navigation via bluetooth, and while in the past I would just place it in park and shut the truck off then open the door to lock it out and shut it and restart the truck would fix it (90% of the time), this time the entire system went haywire. I disconnected the phone and it refused to disconnect. I hit the CarPlay icon and the screen went blank. I even restarted my iPhone and then forgot the truck altogether and my infotainment screen still showed my phone was connected while the phone was off and after I forgot the truck. I went ito the settings and reset it in safe mode and wahlah... CarPlay worked great until tonight, via Bluetooth. I spoke to a salesperson and he said that if I lose cellular service it will make me lose connection with my truck and I'll need to stop, shut the truck off and restart it again to reconnect. I looked at some apple conversations and concluded based on these threads that it's a combination problem that even the two tech companies either don't care about or know about...just yet. Here's a link to the apple users having CarPlay issues with other vehicles. Apple CarPlay keeps disconnecting - Apple Community.