Carplay Keeps Changing to Random Mode

[Coys1955]

I'm using Carplay with an old iPhone SE (without sim) on my newly acquired Kia Stinger. If I select an album it plays it correctly in track order until I switch off the engine for a while (long enough for the USB charger to switch off) and then upon restart it starts autoplaying a random track from the >10K on the phone and continues with further random tracks until I go into the iPhone music app to reset the random setting to sequential. Then it's fine until I switch off again.

All I want is for the thing to continue playing the previously selected track/album from where it left off. Is that too much to ask?

 

[ZOFOURTWENTY]

What music app are you using to listen to music?

 

[Coys1955]

What music app are you using to listen to music?

The standard Apple Music app.

 

[ZOFOURTWENTY]

I will say this.

When I first started using CarPlay I didn’t want to use my iPhone because I was concerned with battery degradation since I sell my iPhone every year so I got an old iPhone SE from eBay that was blacklisted but I was still able to use it with wifi and I would hotspot from iPhone. I had a wide array of issues ranging from map issues to music playback (on pandora). I never used the Apple Music app back then but now I do.

Once I started my iPhone with my CarPlay all those issues remedied itself. My stations on pandora wouldn’t load properly and map destinations weren’t always accessible.

My guess is your iPhone SE without a SIM is causing your issues since CarPlay, doesn’t require, but depends on a cellular connection to operate properly.

Test this by connecting an iPhone with cellular plan to CarPlay and test the music issue you’re having. It might help.

 

[Coys1955]

I will say this.

When I first started using CarPlay I didn’t want to use my iPhone because I was concerned with battery degradation since I sell my iPhone every year so I got an old iPhone SE from eBay that was blacklisted but I was still able to use it with wifi and I would hotspot from iPhone. I had a wide array of issues ranging from map issues to music playback (on pandora). I never used the Apple Music app back then but now I do.

Once I started my iPhone with my CarPlay all those issues remedied itself. My stations on pandora wouldn’t load properly and map destinations weren’t always accessible.

My guess is your iPhone SE without a SIM is causing your issues since CarPlay, doesn’t require, but depends on a cellular connection to operate properly.

Test this by connecting an iPhone with cellular plan to CarPlay and test the music issue you’re having. It might help.

Good advice; I'll try my new iPhone with a sim and see how that works and if it works I'll probably get a PAYG sim with minimal credit and stick that in it. As you say CarPlay relies on either sim or wifi network connectivity for some functionality, but beyond voice activated searching (which works on my drive via wifi), I don't know what else it needs it for, if anything.

FWIW I've also discovered a massive power drain overnight (massive as in 100%), so I've fully charged it and am now trying some things such as turning off Location Tracking, auto app/iOS updates, iCloud, Bluetooth (in fact everthing that's not needed for USB CarPlay) and I've also put it into Airplane Mode with wifi active. It's now back in the car so I'll see what the battery looks like in the morning.

 

[ZOFOURTWENTY]

Battery drain was another issue I was never able to solve so I always unplugged when I parked because for some reason something caused the battery to drain faster. Was never able to solve it. Curious to what’s keeping you from using your iPhone with CarPlay?

My reason was battery degradation since I always flip my iphone when new one drops. I was able to solve that issue by getting a CarPlay2Air wireless CarPlay adapter.

 

[EdwinG]

Good advice; I'll try my new iPhone with a sim and see how that works and if it works I'll probably get a PAYG sim with minimal credit and stick that in it. As you say CarPlay relies on either sim or wifi network connectivity for some functionality, but beyond voice activated searching (which works on my drive via wifi), I don't know what else it needs it for, if anything.

FWIW I've also discovered a massive power drain overnight (massive as in 100%), so I've fully charged it and am now trying some things such as turning off Location Tracking, auto app/iOS updates, iCloud, Bluetooth (in fact everthing that's not needed for USB CarPlay) and I've also put it into Airplane Mode with wifi active. It's now back in the car so I'll see what the battery looks like in the morning.

What version of iOS you’re running?

I’m asking, because there have been reports in the Apple media that there is a higher than usual battery drain on iOS 14.6.

 

[Coys1955]

What version of iOS you’re running?

I’m asking, because there have been reports in the Apple media that there is a higher than usual battery drain on iOS 14.6.

14.5.1

 

[Coys1955]

Battery drain was another issue I was never able to solve so I always unplugged when I parked because for some reason something caused the battery to drain faster. Was never able to solve it. Curious to what’s keeping you from using your iPhone with CarPlay?

My reason was battery degradation since I always flip my iphone when new one drops. I was able to solve that issue by getting a CarPlay2Air wireless CarPlay adapter.

What’s keeping me from using my iPhone with CarPlay? I can't be bothered to plug my iPhone in every time on short journeys, but I hate the radio so I kept a large capacity iPod in my old car playing an album that picked up where it was when I parked the car. Unfortunately the iPod doesn't support CarPlay so I thought I'd be clever (apparently not) and use an old iPhone for the purpose. And then I found that CarPlay thinks I'd prefer a random song selection rather than continuing album that I chose.

Some things do my head in: 1) radio presenters, 2) adverts on commercial radio, 3) random playlists, hence my requirement for a music source that plays exactly what I want.

More experimentation today!

 

[Coys1955]

Update: I tried an old iPhone6 instead of the SE and it's working fine. Both are running iOS 14.5.1 so I've no idea why the model should make any difference, but both have the same capacity and a batteries so I'll stick with the 6 (which also has a seriously smashed screen) for now.

 

[Coys1955]

Another update. After four weeks of working perfectly it started again, this time on the old iPhone6. After searching again I found a number of other threads about this and a similar issue affecting Spotify:

Apple Music: https://www.reddit.com/r/applehelp/comments/9fhbq2/apple_music_autoplays_a_random_song_when_i/
Apple Music: https://discussions.apple.com/thread/7912436
Spotify : https://community.spotify.com/t5/iO...ng-when-I-select-a-specific-song/td-p/1571255

All of the threads seem to be several years old, which make me wonder if this is a bug that has now been fixed with a new release of the head unit firmware/software. Does noone else have this issue?

 

[Annie_M]

How frustrating this is for you! Have you reached out to Apple Support?

 

[Coys1955]

How frustrating this is for you! Have you reached out to Apple Support?

Yes. They were about as useful as the middle link of the three in my post (no replies in four years, but 70 peiople with the same problem). I got something along the lines of "It sounds like you have a problem with apple Carplay" followed by the usual guff about updating iOS, restarting the phone, restoring from a backup, restoring to factory settings, etc.

It's very annoying. It's not exactly rocket science to continue playing from where it left off.