Carplay - connecting issue diagnosed and a workaround

[Kgorman]

I thought I was going crazy. Some high percentage of time Carplay would not connect to the phone. It would make me insane trying to remove the cable and plug it back in and play with it. I couldn't figure it out. I finally traced my steps very carefully and..

If you plug in your phone during vehicle bootup (when the screen says "Ford") then it's highly likely the phone will not connect via Carplay. It will still do bluetooth and even charge via the cable, but CP will not understand it's connected. Even removing and reinstalling via the sync3 screen will not fix this!

The fix is to connect your phone BEFORE you start the car or AFTER the blue oval boot up sequence on the sync3. I have had 100% success since using this method.

One more thing.. my vehicle needed a software update for sync3. It didn't make a difference in this process but it did unlock a bit more functionality. You hold down power and the right hand radio seek button for 5 seconds to force an reset. This unlocked the ability to switch between CP and Ford Sync3 software using an on-screen button.

 

[thomsonn]

I've had similar issues, thank you for the helpful info

 

[abill]

I will try connecting before I start but I do know that waiting for the blue oval does not work for me. Drove several miles down the road yesterday waiting on the little bar at the top of the screen to say it was connected to the phone but got in a hurry... plugged it in and CP was a no go. Like you said though... no amount of unplugging, turning on/off and such will fix this while on the go... very annoying. I must wait till I restart the vehicle and hope for the best.

 

[Kgorman]

Try the reset:

power button + right seek button at the same time for 5 seconds

 

[abill]

Try the reset:

power button + right seek button at the same time for 5 seconds

That's a re-set for the whole head unit?

 

[Kgorman]

That's a re-set for the whole head unit?

that’s my understanding yes

 

[abill]

Thanks, I will try this the next time it occurs... regrettably probably today