Apple Car Play & 2019 RDX
 

I have the '19 RDX Advance with SH-AWD, have owned it since June '18. Overall I really like the car, but the infotainment system is frustrating, especially Apple CarPlay. In general, the IS is slow and buggy, but generally works. My real problem is with CarPlay.

I have an iPhone X and an iPhone 7+. The X will not stay connected to the IS. Its good for about 2-3 minutes before dropping the connection. I have to then unplug and plug it back in, and most of the time it will drop the connection again after several minutes. I've contacted Acura and done the usual removal of the phone and reinstall. I've deleted the Acuralink app and reinstalled it. I've even reset the phone with Apple's help. The only thing I haven't done is totally erase the phone and start completely over. I was about to do that when I decided to try the phone in my wife's '18 Outback. Plugged it in via lightning cable (same cable used in RDX) and it worked flawlessly. Drove around for 30 minutes, no dropouts. So its obviously a problem with the RDX's IS. As for the iPhone 7+, once I get it connected, it tends to NOT disconnect, but sometimes it takes several attempts to connect to the IS.

I've installed the firmware fix that was pushed out last year (December?) for the IS, no help with CarPlay. Has anyone had similar problems, and if so, were you able to fix them? CarPlay is a big deal for me...

I'm Stuck in the Middle
 

Hello:

I have a '19 RDX Advance FWD and an iPhone X.
I've been having nothing but issues with the Apple CarPlay.
I have a support case opened with Apple and Acura. They are blaming each other for the disconnects.
I've noticed, when it disconnects it's usually due to the AcuraLink App "connecting" to the vehicle. It seems like once it's connected it's fine.
Or if I click "I'm safe" to dismiss the message that is the only workaround, but obviously I can only do this when my vehicle is in park.
However, like you, I depend a lot on CarPlay for Waze and Apple Music. If I don't know where I'm going and the phone is disconnected that's a big deal for me.
Troubleshooting I've done:
Replaced Lightning Cable
Unpaired / Re-paired the vehicle to my phone
Disabled / Enabled Vehicle Data Collection (Although AcuraLink never remembers my selection)
Reinstalled the AcuraLink App
Ensured the Apple CarPlay settings were set correctly
The list just goes on and on...

Sounds like we are in the same boat. I'll let you know if Acura is any help in the future. I'm pretty sure this isn't an Apple problem.

Thanks for the tip. I tried it, and it didn't solve the first quick disconnect, but when I reconnected it seemed to stay connected longer.

Sounds like we are in the same boat. I'll let you know if Acura is any help in the future. I'm pretty sure this isn't an Apple problem.

I have an older iPhone (7+) that works better than the iPhone X, but its not perfect. At first I thought it might be the iPhone X, but I tried it in my wife's 2018 Outback and it worked flawlessly.

If you don't mind me asking, what model iPhones are they?

Apple just release an iOS update (12.1.3) that states in the release notes that it takes care of an issue with CarPlay disconnecting for the XS, XS max, and XR. Hopefully this helps people.

Quote from release notes:

Resolves an issue that could cause certain CarPlay systems to disconnect from iPhone XR, iPhone XS, and iPhone XS Max

So now I can break open the piggybank and buy an iPhone XS ( which seems appropriately named, if we're talking about price... )? Cool.

@Dizzyg12 What model phone do you have?

Same here...I have an XsMAX

Problems Are Worse
 

Interesting that Acura shoulders no blame for the infotainment system not shutting off when exiting the vehicle. How can that be anything to do with a connected device? I can see the disconnects having to do with a connected device, partially, but not the system not shutting off when power should be disconnected at exit of vehicle. :whyme:

Same Issue
 

I no longer have any issues with my iPhoneX (64GB, running the latest firmware) after updating the infotainment system's software to 1.1.2.

I believe my firmware was updated when the Acura Rep was in the service department. It took some time to do so. But I will check to see if the firmware you mentioned matches.
Thanks,

I'll chime in with my 2 cents here as Carplay with my iPhone X (using iOS12.1.3) has not worked since mid-December either:

- I tried factory resets, three lightning cables (including one new Apple cable), resetting my iPhone, unpairing my phone from the RDX, removing Acura from my CarPlay settings and nothing worked
- I tried all permutations and combinations of the above and nothing worked
- Once in a while, the RDX would recognize my iPhone....everything would freeze for 2-4 minutes, and then I would get the error message that the infotainment system was unable to connect properly
- I've given up on Carplay completely now and just use Bluetooth to make calls and listen to music
- I would be "okay" with this solution if Acura's Navigation system wasn't so horrible. It gave me wrong directions twice, so I wish I could access Google Maps and Waze.
- I tried disabling the bluetooth for a week (to see if it was conflicting with CarPlay) and listened to FM radio. Every time I restarted the RDX it would randomly switch to an AM station rather than going back to the station I was listening to, so I'd have to navigate to the FM radio option again.
** As far as I know, there have been no software updates to the Canadian infotainment system, so I'm stuck on whatever firmware was loaded into the RDX when I bought it in September

All that said, I am extremely disappointed with Acura. My 2007 RDX had a much more enjoyable interface. It was simplistic and didn't do as much but it was also 99% reliable and snappy...especially the navigation system. Even though I love the way the new RDX drives, the infotainment issues I've encountered are so persistent and annoying (even with simple functions) that I would not, and have not, recommended this car to anyone at this point.

D1.1.2 was pushed out to the Canadian market at the end of February and it a slew of issues with the infotainment system, including issues I've had with Apple CarPlay. Before that, I had D1.0.4 in RDX (PE) which I also picked up in September.

https://acurazine.com/forums/third-g...canada-977165/

Amazing thanks Bluntman! My car hadn't alerted me and no email from Acura but I'll try to force an update today.

Once I got D.1.1.2, my Apple Xs Max has worked great with CarPlay.
Waze, Google Maps, MLB App, Music, Radio.com App, Podcasts, all work fine. I usually use Waze.
My iOS is 12.1.4.

Well despite updating the infotainment software last week, my iPhone X still will not connect with my RDX. I've given up and will bring it to the dealership when I get some time to see if it's due to a glitch in the software or a faulty part. Super-frustrating as I leaned heavily on Carplay when it was working.

Try restarting your phone, who knows, it might work.

I had hoped that the latest update would improve things for CarPlay - but it feels as though my experience is getting worse every time I get in the car.

What used to be audio hiccups for the first 10 minutes the car was on has turned into audio hiccups and constant disconnections.


Anyone get any improvement from the updates? I found I could deal with the hiccups mostly.. but the disconnections are driving me mad. If a trade in wouldn't be so lopsided I would be tempted to jump ship...

I was plagued with random carplay disconnects on my commute. On my hour commute, it was typical for my iphone to lose connection to carplay 2-3 times. The 3 finger reboot was only a temporary solution. What worked for me was performing a factory data reset. Settings->System->Factory Data Reset. It was a pain setting up all my radio and sirius presets all over again, but it's been over 2 weeks and I haven't had a single disconnect since.

RDX: D1.1.2
iPhone X: 12.2
Genuine Apple USB cable

I’m flying with an iPhone 8 Plus. I run the Apple Beta Program on it and the current version is 12.3 Public Beta 4 and my CarPlay is seamless, every time no matter when I plug my phone in.

As I posted on another thread, I continue to have intermittent problems with my USB thumb drive with a whole load of my music on it. I like playing that when I am making short trips or errands where I am in and out of the car often. I catch myself forgetting my phone when using CarPlay. I get “Please connect a device” or “unable to read device” or “no files found”.

Hey... I did the Factory Data Reset and have not been tormented by this extremely annoying infotainment-slash-connectivity-just-randomly-going-haywire issue ever since (granted it was only the other day, unlike your's 2+ weeks of good behavior...lol).

It wasn't just Apple CarPlay--it was also the native navi, SiriusXM, and other app functions--stopping working. I even swapped out my USB cable for my iPhone X, which I confirmed had nothing wrong with them.

Hope I'm not speaking too song, but so far so good. Thanks for the tip.

Curious what your result of the hard reset is for you. I have been having the same issue in my 2019 RDX amonga slew of other issues both electronic and mechanical. I have the car in the shop now with and have been given a loaner. They said they have been testing it and it's not repeating itself, told me it was the aftermarket cable (I have used every cable including OEM with the same disconnect issue). I have been using the same phone in their loaner for the past week with an Amazon Basics lightening cable and NOT ONE disconnect. I have to go for a test drive today to see if I can duplicate the issue of it disconnecting.

FYI All software on both the phone and infotainment system are up to date.

I did the full reset yesterday after reading this thread since my system was loading very slowly. Took a while to reboot but it is now much faster than it was before and loads very quickly. Highly recommend and the only downfall is that you have to reprogram your radio stations but that doesn't take long at all.

@ prefontaine84, securityguy

I don't know if "hard reset" or "full reset" (that you both said, respectively) is the same as "factory data reset," the instructions for which I followed, re: nuf's post -- but I can report that everything is now running good and still have had NO problems since, which once was happening basically every time I went anywhere with the car.

Yeah, I had to redo my pre-sets on SiriusXM, FM radio stations, address shortcuts for navigation, etc., but it was well worth the trouble. Quite happy right now.

You did exactly what I did...FACTORY DATA RESET.