CarPlay stopped working after iOS 26 update.

The CarPlay widgets are what’s causing the issue. Your CarPlay head unit isn’t powerful enough to have them running even in the background. To fix it, go to Settings > General > CarPlay, select your CarPlay stereo, and then go to Widgets. Now, slide the Show Widgets toggle off to disable them.

I think I got my car play to work. After I started having problems with the iPhone 17 I installed the 26.0.1 update and the problems got worse. CarPlay would shut off, then come back on, using Siri locked it up completely, and it would shut down during phone calls. I reset the phone, my jeep’s audio system, paired and re-paired the audio system and the iPhone. Nothing worked until I went to the Apple Store and bought a Morphie brand USB A to USB C cable. It solved the problem. I used CarPlay for an hour and a half without a single drop or lock up. Strange but true.

UPDATE: My issue appears to be resolved by updating the firmware on my Pioneer AVIC-6000NEX headunit to v1.21. iPhone 14pro on ios26.0.1

It didn't work...

I ended up disabling wifi on the iphone to see if wired carplay worked, but i think it turned it back on... i dont remember, but it didnt work correctly...

To force wired carplay i ended up disabling wifi and bt on the iphone and that allowed to used wired carplay with no issues...

at the end... i can have BT connection disabling Carplay on the bluetooth settings of my headunit on the iphone... or disable wifi and BT so i can use wired carplay...

iphone 17 with iOS 26.0.1

Apple Watch Ultra 2 with watchOS 26.0.2

Atoto F7 XE head unit

I'd been having this too. Cleaned USB port, new Anker USB-A to USB-C cable, used port closest to screen, up-dated to 26.0.1, disconnected other devices in car. iPhone 17 Pro been dropping every 5 minutes or so using Waze. Drove five hours today -- knock on wood -- without a single drop. Not sure why.

Happy to report the bug has been fixed for me after the latest update. Wired car play worked the moment I plugged it into the same vehicle model (not same as it was a rental) using the same wire and no special settings.

iphone 17 pro max

ios 26.0.1

polestar

I have the same issue with iPhone 17 Pro and IOS 26. I have an after market XTrons head unit, but I never had an issue with it before. Apple support is basically useless, they don't know what to do or how to debug this. They want to blame the head unit which clearly isn't the issue, my wife's old iPhone 13 with IOS 18 works fine with it. Apple clearly broke wireless CarPlay in IOS 26 but won't accept any repsonsibility unfortunately.

I have iPhone 16 Pro Max, the CarPlay stopped working during an iOS18 update and did not resolve with iOS26. My head unit is 2017 Kenwood and is wired only. The new os is wireless connection and I was not able to change the setting in the phone. I spent $80 at BigW and fixed the issue with a wireless dongle for CarPlay.

so I’m all set, hope this info helps someone else. The colourful screen display i get from Siri is mimicked on the head unit, I like it a lot. But what a distraction !

I’ll up-date my experience with 2018 F150 SYNC3. After one day of success with a new Ankor USB A to USB-C cable it went back to dropping regularly. I purchased a Beats cable and it’s worked fine since. Switching back to the new Anker cable causes regular drops.

I removed the widgets and that seems to have resolved the issue.

I updated my iPhone 15 when iOS 26 came out, but i had no issues.

When i received my iPhone 17, I loaded my iPhone 15 backup, it connected wirelessly to CarPlay but dropped a minute later.

I've tryed this:

• resetting wireless settings on the phone, it didn't work.
• I deleted a vpn profile and app from 1.1.1.1 that i carried from my iPhone 15's backup, didn't work.
• updated to iOS 26.0.1, it didn't work. (but i did not erased my headunit from bt, carplay and wifi settings)
• I also use an apple watch ultra, tryed disabling the "unlock with iphone" feature and didn't work.
• I tryed turning my watch off, it seemed to work for 3-5 minutes but carplay disconnected after that.

I remembered that i did not erased the carplay/bt/wifi settings from my phone after the update to iOS 26.0.1... i've erased it... i'll se in my lunch break if that worked when a re-pair it.

I was using Carplay wireless with my pioneer nex 8600 and my iphone 16 pro max without any issues from past 6 - 8 months, but facing connectivity issues ever since i upgraded to IOS 26. Now i am in IOS 26.01 but the connectivity issue still persists. I hope apple release another update very soon, as Carplay is critical application for me

I had this problem for days, and I tried everything including deleting the configuration and starting fresh. I was NOT running a Beta version when the problem occurred .

But, last night as I was parking my car, a message popped up on my phone saying, “Complete setting up CarPlay”.

as soon as I responded to it, Carplay began working.

[Edited by Moderator]

I have had similar issues with my 15 Pro Max and ios26. Wireless CarPlay only connects about half of the time. If I can get it working it will suddenly quit playing music, the timer is still running, maps are updating and I can hear the map notifications but no music. I have to change to another source on the radio and wait a few seconds, then go back to CarPlay to get the music working. Running ios26.01, Pioneer 6600NEX.

Today, Tried connecting my iPhone 17 Pro Max to wired CarPlay in my wife's 2021 Honda Pilot, keep getting connection error and will not set up. Her iPhone 15 still works fine with IOS 18, no issues. My 17Pro Max does work fine in my truck with aftermarket Kenwood wireless CarPlay. Going to have to hold off on upgrading her iPhone 15 until I hear this BUG is fixed. This seems like a widespread issue, Apple please fix ASAP. Upgrading my 17 to 26.1 beta 2 tonight, hopefully that will fix it