How can I fix Wi-Fi and CarPlay issues on iPhone 17 Pro Max?

I'm having the exact issue. iPhone 17 Pro + Apple Watch Ultra 2. Launch day, I had issues both with my Carlinkit adapter (3.0) and native wireless Carplay on my Chevy Bolt. After the 26.0.1 update, it seems to have fixed the connectivity on the Chevy Bolt, but I'm still experiencing drop outs on the Carlinkit 3.0 adapter.

With Prime Day starting tomorrow, I will keep an eye out for a newer adapter that uses 5.0ghz wifi.

Try renaming your phone in settings. It’s helped me drastically…I tried the “deleting VPN” method and it still disconnected me every few minutes…super annoying…but I renamed my phone and while I still get random disconnects, I’ve only gotten like 3 in the last week vs 3 every 15 minutes.

There are lots of uneducated claims about VPN causing these issues here (and that VPN on iPhone is "NOT needed"). The explanations from these people (or lack thereof in some cases) are straight up wrong, and I want to encourage any readers that doubts the usage of VPN because of this to read up on how it works. And I also want to say that It's outrageous that these comments are fronted as solutions for this issue that clearly affects thousands of people with brand new iPhone 17 models, especially here on Apples official community help forum. Other claims from high level contributors here that it's a user caused issue, because it's "working good for them" is also an insane thing to write here.

Now to my experience with this issue. I'm coming from an iPhone 13 mini which was (and still is) working with my car's CarPlay. My wife's iPhone 15 Pro is also working without any problems. Both phones updated to iOS 26.

My new iPhone 17 disconnects every 3-20 minutes (mostly around the 5 minute mark). First I set it up from my old iPhone 13 mini. Then updated the iOS to version 26.1, then 26.2 (through the developer beta program). Then I did a complete factory reset on the phone and set it up from scratch, as a new iPhone, without using any kind of backup (and installed only Google Maps ans Spotify, just to answer potential follow up questions).

I've been experiencing the issue in the exact same way through all of these steps. This is 100% an issue with the new iPhone 17 and only Apple can fix it. If they aren't already, they need to become aware of this. One way to achieve this is to submit feedback to them. If you're also having this issue, let them know: Feedback - iPhone - Apple

A couple more suggestions from the Reddit post that has discussed this (I am the OP of that post):

Disable WiFi 7.

Disable MLO.

Disable fast roaming (802.11r).

If the issue is directly related to AW, 26.1B1 seems to help.

Delete items from keychain on Mac (a user commented this workaround on my Reddit post).

If you use manually assigned WiFi channels, set your WiFi router to auto select channels.

krammman wrote:

ahhhhhh......no

CarPlay code doesn't even show up…

It's a bug with iOS 26 or iPhone 17 Pro Max.

I didn't have a problem with my iPhone 13 Pro Max oh the good old days… Lol

If it was truly a bug with iOS 26, it would affect everyone. But it doesn't. We have no issues with iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max with CarPlay on two different cars. None, whatsoever.

The suggestion above to delete the previous phone from the Cars infotainment system and the previous car from the old iPhone is exactly what I did and when I connected both phones to the cars, they paired and remain connected.

iPhone 17PM iOS 26.01

(and a 17 Pro for my Wife)

We have one car with wireless CarPlay built in to the (cheap chinese) headunit. This one tends to crash and not come back until you reset/restart the head unit and is totally unreliable. Previously with the iPhone 15PM it was pretty reliable. Using a USB A to C cable and not connecting to Wireless CarPlay does seem to get it to work fine 99% of the time, although there has been at least one crash over USB.

The other Car is a Mazda with Factory CarPlay and a CarLinkIt USB bridge thing for Wireless CarPlay. iPhone 14 Pro and 15PM worked pretty reliably previously but the 17's just crash constantly over Wireless, athough on this unit they do tend to auto reconnect themselves most of the time. Same as the cheap unit, using a cable appears to work 99% of the time.

Interestingly, Wireless CarPlay seems to work more reliably when I was listening to a podcast through Overcast, but it crashes constantly when using YouTube Music. Is this luck or is it also dependent on the app that is running? I know Overcast has been updated for iOS 26 but no clue if YouTube Music has been updated at all... I wonder if that is part of the issue or a coincidence.

I seem to have found a workable solution. I bought a new wireless CarPlay adapter off Amazon that was capable of the 5ghtz speed vs my old which was 2.4 and the issue has gone away!

If you're plugging in check to make sure your cable is capable of high speeds and if you're wireless make sure you're capable of 5Ghtz.

So, I decided to finally turn my Apple Watch (series 5) off during drives. Guess what? No more drops from CarPlay. I don't know what this is - bluetooth/shared wifi issues with the new h/w, or the fact that watchOS is old and can't be updated anymore... but on 26.1 with watch off, this seems to be stable. I'll keep testing and report back when I'm absolutely sure.

dareczek_sc wrote:

Wifi at home works fine and CarPlay obviously not.

After change iPhone 16 pro max to 17 pro max my wireless CarPlay with Mercedes S-class W222 2020 year is broken. 

It connecting but after 1-3 min disconnects and wan’t connect again unless I restart a car or switch iPhone to plane mode including Bluetooth. 

I have update the firmware in wireless kit to latest and made reset of network settings in iPhone. 

No luck.

As far as I know you changed supplier of WiFi and Bluetooth to in-house production so believe it something not working here. 

any suggestions / fix ?

We didn't change anything, because this is a user to user only forum. You aren't speaking with Apple here and they don't read for user feedback.

I can tell you CarPlay on my iPhone 17 Pro and 17 Pro Max are working just fine with two cars for CarPlay. It's not an issue with the Chip for Bluetooth or Wifi. If it was EVERY iPhone 17 in the world would have issues and we're not seeing many come here with issues at all.

See this and see if it helps --> If you need help with CarPlay - Apple Support

If you have a VPN on your iPhone, don't just turn it off, GET RID OF IT. VPN on iPhone causes all sorts of connectivity issues and simply aren't needed.

If nothing helps, you should contact Mercedes as Apple has no control over any of their infotainment systems.

iPhone 17 Pro/Wireless CarPlay works for about 5-10 min for me then the car head unit locks up, no CarPlay. I have to shut the car off, wait a few minutes to get my screen back. Wired CarPlay via USB works fine. Old iPhone 14 Pro Max has been working flawlessly for 3 years and was working all week on iOS26. So it's the iPhone 17 Pro hardware not the iOS26.

jefftrimm wrote:

Follow-up on my Iphone 17PM having the exact same disconnect issues on wired CarPlay via USB-C cable to my 2019 Cadillac CT6. I get disconnectee constantly every 1-5 minutes. To attempt to fix it, I installed the latest IOS 26.1 developer beta this afternoon and went on a pre-planned 2-hour road trip. The 26.1 Beta did nothing to fix the issue, so don’t waste your time. I turned off my Apple

Watch. That did nothing to help. My iPhone 15 Pro Max running IOS 26.0 has been working flawlessly with CarPlay for over a week. The iPhone 17 (Pro Max in my case) is fubar with CarPlay. It astounds me how they could have released this and universally broken CarPlay so badly.

Universally? That implies it affects everyone with an iPhone 17 Pro Max and iOS 26. I have two iPhone 17 Pros (17 Pro and 17 Pro Max) and neither is having any issues at all with CarPlay. It's broken for you and certainly for some others, but it's not universally broken.

Do you have a VPN installed on your phone?

I am having the same issue in my 2018 Jeep Wrangler through a wired CarPlay connection. My previous iPhone 14 Pro with iOS 26 had no problems. iPhone 17 Pro disconnects from CarPlay within 10 minutes. If I get a phone call, CarPlay freezes within a minute, and I lose the call.

I just spent about 30 minutes on a call with a very friendly Apple Support tech. They said that this was the first time they had heard about this issue. We did all of the normal system diagnostics checks, settings, and phone restarts. The issue still remains. I informed them of this Community Thread and that it seems to be specific to iPhone 17 Pro and Max models. Not sure what Apple will do, but I think the more people who actually call Apple about this, the faster they will hopefully release a fix. I also just submitted feedback directly to Apple on their Product Feedback site: Product Feedback - Apple

I tried all the work arounds (Data cable, resets, I have no VPN on my phone, removal of case etc) - nothing worked. Things worked perfectly fine with my previous iPhone 15 Pro Max. I finally bought a bluetooth dongle and it connectes perfectly with Carplay now. I hope Apple gets some kind of ios update to resolve this issue.

I’m having this issue too and it’s the absolute worst.

My workaround for now is to go to settings and disable WIFI on the phone (don’t do this from control center otherwise it turns back on like every 5-10min). I then use the USB connection without issue.

it seems to be some sort of WIFI bandwidth or disconnect issue that is the cause.

I’m having the exact same issue with my iPhone 17 pro… I was at the Apple Store Genius Bar this afternoon, then on a call 3 times after my Genius Bar appointment. I’ve reset network settings, tried multiple usb-c and usb-a cables, reset the phone to factory settings, forgot the phone and re-paired it, restarted the phone, and everything else you could think of… I erased the Beta update, and am running iOS 26.0.1… and the same thing is happening… CarPlay will connect at first, and within 10 minutes it will freeze the infotainment screen in my 2021 Spark, then completely disconnect. I’ve even tried flipping the cord around, and doing the same with the end of the usb-c that connects to the phone… I don’t know what else to do!! Tomorrow I will go to where I bought the phone to see if I can exchange for a different iPhone 17 pro… I’m extremely frustrated with this issue. Everything worked perfectly fine with my iPhone 15 pro…

I’ve been on the phone with apple support at least 10 times… and have spoken with the senior advisors at least 3 times. Apple needs to look into this issue and fix it!!