Apple CarPlay: Poor Poor Network Connection message

[louielouie62]

These past few days (as recently as last night 01 FEB '25) I've noticed that when a song ends, I get "Poor Network Connection" despite Apple CarPlay showing full bars and 5GUC. I have an iPhone 16 PRO MAX and a Kenwood DMX1037S head unit.

So far I've tried the following to resolve it and have had no success...

Put iPhone in Airplane Mode then turn off Airplane Mode: Result: Play one song and back to the same issue.

This is only happening while in the car, at home, Pandora plays and works fine. I'm starting to lose sleep over this.

Any insights or "me too's"?

Moderator Edit: Changing title for clarity

[TannerPandora]

Hi @louielouie62 

Welcome to the Community! Thanks for taking the time to share such detailed info. Sorry for any trouble, I can imagine how frustrating this has been, especially when everything looks like it should be working normally.

Since this is only happening in your vehicle with CarPlay, it helps narrow things down a bit. I’d love to better understand what’s happening on your end:

• When you’re in your vehicle, are you connected to any in-car WiFi network, or are you strictly using your phone’s cellular connection?

• Do you notice if the “Poor Network Connection” message happens consistently after every song, or does it seem tied to certain areas while driving?

• When the message appears, does playback stop completely, or does it eventually resume on its own?

• Are you using a wired or wireless CarPlay connection with your Kenwood unit?

A couple of additional things that may be worth checking based on similar experiences:

• Cellular data consistency: Even with full bars/5GUC showing, brief drops in data throughput (especially while switching towers) can interrupt streaming between songs. This can sometimes be more noticeable in CarPlay than on the phone itself.

• VPNs or data management apps: If you’re using any, they can sometimes interfere with streaming handoffs.

• CarPlay connection refresh: If you haven’t already, try removing and re-adding your vehicle under Settings > General > CarPlay on your iPhone, then reconnect fresh.

Since you mentioned it works perfectly at home, this does point more toward something happening during the in-car connection or while transitioning between network points.

Thanks again for taking the time to share all of this!