Apple CarPlay

[LGNEO]

Had a problem back in Nov/Dec of 2024 with iOS 18 and CarPlay not auto starting music and Now Playing among other things not working correctly. Pandora finally came up with an update that fixed some of the issues. 

After my iPhone 15 updated to iOS 18.6x Pandora no longer starts playing my music. It acts as though it is paused, but trying to start the play from the cars screen does not start the music. I have to physically start the music from the iPhones screen. It plays through the car without issue. I have verified that auto play is turned on in the iPhone settings. Have deleted Pandora and reinstalled on iPhone. No help! However, if I select another music service such as LiveOne or Jazz Groove, they don't have this issue. Once again Pandora support, another issue with iOS 26 just around the corner. If another service would offer a shuffle between genres, I would say bye bye to Pandora. Open for suggestions. This is on a bimmer with i9 os.

[TannerPandora]

Hi @LGNEO 

Thanks for sharing your experience, I’m sorry to hear you're having trouble again. I know how frustrating it can be when playback doesn’t start the way you expect in CarPlay.

As far as I know, there haven’t made any recent updates to the CarPlay experience on our end, so this may be something new. To help me better understand and investigate, could you let me know:

• Are you connecting to CarPlay with a USB cable or wirelessly?
• Does Pandora appear in this paused state every time you connect?
• If you switch to another app in CarPlay and then return to Pandora, is it still in the pause state? 

Thanks for your help with these details. 

[LGNEO]

I am connecting wirelessly to my car. I have auto play, auto start, and enable launch from car all enabled. When I start the car, it shows the CarPlay window. Pandora does not start playing. I have to select the Pandora app and it will start playing sometimes rarely. I then touch Now Playing and it is in paused mode - rarely if I hit the arrow, it will start. I usually have to dig out my phone open the Pandora app and start playing. After I do this, if I leave the car and come back 90% of the time it will start playing without intervention. When it is in its paused state, if I switch to another app and then come back, it still will not start playing. If you need any other info, let me know. Hopefully this can be resolved and hopefully iOS 26 won't totally fudge it up. 

[TannerPandora]

Thanks for the follow up, @LGNEO 

I'm currently on the Beta iOS 26, and while I haven't used it too much with CarPlay, it seemed to work without issue when I did. Though that is not a stamp of approval, as experiences can differ. 

Your experience is definitely an interesting one and I've seen other similar experiences when listening to wireless CarPlay. I'm wondering if there is something with the WiFi + Bluetooth connection that is causing this state. 

Do you have the option to connect with a USB cord? I'm curious if you'll have the same experience with the USB cord too. May help to narrow down where the issue starts. 

Thanks!

[LGNEO]

Unfortunately, the mfg to save $1.25 (snark) decided that the ports in the car will be for charging only. So my choices are wireless or wireless.

[TannerPandora]

Ahh good to know, @LGNEO. Well that's a bit of a bummer. I'm going to do some testing myself over the weekend with CarPlay. I may need to follow up with you next week for a few extra details. I've also noted your experience to our engineering team for them to continue to review. 

Thanks for the help!