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2019 - Anyone Notice Music Skipping w/Apple CarPlay? (merged thread)

18170 Views 52 Replies 22 Participants Last post by  Tibbssparkle
It's really the only complaint I have with the car since I got it. The music playback does a weird blip or skip every time I play music from my iPhone. It's not like a scratched CD or anything, more like it stutters for a millisecond like it's buffering or something. It's sporadic. Happens every couple minutes. I've tried turning the phone off/on again and changing the usb cable. I don't have this issue in other vehicles and it doesn't happen with headphones in. Hoping someone here has a quick fix to save me a trip to the dealer.
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I’ve noticed this for sure. It bugs me but I try not to think about it. I don’t know if any fix other than hoping for an update to either car play on the iOS side or an update to the head unit that resolves it.

Everything else is great though!
I agree. Small complaint overall but still pesky when it stumbles at least once per song. I just looked and I have a software update I hadn't installed on the phone. I'll update if that's any help.
Yes! I've been noticing this for a couple of weeks now. It was especially bad tonight when streaming an internet radio station on my drive home from work. I switched to using music that was already downloaded to my iPhone and it seemed to be better. So maybe the head unit isn't dealing with dropped packets well.

I'm going to try playing the same internet radio station over Bluetooth tomorrow instead of CarPlay and see if that changes anything.

Update: Just found this discouraging thread https://discussions.apple.com/thread/8416647
I just read through it and looks like it's a consistent problem. I haven't tried connecting bluetooth instead. Maybe if I charge it from the 'charge only' ports in the back and use bluetooth instead it'll help. Kinda sucks not being able to use the rest of the CarPlay features though.
Looks like Audi, Jeep & Honda have issues too. Points to Apple as the culprit.
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I have noticed this on occasion too. I thought it might have been related to the Auto Start Stop System, but apparently not.

I'm also partially annoyed at Apple(or Spotify) that my nested folders I setup for music in Spotify won't show the playlists that they contain on the screen.
I have noticed this issue as well on our new 19 Forester. Paused/blips once every 1-2 minutes.

However - this does NOT happen on my 17 Civic nor my 18 Fit (using the same phone) w/Carplay.

This has to be Subaru/head unit related.
It may be my imagination but I recently updated to the latest HU release.

Rel_UA.19.01.70 NA

Which was released on 2019-02-19 and is available for owners with navigation as a download or I guess Non-Nav owners can get it from their dealer. i drove today for about 30 minutes using Car Play and music on the phone and then another 30 minutes or so using Car Play and Pandora. Using each source I was unable to detect any skips. No idea if this is part of the software update or if conditions were just right or for some reason I just did not notice a skip if it happened. Prior to this update I did hear them and after reading this note was quite annoyed by it. :surprise: Maybe others that did this latest update can do some testing to confirm the skips or no skips. Just thought that I would throw this out get some feedback from others.
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Good to hear - will definitely mention this next dealer visit!
gumbobtr,
Does the Manual explain how to update the HU?
gumbobtr,
Does the Manual explain how to update the HU?
See this link for updating NAV units. This includes a HU firmware update along with a map update so it is worth doing. It will appear to hang on step 8 and not report anything for a while as it updates the maps so just let it run.
It just occurred to me, my car is on my Wi-Fi and looks for updates every time I start up in the garage. It's been saying 'all software is up to date' so I guess I'm good.
It just occurred to me, my car is on my Wi-Fi and looks for updates every time I start up in the garage. It's been saying 'all software is up to date' so I guess I'm good.
Nope, not enabled for the Forester which is why it shows up to date. Only option is to download or have the dealer take care of it. The process is quite simple to DIY.
Bummer! Pretty misleading, thanks.
SOA told me that they would eventually be activating WiFi updates, but as of now it’s turned off. For non-Nav headunits, take to dealer and they’ll update; takes 30mins tops.
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SOA told me that they would eventually be activating WiFi updates, but as of now it’s turned off. For non-Nav headunits, take to dealer and they’ll update; takes 30mins tops.
Yes, I believe this is coming. If I am not mistaken it has been enabled for Ascents so hopefully it is just a matter of time.
This is the most annoying thing I’ve dealt with since buying the car (19 Forester) but I did do a few tests and here’s what I found.

- Aux works no problem.
- Older iPhone with no CarPlay plug into USB and played through the media screen works no problem.
- USB stick with music on it works no problem.
- Bluetooth works no problem but audio quality is poor.

So it have to be either the software in the HU or the IOS software on the phone that causing the skipping (and trust me it’s annoying) I went to the dealership and ask if they had an update for the HU and they said none were available (my car doesn’t have Nav).

Anyone who can help please do, I have massive OCD.
Anyone who can help please do, I have massive OCD.
I'd suggest that you reach out to SOA and ask about Rel_UA.19.01.70 NA. They may be able to assist the dealer with getting this version. While do this ask if they can provide the changes for this version so we all know what has been fixed.
@gumbobtr Yes... not being able to find out what items have been “touched” since the last update is, to say the least, frustrating.... to me, anyway.

My other complaint is there doesn’t appear to be any organized notification methodology to alert us when new updates are available.

Neither of these items should be difficult to resolve. If your doing your own updates, then they already have your email address (required to logon to download updates), so a broadcast email ought to be easy enough to provide. Even if we can eventually update directly via WiFi, I’d still like to know what changed since the last update.
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