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

Based on a post from someone who said they had success with the Ottocast Minicube 3.0, I picked up a Ottocast Mini 2025 dongle from Amazon. It absolutely fixed the drop connection issue. The dongle is also significantly faster than the old Carlinkit 3.0 dongle that I upgraded from. No lagging or audio delays anymore. Win-win.

I don't often use a VPN, so this wasn't an issue for me.

I've turned off widgets following the suggestion that they were causing too much load on the CarPlay system. No dice.

I've disconnected and reconnected countless times with no real change.

... but I also just upgraded the wireless adaptor in my Wife's car and it all seems to be working for both our 17 Pro and Pro Max phones. And it's worth noting that my Wife hasn't done *anything* to trouble shoot so has widgets on, she's never used a VPN... and is running whatever came out of the box.

I've had a few different versions of the CarLinkIT over the years and all have been pretty good. I simply chose to upgrade when they didn't get updates anymore. Each new version seemed to be faster than the last and the new Ultra is the fastest yet. (The Wife is happy it now connects before she finishes backing out of the driveway where the old one seemed to take a couple of minutes to sort itself out).

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005009049844020.html

Are new devices faster and better and make the difference? Maybe?

Is it just that it takes longer to crash and we haven't driven long enough yet? Also Maybe?

My other car has built-in Wireless CarPlay so here's hoping it's fixed in an update!

Hi everyone,

I've been working with electronics for years. This problem is with the new iPhone 17. I had an iPhone XS for years that worked perfectly with CarPlay in my car and my son's car! I updated the software a few times without problems. We switched to the new version (26.0.1) and it worked fine in both cars. Last week, I upgrade to the iPhone 17 and the problems with CarPlay started. Same car, same iOS version. It must be a problem with the device, unfortunately.

BTW: Never had VPN and I reseted the Networking Settings.

Cheers

I know I’m late to this thread but I have some information: I drive an old Aston Martin which had CarPlay fitted a few years ago. I phoned the company who fitted it (Aston Installations UK) and they said the new Apple phones (17 and Air) need a software patch to enable stable pairing on some car systems, including mine. They are working with Apple and hope it will be included in the next Apple software update, or at least one in the near future.

Hope this helps

Cheers

Alastair

Northern Ireland

After countless hacks and frustrating calls I've solved the issue with a very simple solution - the Ottocast mini dongle - uninterrupted and actually better than my original CarPlay interface. VPN wasn't an issue. Nor were all of the other suggested solutions. It was simply changing the connectivity interface - and the Ottocast works brilliantly.

The issue seems to be with Apple Watch and the phone, if you use one, take it off and test it again and it shouldn’t disconnect anymore.

I’ve been having this same issue with wireless CarPlay never had a problem with my IPhone 13 then yesterday used my iPhone 17 pro in the car for the first time and it kept disconnecting sometimes very frequently on one of my drives each time I had to turn off WiFi and blue tooth to get it to reconnect if I tried just turning blue tooth off not WiFi it would just endlessly show the connecting screen and never connect

So far I haven’t had car play issues, but from day one my WiFi hasn’t worked properly on my 17 pro max, I have 3 networks running on a mesh system in my house, 2.4 for the appliances etc, 5ghz and 6 ghz, with a 15 pro max and another 17 pro max all working flawlessly, my 17 pro max grinds to a stop on the 6ghz network, so I have to use the 5ghz, this worked fine for a while but this morning woke up and while my phone said it was connected in settings it had no WiFi symbol, so I had to re connect again, the other problem I’m having is as I move about my place it locks to the furthest away router, my settings are identical to the other 17 pro max in the house that’s having 0 issues, so ive reset the phone, set up as new, deleted and repaired my watch, restarted and check all settings in my home network, but it’s just my 17 pro max that having issues, the other random thing is my iPhone screen won’t turn off, I had the setting to be 2 minutes. So I changed it to 30 seconds, still won’t turn off I have to press the button, but this WiFi thing is driving me crazy, missing iMessages and FaceTimes, and WiFi calling will not connect it refuses to.. I’m hoping this is software, I’ve posted over on Reddit and there’s a few experiencing the same things I am.. the other 17 pro max that works in my house is achieving over 1.1 gig on WiFi, I’m lucky to get 120 then it stops all together.

Adding my post as an iPhone 17 Pro user affected. I spoke to Apple Customer Support earlier and it seems like they’re aware, although the technician said I was only the 2nd caller he received with this same issue. He gave me two recommendations, neither of which worked: Reset network settings, and remove my MagSafe protective case.

CarPlay seems to be the only thing affected so far. I’ve been testing WiFi-only for a while and doesn’t seem to be dropping. I tested my AirPods earlier and it only disconnected once in a span of 30 minutes.

I’ve left Apple feedback per lobsterghost’s link to hopefully bring more attention to this. Since there isn’t widespread outrage, I don’t believe it’s affecting everyone. Hopefully it’s just a firmware fix and not a hardware issue.

Same wireless Carplay disconnect issue here with iPhone 17 Pro. My Carplay is aftermarket adaptor called 'IDCORE' and it was stable for past 2 years until past weekend when I got my new iPhone 17 Pro.

Tried resetting network, forget all connected devices (wifi, bt and carplay), remove my VPN, reboot the phone.

NONE worked. Carplay will connect but will disconnect within some minutes (very random). Sometimes I just touch the screen, it will freeze or black screen. The navigation of Apple Map is still on so I guess it still connects but the screen is not working any more and will not come back even I disconnect from my iPhone. The only way to get it back is to shut down car engine, lock the car for some minutes to hard reset the carplay kit.

I tried shutdown my Apple Watch before I get in my car this morning and it seemed working all the way to my office. It is only 20-min drive anyway. Maybe someone can test like this.

I will test again if I can still make it work without Watch. And also test if I switched on my Watch while it works, will it break the Carplay again when Watch is on?

I have been using iPhone since iPhone 3Gs, this is the worst experience I have ever had with Apple! I cannot believe Apple didn't cover this test enough before they roll out the product!!

Much disappointed!!

dragonpanda wrote:

You surely don't suggest I expose my home server directly on the internet?

However, getting rid of the VPN is the only thing I haven't tried yet.

Question though, why does it work without any problem on older phones, but gives issues on the 17?

You've been brainwashed to believe a VPN protects your home server. VPNs don't play well with iPhone, because iPhone is already so secure VPNs aren't needed. You couldn't pay me to put a VPN on my iPhone. And you won't likely find a single senior member of this forum, who have been around for years and years will use one either. I don't have a VPN on either our 17 Pro or 17 Pro Max. I have no issues at all with CarPlay.

To answer your question about why a VPN may work with an older phone is multi-fold. VPNs attach to the phone, so just moving the VPN over in the transfer process doesn't actually attach it to the phone. But more importantly, Apple doesn't recommend VPN on iPhone as they cause conflict with iOS and cause connectivity issues. They most assuredly do NOT provide the security people have been led to believe. In fact, VPN providers, particularly the free variety are selling your data to anyone willing to pay for it. Most banking apps simply won't let you use their app with a VPN. There's no real world need for one. With the exception of employers or schools who can require a VPN to connect to their servers. And if they require one, they should provide it to you and even then, should only be used when accessing their systems.

Try and completely remove the VPN and see if your problem is resolved. If you still believe you have to one, you can try to reinstall it and then test again.

dragonpanda wrote:

You surely don't suggest I expose my home server directly on the internet?

Why not? And having VPN on your iPhone does not have anything to do with having your home server on the internet.

However, getting rid of the VPN is the only thing I haven't tried yet.

Question though, why does it work without any problem on older phones, but gives issues on the 17?

It isn’t a matter of older phones, it is because you either changed devices or updated iOS (or both) and did not remove and reinstall VPN.

An important and frequently overlooked fact is that when you install VPN it configures itself to the specific hardware, OS version and network that the device uses. If any of those change it can break the VPN. So any time you change any of these you may need to delete the VPN app and profile, restart your device, then add them back (if you still want to use VPN) so it can configure itself to the new environment.

Here's more detail about: VPN - What you need to know

Fixed!! My wife, and I both had the same problem in both of our vehicles. I saw a post online about using the actual cable that came with your new phone and that seems to have done the trick, if you need USB A just use a little adapter, that’s what we had to do.

Hi, for those who thought that ios 26.0.1 (released today) fix the problem... Nope still same with CarPlay. For my lucky I have new module which is working perefctly fine (Adapter Ottocast Play2Video Pro Android Auto CarPlay).

MY gears: 17Pro+Apple Watch 7 (LTE+GPS)+ IDCORE carplay module

Previously I tried turn off Watch (power off, not just disable WiFi/BT) and remove VPN. It did help to work for more minutes (Say from 10-min to 40 min) but eventually it will disconnect and freeze my Carplay again.

Once it is frozen, it will not connect again until next drive.

I do not see other WiFi connection issue yet (Or I didn't notice it because I use mobile phone network in most cases)

This morning I update to the new fresh iOS 26.0.1, hoping it will improve or fix the annoying carplay issue.

The answer is NO. It did not help a bit. Carplay freezed in 5 minutes.

I have tried all the said approaches, removing the VPN(I have Tailscale VPN installed), reboot, forgetting the network, remove all known devices and re-connect the carplay. Nothing help.

Shame on Apple.