iPhone 13 iOS 15 - CarPlay doesn’t play music

I had an iPhone 12 with iOS 15, everything was working fine and dandy.

I upgraded to iPhone 13 and now music does not play using CarPlay when I am using either Spotify or Apple Music.

I have a 2018 Audi and I use lighting to connect to CarPlay.

When I click on a song either using Spotify or Apple Music my CarPlay app shuts down.

CarPlay works and does not shut down when I use Google maps or Apple podcasts. But as soon as I click on a song Apple CarPlay just shuts down.

iPhone 13 Pro Max, iOS 15

Posted on Sep 25, 2021 3:46 PM

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Posted on Sep 27, 2021 7:04 AM

THIS is what worked! You, Brutus161, are the real hero.


Unplug the phone. Go to Settings > Music > EQ and turn one on. I turned on Latin. Then play a song for about a minute on the phone, not on CarPlay. Then, go back to Settings > Music > EQ and turn the EQ off. Plug your phone back in and voila! It should work.

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Sep 27, 2021 7:04 AM in response to brutus161

THIS is what worked! You, Brutus161, are the real hero.


Unplug the phone. Go to Settings > Music > EQ and turn one on. I turned on Latin. Then play a song for about a minute on the phone, not on CarPlay. Then, go back to Settings > Music > EQ and turn the EQ off. Plug your phone back in and voila! It should work.

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Sep 27, 2021 6:08 AM in response to braxmed

You should know that I received help here on this board and the advice was excellent. Without there area of expertise I would never have found the answer and I learned something new. I am not an expert and I joined to learn. I am not tenicial and everyone here learns something . I hope this helps you feel more at ease

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Sep 27, 2021 6:08 AM in response to braxmed

I got it to work. Essentially I turned on and then off several of the options under music in settings. It started working after that. Try switching your eq to a different setting, playing some music in your phone, turn eq back off and then plug it into your car.

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Sep 27, 2021 7:05 AM in response to 2Tbags1cup

THE FIX - Unplug the phone. Go to Settings > Music > EQ and turn one on. I turned on Latin. Then play a song for about a minute on the phone, not on CarPlay. Then, go back to Settings > Music > EQ and turn the EQ off. Plug your phone back in and voila! It should work. via Brutus161.

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Sep 27, 2021 10:50 AM in response to 2Tbags1cup

Had the same issue. For those still experiencing the same, I finally fixed it by Resetting Phone.

Go to the “Settings” app > Tap “General” > Find and open tap “Transfer or Reset iPhone”> Tap “Reset” > Lastly tap on “Reset All Settings” > For security reasons, you will be asked to enter the iPhone Passcode. 

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Sep 27, 2021 1:45 PM in response to brutus161

Created an account to say thank you for this! Had no EQ on and kept seeing this as a resolution so it didn’t help me. I have a 4 hour drive tomorrow (U.K. fuel idiocy makes that super fun) and was dreading it without music! Genuinely I played a song for 60 second with an eq on then turned it off and bingo it works on car play now!

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Sep 27, 2021 3:08 PM in response to 2Tbags1cup

Thank you! Literally spent a good amount of time trying to figure out what was wrong! Every time I tried playing a song on Spotify the CarPlay screen would just shut off but Waze and maps worked fine. I tried different usb cables, deleting/offloading Spotify and Apple Music without any resolution. But this work immediately

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Sep 29, 2021 2:27 PM in response to 2Tbags1cup

I’m having the same issue on my 2020 VW Jetta with my 13 Pro. Music apps close out on carplay. My 11 pro on ios15 still works though. And I just had my car inspected and asked them to check if there was an update to the carplay system to no avail.

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iPhone 13 iOS 15 - CarPlay doesn’t play music

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