Interesting Observation: Choppy audio with CarPlay and 18.4 / 18.4.1

[chl]

I have toyed around with forcing a wired CarPlay connection to see if this fixes the issue. It is just too inconvenient.

It's a shame they don't test these things more before they sell them with unmet promises.
It seems to be the biggest complaint about the F-150 according to vehicle satisfaction ratings.

Time for a SYNC 5 that actually works as promised with Carplay, iPods, and other bluetooth music streaming sources. Or something...

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[majorgearhead]

It's a shame they don't test these things more before they sell them with unmet promises.
It seems to be the biggest complaint about the F-150 according to vehicle satisfaction ratings.

Time for a SYNC 5 that actually works as promised with Carplay, iPods, and other bluetooth music streaming sources. Or something...

Or maybe it’s high time to start doing monthly APIM bug fixes until they get it right. They are way behind on just bringing parity to the 22-23 modules with 24-25 model years. The old, “stuck in time” mentality just doesn’t fly as a business model anymore with people like Tesla, Rivian, BYD, and others doing iterative development and improvement on their systems. Instead of any real innovation we got the following with the latest APIM update for 22-23:

* Karaoke
* Took away the ability to assign photos to new profiles. Old profiles will keep their photos. Just don’t remove your photo
* A 30 second load time on a badly operable web app for charging, instead of a native app
* CarPlay and Android auto bugs

But hey, at least the latest version will stay 12 or 24 hour time if you set it.

Don’t get me wrong. I call my truck the iPad of the EV truck world. Great HW, very capable of doing truck stuff, nurfed software.

 

[Scorpio3d]

I did some other experiments. I found that the WiFi being off was a placebo. The strange thing I did find that worked 100% of the time was to put my phone either in the cup holder or on the wireless charger and there was no choppy audio. If I put it in the cubby in front of the shifter (where the shifter retracts down into) it nearly always had the choppy audio. So this may be an interference issue.

As far as the no audio issue, that appears to have been fixed by iOS 18.4.1.

So my current running theory is some type of RF interference that happens if you have the phone on the drivers side of the console or in your pocket.

I use wireless CarPlay every single time I get in my truck and drive and it works 99. XX% of the time. Yes there is the occasional glitch, which is true with any computerized or electronic device! I generally keep my phone in my left rear pant pocket or in the cubby in front of the shifter. I don’t know if different iterations of the iPhone are having issues or what but I have the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

 

[chl]

I tried a lot of things to stream music to the SYNC 4 system in my Lightning, but I gave up trying to use Android Auto or Carplay.

Using an RF transmitter device to send the audio to the FM radio worked fine with no dropouts but was wire management intensive (power, antenna - for XM - and audio cables could easily become a tangled mess). So I opted to put my favorite music on an SSD formatted in xFAT and play it through the USB data port - 1 wire, 1 connection, no dropouts, no DJs interrupting the flow with their personal stories. Bliss.

 

[majorgearhead]

I use wireless CarPlay every single time I get in my truck and drive and it works 99. XX% of the time. Yes there is the occasional glitch, which is true with any computerized or electronic device! I generally keep my phone in my left rear pant pocket or in the cubby in front of the shifter. I don’t know if different iterations of the iPhone are having issues or what but I have the iPhone 15 Pro Max.

Actually I have now found that position doesn’t matter. I thought I had improved things by moving my phone over. It was just the random nature of the bugs in the Sync system. Happens to both my wife’s and my iPhone 16 pro max devices regardless of where they are.

 

[trev5150]

Sync has more bugs than Buffalo Bills basement.

 

[chl]

Sync has more bugs than Buffalo Bills basement.

Or Joe's Apartment?

 

[trev5150]

Or Joe's Apartment?

Top shelf reference

 

[chl]

Top shelf reference

One of my daughters told me about that movie, what fun it was to see it on the big screen!

I used to live in an old old turn of the century Alexandria Virginia house growing up that had almost as many roaches as in the movie, but not as talented...until roach motels came along and evicted them to bug heaven (or the other place).

Going into the kitchen for munchies in the middle of the night was a trip - a literal 6 legged stampede en masse.

The old house, now gone and replaced by several Mc Mansions on the 7 acre lot.

 

[majorgearhead]

I think I have finally come to the point where I can say nothing I did could correct the intermittent choppy audio with CarPlay on mine and my wife’s iPhones.

The only thing that works is using wired CarPlay. I hate to have to do this but I think I may convert to using that.

And yes I have all of the CSP’s related to this applied and there are not module updates on my system that would fix this. Kind of frustrating.

 

[chl]

I think I have finally come to the point where I can say nothing I did could correct the intermittent choppy audio with CarPlay on mine and my wife’s iPhones.

The only thing that works is using wired CarPlay. I hate to have to do this but I think I may convert to using that.

And yes I have all of the CSP’s related to this applied and there are not module updates on my system that would fix this. Kind of frustrating.

BlueToot streaming music in vehicles seems to be a common complaint among all brands.

Over the years, somewhere, sometime, I just lost patience with software glitches and if there is a work around, I use that rather than waste time and energy on fixing or trying to get somebody else to fix glitchy software.

So far, the Ford fixes for this known issue have been less than a complete success from what I read here anyway.

If you have an older iPhone with an audio jack, you could use an FM transmitter to play it through the FM radio, but there would be at least one wire in that case anyway. If the USB connection works, use it.

The Lightning USB didn't work with my cherished iPod or Zune to stream music - apparently something changed in the SYNC programming that took away that capability - I guess the software geniuses decided nobody uses iPods anymore? Groan.

So I gave up early on trying to get the Lightning to stream music through the BlueToot, and decided, phone/tablet will not be used for streaming music with Carplay/Android auto.

It's either a thumb drive or SSD formatted in xFAT containing the music from my collection through the USB, or my old Roady XM through an FM transmitter to the FM radio. XM radio wasn't built-in on my 2023 Pro and I don't want yet another XM subscription anyway - I got the Roady and FM transmitter back when I drove a 2001 Ford Ranger - worked fine.

Save yourself some frustration and use a wire - less prone to interference and more reliable than wireless BlueToot.

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