If you drive a lot, one of the best ways to make your driving experience more pleasant is to create a playlist of your favorite songs and add it to your library. If you’re an iPhone user, Apple CarPlay is the right app to use. You can connect your iOS device to your car’s built-in display and control everything with Siri’s help.
Unfortunately, many users complained Apple CarPlay doesn’t always display their entire music library and playlists. If you’re experiencing similar issues, use the troubleshooting tips below to solve the problem.
Why Won’t Apple CarPlay Show All Music?
CarPlay Truncates Playlists for Safety Reasons
As Apple explains, depending on your system and manufacturer settings, Now Playing may only display a limited number of CarPlay options, tracks, albums, and playlists while you’re driving. For example, 2018 Chrystler Pacifica displays only recently played tracks until you stop the car. On the other hand, 2017 Honda Civic easily displays all of your tracks. Older Mazda 3 models usually load only the first 10 playlists.
Certain cars may cause CarPlay to truncate lists of content when the vehicle is in motion or has exceeded a certain speed. Consider displaying a curated set of essential information and options when this mode becomes active.
As you can see, this a safety feature meant to prevent you from looking at the screen way too often while driving. It’s not an issue with CarPlay or the apps you’re running on your iPhone. After all, you should be keeping your eyes on the road and hands on the wheel. If you stop the car, you should get more options on the screen.
However, many users don’t quite agree with this approach saying they’re forced to pick up the phone and manually select the playlists or songs they want to play.
If the options or tracks you’re looking for are not visible on the list, you can tap More options at the bottom of the screen. Do that only when it’s safe. Check if you notice any improvements.
Add a Track Outside Your Playlists
Check if all of your songs are stored inside playlists. If this is the case, add a single song to your library but keep it outside your playlists. CarPlay should quickly detect the new track, as well as all your other playlists.
Check For Updates
Check if there’s a newer iOS version available for your device. Install it, restart your iPhone and check if the issue persists. On the other hand, if this CarPlay music problem started occurring soon after updating iOS, check if there are any pending car stereo updates as well. Make sure Siri is on and restart your car.
Set Up CarPlay Again
Removing your current CarPlay connection may help you fix the problem. Navigate to Settings, select General, and tap CarPlay. Select Forget this car and restart your iPhone. Then follow the same steps again to set up a new CarPlay connection.
Check Your Cable and Ports
While less likely to cause music library issues, a faulty cable or USB port might trigger various glitches. If your car is equipped with multiple USB ports, switch to a different port and check if you notice any improvements. Additionally, use a different lightning-to-USB cable. Use a certified cable to make sure the connection is stable.
Conclusion
Apple CarPlay may sometimes truncate your lists of songs when the car is in motion for safety reasons. How much the list of content is truncated depends on your car manufacturer’s settings. But if you think CarPlay is not working properly, set up the CarPlay connection again and add a new track outside your playlists.
We hope these solutions helped you troubleshoot your CarPlay music issues. Enjoy your drive!
This is a very simple fix… more simple than you think. All you have to do is connect your phone BEFORE touching your gear select lever (so leave it in park) this will sync with your phone completely. Then open car play and let the system load your playlists. You will see if you touch “playlist” then touch “your playlist” the “loading” screen will keep loading until all of your songs load. This took my Silverado 10 seconds to do.
This is a very simple fix… more simple than you think. All you have to do is connect your phone BEFORE touching your gear select lever (so leave it in park) this will sync with your phone completely. Then open car play and let the system load your playlists. You will see if you touch “playlist” then touch “your playlist” the “loading” screen will keep loading until all of your songs load. This took my Silverado 10 seconds to do.