4 Settings Ruining Your Apple CarPlay Experience

For vehicles that support it, Apple CarPlay is a great way to connect your iPhone to your infotainment system. From having easy access to maps, music, and messages, to trying out some of the most essential widgets that arrived with iOS 26, CarPlay can be a real boon for those that are constantly on the road. However, even after making a connection, there's some things about it you may want to change.

In theory, it's rather simple to get CarPlay going. If you plan on using a wired connection, just connect your iPhone to the vehicle's USB port. If it supports wireless connections, simply press and hold the voice command button on your vehicle's steering wheel, then navigate to Settings > General > CarPlay from your iPhone and select your vehicle. Having the right CarPlay accessories can be a big help as well. While this is all fine and dandy, there may still be some settings that can ruin your experience. Fortunately, most of them are easy to locate and change.

Certain iPhone settings, such as Bluetooth and Wi-Fi, may be preventing a proper connection, and there's also the possibility that Screen Time is ruining your access as well. Notifications may be distracting while you're driving, and there are a number of different ways you can adjust this. You should also know that personalizing your CarPlay dashboard can be a great way to ensure things are running smoothly for you by keeping everything where you feel it should be. Between that and adjusting the following four settings, you should be good to go.

One of the fastest ways to ruin your CarPlay experience is by having an iPhone that's not properly set up, or worse, doesn't support the feature. Considering any iPhone running at least iOS 7.1 (iPhone 5 or later releases) will support CarPlay, the odds are good that you're fine on this front. Nonetheless, check for a software update anyway, just to play it safe. From your iPhone, navigate to Settings > General > Software Update, and select Download and Install if one is available.

It's also important to remember that you need Siri enabled on your iPhone for CarPlay to function properly. On older versions of iOS, check by navigating to Settings > Siri & Search and ensure Listen for Hey Siri is enabled. On newer versions of iOS, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Settings.

2. Locate Siri or Apple Intelligence & Siri.

3. Make sure either "Siri" or "Hey Siri" is selected.

Even if you're using a wireless connection, make sure that you have cellular and/or Wi-Fi enabled on your iPhone. CarPlay needs access to cellular on your iPhone for some of its features, such as retrieving streaming music from the internet. If using a wireless connection, you need Bluetooth to be functioning. Fortunately, you can find Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and Cellular options directly at the top of the Settings app. Make sure Airplane Mode is disabled while you're there. These settings are also available directly from Control Center, which can be accessed by swiping from the top-right corner of your screen if you have Face ID, or swiping up from the Home button if you have one.

Screen Time is another setting on your iPhone that may be interfering with your CarPlay experience. Introduced within iOS 12, Screen Time is great for protecting children online through an iPhone or iPad, or it can just be good for reducing your own iPhone usage and tracking how you use certain apps. For whatever reason you use it, though, it's possible that Screen Time can interfere with CarPlay, specifically the Content & Privacy Restrictions feature. Essentially, if you use CarPlay and Screen Time, you need to make sure Screen Time allows CarPlay to function. Here's what to do.

1. From your iPhone, open Settings.

2. Scroll down and select Screen Time.

3. Select Content & Privacy Restrictions.

4. Choose Allowed Apps & Features. On the next page, if Content & Privacy Restrictions is not enabled at the top and everything is gray, Screen Time is not interfering with CarPlay.

5. If Content & Privacy Restrictions is enabled, ensure CarPlay is enabled as well.

From here, you should be good to go. Remember that even outside of CarPlay, Screen Time can have an impact on the functionality of your apps. If you frequently use Screen Time, be sure to check the Content & Privacy Restrictions every so often to ensure it's not interfering with the items you need.

Notifications on an iPhone are excellent for when you need fast access to information, but you may find them annoying or even potentially dangerous if you're driving with CarPlay. Just as there are methods for getting your iPhone notifications under control, there are also methods for disabling notifications while using CarPlay.

Fortunately, you are able to shut off notifications just for CarPlay, meaning you don't have to worry about enabling your notifications on your iPhone again when you're not using it. The downside is that you have to disable them separately from each app. To be fair, this has its own perks, as you can silence the more annoying apps while still keeping the notifications you really want. Here are the steps:

1. Open the Settings app on your iPhone.

2. Tap Notifications.

3. Look for the app in which you want to disable notifications within CarPlay and select it.

4. Under Alerts, disable Show in CarPlay.

You can repeat these steps for virtually any app that's bombarding you with notifications. Note that while using CarPlay, you can also ask Siri to disable notifications. While in your vehicle, simply say, "Hey Siri, turn off text message notifications in CarPlay," and the virtual assistant will get right to work making sure you have a peaceful drive.

While we're focusing on the issue of notifications for this one, it's worth mentioning that there is an option to enable Focus Mode automatically while you're driving. While you may know what a game-changer Focus Mode is for iPhone, what you may not know is that it works rather well with CarPlay.

For those that don't know, Focus Mode is a way to silence or limit the number of notifications or text messages you receive while driving. It can be more advantageous than simply disabling notifications for certain apps, and setting it up for CarPlay is pretty easy. Follow these steps:

1. From your vehicle's infotainment system, open CarPlay Settings. You may need to tap the Square icon to view all of your CarPlay apps.

2. Select Driving Focus, and then make sure Activate with CarPlay is enabled.

3. Driving Focus may be enabled even if you are a passenger. If you would like to disable it, tap the notification when it pops up and select I'm not driving.

While you're navigating Settings, it's important to mention that you can also disable CarPlay autosuggestions from this menu. All you need to do is look under the main Settings menu for Suggestions and ensure it is off.