CarPlay allows iPhone users to integrate their phone functionality with their car’s infotainment system, allowing users to navigate, make calls, send messages, and play music safely and easily through the car’s display and controls.
Unfortunately, it can happen that CarPlay does not connect to the mobile network. You cannot use the functions because there is no active internet connection. The cause of this is in most cases the network settings of the car.
CarPlay uses mobile data
CarPlay uses your iPhone’s cellular network connection to make various online services accessible in your car. For example, when you use navigation apps such as Apple Maps or Google Maps, CarPlay retrieves real-time traffic information and maps using your phone’s cellular data. This is also the case for all other apps such as streaming music and other audio.
CarPlay is just an extension of your iPhone and is in theory nothing more than forwarding the iPhone screen to the display in the car. Of course, the display is optimized, but all information is generated on your iPhone. That is why only the mobile data of your iPhone is used.
No internet connection with CarPlay
If you have no internet when using CarPlay, in most cases you should look for the cause in your iPhone. Therefore, first check whether your iPhone is connected to the mobile network. Visit a website and use apps and check whether they are loaded. If this is the case, the mobile internet is working. If this is not the case, you can try the following solutions:
- Force restart your iPhone.
- Open Settings ▸ Mobile Network ▸ Mobile Data, turn it off and then back on.
- Check if data roaming is enabled abroad via Settings ▸ Mobile data.
- Restore network settings of your iPhone
Cause car system settings
If the above solutions do not help, the cause may also lie with the vehicle. For example, some cars have their own network system that can affect your iPhone. For example, the car may use the iPhone as a hotspot, causing the network connection to drop.
Check the car’s system settings and disable options such as Wi-Fi or eSIM when using CarPlay. Because this varies per car brand, it is difficult to make a step-by-step plan for this.
It can also help to connect your iPhone to your car via Bluetooth instead of the cable. This prevents personal hotspot on the iPhone from being activated automatically. Can’t connect CarPlay via Bluetooth? Then you can buy smart adapters that make this possible, an example is Carlinkit 5.0.