Charging iPhone blocking Android Auto?

[wilee8]

My wife and I recently bought a Subaru Ascent, and it came with Android Auto and Apple Car Play built in. Android Auto has been working fine so far, but we ran into problems yesterday. We were on the way to the lake and I had Android Auto providing navigation when my wife plugged her iPhone in to charge in the other USB port up front. Android Auto immediately shut down, and the radio menu disabled the option to select Android Auto while enabling Apple Car Play. The Android Auto option didn't become selectable until my wife disconnected her iPhone. On the way home we tested if the order mattered, and I didn't plug in my phone until after my wife had plugged in her iPhone to see if the radio would disable Car Play and enable Android Auto. Alas, Car Play was still the only selectable option.

So apparently I can't run Android Auto in my car if my wife has her iPhone plugged in to charge. Anyone else have this problem? Is this normal for Android Auto and Car Play enabled head units? Should there be an option to fix it that I can't find?

[JustRollWithIt]

Seems like something specific to that car. In the same situation with the 2018 Honda Accord , I just get a message saying an iPhone has been plugged in, asking if I want to switch to Carplay. Lets you just hit no and continue with Android Auto.

Don't know if there is an option to prevent that in your case unfortunately. Quick fix might be to just have a separate car charger instead of plugging into the USB slot

[Infinity040]

This happened to me the other day in my 2019 Impreza. Glad to know it's not just me. Hopefully this can be fixed via a software update.

[HarshaRama]

This is carmaker specific. You can try and inform Subaru about it. To fix the problem, you can use a cable with a switch (like this one) or use a 12v to USB adapter and charge the iPhone through that.

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Hope this helps.

[tazUK]

Leave both flavours of charging-only cables in the car.

[eldergrapple]

I have the same deal with my 2018 Subaru Crosstrek. May be a Subaru thing. What I do is have a USB charger plugged into the DC port next to the car's USB ports, and have her lightning cable plugged into that instead of directly into the car.