VR28.13 + iOS 26.2 b3 CarPlay connectivity issues (UPDATE: SOLVED)

[JonoNZ]

I had my car updated to VR28.13 the week before last and everything worked fine, in including CarPlay connectivity. All of a sudden yesterday my Macan would not connect to CarPlay. I'm trying to work out if this is a weird 26.2 b3 issue, a VR28.13 issue, or maybe a combination of both.

I've tried removing my phone and adding it back into the PCM with restarts and device removal in-between all of those steps but had no luck.

Has anyone else experienced this?

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[PrudentOcean]

It's likely due to the CarPlay changes in iOS 26.2 b3.

 

[JonoNZ]

I had CarPlay problems a short time after I got my car last February. Deleting and re-adding the phone didn't help. The fix (which has worked flawlessly since then) was to delete the driver profile and re-create it.

You can use the same name when creating the new profile, but you will lose all your customizations, so before you go that route I would try rebooting the PCM -- simply hold down the volume control dial until the infotainment system screen blanks.

I had similar issues upon delivery and followed that process back then, but not had issues since.

What gets me is was working flawlessly, no known changes, and now it refuses to connect!

 

[ExVolt]

I had my car updated to VR28.13 the week before last and everything worked fine, in including CarPlay connectivity. All of a sudden yesterday my Macan would not connect to CarPlay. I'm trying to work out if this is a weird 26.2 b3 issue, a VR28.13 issue, or maybe a combination of both.

I've tried removing my phone and adding it back into the PCM with restarts and device removal in-between all of those steps but had no luck.

Has anyone else experienced this?

Same thing happened to me today. The only way I can get Carplay to work is to wire my phone and even then it works oddly (the carplay icon appears and disappears from the PCM). And yes, I've rebooted the PCM, deleted and re-added both of our phones. Very frustrating. Note, I did an upgrade on my phone last night too, I'm on IOS 18.7.2.

 

[JonoNZ]

Interesting, I should add I'm on an iPhone 17 Pro Max.

 

[ExVolt]

I'm on iPhone 16 Pro. And I should add that we had taken the car in for service and got it back a few days ago. They did install a big software update. I asked about the software version that was installed, but the service person didn't know.

 

[JonoNZ]

Update - solved (for me anyway).

Since this issue arose I did notice I had a prompt in the PCM to activate the WiFi hotspot in the car. That got me to check the settings and it turns out the previous SSID password I had set no longer met the complexity requirements of the PCM. It was 9 characters long before. I changed the SSID password on the hotspot settings and all of a sudden the hot spot started properly and CarPlay now works properly too.

It's worth noting that everything ran fine for a week after VR28.13 was installed but some event must have occurred internally that caused the PCM to restart the hotspot and then fail due to new complexity rules.

It has nothing to do with iOS 26.2 b3.

I hope this saves some of you troubleshooting if it occurs for you.

 

[joeev]

Awesome that you got it solved and thank you for posting the solution

It's worth noting that everything ran fine for a week after VR28.13 was installed but some event must have occurred internally that caused the PCM to restart the

I wonder if the Wi-Fi hotspot is part of the PCM and got an update pushed OTA after the VR28 13. That might explain why it worked for a week.

 

[ExVolt]

I tried lengthening the password and no luck. I then upgraded my phone to IOS 26. Still no luck. I then called Porsche technical support. After 2 hours of pairing, forgetting Bluetooth and re-pairing, they had me reset the pcm to factory settings. After logging back in and pairing the phone, CarPlay works like it used to before the software upgrade. Such a waste of time. Oh, and I got to redo all of my configuration.

 

[Yves]

I’m in the same boat, after the update somedays in, CarPlay stopped working wirelessly … removed add phone several times, I figured out it was a wifi-hotspot problem … I did not try the factory reset yet, seems like the only solution?

 

[pm4s]

I’ve never used the hotspot, if everyone with the issue was using the hotspot it makes sense.

 

[Yves]

I’ve never used the hotspot, if everyone with the issue was using the hotspot it makes sense.

You need the hotspot to connect to the car … I never set up … it’s by default needed when using Apple CarPlay wirelessly … you also have the option to not share the internet over the hotspot to devices, just using it for wireless CarPlay …
Initially Wireless CarPlay connects over BT, gets the SSID and PWD to connect to CarPlay over WiFi …

 

[pm4s]

You need the hotspot to connect to the car … I never set up … it’s by default needed when using Apple CarPlay wirelessly … you also have the option to not share the internet over the hotspot to devices, just using it for wireless CarPlay …
Initially Wireless CarPlay connects over BT, gets the SSID and PWD to connect to CarPlay over WiFi …

Yes never set it up and never used it, only used CarPlay which connects to BT/WiFi invisibly.
Connecting to the car’s hotspot manually and using its eSIM for the connection instead of your phone’s, or allowing other passengers to connect to the car’s WiFi would mess up CarPlay on the VWs so don’t use it in any car, I just use my phone’s data plan.
I was curious if the people who had the issue connected to the car’s WiFi.

 

[Yves]

Yes never set it up and never used it, only used CarPlay which connects to BT/WiFi invisibly.
Connecting to the car’s hotspot manually and using its eSIM for the connection instead of your phone’s, or allowing other passengers to connect to the car’s WiFi would mess up CarPlay on the VWs so don’t use it in any car, I just use my phone’s data plan.
I was curious if the people who had the issue connected to the car’s WiFi.

So you are using the Hotspot Me Too and was not aware till I hit this problem … quite annoying …

 

[sor]

FWIW my WiFi also restarted earlier this week, complete with a banner message(not a crash), and I have not had the major update. It does sound like a minor app OTA update occurred for some part of the network stack. I think I did also have to reconnect my phone but didn’t think anything of it.

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