I've had this problem on and off for at least a week now, but it's getting worse. On my last trip there was no way around this and I had to unplug my phone.

2021 Honda Accord Sport. iPhone 7 Plus, running the latest IOS 15.1.

Last trip I just returned from, when I had my phone plugged into USB, most of the time, both Spotify and the radio were limited to a volume setting of 11. Turning the dial further didn't do anything. In the past, restarting the car and/or phone would eventually solve the issue, but not tonight. The behavior isn't always consistent though. For example, at the beginning of the trip, Spotify was limited to 11, but the radio would go as loud as I wanted, but after multiple car and iPhone restarts, the radio was also limited to 11 while the phone was plugged in. Starting the car with and without the phone connected to USB didn't help.

Also, in the last week, sometimes the car reports, "device not recognized" and loses Car Play altogether. This happened the other day and kicked me out of Waze.

Any advice other than to wait for the next IOS update and pray Apple fixes the issue?

 

it's a compatibility issue between the two softwares. If you unplug the phone from the car, wait about 15-30 seconds, then plug it back in it should work properly. if it still does the same thing, then you'll need to unplug the phone, switch the car off completely, then restart the car, wait for the audio to boot up, then plug your phone back in. My '18 ex does it occasionally. I'm a tech at a Honda dealer and I've spoken with our field tech and a couple of the engineers and because of how often the phone technology updates, it's hard for them to pinpoint the actual issue. But they are constantly working on it.

 

Ty - The only good news is that it's intermittent. Hoping the next IOS update will fix it, as prior to my last "upgrade" I didn't have this problem. I went to reportaproblem.apple.com, but the only option to report problems are with apps.

 

updating your IOS will not make the issue go away. the problem is that the audio unit doesn't update as often as our phones, so the engineers who do the audio software are usually two or three steps behind. but you can try to do an audio OTA (over the air) update. it's best to use a wifi signal fi you can get one to reach the car.

 

You're right. IOS 15.0.2 doesn't fix the issue. How do I perform an audio update for the car?

 

go to the home screen, slide over one screen to "system updates" and follow the prompts from there. choose "wifi" as update type. I would also suggest having the car running just in case it takes a while or the battery may go dead and brick the audio unit.
it may tell you the system is up to date. if it does, then there is nothing left to do. I've done a few updates on her car and it never really "fixes" the issue. It only prolongs the times between when it does it and when it works properly. Like I said before, phones update constantly and the audio only updates occasionally. The software engineers are usually about two or three steps behind the phones. And it's not just IOS, Android Audio does the same thing from what I see from our customers

 

I never updated, but with IOS 15.5, the problem is 99% resolved. Infrequently (don't remember the circumstances, probably when switching between apps) the volume drops to 11%, but after a few seconds, it always responds to the dial pad when I turn it to increase.

 

I found a remaining bug:

The Waze app has those annoying notifications, like, "car stopped in 0.5 miles." If I tap on "still there," the volume drops to 11 for a few seconds, but if I tap, "no," the volume remains where it is.

 

100% with these iphones, when in carplay mode if the sound is effected, its the app using the audio or microphone engaging so the volume turns down. Glad to hear you found the problem.

 

the WAZE app has long since been a "bug in the system" since their software isn't as optimized as others. with that being said, my wife and I use our waze app almost exclusively. The problem with the volume isn't as much of an issue here lately, which is a relief. But as a tech, I am constantly checking for new OTA updates. Sometimes, like alot of customers, those updates are there, but most people rarely ever even know about them. If you set your system to do the updates automatically, then it will stay updated without having to constantly check.