How can I fix Wi-Fi and CarPlay issues on iPhone 17 Pro Max?

I was having problems with my ProMax 17 and CarPlay which was disconnecting every few minutes with a wired connection (only option) on 2020 Jeep Cherokee. Tried a different cable, no help. Updated to iOS 26.0.1 still no help. Tried using the car’s other USB port and that seems to have fixed the problem. Just drove for an hour and it didn’t disconnect at all. I guess the primary USB port is failing. We also have a 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee. Drove for 2-1/2 hours and it worked perfectly with both a wired and a wireless connection. Hope this helps those of you with a wired connection.

Oddly enough as of 10/6/2025, the iPhone 17 Pro Max isn’t listed as being compatible with CarPlay, according to https://www.appie.compos/carplay

FYI I’m also having the same issue with my iPhone 17 Pro Max.

Only working solution I’ve found so far is to leave my Apple Watch SE at home

[Edited by Moderator]

Quick update:

There is no point. Ordered iPhone 17 replacement. CarPlay continues to freeze, disconnect and connect every 15-45 seconds on the replacement unit as well. Mine is an aftermarket portable head unit. Guess the issue is with old head units in wireless mode. Read in some Audi maintenance bulletin that the CarPlay uses 5 GHz band. My phone sometimes does not even detect my home WiFi’s 5 GHz signal. All other phones in my home including iPhone 13 and SE 1st gen are working perfectly fine.

This was a my big…really BIG MISTAKE to switch to iPhone this year. My vehicle does not have an inbuilt CarPlay unit nor any option for wired connection. So all those wireless USB dongles are useless for me. Only a new head unit is an option it seems or does Apple expects us to change our vehicles every time a new iPhone gets launched? Sad!

I purchased a wired to wireless adapter CPLAY2air when I purchased my car 5 years ago. When I also upgraded my iPhone a week ago to 17 Pro Max, CarPlay would drop out every few minutes. I ordered an Ottocast wireless car adapter a couple of days ago (I don't think the brand matters so much as it is more recent) and CarPlay is now fine. I guess that doesn't help vehicles with an in-built wireless facility given vehicle manufacturers are hopelessly slow at updating this sort of thing.

I've spoken with Carlinkit support and they released a software update for their newer units on 9/25/25 to address the connection drops with iPhone 17 series devices. Unfortunately, they will not be supporting legacy carlinkit devices so I had to purchase one of the new ones.

Mine was a U2W that they dropped support for and they didn't supply a list of which models would be supported.

However, you can check your unit to see if it has the available update by connecting to it in the car, connecting to it's wifi network on your phone and opening the webpage 192.168.50.2

That's the web portal for the carlinkit. Then go to the settings page and check for updates. You're looking for one from 9/25 or newer.

Me again,

Reminder, this is the second iPhone 17 Pro I've had (I bought it before 26.0.1 and thought oh cool they fixed the issues I was having with Wi-Fi so I repurchased). I have a 2023 Toyota RAV4 w/ wireless Carplay.

I spent ~1hr on Sunday with Apple support, downloaded the three profiles and even while they were installed had the CarPlay unit crash, I'm thinking best case scenario! I also sent over a video of them showing connecting to CarPlay from a fresh state. At that point I think the "Senior Analyst" was to submit my case while I confirmed the issue was also (or not) occurring in my other vehicle and an "Engineer" would report back to me.

Today is Friday, I chat with support this morning honestly to resolve "Hey Siri" just blatantly not working and was hoping they'd pull logs to figure out what is goofed up, they just wanted me to reboot my phone and I refused because if it started working again I was thinking, well what happens when it happens again?

Ultimately the "Hey Siri" issue went no where I actually don't know if it's still and issue as I'm actively restoring my old phone.

I think just inquire about the previous case and the chat agent wants to connect me to someone over the phon eto help with that issue so I do.

GET THIS.... THE (engineering) TICKET FROM SUNDAY WAS NEVER SUBMITTED....

So,

I work with that "Senior Analyst" (hi Noah) to get most of the information to submit again blow another hour of him babbling off instructions I've already done (nicely) but he gets to a point where we has the old logs but CANT USE THE OLD LOGS to submit....

Community,

I give up, it's three issues and three strikes for me, I even tried to help Apple figure out the issue, I'll be back on me iPhone 16 Pro for now. I think there's something goofy with the new networking stack going.

Same issue. Hyundai Tucson 2019 with wireless carplay (carlinkit) keep disconnecting from bluetooth on both new phones. iPhone 17 pro max and iPhone 17 pro. On previous models 16 pro max and 15 pro everything was fine. Its definitely not vpn issue because im not using any vpn.

George Peden wrote:

There is definitely something broken with iPhone 17 and ios26 and WiFi. No amount of weaseling and gaslighting will deflect this issue.

No one is weaseling or gaslighting anyone. I have no doubt "SOME" people are truly having issues. But not "ALL" people are. I don't have any issues at all with Wifi or CarPlay on two iPhones (17 Pro and 17 Pro Max) on two different cars. No one I know personally, who is on iOS 26 is having an issue and I know a LOT of people on iOS 26 on various model iPhone's including iOS 17 Pro models. People seem to get their panties in a knot when someone says they're not having the same issue. Why can't you accept that not everyone is having the same problem?

And throughout this thread, regular members of this forum like me have suggested things which could help, like get rid of a VPN if one is on their phone. Or remove the previous phone from the car infotainment system, then try to make a secure connection. Or make sure the phone has a new name from the name of the previous phone. We've also posted the feedback link to provide feedback to Apple directly. But I guess that's weaseling or gaslighting to you.......

same with me. I have a '23 G Wagon and took it to Mercedes yesterday. It works for a bit and then disappears or says unable to connect. Mercedes said it's an apple software glitch, as older iPhones are having no problem and my service rep has had several calls from clients complaining about the same thing once they get the new phone. it's so weird as it worked fine for a week and then suddenly just started doing this. I haven't changed anything. it actually started up fine yesterday morning and then cut off half way to work and wouldn't function the entire rest of the day.

I use it wired on my '23 mercedes and it still doesn't work. Mercedes says it's an apple issue. I think it's the new update, as then plugged in a 16 pro and it doesn't connect either. I have the new '17 pro

iOS 26.1 just came out this morning.

I wondered if it fixed the CarPlay issues with older devices....

And...

Looks like nothing has changed on the older Wireless Devices (Carlinkit) and also the Native Wireless CarPlay in my car.

Went out for a drive and it still kept disconnecting every 2 to 5 minutes.

However when using the new Ottocast Minicube 3.0 (2025 model), it was solid and worked great.

Looks like this is 100% a hardware compatibility issue with older wireless CarPlay devices, or isn't such a big priority for Apple to fix via software...

Same issue. I tried all the fixes in this forum in the 4 different cars that I‘m using regularly without success. Also I turned the screen status to „Always On“ which seemed to help, until the connection dropped again. Meanwhile I‘m on my third 17 Pro Max with the 1st and the 3rd being worse than the 2nd. On the 2nd phone I noticed random, intermittent Bluetooth disconnects which I experienced as well when using AirPods. Since there is still no software fix I strongly believe that this is either a hardware quality issue, a design flaw, or both. I have not seen any 17 Pro user that didn’t have any problems, but I‘ve seen iPhone 14 Pro users that upgraded to iOS 26.1 without any CarPlay issues.

Just adding another post saying I have the same issue. I’m also seeing Bluetooth issues with 8bitdo controllers. The only fix I’ve found for CarPlay is restarting the phone before I start the car. Seems the new wireless chip still has some bugs to be ironed out.

I have a JoyeAuto system which uses the older carplay kit adapter. I spoke to a JoyeAuto distributor and they released a firmware update for the system which completely solved this issue for me. Not one single drop since the firmware upgrade. So it IS solvable. See if your manufacturer has a firmware update.