Since downloading IOS 26 I have noticed that sound on car play is distorted in the car speakers. Radio is fine, Bluetooth connection sounds fine too. It's just with car play. Everything sounds fine through the phone and earbuds. Car dealer said it's an Apple issue. I have turned on and off, and re-connected the phone to the car a couple times.
[Re-Titled by Moderator]
Original Title: Car play sound issues ios 26
iPhone 11, iOS 26
Update as at 15:15 GMT Thu 30th October 2025
Following upgrading my iPhone 11 Pro Max to iOS26.0.1, three apps that play recordings or streaming have a problem when delivering output over CarPlay. The gain is far too high and the sound is distorted. The affected apps are:
Podcasts; Audible; Libby
The Music app is unaffected.
Switching on the camera (see other comments in this thread) removes both the excess gain and the distortion in both apps. I haven't yet found any other app that has this effect.
@AllesandroBG (27 Oct 2025) suggested disabling the "sound check" setting in the Music app. For me, switching the setting off (or back on) has no effect on the output in the affected apps, nor in the Music app.
I read earlier this week elsewhere that iOS26.1 RC (Release Candidate) has now been released. It’s now also thought that iOS26.0.2 (which was known to be being tested) has been scrapped.
I haven’t seen anything in sites discussing iOS26.0.2 and/or iOS26.1 explicitly mentioning this CarPlay issue.
Update as at 15:15 GMT Thu 30th October 2025
Following upgrading my iPhone 11 Pro Max to iOS26.0.1, three apps that play recordings or streaming have a problem when delivering output over CarPlay. The gain is far too high and the sound is distorted. The affected apps are:
Podcasts; Audible; Libby
The Music app is unaffected.
Switching on the camera (see other comments in this thread) removes both the excess gain and the distortion in both apps. I haven't yet found any other app that has this effect.
@AllesandroBG (27 Oct 2025) suggested disabling the "sound check" setting in the Music app. For me, switching the setting off (or back on) has no effect on the output in the affected apps, nor in the Music app.
I read earlier this week elsewhere that iOS26.1 RC (Release Candidate) has now been released. It’s now also thought that iOS26.0.2 (which was known to be being tested) has been scrapped.
I haven’t seen anything in sites discussing iOS26.0.2 and/or iOS26.1 explicitly mentioning this CarPlay issue.
As of updating to ios 26.1 this issue if fixed for me on iPhone 11
For me, disabling the "sound check" setting in the Music app, or switching it back on, has no effect on the gain or distortion in either of my affected apps ― Audible and Libby. It's still present, so I'm pinning my hopes on Apple to fix this bug, ideally in iOS26.0.2 and failing that in iOS26.1 🤞🤞
Switching on the camera (see other comments in this thread) removes both the excess gain and the distortion in both apps. I haven't yet found any other app that has this effect.
In the Music app itself, the gain and distortion problem is absent for both music and spoken word recordings, I'm pleased to say ✔️
Also, the "sound check" setting seems to have no effect.
(UK user, iPhone 11 Pro Max, iOS 26.0.1)
Hello,
disabling “sound check”
in Music app fixed the issue.
iphone 15
syork ~ Your iPhone 11 could be 6 years old and the long process of applying a major iOS upgrade to an iPhone with a weak, aging battery can be the proverbial "straw that broke the camel's back." So...
Does your iPhone 11 still have its original battery?
And what's the Maximum Capacity % here?...
Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging
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UPDATE — turning on the camera worked for me too
Kagooga wrote: "...iPhone 11 Pro Max, everything is original..."
The original battery of your iPhone 11 Pro Max could be 6 years old — and a weak, aging battery can cause a variety of 'unexpected behavior'. So what's the Maximum Capacity % here?...
Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging
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JohnH108 wrote: "I have the same issue with the same iPhone. The Maximum Capacity of mine is 79%"
John ~ 79% is not healthy and the level at which Apple suggests having the battery replaced. That weak, aging battery may or may not be the reason for your issue, so it's up to you:
About genuine iPhone batteries
(Articles found by searching Apple's Knowledge Base.)
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This has been happening to me since the very first iOS 26 release. I was using a 13 mini at the time with (believe it or not) 100% battery health. The big difference for me is that putting the sound check on actually mitigates this somewhat, but I don’t like using sound check because of what it does to the dynamics of entire albums. I have a spare SE3 running iOS 18 and it does not have this issue. I have also since upgraded my 13 mini to the iPhone Air and it too is loud and distorted. This happens over CarPlay and also straight out of the phone speaker, but does not seem to affect other streaming services
I have the same problem. iPhone 11 Pro Max, everything is original. Everything worked fine with CarPlay until I updated to iOS 26. Since then, I’ve had very poor sound (distortion) when listening to podcasts, but it works fine when I play music, listen to the radio, or use Bluetooth. The strange thing is that the sound works fine when I turn on the camera on the phone. This seems to be an update issue from Apple that they need to fix immediately!
This issue has affected iphone 11 after the iOS 26 update as well. The distortion occurs while using Audible or Libby apps, in both my Mazda and Subaru, regardless of using bluetooth or hardwiring. Turning on the camera is an annoying fix that creates a safety hazard while driving, and is startling when it times out because of the volume surge.
Apple - will you please look into a correction?
I have the same issue with my iPhone 11 Pro Max, and the distortion happens with any audio I try to play through CarPlay via a cable. The gain is also huge. My car volume scale is 1 to 30ish. Usually I have it in the range 20-25, but now I have to reduce it to 6-9!
I also have an iPhone 7, which does not display the problem — though it's running iOS 15.8.4 and not iOS 26, of course!
I'll have to try the camera trick...
I just tried the opening the camera and the sound is perfectly fine with the camera app active.
Of course then the phone lock itself the sound is garbage again.
Wow, that is interesting. Turning on the camera does work, but it has to be showing on the screen, not just in the background, so definitely not a solution, but weird. If there are more people with this problem, yes, Apple needs to respond.
Here the same thing but on iPhone 15.
Audio through CarPlay sound like a sort of “pumping” compression is applied. Audio via Bluetooth is fine.
Distorted sound on CarPlay after iOS 26 update on my iPhone 11
