CarPlay and iPhone Favorites

Question

Level 2

206 points

CarPlay and iPhone Favorites

I use CarPlay successfully on my Maxda 2025 CX-5 and my iPhone SE 26.0.1. BUT, there is one thing I don't understand. When the iPhone is connected to the car by USB cable, all contacts and Favorite contacts are successfully sucked into CarPlay. But when the iPhone is connected only by Bluetooth, only the whole contact list is. Favorites on CarPlay is empty. That's kind of inconvenient, because I have a few hundred contacts, and several Favorite contacts, and when the phone isn't connected by cable, I really don't want to scroll through those several hundred contacts to end up on a Favorite. Is this just the way CarPlay works, or am I missing something?

iPhone SE, iOS 26

Posted on Oct 27, 2025 12:46 PM

Reply

Answer 1

Top-ranking reply

Dannymac22 Author

Level 2

206 points

Oct 29, 2025 5:36 PM in response to Dannymac22

OK, I figured it out myself. The phone option on this car isn't actually CarPlay. It just uses the same screen. But while the car phone system responsibly downloads all of my Contacts from my iPhone, it does NOT download my designated Favorites from my phone. The Favorites folder on the car is entirely different than that on the iPhone. You need to select a contact in the car and command it to be entered into the car's Favorite folder. By the same token, making changes to one Favorites folder won't change the other one.

Reply