2021 Tahoe/Suburban wireless Apple CarPlay microstuttering

[WHOLE_MILK]

Hey all, I'm in Chevy sales and am hoping that this issue somehow gets more traction in such a way that GM finds out that it's an issue.

Our 2021 Tahoes, Suburbans, and Trailblazers all have wireless Apple CarPlay as a feature standard, which is great in theory, however it is quite a mess in practice. I'm wondering if others have the same issue. I've connected a couple of my coworkers' various iPhones of different vintages (11, XS, 8+) and none will play nicely with the wireless CarPlay system, yet all work perfectly fine with a Lightning cable. All are on recent versions of iOS, and I'm certain my phone is kept up to date with the latest iOS 14 updates. This was an issue on iOS 13 for me as well.

Basically, if you try to stream music or play music locally from your phone, the song you're playing will stutter every few seconds. Maybe 10-30 seconds will go between the song having a little skip in playback. Connecting to the OnStar WiFi system doesn't seem to fix the issue and our dealership's wireless access doesn't reach outside the building, so I can't test with a stronger connection to see if that solves the issue. Obviously this is an issue if connected to LTE. Spotify and the local iTunes library both have this issue, all on multiple devices, even with entirely different models of cars, so this leads me to believe this is something with the GM head unit, the wireless broadcast in the car... who knows.

Anybody else struggling with this issue?

 

[AllenC]

I'm so glad I found this! I have test driven two 2021 Denalis and have experienced exactly the same thing. I thought it was something perhaps wrong with that specific vehicle but when I when I test drove a different one at a different dealership tonight, and the exact same thing happened. When I asked the salesman about it, he said he had not hear anyone complain about it. It is really quite annoying and disappointing. I was only trying to play songs that were actually on my phone - not streaming, not using the internet at all. I have CarPlay in my car but it is wired and I have had NO issues whatsoever. What's the whole point with the wireless charger if you have to leave it tethered in order to listen to uninterrupted music???? I noticed that you only posted this a week ago but I see you have not received any responses. I was planning on ordering one tomorrow but this has got me a little concerned if the new head unit is buggy.

 

[AllenC]

Upon a little more online research, I was able to find two suggestions that you might want to try. I'm anxious to see if either will work for you. One person simply did a HARD reset of their iPhone and it resolved the issue. Another person claims it has something to do with the whole Voice over LTE. He said once he disabled that option, the problem resolved itself. I would appreciate it if you could let me know if you ever manage to resolve this issue.

 

[WHOLE_MILK]

Upon a little more online research, I was able to find two suggestions that you might want to try. I'm anxious to see if either will work for you. One person simply did a HARD reset of their iPhone and it resolved the issue. Another person claims it has something to do with the whole Voice over LTE. He said once he disabled that option, the problem resolved itself. I would appreciate it if you could let me know if you ever manage to resolve this issue.

I unfortunately can’t test as of late as I’ve been recovering at home from surgery, but I will try this when I’m back at work again. As for resetting, I’m assuming this means a factory reset of the phone? I’d rather avoid this, especially as it seems to be an issue on multiple different iPhones, so I’m inclined to believe that isn’t the solution, but I’m unsure. Thanks for the reply.

 

[AllenC]

No... just a hard reset which is when you push the volume up, volume down, and then press and hold the side button.

 

[WHOLE_MILK]

No... just a hard reset which is when you push the volume up, volume down, and then press and hold the side button.

Ah, well the dealership gig is a side job while I finish up my IT background so I can get out of here, so the usual suspects like that have been attempted! I should have mentioned I tried that, so my apologies.

I will say that the voice over LTE thing seems probable. I am going to do some light duty stuff at work tomorrow and will try to test out wireless CarPlay with this disabled if I get a chance. Looks like I've got a date with some Tahoes/Burbs/and a Trailblazer tomorrow, so that should work out alright for us.

 

[AllenC]

Thanks! I will be curious if that makes a difference.

 

[WHOLE_MILK]

I turned off VoLTE and nothing changed. 2021 Suburban Premier was my example today. Found some settings in the myChevrolet WiFi options such as DNS and low power mode options and manually setting DNS did nothing and low power mode, both on or off, did nothing. Still searching for an answer, I suppose!

 

[AllenC]

Well that is discouraging... Is GM aware of the issue? Every dealership that I went do and test drove one told me that had never heard of ApplePlay skipping.

 

[Doubeleive]

my first guess is it might be some other program running in the background, I would try stopping whatever is running in the background and just have music playing, wireless carplay and android auto are both a work in progress they iron out the bugs little by little. If it is a gm software bug you might not see a fix for a while the os on the 2021's is a all new android based system.
https://www.theverge.com/2019/9/5/20851021/general-motors-android-auto-google-infotainment