Q7 Apple Car Play no longer working

[Rob Hogan]

Hi all. The Apple Car play in my wife's 2016 Q7 has stopped working with either my or my wife's iPhones - when up until a few weeks ago they both worked well in the Q7. They both works perfectly with ACP in my A3 Cab' using the same cable. I no longer see the "Audi Smartphone" menu option in the main MMI menu of the Q7, so suspect I/we have accidentally switched something off thus the Q7 isn't recognising the CarPlay. Any ideas anyone?

[Igloo]

Mine is broken too. Been meaning to take it into audi to get it looked at.

I don’t have another car to test car play on so wasn’t sure it wasn’t just me!

Let me know if you get it fixed

[wardienet]

Not sure if it the same problem but quite often (let’s say 1/3 of the time) my Q7 won’t connect to ACP on iPhone 8. The Audi Smartphone menu item is always there it just doesn’t change to CarPlay. To fix it I have to go into connection manager, scroll to bottom and manually tick my phone on the list of available devices for Audi Smartphone. Odd. But I’ve never seen the menu disappear. That sounds like a licensing issue with ACP... Originally my car didn’t have it installed but my dealer added it for me when I bought it approved used. It was just a DVD-like box from Audi HQ with some licence codes in it the techs installed at the dealership and after a software download, voila!


Q7 3.0 TDi ABT Power 325bhp MY16 S-Line Tech/Tour/Trailer packs, orca black, 21 inch 9.5J rims, rotor grey leather, sunroof, BOSE, ambient lighting, reversing cam, drivers memory seat. Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra ceramic coating. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk.

[andyhud007]

I doubt that AA or ACP have been "removed" from your unit, it would be as wardienet has stated and go into Connection Manager and re-tick your phone under connection manager.

Without any phone connected do you see "Audi Smartphone Interface" in the menu items at all? (the one that changes to "CarPlay" when you plug your phone in)?

Also try a 3 finger reboot your MMI unit (Hold NAV and RADIO up and press centre dial) and this will cause the MMI to reboot. It may re-appear after that.

Let us know. There is one more thing we can use to validate your install if that doesnt work

Cheers

Andy

[Igloo]

Just to add,

Going into the menu and reselecting my phone with it plugged in worked and car play works again.

[Rob Hogan]

Thanks Andy. I tried the "3-finger reboot" but no change. I no longer see the "Audi Smartphone Interface" in the main circular and rotating menu - with or without the phone connected to the USB. Interesting, I contacted Audi Nottingham (where the car was purchased). They are telling me that the "16" plate Q7s didn't come with ACP. I am even starting to doubt myself now!!!

[andyhud007]

Hey Rob.

Correct. Early 16 plate models didn't come shipped from factory with car play and android auto however some of them were eligible for the enablement of it with the booklet that was mentioned in this thread. It's cost £250 to buy and then your dealer would enable it.

If you take a pic of your USB ports in your centre console its a way to tell if your car had it or not. Can you post a pic of them?

I'd be very surprised if you magically have forgotten that you never had it. Its quite obvious if you did!

Andy

[wardienet]

Hey Rob.

Correct. Early 16 plate models didn't come shipped from factory with car play and android auto however some of them were eligible for the enablement of it with the booklet that was mentioned in this thread. It's cost £250 to buy and then your dealer would enable it.

If you take a pic of your USB ports in your centre console its a way to tell if your car had it or not. Can you post a pic of them?

I'd be very surprised if you magically have forgotten that you never had it. Its quite obvious if you did!

Andy

Yeah I was luck with mine, it was in the VIN range to enable it afterwards. Reason I mentioned the license was just thinking it may be something strange related to the expiry of the original 3 years Audi connect data etc? That range of cars didn’t come with embedded SIM so I have to put my own with but it came with 3 years of Audi connectivity if you did. I had to get mine manually renewed recently (for free) - not sure if ACP worked OK during that period when it expired, can’t remember. Rob is that the case with your car i.e. has it just stopped working as car is 3 years old?


Q7 3.0 TDi ABT Power 325bhp MY16 S-Line Tech/Tour/Trailer packs, orca black, 21 inch 9.5J rims, rotor grey leather, sunroof, BOSE, ambient lighting, reversing cam, drivers memory seat. Gtechniq Crystal Serum Ultra ceramic coating. Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk.

[Rob Hogan]

Hey Rob.

Correct. Early 16 plate models didn't come shipped from factory with car play and android auto however some of them were eligible for the enablement of it with the booklet that was mentioned in this thread. It's cost £250 to buy and then your dealer would enable it.

If you take a pic of your USB ports in your centre console its a way to tell if your car had it or not. Can you post a pic of them?

I'd be very surprised if you magically have forgotten that you never had it. Its quite obvious if you did!

Andy

Thanks Andy. I have taken a photo of the centre console USB ports (which, incidentally, are the identical to those in my 2019 A3 Cab') as follows:
xgRTdBmURDiKOXqVRNzG7g.jpg

Sorry it is upside down. Thoughts?

Also - thanks Wardienet - for you post as follows "Yeah I was luck with mine, it was in the VIN range to enable it afterwards. Reason I mentioned the license was just thinking it may be something strange related to the expiry of the original 3 years Audi connect data etc? That range of cars didn’t come with embedded SIM so I have to put my own with but it came with 3 years of Audi connectivity if you did. I had to get mine manually renewed recently (for free) - not sure if ACP worked OK during that period when it expired, can’t remember. Rob is that the case with your car i.e. has it just stopped working as car is 3 years old?"

That sounds a possibility as the Q7 was first registered in April 2016 and, as you say, the Audi Connect would have expired in April of this year. This would coincide with the time when ACP worked and then hasn't since. So your suspicion might be so.

Thanks.

[andyhud007]

Thanks Andy. I have taken a photo of the centre console USB ports (which, incidentally, are the identical to those in my 2019 A3 Cab') as follows:
xgRTdBmURDiKOXqVRNzG7g.jpg

Sorry it is upside down. Thoughts?

Also - thanks Wardienet - for you post as follows "Yeah I was luck with mine, it was in the VIN range to enable it afterwards. Reason I mentioned the license was just thinking it may be something strange related to the expiry of the original 3 years Audi connect data etc? That range of cars didn’t come with embedded SIM so I have to put my own with but it came with 3 years of Audi connectivity if you did. I had to get mine manually renewed recently (for free) - not sure if ACP worked OK during that period when it expired, can’t remember. Rob is that the case with your car i.e. has it just stopped working as car is 3 years old?"

That sounds a possibility as the Q7 was first registered in April 2016 and, as you say, the Audi Connect would have expired in April of this year. This would coincide with the time when ACP worked and then hasn't since. So your suspicion might be so.

Thanks.

Thanks Rob

Ok, you definitely have the right USB ports for Car Play and AA. Thats a good sign

Regarding Audi Connect expiring etc, I guess its a possibility but my car was registered in March 2016 and when my Audi Connect expired (after 3 years) my Car Play and AA still worked fine. But I guess anything is a possibility.

For reference just ring up Audi Customer Service and say your Audi Connect has expired - they will extend it for another 12 months for free (as they havent figured out how to charge people for it yet). So do that, and it auto updates on your MMI after about 2 days. Something for nothing.

Regarding ACP - It would be great if you could check if your MMI unit is still licensed for car play. To do this you need to load up a special menu on your MMI unit

1. Wait for your MMI to load and wait a few minutes so you know its "settled down"
2. Hold up the NAV/MAP/TEL Button and hold down on the Radio/Media for about 5 seconds at the same time. If you have done it right you'll get a Red Engineering menu appear (Don't worry your just checking info, you can't do any damage)
3. Scroll to System (or Settings - I can't recall) and find Application Keys. Should look similar to the screenshot below.

20170206_225555.jpg

4. Look for the numbers:

• 00060900
• 00060800

5. These are the 2 licenses for Car Play and Android Auto. If you see both of these, then your unit is definitely activated for Car Play and Android Auto. If you dont see these 2 numbers, then its not
6. When your finished, do that 3 finger salute to reboot your MMI

Be great to confirm that

Ta

Andy