No USB audio in the car anymore

Hardware
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1

Hello all!

I have been enjoying great audio in my car by using the standard USB-A to Lightning cable (same as used for charging) for years now. Seems that this somehow is broken or changed after iOS13. Now, when plugging in, the car display reports “No music files could be found”, kinda like it expects an iPod. I have no files in Apple’s Music app, so that is correct as such.

However, earlier I would just connect, select USB as the source and could send any audio, from Overcast, Spotify, Tidal, whatever, and the audio would be processed through the car’s audio system. When plugging in the cable, the car also correctly identifies the phone model, so something is working… Just no audio, even when I play a track (the seconds are ticking by on the phone display). Bluetooth is OK for talk podcasts, but music sounds WAY better over USB in my car.

Using an iPhone 11 Pro on iOS 13.3, and had the same issue on the iPhone X on 13+ too. I’ve tried all the obvious stuff, re-starting phone, using a different cable etc.

Any ideas on where to continue the troubleshooting? Thanks!

Also - have a Happy New Year :fireworks:

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What car? We found with our Subaru that instead if we just copied the music files to a USB thumb drive it all works properly. Our oldest iPod that was the car iPod won’t connect to the car and I don’t like having a phone connected for the reasons you cite.

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Thanks @OogieM, it’s a 2017 Lexus, the last model that did not offer Apple Car Play.

However, somehow I just got it working now. I believe the trick was to play something from the Apple Music app. That seemed to reset the audio systems in the phone. Opening up Apple Music, it again offered me 3 months free. I politely declined and streamed a track from my purchase history.

And there was sound.

After that, everything came up Milhouse. So, I’m suspecting the initial run of the Music app actually does something more than offering me a subscription.

So weird…

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FM

Sometimes the F’ing Magic is how it all works. (Harken back to any sufficiently advanced technology being indistinguishable from magic. Hail to thee Arthur C. Clarke! :grin: )

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