Roon ARC CarPlay Still Not Working [Tracking Thread NowClosed; Newer Reports in Separate Threads]

@Support,

Roon ARC is still not working with CarPlay after the latest iOS App updates today.

One of the early versions of ARC worked briefly with CarPlay, but it keeps getting “Poor Connectivity” error message. The newer updates made it worse. The Album cover arts are missing and unable to play any track at all. The other iOS CarPlay streaming Apps (Tidal, SiriusXM) are working fine, so it’s not a connectivity or networking issue.

I’m running iOS 16.3.1 on iPhone 14 PRO, CarPlay on a 2019 Porsche 911 GTS.

Core Machine (Operating system/System info/Roon build number)
Roon Nucleus+, Serial #54B203946A54104F, 4TB SSD
Roon OS 1.0 (254), Server 2.0 (build 1223) early access

Network Details (Including networking gear model/manufacturer and if on WiFi/Ethernet)
All devices are on the same network.
Netgear Cable Modem (Cox Gigablast up to 1Gb/s)
Apple Airport Time Capsule (latest FW)
Peakedge SE26 24 port GigE Switch
Netgear 16 port GigE Switch
Linksys 4 port GigE Switch

Audio Devices (Specify what device you’re using and its connection type - USB/HDMI/etc.)
Endpoints
Devialet D250 PRO v.13.1
Meridian: 218 (3u), MS600, Control 15 (2u)
AppleTV 4K (2u)
Airport Express (2u)
iMac 5K

Other Devices
Meridian Core on QNAP
Crestron Pro2 Controller
Crestron CNX-PAD8 (Audio Matrix Switch)
Crestron MT-MC2W Controller

Not sure if this will help but, the only way I got rid of the “poor connectivity” error was to reset the app after the last update. It is in “settings” at the bottom of the page in red text for me on my android phone.
It also took a few minutes for the album art to show the first time.

Having the same issue. I cannot even play offline content, and end up switching to Apple Music.

I had to use Apple Music today. Roon ARC is too much a PIA.

Confirming that I am having the same issue with Roon ARC in CarPlay. I can play music, but the album art will not load consistently. Other services (Qobuz/Tidal) work just fine.

Same issue here yesterday. I had to reset the app (all downloaded music gone, again) and to restart the core remotely.

Having the same issue, I can’t play content from ROON Arc on CarPlay and album art doesn’t load. No errors shown. Have reset Roon Arc app. IOS 16.3.1 and ROON Arc 1.0.33 Build 150. Tidal and Apple Music work correctly on CarPlay. ROON Arc is working via 4g network on the iPhone, but not via Carplay. Used to work on previous build.

Try restarting the core. And then, make sure you close down the ARC app. Sometimes, mine still freezes when I reconnect to the car via USB. Close the app and reopening it fixes the issue.

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My current solution to (my daily) problems with Arc and CarPlay:

  • Arc does not load the start page in CarPlay, no pictures and music does not start.
  • I start the app on the iPhone briefly before driving and close it again.
  • then Arc can also be used in CarPlay.

Strange thing, but that’s the only way it works for me at the moment.

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I finally managed to get ARC working through router jiu-jitsu after the last update, but I am still having issues with CarPlay. ARC works on my iPhone, complete with album art, recent album info, etc. But when I plug the phone into my car and trigger CarPlay, it no longer displays any album art. The on-screen controls in my car also are very spotty. Sometimes they work, sometimes not. If I open the app on my phone while connected with CarPlay, I can select albums, play music, etc. through my car, but the dashboard screen on my car still does not display album art (unlike on my phone).

@Support,

I’ve tried using Roon ARC on a different car. ARC works fine on the 2023 BMW X5 which has the latest wireless Apple CarPlay.

However, I still couldn’t get it to work on my 2019 Porsche 911, which has the older version USB Apple CarPlay. It has no album artwork and couldn’t play any tracks as before.

I’ve been driving both cars in the same area. The ARC App works fine on the phone not using CarPlay. Clearly it’s not a connectivity issue. I’m wondering if ARC has backward compatibility issues with older versions or builds of the Apple CarPlay.

So far I’ve not heard any feedback from Roon Support.

Blockquote"So far I’ve not heard any feedback from Roon Support."

Me neither, my problem exists in a 2022 Audi so not sure it’s about car age although it could be about the CarPlay version I guess but we need some more info from @Support

Make sure, your mobile phone does not connect to your in-car Wi-Fi access-point (in case you have one), as many car-manufacturer limit/throttle the bandwidth for their in-car hotspots. Typically, CarPlay should just use bluetooth. There are some models (I know for instance Mini, they use a side of bluetooth Wi-Fi in ad-hoc mode in a invisible way allowing them to stream files from the handset to the in-car entertainment system via Wi-Fi). The connectivity behaviour might differ from model and OS release.
My-2-cents

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Very interesting! My car (BMW 320e Touring) seems to use Bluetooth and “hidden” WiFi as well. Will check that, thanks.

another source of problem might be dash-cams, as many of them allowing you to download/stream videos and pictures via Wi-Fi. Once your mobile phone is connected to its Wi-Fi, it remembers the settings and re-connects every time to this access-point when you enter the car. However, your dash-cam might not provide internet capabilities to your mobile-phone. But Wi-Fi has in most of the cases a higher priority than cellular. There are features available to bypass poor Wi-Fi links, but its implementation varies from handset manufacturer and the device OS

@Stefan_Mauron Thanks for the suggestions…just tried with WiFi off completely on phone and still same problem. Also switched Bluetooth off and just connected phone via cable to USB-C port, same problem. I only use ARC in offline mode with my library of downloads in car btw.

Thanks for reporting @Michael-W and sorry about these issues you’ve been experiencing. Out of curiosity, had you ever visited the album info pages of the downloaded content before downloading?

For all others, does this issue exist for you? Specifically no images loading for downloaded albums when you’re using Carplay wired in offline mode within ARC.

There’s a known bug we’ve been tracking related to images not being stored properly when a user is in offline mode for Carplay. Perhaps solving that might resolve many of these issues.

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Hi,
My Roon Arc car play some times won’t work either.
I have noticed that it may help to close it and then start Roon Arc on the iPhone FIRST and then connect the car play

I’m simply echoing here the same issue as all the other.
Arc is pretty much unsable with carplay while all the others (tidal, apple music, spotify) work very well without any issue both streaming or downloaded content…it’s clear that it needs more improvement.

@michael I think you may have hit on something wrt visiting the album info pages. For a test I just did the following…

  1. Created a new playlist from my desktop computer to the Roon core called CarPlay2
  2. Added 13 tracks to the CarPlay2 playlist
  3. Loaded ARC on my phone (connected to Core via WiFi) and navigated to the CarPlay2 playlist
  4. I played each of the 13 tracks in ARC whilst still connected to the Core i.e online
  5. I downloaded the CarPlay2 playlist to my phone
  6. Switched ARC to offline mode and closed ARC
  7. Went to car and connected to CarPlay and selected Roon ARC
  8. Navigated to the CarPlay2 playlist and all tracks played with correct artwork and I could move back and forwards no problem!!
  9. The original CarPlay1 playlist still either doesn’t display artwork at all or does not progress the artwork to next track (i.e. freezes) when connected in car. I can’t be sure if I ever visited the album artwork for that playlist before downloading the tracks, it was some time ago.

NB…the CarPlay1 playlist shows all artwork correctly when playing on iPhone in offline mode but not when connected with CarPlay

Thoughts?