Do you run Syn 4 or Apple CarPlay?

[YzermanTopShelf]

I used car play once, on the way back from the dealer. Ford purposely did a poor integration with it so we use sync 4. I find that it’s much better than car play. Especially the audio quality while using Bluetooth is much better.

You really notice a difference in the sound when using Bluetooth vs CarPlay? Might explain why I find the unleashed system so underwhelming. I’ll have to try straight bluetooth. Thanks!

Sponsored

 

[jcaspar]

Thanks for sharing this. I had that CarPlay icon showing for a month and then one day, its just gone. I can't figure it out. I'll keep trying!

I think I figured it out. Go to settings and select Phone List

Then select your phone. You can then click on Connect to Car Play. Button will then show up. Still have not figured out how to delete a phone.

 

[BMWtoF150]

I think I figured it out. Go to settings and select Phone List

Then select your phone. You can then click on Connect to Car Play. Button will then show up. Still have not figured out how to delete a phone.

Use the trash can ICON at the top right.

 

[jcaspar]

Use the trash can ICON at the top right.

Thanks. Please don't tell my wife I didn't see that. You will just confirm her belief that I can't find things that are sitting right in front of me!

 

[Bryan Simon]

Thanks. Please don't tell my wife I didn't see that. You will just confirm her belief that I can't find things that are sitting right in front of me!

Dude, you are not alone.

 

[Bryan Simon]

Okay,
Can someone explain the differences in Sync4 & CarPlay?
When I first picked the truck up, I connected the tablet via USB.
Some time later, I BTd the phone.
Tinkered with a bunch of crap looking for CarPlay on the tablets before realizing it is just not available on the iPads.
Bunch more tinkering, and I managed to get it turned on on my phone (iPhone X) and now have CarPlay working in the truck, with occasional gremlins with the music after a phone alert.
I have realized the tablet will connect automatically if I don’t carry my phone with me.
(iPad mini always in vehicle and plugged into charging port, so it connects via BT to play music, but nothing else functions.). Phone overrides tablet when in the truck.

Have no idea what the Sync4 does or is capable of.

 

[YzermanTopShelf]

Okay,
Can someone explain the differences in Sync4 & CarPlay?
When I first picked the truck up, I connected the tablet via USB.
Some time later, I BTd the phone.
Tinkered with a bunch of crap looking for CarPlay on the tablets before realizing it is just not available on the iPads.
Bunch more tinkering, and I managed to get it turned on on my phone (iPhone X) and now have CarPlay working in the truck, with occasional gremlins with the music after a phone alert.
I have realized the tablet will connect automatically if I don’t carry my phone with me.
(iPad mini always in vehicle and plugged into charging port, so it connects via BT to play music, but nothing else functions.). Phone overrides tablet when in the truck.

Have no idea what the Sync4 does or is capable of.

Sync4 is the name for all the software that comes with the truck. You can think of it as Ford’s own operating system, like Microsoft has Windows. Sync4 includes things like the Navigation app, controls for configuring the truck and support for audio (AM/FM, Sirius, and any device that can play music over bluetooth). If you want, you can connect you iphone or ipad via bluetooth to the Sync4 system and then play music.

Your other option is CarPlay. You can think of CarPlay as an app that comes with Sync4 and allows you to do more with you iphone. With CarPlay you can access many of apps that are on you iphone (Maps, Messages, Waze, Podcasts, etc). CarPlay is software produced by Apple and designed to make your car experience more like your iphone.
Unless this recently changed, CarPlay only works with iPhones, not iPads. Hope this explanation helps!

 

[jcaspar]

It seems to me Sync 4 and CarPlay can be used together other than if you are streaming music directly from your phone. Here you have to choose between CarPlay and Sync. I prefer the Sync Nav and use it but keep CarPlay on for text messages. For music I use Sync for Sirius, playing from my USB drive and radio. If I want to play from my phone I switch to CarPlay.

 

[Lugusthedog]

It seems to me Sync 4 and CarPlay can be used together other than if you are streaming music directly from your phone. Here you have to choose between CarPlay and Sync. I prefer the Sync Nav and use it but keep CarPlay on for text messages. For music I use Sync for Sirius, playing from my USB drive and radio. If I want to play from my phone I switch to CarPlay.

I do this as well. Have been using Synch for NAV and sirius for radio, news listening, switch music to car play if I want my library/stations from Amazon music.

 

[DannyboyUpstate]

Possible that this question has been asked before; is there a way to completely disable the Sync 4 navigation? I just want to use the Car Play Google Maps and Waze.

 

[wmuav8tor]

Just picked up my truck today. Dealer helped me set up carplay. When I was almost home I decided to call my parents to tell them to come out and look at my new truck.

I pressed the voice button on the steering wheel and the Siri icon popped up on the screen in the truck but when I said "call mom" it did nothing. Just acted like it was still waiting for me to say something. I ended up just manually going to my contacts and selecting my mom and calling her that way.

Just now I got in the truck and was playing with it. I found if I disable Apple Carplay and connect via Bluetooth that it will respond to my voice commands instantly.

Is there a setting I'm missing or is this a bug? I've tried already deleting my phone and re-adding it to apple carplay with no change.

 

[wayfarer556]

I've spent some time on these issues and I'm convinced that all the issues that we're having with Carplay is purely with how wireless carplay is handled.

All my issues went away when I disabled wireless Carplay entirely, and just used it wired only.
-Can use Wifi Hotspot again
-All music stuttering issues went away
-Sudden loss of audio and weird Carplay connectivity issues (it sees my phone but won't work with it) went away
-Audio quality issues went away

I'm convinced that the wireless router built into the truck just simply does not have the bandwidth or the proper firmware to handle that much wireless traffic at once, probably because Ford cheaped out on it. It probably has a hard time handling sudden connection drops, which can explain the weird connectivity issues that require a hard restart.

Long story short, stick to wired, and the problems go away. Wireless is cool but as far as I'm concerned it's still basically a tech demo.

 

[YzermanTopShelf]

I've spent some time on these issues and I'm convinced that all the issues that we're having with Carplay is purely with how wireless carplay is handled.

All my issues went away when I disabled wireless Carplay entirely, and just used it wired only.
-Can use Wifi Hotspot again
-All music stuttering issues went away
-Sudden loss of audio and weird Carplay connectivity issues (it sees my phone but won't work with it) went away
-Audio quality issues went away

I'm convinced that the wireless router built into the truck just simply does not have the bandwidth or the proper firmware to handle that much wireless traffic at once, probably because Ford cheaped out on it. It probably has a hard time handling sudden connection drops, which can explain the weird connectivity issues that require a hard restart.

Long story short, stick to wired, and the problems go away. Wireless is cool but as far as I'm concerned it's still basically a tech demo.

You might want to take your truck in. I use wireless carplay all the time and haven’t had nearly as many issues. Maybe twice the truck didn’t pick up the phone and I had to restart. Otherwise it was been seamless and worked well.

 

[wayfarer556]

You might want to take your truck in. I use wireless carplay all the time and haven’t had nearly as many issues. Maybe twice the truck didn’t pick up the phone and I had to restart. Otherwise it was been seamless and worked well.

I'm not so confident.
For one, the truck uses a dedicated wifi hotspot for Carplay activity...you can't have wireless carplay on and also connect the same device to the truck wifi at the same time. That's not a bug, that's just by design.

Two, wireless Carplay worked for me about 95% of the time...but that 5% is damn annoying.

Not sure about music stuttering is fixable. Again, works 95% of the time. But when it shows up in a 3 hour drive, it's annoying.

And I doubt a Ford Dealer can help with audio quality. It's like the difference between a 128kbps MP3 and a 320kbps MP3 file. I'm almost certain that the wireless Carplay has bitrate compression or limitation for the audio quality that wired does not.

 

[YzermanTopShelf]

I'm not so confident.
For one, the truck uses a dedicated wifi hotspot for Carplay activity...you can't have wireless carplay on and also connect the same device to the truck wifi at the same time. That's not a bug, that's just by design.

Two, wireless Carplay worked for me about 95% of the time...but that 5% is damn annoying.

Not sure about music stuttering is fixable. Again, works 95% of the time. But when it shows up in a 3 hour drive, it's annoying.

And I doubt a Ford Dealer can help with audio quality. It's like the difference between a 128kbps MP3 and a 320kbps MP3 file. I'm almost certain that the wireless Carplay has bitrate compression or limitation for the audio quality that wired does not.

That’s cool. My suggestion was because I‘m not having any of the issues you list - wifi hotspot works while using CarPlay, music has never stuttered and never had a sudden loss of audio. When I first got the truck, I was curious to see if sound quality was different when wired vs wireless. Tried both and couldn’t notice is a difference. Sorry your’s is acting up.

Sponsored