How to stop CarPlay from auto-blasting whatever I had been playing last

November 21, 2022 10:05 AM

Whenever I plug my iPhone into my MiL's car inevitably whatever I was last playing will start playing AT VOLUME automatically. I need this to stop, but how?

My MiL's car is a 2019 Honda CRV in case that matters.

In case it isn't clear from above, let's say I was listening to a song on my iPhone and I stop it. The next time I am in my MiL's car and plug my iPhone into the USB in her car the last song I was playing will start playing via CarPlay and (apparently) at the volume I was listening to it on my iPhone.

I have checked the CarPlay settings on my phone and there doesn't appear to be any options other than to allow or disallow CarPlay to work when the phone is locked. I tested this and the same thing happens only I have to unlock my phone to stop it from happening.

posted by terrapin to Technology (8 answers total)

Is there not overriding physical volume control in the car to turn down?
posted by k3ninho at 11:43 AM on November 21, 2022

Are you positive your MIL's car is CarPlay enabled? Or are you just seeing the Music screen on the iPhone? There's a nuance here that makes a difference.
posted by JoeZydeco at 1:15 PM on November 21, 2022

Response by poster: k3ninho: volume button doesn’t work until something is playing so that won’t be possible. And it appears that CarPlay overrides the volume to whatever my phone was set at. I have tried turning down the volume when I leave the vehicle and then starting the vehicle and the volume is at whatever I have my phone at even after turning the car’s volume down.

Extra level of challenge: I always have the audio toggle set to off on my phone. And I always try to have the volume at 0 or as low as possible as I hate my phone making any noises or alert sounds.

JoeZydeco: yes, I am quite sure I know the difference.
posted by terrapin at 1:34 PM on November 21, 2022

Create an automation when connecting to CarPlay. You can search for volume in the actions step to preset a reasonable volume and maybe pick a harmless playlist to shuffle?
posted by advicepig at 2:19 PM on November 21, 2022 [4 favorites]

Response by poster: advicepig: Might be a good experiment to use John Cage's 4′33″. Set a playlist with only that song on it. Then I have 4 mins and 33 seconds to choose something else to play.

I created this iOS Shortcut. Will see how it works. Not my ideal solution, but better than being blasted.
posted by terrapin at 7:05 AM on November 22, 2022

Response by poster: The hack did not work. Next time I plugged the phone in it started playing my Apple Music library starting with “A” by Barenaked Ladies.
posted by terrapin at 2:53 PM on December 3, 2022

Odd, when you setup the automation, does it work properly when you hit the play button on the bottom?
posted by advicepig at 1:32 PM on December 5, 2022

Response by poster: Thanks for the nudge, advicepig. I checked my shortcut and fixed a step. It was simply playing, but now it is set to only play the playlist that contains the John Cage piece. Again, suboptimal, but a functional hack. I still blame Honda and not Apple for this.
posted by terrapin at 12:01 PM on December 22, 2022 [1 favorite]