iPhone 17 users still struggling with wired CarPlay issues month after launch

A month has passed since the iPhone 17 hit the shelves, and many owners are still dealing with frustrating glitches when trying to connect their devices to wired CarPlay systems in their cars. Reports keep popping up across online forums, painting a picture of a persistent problem that Apple hasn’t fully addressed yet.

The biggest pile of complaints is showing up across Apple’s own Discussion forums and various threads on Reddit. New iPhone 17 and 17 Pro Max owners running iOS 26 are reporting a host of connection problems, from the screen blurring and pixelating to complete crashes after just a few minutes of use. One user on an Apple Discussions thread noted that their partner’s iPhone 17 with iOS 26.0.1 “won’t sync up Car Play correctly” in their 2018 Mercedes GLC, with “phone calls and messages displays… messed up too.”

Another Mercedes owner in a separate discussion described the display as “all pixelated and distorted” and “unusable,” especially when using navigation.

Check out these screenshots of complaints on the thread where users have even shared images:

The issue seems to be a frustrating mix of the new iPhone 17 hardware and the current iOS 26 software build. The evidence pointing to this is strong: multiple users confirmed their older devices — including iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models — work perfectly fine even when running the exact same iOS 26 version.

While Mercedes-Benz models like the GLC, A-Class, and C-Class feature heavily in the complaints, the bug isn’t exclusive. Users driving Ford Fusions and F-150s, as well as Vauxhall/Opel Astras, are also logging in to Reddit to describe their music stopping, the system freezing, and constant disconnects.

Folks have been scrambling to fix the issue themselves, throwing money at new cables — even official Apple-compatible ones like the Beats USB-A to USB-C cord — resetting their phones, and deleting all their car’s settings, only to have the problem persist.

The frustration is compounded by the typical finger-pointing. One user on an Apple Discussions thread mentioned that their log analysis sent to Apple came back with a response saying it was a “Mercedes problem not an Apple problem,” regarding the pixelated bug. However, another Reddit commenter who spoke with a senior Apple advisor claimed the company confirmed the disconnection issue was a “known bug on the 17 series with iOS 26” and promised a fix in a “future software update.”

Since there’s no official statement, it’s best to take this information with a grain of salt.

Current chatter suggests that the “future software update” that is supposed to fix the problem won’t arrive with iOS 26.1. That said, since the build is still in its beta stage, it’s possible that Apple might patch the bug before it sends it out to the stable channel.

So for now, it’s just a waiting game to see when Apple rolls out a patch to make its latest flagships function properly when using CarPlay, which had several other problems that we highlighted earlier.

Featured image credit: u/vanillamondo113113 / Reddit