iPhone in iPod Mode in Car Switches to Different audio App Intermittently

Question

After plugging the phone into the car, and playing a podcast or music from an app, a few minutes later, the music stops playing. Sometimes it just stops playing. Other times, it switches to a song in the Music.app that had not previously been played, queued, etc.

Orginal car had a Kenwood head unit with a USB port. Now the car is a BMW 328i with the stock system -- also hooked up via the iPhone's lightning port to the car's USB.

I've had this problem in two cars now, and it's only when playing via the iPhone 6 via the lightning to USB. When playing podcasts/music via Bluetooth, this never pops up as an issue, but I want it plugged in so that it charges, plus I get track info and album art on the car's screen via USB.

It's an intermittent problem, but seems to happen most often at the beginning of the day for the commute into work or on the way home.

I typically listen to podcasts in the car and it happens with both the native Apple Podcasts app, as well as Overcast. I've also had it when playing Pandora and even the Apple music app.

It's been happening quite awhile (over the course of owning two cars). Phone is currently running iOS 9.3.5, but has happened over the course of the last 2-3 major iOS upgrades.

I have tried multiple lightning cables, and as stated before, it's happened in multiple vehicles.

Any ideas to make it stop pausing/stopping/switching to a seemingly random song without having to resort to Bluetooth?

Answer 1

My knee-jerk reaction is to say: This sounds to me like a possible problem with the cable or the Lightning port on the phone. It's as if the phone is getting some kind of remote control command via the cable. I've seen similar skipping behavior with a bad Apple earbud cord.

That being said, I have an iPhone 6s and a new Nissan NVP 3500 that I too connect to the car via USB. If I'm not playing anything at the moment, it will start playing the first thing alphabetically in my library. If I'm playing something already, or if the two were connected via Bluetooth before I connect the cable, it will continue as if nothing was wrong.

On a quirky note, sometimes the stereo and the phone will haggle for a bit, then the phone will play the audio through its own speaker and the car will give up trying to access the phone in iPod Out mode. In that case, I have to reboot the phone altogether to get it to play nicely with the car. I chalk that up to running the iOS 10 betas.