[hmbmd]

I have now owned my G05 X5 for 6 weeks. I traded from a 2016 F15. Car drives great. Car looks great. There have been several issues which I will detail in different posts.

This post will compare Apple Car Play vs native iDrive. I have the latest 256GB iPhone XS.

Apple Car Play connects to the BMW via wifi and periodically the connection will drop for 5 to 10 seconds. When this happens, the music stops and then returns in those 5 to 10 seconds. While this is annoying, it is not a very big problem. What is a problem however, if I am on a telephone call, the call will completely drop. It does not just transfer back to the phone and then back to the car again. I just lose the call. This is unacceptable. With Apple Car Play, all track names are transferred appropriately and quickly to the car. No information is lost.

When I listen to music with iDrive, I have the choice of a hard wired connection vs. bluetooth. The hard wired connection is stable and does not drop out. When I connect either way, it takes about 2-3 minutes for my playlists to be recognized by the car. Not all tracks are transferred from the playlists. It seems that Apple created playlists are less likely to be transferred. What is curious however is that the title of the song will appear on the tachometer or home page on the middle display despite the fact there is not title on the playlist itself. If the bluetooth drops while on a phone call, the call will be temporarily transferred to the phone and then back to the car when the connection resumes. I should note that the drop out rate for phone calls is much less often than with Apple Car Play.

With apple car play, you lose access to contacts for navigation. The work around is to select a contact in Apple Car Play phone app and then select the address which will open Apple Maps. From there there is a choice to transfer this to BMW navigation. You lose contact relationships but that is no big deal. Surprisingly, contact photographs do not appear on calls with Apple Car Play but do appear on calls with iDrive. With iDrive you do not have Waze, Google Maps, Apple Maps, podcasts, Spotify, MLB and other iPhone apps.

I don't use the wireless charger for longer than 15 minutes because the phone gets too hot and shuts down. It also activates NFC and one has to swipe up to get to home page or else you cannot use Siri.

For the last few days I am continuing to use Apple Car Play and charge the phone with USB C cable in middle storage compartment. The drop outs and random and I cannot figure out what causes them. The phone call drop out happened twice in 6 weeks. If that continues, I will go back to iDrive despite the issues with the tracks not showing up. My F15 using iDrive OS 5 never had issues with playlist tracks and the X3 loner I had recently with iDrive OS 6 also had no problems with playlist tracks.

Of note, when I called BMW Genius the other day, they told me they don't think the issue will be resolved because Apple wants people to use Apple Car Play. (Free for 1st year and then $80 per year after that) Hopefully the connectivity issue will be resolved.

[lumpydog]

Nice write up and consistent with what I've seen - bugs and all.

I'd add that inbound texts are handled differently between iDrive and CarPlay. Both have their pros and cons. Apple's management of texts is pretty involved and kludgy. iDrive seems to take a less interactive approach, which I like better.

I've been trying both iDrive and CarPlay, hoping that iDrive will work as a long term solution. I think the fact that BMW is charging for Apple CarPlay is (pardon the language) a fucking ripoff. I may not have a choice - but I'd love to see BMW develop iDrive to manage content/media better.

Neither are flawless at this point - not by a long shot - Apple's implementation isn't worth $80 a year.

[misterburns]

How is it Jeep Cherokee’s and the like can handle CarPlay seemlessly and BMW can’t figure out how to get out of their own way.

Very annoying.

[2019x5User]

Originally Posted by misterburns

How is it Jeep Cherokee’s and the like can handle CarPlay seemlessly and BMW can’t figure out how to get out if their own way.

Very annoying.

BMW not mastering software field yet

[hmbmd]

Well that's it for Apple Car Play for now. Dropped another phone call today and it cut out 6 times in one hour. Will have to live with some tracks not appearing in the play list.

[MatchboxM1]

Originally Posted by hmbmd

Well that's it for Apple Car Play for now. Dropped another phone call today and it cut out 6 times in one hour. Will have to live with some tracks not appearing in the play list.

Fascinating this post came up today - I was planning on posting (and still may) regarding the benefits of Apple and Carplay verus an Adroid phone and bluetooth useage.

For the past 16 months, I've had a Google Pixel 2 XL that I had no real issues with. I've had a 2019 40i now for only a week and still have some setup and playing around to do, but in general, the music connectivity is far superior than my 2017 Discovery (with the latest, worthless android auto and carplay update - AA simply won't connect with my phone in the Rover).

I primarily stream my personal music collection from Google Play and pCloud. I haven't tried the latter yet, but as I enter the car, I have been creating a Google Play que of albums. Immediate recognition by the X5.

- No artwork comes across, but at least BMW does not use Gracenotes, so no annoying generic genre images appear when there's not a proper match.

- Full que appears in the iDrive and heads up display. You can scroll and select.

- Track and album labels come across exactly as they are labeled in my Google Play library (with ironically loads from my iMac iTunes library). I have a unique labeling system for albums [Record label, Catalog Number, year of Release] appending each album title in brackets.

- Track length generally appears

- Track running time seems to appear for only the first tracks of a cue. After that, running times stays at 0'00 and the meter tracking stays static. Not a big deal, but I would think a simple fix (same as displaying embedded artwork)

- There have been a few second or two drops, but that's going to be common with Google Play streaming of albums that have not been cached in memory on first play

- Coordination with phone calls has been seamless. Take a call, music mutes. Call ends, music resumes.

- in one instance I had to restart my phone. I finished a trail run with blutooth headphones paired with my phone. When I entered the car, the car wouldn't recognize my phone. I've only had this happen once under the same circumstances.

So now I'm wondering if people have issues with Carplay, is there really advantage to having an iPhone with the 2019 X5? And if so, what are they?

Can text messages be displayed with the iDrive using Adroid? If so, I haven't figured it out, though I do have that setting box checked. do they appear with iDrive using IOS?

I just reset/simplified my Direct Drive password and hopefully can log in now on the car. Not sure what that will change, if anything other then creating my driver profile. Hopefully there's more individual connectivity I will gain.

I currently have no issues with the Direct Drive app using my Pixel. My car's location, fuel/door status. all appear and I can flash lights, lock/unlock, etc.)

This morning I also downloaded the various Apps from the privacy update. I still don't see an icon for Carplay, but the weather and news widgets all work fine.

Interested in the iPhone XS max and the improved (over Android) facial recognition, but need to research that I can still use Google Play apps (namely Music and Photos) - both key apps I use daily. Not interested in Apple Music streaming know that Apple will alter my custom library if there happens to be a "match" of that album or track in their database. Much of my music will never be available on streaming services. I digitize each LP and cassette I own.

I also often use the fingerprint recognition for many business apps, but it seems those apps also work with the facial recognition which I think would be great for activities on the mountain or trail when your hands are wet or in gloves. I use both windows and IOS daily, and appreciate Android, but not necessarily married to any one OS.

Curious any thoughts!

Thanks!

[RowanBuds]

Can anyone confirm that wired carplay is functional still in a G05 equipped with wireless carplay?

[TurtleBoy]

Originally Posted by RowanBuds

Can anyone confirm that wired carplay is functional still in a G05 equipped with wireless carplay?

CarPlay is not available with a wired connection, only wireless.

[midwestbmwguy]

Originally Posted by TurtleBoy

CarPlay is not available with a wired connection, only wireless.

I originally had two phones working but not need to remove and reprogram my car. Its frustrating me.

iPhone 8 and a iphone XS max

[nosnoop]

I have been using CarPlay and have not experienced the problems or dropped connection described by OP.

Maybe a software update would solve most of the problems.

[da445]

I just picked up my new G05 last week and CarPlay is a maddening mess. I've experienced the dropouts that have been described above, but now CarPlay has disappeared entirely from the system. When I go to the Com menu, it still shows that my phone is connected via CarPlay but there is absolutely no way to call up CarPlay as it doesn't appear in any menus nor at the top of the iDrive homescreen.

[Braehead]

Originally Posted by da445

I just picked up my new G05 last week and CarPlay is a maddening mess. I've experienced the dropouts that have been described above, but now CarPlay has disappeared entirely from the system. When I go to the Com menu, it still shows that my phone is connected via CarPlay but there is absolutely no way to call up CarPlay as it doesn't appear in any menus nor at the top of the iDrive homescreen.

CarPlay was horrific in my M2 and constantly dropped my phone. I believe it was a car WiFi issue though.

[omaralt]

for those that are using idrive for texts; does the car show you who the text is from? i see the text in idrive but shows contact as unknown...

[LexxM3]

Originally Posted by omaralt

for those that are using idrive for texts; does the car show you who the text is from? i see the text in idrive but shows contact as unknown...

No, no one has ever reported seeing anything other than Unknown for text message senders to date. BMW wanted to add a little spice to your life by allowing, only for example, a fun mixup between your mistress and your wife.

[omaralt]

Originally Posted by LexxM3

No, no one has ever reported seeing anything other than Unknown for text message senders to date. BMW wanted to add a little spice to your life by allowing, only for example, a fun mixup between your mistress and your wife.