Issues connecting CarPlay and iPhone

Recently, my iPhone 13 Pro (iOS 18.1) stopped activating Apple CarPlay on my 2018 Ford F150 with Sync3. It has been working since I bought the car back in 2022. The existing cable powers the iPhone, but no CarPlay. I tried another cable, as well as the 2nd USB port, but same issue. I also tried reading a USB drive with music on it and this DID work, but still no CarPlay.

A while back, I tried updating the Sync 3, but it wouldn’t work. I only have a Mac. It seems to not be able to recognize the USB. I tried again with another new USB drive, but though the drive appears (the unit reads/scans it), it does not do anything. I later downloaded files from Ford website, nothing again.

The car system does recognize my iPhone is Bluetooth mode and indicates it is “indexing” it; but doesn’t work.

I use CarPlay mainly for music and Waze since my APIM does not have navigation.


SYNC Region: NA

Navigation Variant: Non Nav

Manufacturer Year: Pre MY20

Install Type: OEM

Old SYNC Version: 3.017276

New SYNC Version: 3.017276

Do you have a error message, if so what is it?
Since I tried updating, I now continuously get a message indicating that the update was incomplete but will continue when the USB is reinserted and though I have done this; it still shows the message. Doing a master reset, doesnt really reset anything and I still see “phones” from the original owner… as well my kids and my own.

Update Method: CyanLabs Manual Method

When you downloaded the files from ford you made sure to extract them right? after you grab the latest from the ford site do a master reset and see if that fixes some of the connectivity issues because I know they put out a 3.0 update last year

EDIT: also after the update and master reset delete the bluetooth and carplay info from your phones settings menu because big unit updates can cause communication issues

Just to clarify, extract the ZIP but not the TAR.GZ

yes extract the zip and leave the TAR as is

Sounds like a bad USB media hub.
Does it misbehave on both ports?

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