Anybody Having Trouble Connecting their Apple Products?

[RonDawg]

Within the last few weeks (not sure as the car has had little use since new) I've noticed that I am not able to get my iPhone 6S to connect to the stereo via USB. At first I thought it had something to do with the latest iOS update, but the latest iPod Nano (which has not had a recent OS update) also does not work. This is via the MMI cable with the 30 pin plug, using an Apple 30 pin to Lightning adapter that I already had (my car never came with the Lightning version of this cable). This setup used to work.

I still have my 1st gen iPod Touch (30 pin connector) whose OS has not been updated by Apple in years, and today it worked for about 90 minutes. I parked the car for about 90 minutes with the iPod plugged in, but when I returned the car would no longer recognize the iPod. Unplugging and replugging doesn't work.

Anybody seen this issue?

 

[kenward]

My iPhone 5 connects up every time via Bluetooth.

However connecting my iPod is troublesome, typically every time I start my 2015 eGolf SEL. Initially even though the media cable was connected to my iPod Classic, the media center would not acknowledge the iPod presence. It had to go to the service department for the media center to get "keyed" to recognize iPods. Perhaps this is your issue.

At some point I recall reading a restriction on which model of iPod was supported and which generation. I've looked this morning and can't find that info.

Typically when I start the car, it claims only to recognize the iPhone. If I unplug the iPod and reconnect it, it always connects. In any case, it forgets where it was last playing and assumes I want to play all the songs, in alphabetic order.

Trying to find a particular artist or album while driving is an accident waiting to happen. Scrolling through either list is awful. The scrolling just isn't made to deal with looking for my collection of "Offspring" albums. I recommend that you create some playlists, which minimizes the searching.

 

[kenward]

Found it: 2015 e-Golf Quick-Start Guide, iPod Adapter (optional), page 23. "First, your iPod music player must be Generation Four or newer in order to play music through your audio system."

My iPod Classic is Gen 5.

Hope this helps.

 

[RonDawg]

Thanks. I'll just have to put up with it in the meantime until I can get it to a dealer. I can't understand why if I need a 4th gen iPod that it still recognized my 1st gen iPod Touch for a while but later that same day refused to do so. It also won't connect either my iPhone 6S via Bluetooth for audio (but seems to do so for phone).

 

[miimura]

My 2015 e-Golf LE had a bad MDI interface box when it was new. It was replaced under warranty. Here were the symptoms I reported to the dealer at the time:

The MDI cable can only charge our iPhone 4, it never shows up as an iPod device for media playback through the cable. Bluetooth audio is working. Only the 30pin cable was provided. A Lightning cable was not provided with the vehicle.

My iPhone 6 had the same behavior with the Apple 30-pin to Lightning adapter. It was just easier for me to leave the iPhone 4 with them for service since it did not have active phone service. I also had it registered with CarNet so they could use it on WiFi to troubleshoot the CarNet issues I was having at the same time.

VW Customer Service sent me a Lightning MDI cable directly from a Michigan warehouse. The dealer would not acknowledge that they had any responsibility for that.

All of this was handled in mid-May 2015.

 

[RonDawg]

Interesting development: just for the heck of it, I turned the iPod Touch completely off and connected it to the MMI cable. Doing so caused the iPod to automatically boot up again, but most importantly the stereo once again recognized it.

I also noticed that my iPhone 6S (which I rebooted yesterday but for a different reason) can now play its songs through the stereo via both Bluetooth and the MMI cable/ Lightning adapter combo.

So rebooting the device might be the answer to the connectivity problem. I'll try it next with the iPod Nano to see if that works.