sixfive

Broke down yesterday and bought a new iPhone 15. Today I wanted to connect it to CarPlay but a weird and lengthy message popped up as I plugged in the USB-C cable to the USB connector tucked in the cup holder. Wanted to go past it but only option was to accept it and CarPlay hasn’t been able to connect since … only option is Bluetooth and that is somewhat iffy at best. I want my full CarPlay screen back. What did I do wrong and how do I get it back the way it was with my old phone? I sure hope it’s possible ….

superswiss

Without providing the lengthy message you agreed to, we can't read minds to know what you did. For starters, though, given that the iPhone 15 has a USB-C port and I believe your model year E63S still has a USB-A connector, the first thing you need is the proper USB-A to USB-C cable that supports data and charging. The biggest problem with USB is that not every cable is the same. Some only support charging, others support data, but only slow data, others support fast data and so on. Same goes for USB-A to USB-C adapters. They may not support everything.

I haven't made the switch to a USB-C iPhone. I need to replace my iPhone XS, but I'm waiting till September when the iPhone 16 comes out. I'm in the same boat with my 2019 C63S that I will need a USB-A to USB-C cable and I found the following. Apple doesn't make one last time I checked. It's a nice short cable for the cup holder area. Ignore that the description says this cable does not fit iPhone. That's for the older lightning port iPhones. Also, this is a USB 2.0 cable, but that's all you need for CarPlay, so you can ignore the one star reviews that complain about the cable not supporting USB 3.0. This is the problem with USB cables. You have to read the specs and make sure it fits your use case.

sixfive

I got this cable and obviously it’s not the right one. I’ll try what you sent me and go from there! Wish I’d have taken a pic of the screen ….

https://a.co/d/0h6Tm7jH

superswiss

Yes, from the description of it, that cable is a charging only cable, so it's only good to charge your phone, but won't work for CarPlay.

sixfive

while I wait for the cable to arrive tomorrow, I played around a bit with my wife's '22 GLE350 as she got a new phone as well. Her car has an aftermarket MagSafe charger and she's got a MagSafe case for her phone (which I don't on mine), and in order for her phone to connect to CarPlay, the phone needs to be plugged in directly to cable and not just connected to the MagSafe charger. I was under the impression that on hers I should be able to just plug the cable into the MagSafe charger & the dashboard outlet and it should connect to CarPlay but it won't . . . I imagine that has something to do with the fact that as we bought the car, it was at the tail end of the severe covid restrictions in regards to parts availability etc and we were told a couple electronic elements will not be working as designed due to that . . .

RACE_MX

My wife's 2021 had the data port under the arm rest. Maybe check and verify you are plugging into the correct port.

sixfive

I have two USB ports in the center console but I never plugged my old phone in any of those. I always thought plugging into those I'll connect to the same system . . . . But worth a try I suppose . . .

superswiss

MagSafe is just a wireless charger. It doesn't provide a data connection. There is wireless CarPlay in certain newer models, Not sure from the top of my head if the '22 GLE supports wireless CarPlay.

sixfive

I was not aware that MagSafe is ONLY charging, thank you for educating me

it was supposed to originally but the COVID thing changed availability dramatically so her car didn’t come with wireless CarPlay …

sixfive

this cable arrived this morning and I tried it right away. Unfortunately its still not working . . . I connected my phone to my wife's newer GLE with the cable the phone came with and it works just fine. Maybe I need to try one of these and use an Apple cable?

superswiss

The question is still what was the message you got. It's likely that the CarPlay setup for your car is borked right now. If you go to Settings | General | CarPlay what do you see? Does your car show up there? If so, tap on it, then tap "Forget This Car". Then also go into the Bluetooth devices area in MBUX and delete your phone from there and go into the phone's Bluetooth settings and delete the car connection. Basically remove everything and then start over, so your phone sets up all the connections fresh. If none of this works, then you may need to try a factory reset.

sixfive

got it to work! I was able to replicate the message and it was just a 'warning' that some info will be sent to Mercedes Benz . . . but this time I was able to just go past it (which where my mistake was made as I originally declined it) and it took me straight to CarPlay. (And I was able to do that with another cable I had). There are a couple Bluetooth connections and I tried to delete those but did not find a way to get that accomplished . . . my car never showed up on any screen originally which was one more thing that surprised me as well so I was never able to 'Forget This Car' which is one of the things I was looking for to begin with. But I think I'm all good now, thank you for walking me through this! Was frustrating to say the very least . . .