CarPlay Carplay screen sizing/resolution issues

[jcmoney10]

Hey guys, for the last 6 months have had Carplay on an aftermarket stereo in my Nissan Rogue and it worked and looked great. Outside of an occasional connection issue, I never had a problem.

This past weekend though, I purchased a Jeep Wrangler which came with a Uconnect 4 stereo with Carplay. I didn’t notice it until I got home, but the Carplay display is much smaller than the actual touch screen. Similar to when old apps try and run on a new phone, the icons are sort of fuzzy and there’s a lot of black space along the sides of the Carplay “display”. When using Bluetooth or just the regular radio, the entire touch screen is used and looks awesome, but as soon as I plug in car play, only about 2/3 of the screen is actually used.

Has anyone else had this issue? Is there a way to fix this? I love Carplay, but this makes it hard to use.

 

[AZhappyjack]

I've not seen it, and without knowing the exact cause, it would be hard to propose a solution.

I have CarPlay on my Mazda MX-5 via an aftermarket head unit (Alpine ILX-107), and my wife has CarPlay on her Ford Edge (Sync3)... for me, both look to be "full screen, full resolution", so we do not see anything like what you describe.

Since you mentioned the look "similar to when old apps try and run on a new phone", it may well be that the resolution of the CarPlay unit does not match what your phone is putting out. That puzzles me because, for lack of a better description, the CarPlay device is nothing more than a display for what your phone is putting out. All of the control is done via your phone.

Curiously, is this Jeep Wrangler a NEW car, or is in an older model? Either way, my guess would be that it's the display in the CarPlay head unit that is causing the issue... and not sure how to correct it. Must be extremely frustrating... I would be.

 

[jcmoney10]

I've not seen it, and without knowing the exact cause, it would be hard to propose a solution.

I have CarPlay on my Mazda MX-5 via an aftermarket head unit (Alpine ILX-107), and my wife has CarPlay on her Ford Edge (Sync3)... for me, both look to be "full screen, full resolution", so we do not see anything like what you describe.

Since you mentioned the look "similar to when old apps try and run on a new phone", it may well be that the resolution of the CarPlay unit does not match what your phone is putting out. That puzzles me because, for lack of a better description, the CarPlay device is nothing more than a display for what your phone is putting out. All of the control is done via your phone.

Curiously, is this Jeep Wrangler a NEW car, or is in an older model? Either way, my guess would be that it's the display in the CarPlay head unit that is causing the issue... and not sure how to correct it. Must be extremely frustrating... I would be.

The Jeep is a 2018, with the newest uconnect system, so there shouldn’t be an issue with my phone not being compatible (at least I wouldn’t think so). This really has me scratching my head, as I agree it’s probably an issue with the stereo display rather than Carplay, but I can’t seem to find any information on it. I’ll try and take pictures later today and post them.

 

[Suture]

I'm not familiar with Uconnect, but with my cars I've been able to download updates onto USB or SD card media and update the systems myself. Is that an option? Or maybe ask the dealer if there are updates to flash?

 

[Agent OrangeZ]

I just bought a 2018 Jeep Renegade with 7" UConnect system... I was a bit surprised that Carplay is a bit small on the screen... like a..400-.500 border surrounding the Carplay interface. Almost as if the Carplay software is running in a window overlaid on top of the UConnect interface. I have also had lots of random disconnects too... but I am using a 3rd party cable. Thinking about breaking out an official Apple cable. (Don't like white cables though... clashes with my interior... lol)

 

[henhowc]

While researching new cars I've seen a similar complaint about the brand new 2019 Mercedes A-class (linked to the part they show and briefly talk about what they were told):

Older Benz' actually are able to display Carplay in widescreen just fine but they are using the older COMAND infotainment system. The A class uses a brand new system called MBUX. Go figure that the new tech doesn't work right. Have a feeling this is something the car manufacturer needs to fix.

 

[genomez]

My 2020 MB GLE with MBUX has the same issue where it doesn’t take up the whole screen.

 

[henhowc]

My 2020 MB GLE with MBUX has the same issue where it doesn’t take up the whole screen.

The conspiracy theorist in me is thinking they are low-key trying to get more people to buy the cars with the navigation package installed. But its probably somewhere in between. haha

I did see some other forum post where someone said they got a response from MB that they do it because they always want the temperature displayed at all times. lol