CarPlay Pioneer 4500NEX: First impressions after 2 weeks

[adamhenry]

I have had the black screen/freeze as well on my 4500. It happened on the interstate in the middle of nowhere. I tried powering the 4500 off/on and then power cycled the phone. Nothing worked until I pulled over and cycled the ignition switch. Then everything returned to normal

 

[Derek87]

I have had the black screen/freeze as well on my 4500. It happened on the interstate in the middle of nowhere. I tried powering the 4500 off/on and then power cycled the phone. Nothing worked until I pulled over and cycled the ignition switch. Then everything returned to normal

thankfully, this only happened that one time during my first week of ownership. i've now owned the radio for more two months and i have enchanted two other types of glitches:

- once on a road trip, 2 hours in, the map disappeared from 4500NEX and i couldn't get it to reappear. i ended up fishing my phone out of my pocket and slapping it in my old iottie mount and used it the old fashioned way. when i arrived at our destination, i looked at my phone and saw that i thought it was still connected to the Pioneer Wifi network...so something went wrong with the head unit and CarPlay. after we resumed our trip, it was fine the rest of the way.

- twice this weekend at the exact same location, i lost CarPlay maps. for the first time ever, i was patient (since i knew where i was going) and went into the main audio menu and played around with the carplay/phone connection button. in both cases, with a combination of toggling between the inactive phone symbol and perhaps getting far enough away from whatever may have caused the disconnection*, i was able to reconnect my phone and Maps resumed.

* i am suspecting that somehow my phone connected itself with some other wifi network, but i am not sure since my phone was in my pocket and i was driving. i really wish there was a way to look carefully at preferred networks and order the priority of networks to join. i don't think i have any auto join networks beyond work and home (i have long killed Xfinity which was a problem even before the CarPlay days), but i wonder if somehow i'm connect to an ATT wifi or something else (since i'm on AT&T)...

 

[adamhenry]

With a little googling, I found one user who described the freezing problem and said that it happened when the phone was switching from LTE to 3G. My phone was indicating 1X instead of LTE when I had the freeze. I'm not sure of relevance but thought I'd pass it along.

 

[Derek87]

With a little googling, I found one user who described the freezing problem and said that it happened when the phone was switching from LTE to 3G. My phone was indicating 1X instead of LTE when I had the freeze. I'm not sure of relevance but thought I'd pass it along.

thanks for sharing this info. it's possible, but no way for my to confirm in general since my phone is usually in my pocket and i'm not keeping and eye often enough on the cellular signal strength on the screen to know when it actually freezes or crashes.

i do know that in my garage, cell signal is somewhat weak so i sometimes cannot use "hey siri" to start directions until i've backed out of the garage.

 

[DanteWTF]

With the issue of your networks switching, was that with playing music? So one issue I have had was that coming back to the car, using Spotify or something, it "plays" the song, but not the audio. You can see the time tick by but not actually hear it. Then 4 seconds go by and it stops the count. The only fix I have found for this was restarting my phone and reconnecting, losing place in my spotify. Any other work around? I also have the issue of it just not pairing with the device. I thought it was searching carplay through bluetooth but it pretended like my phone didn't even exist. Had to do another restart. Any and all answers are welcome. I will try whatever solutions because I bought this to be less annoyed haha.

 

[Derek87]

With the issue of your networks switching, was that with playing music? So one issue I have had was that coming back to the car, using Spotify or something, it "plays" the song, but not the audio. You can see the time tick by but not actually hear it. Then 4 seconds go by and it stops the count. The only fix I have found for this was restarting my phone and reconnecting, losing place in my spotify. Any other work around? I also have the issue of it just not pairing with the device. I thought it was searching carplay through bluetooth but it pretended like my phone didn't even exist. Had to do another restart. Any and all answers are welcome. I will try whatever solutions because I bought this to be less annoyed haha.

i was not playing music...i was just coming into my car without any active apps. yet, i have to say that since the occurrence, i have not run into the problem after forcing the 4500NEX wifi connection at our house. i haven't returned to another house with wifi available outside (eg, in laws) to see if problem reappears.

 

[Chacocliff]

I am thinking about switching this over to my Jeep Cherokee, but the regular screen controls things like the heated seats and steering wheel. Does anybody see those options with the Maestro iDatalink?

 

[adamhenry]

I am thinking about switching this over to my Jeep Cherokee, but the regular screen controls things like the heated seats and steering wheel. Does anybody see those options with the Maestro iDatalink?

Go to the Maestro site and plug in your vehicle. It will show you the features provided.

 

[indiafox14]

guys any update on freezing problem with out NEX W4500? new firmware?
Been experiencing random freezing since day 1. its almost a year now.

 

[Derek87]

guys any update on freezing problem with out NEX W4500? new firmware?
Been experiencing random freezing since day 1. its almost a year now.

i have only encountered a couple freezes in over a year.

the one tip i read somewhere here on the forums was to not touch anything until you ok'd or had the warning screen disappear/clear.

 

[dabiohazard]

yeah I get tons of freezes on mine too. just noticed its not continuing where I left off anymore on my usb stick as well as now it has weird audio feedback when using CarPlay (this just started about a week ago maybe its this metal bumper I put on my phone?) but I would like to know if anyone has a fix for when using usb to continue playback of mp3s or videos where I left off instead of starting from the same song every time I switch to it? its getting on my last nerve!

 

[Derek87]

yeah I get tons of freezes on mine too. just noticed its not continuing where I left off anymore on my usb stick as well as now it has weird audio feedback when using CarPlay (this just started about a week ago maybe its this metal bumper I put on my phone?) but I would like to know if anyone has a fix for when using usb to continue playback of mp3s or videos where I left off instead of starting from the same song every time I switch to it? its getting on my last nerve!

sorry i can't directly help, but have you tried the SD card slot and see if you have similar problems? i have had zero issues such as those you note, but i am using a large SD card (256gb) and an old iPod touch very effectively.

 

[Marbat]

I just had this installed and when I plug in my Ipod classic it works great. The problem is that when I turn the car off it doesn't remember the track it was on and goes to the first song in my ipod. Is anyone else having this problem?

 

[Derek87]

I just had this installed and when I plug in my Ipod classic it works great. The problem is that when I turn the car off it doesn't remember the track it was on and goes to the first song in my ipod. Is anyone else having this problem?

i have not had this problem. i'm using a pretty old iPod: iPod Touch (3rd gen with 30-pin connector).

i am still having issues with night mode for maps though with iOS 14.4... even 9pm at night, it still thinks its daytime so i have am now using google maps regularly at night.

 

[Derek87]

still frustrated with Apple Maps never sensing night-time even though its late at night. the other night at 10pm, it still was giving me light colored maps. i switched over to Google Maps and it was just fine and dark.

 

[dabiohazard]

so somehow my head units system software got corrupted and it won’t let me delete my old phones from the unit. i have done complete reset, bluetooth reset, everything but my old phones still keep showing up. so it will auto connect to my old phone but not to my new one since there are 2 that just won’t go away! pioneer is absolutely no help and wanted me to send it in for repair but i’m sure it’s just a software issue i could easily fix if i could just reflash the firmware on it. anyone know where i could get my hands on it?

 

[Easy-E]

I’m having the EXACT same issue. Was a Best Buy today and they couldn’t figure it out. Pioneer says I’m out of warranty and basically gave me the middle finger.

My iPhone 13 Pro will wireless will connect on first setup. But upon turning car off and back on it finds my old iPhone 11 name and my 13 Pro is no where to be found.

I’ve tried to rest the whole unit. Even unplugged battery to reset the unit. No dice.