CarPlay lets you seamlessly integrate your iPhone with your car’s infotainment system. You can use it to find routes, stream music, and pick up calls while driving safely. While that’s great, many users have experienced that CarPlay keeps muting the mic during phone calls.
What Causes CarPlay to Mute the Mic During Calls?
This can stem from multiple factors, including iOS software bugs and pairing issues between the iPhone and CarPlay. However, sometimes, specific accessibility features like Phone Noise Cancellation and Call Audio Routing can stop your voice from going through during calls.
How to Stop CarPlay from Muting Your Mic?
While some users have said that restarting the iPhone or redialing the call seems to fix the issues, you wouldn’t want to do this every time you run into it. Instead of these temporary fixes, try these solutions:
1. Disconnect Other Bluetooth Peripherals
AirPods or other Bluetooth accessories connected to your iPhone can sometimes interfere with the audio connection in CarPlay, leading to microphone issues. As a result, you should turn off Bluetooth on your iPhone before using CarPlay. To do this, open the Control Center from the top-right and toggle off Bluetooth.
2. Check the Call Audio Routing Settings on your iPhone
In some cases, you may run into issues due to incorrect Call Routing Settings on your iPhone. This setting could cause calls to use your phone’s earpiece and microphone instead of your car’s audio system when using CarPlay. To ensure this isn’t the case on your iPhone, you may follow the steps mentioned below:
- Go to the Settings app on your iPhone and tap Accessibility.
- Scroll down and tap the option that says Touch.
- Tap Call Audio Routing and ensure you have selected Automatic.
3. Turn off Phone Noise Cancellation
While Phone Noise Cancellation is designed to reduce background noise during phone calls, the feature can sometimes interfere with your iPhone’s microphone and prevent your voice from going through. If you want to avoid this, you will need to turn the feature off on your device, as I have shown below:
Note: Phone Noise Cancellation is only available on iPhones released before the iPhone 13.
- Go to the Settings app on your iPhone and tap Accessibility.
- Scroll down and tap the option for Audio & Visual.
- Turn off the toggle for Phone Noise Cancellation.
4. Try Switching to a Wired Connection
Even though wireless connections are convenient, they can sometimes run into unexpected issues due to clashing frequencies and lower bandwidth. If you are using wireless CarPlay, you may want to try switching to a wired connection, which provides an uninterrupted data stream over USB.
5. Update Your iPhone and the Stereo Unit
Sometimes, software glitches in iOS or your car’s stereo unit can also lead to problems with CarPlay. In such cases, you should consider updating your iPhone and the stereo unit to the latest firmware version.
- Open the Settings app and navigate to General.
- Tap Software Update and wait for your iPhone to check for updates.
- If a new iOS update is available, tap on Update Now (or Install Now).
- Enter your iPhone’s Passcode and Agree to the terms and conditions.
To update your stereo unit’s firmware, you’ll need to use its user manual or contact the manufacturer.
6. Try Re-Pairing Your iPhone With Carplay
Sometimes, technical software glitches can cause CarPlay to malfunction and randomly mute the mic during calls. In such cases, you should try re-pairing your iPhone with CarPlay. Here’s how to do this:
- Open the Settings app and navigate to General.
- Tap CarPlay and select your car from the list.
- Now, select Forget This Car and then hit Forget.
- Connect your iPhone to the stereo unit via a USB cable.
- Open the Settings app and navigate to General > CarPlay.
- Select your car and tap Use CarPlay to accept the connection.
7. Factory Reset Your iPhone and the Stereo Unit
If nothing seems to work, you can factory reset your iPhone to fix the issue. Factory resetting will erase all content and settings, which can help you reverse misconfigurations and eliminate software problems. Additionally, you should refer to your car or stereo unit’s user manual to factory reset its settings.
- Open the Settings app and navigate to General.
- Scroll down to the end and tap on Transfer or Reset iPhone.
- From the resulting page, tap Erase all Content and Settings.
- Tap Continue and hit Erase iPhone to start the factory reset process.
The solutions in this guide should help you quickly fix CarPlay muting calls. However, if they don’t seem to help, you can contact your car or stereo unit’s manufacturer as a last-ditch attempt to fix the issue.