Apple iCloud Private Relay (Beta) and Apple Car Play Problems

Tsingtao

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A few days ago I picked up an article about the iCloud Private Relay which is apparently in beta and available to iCloud+ subscribers. I thought, what the hell, more privacy is always a good thing so I followed the instructions (attached below) and flipped it on. What could possibly go wrong? Turns out that with the private relay switched on, my Car Play went schizoid. (Important point: I bluetooth my car play from the iPhone rather than directly from the PCM because, like many others, my Car Play will not load onto my PCM -- subject of numerous threads on this forum). At first, Car Play would stop playing after a song, then it went completely off the grid. Black screen on the PCM. I tried all the usual tricks: turned off the iPhone, rebooted; shut down the car, rebooted. Nothing. And then it occurred to me that maybe the Private Relay could have something to do with my Car Play problems. I know nothing about VPNs, other than that I did not use one the day before when everything worked fine, and so I turned off the relay, shut everything down and restarted. Problem solved.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212614
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porsche_coyote

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A few days ago I picked up an article about the iCloud Private Relay which is apparently in beta and available to iCloud+ subscribers. I thought, what the hell, more privacy is always a good thing so I followed the instructions (attached below) and flipped it on. What could possibly go wrong? Turns out that with the private relay switched on, my Car Play went schizoid. (Important point: I bluetooth my car play from the iPhone rather than directly from the PCM because, like many others, my Car Play will not load onto my PCM -- subject of numerous threads on this forum). At first, Car Play would stop playing after a song, then it went completely off the grid. Black screen on the PCM. I tried all the usual tricks: turned off the iPhone, rebooted; shut down the car, rebooted. Nothing. And then it occurred to me that maybe the Private Relay could have something to do with my Car Play problems. I know nothing about VPNs, other than that I did not use one the day before when everything worked fine, and so I turned off the relay, shut everything down and restarted. Problem solved.

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT212614
FWIW, I've been using iCloud Private Relay since last June, and I haven't seen any change in the connection behavior for CarPlay in my 2020 Turbo. It was always slow and flaky, and has remained that way.

What you're describing sounds like you're not using CarPlay, but a bluetooth audio connection. CarPlay is specifically the feature where the iPhone takes over the center display with its own UI. That connection to the car is either USB or WiFi, never Bluetooth.
 
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Tsingtao

Tsingtao

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FWIW, I've been using iCloud Private Relay since last June, and I haven't seen any change in the connection behavior for CarPlay in my 2020 Turbo. It was always slow and flaky, and has remained that way.

What you're describing sounds like you're not using CarPlay, but a bluetooth audio connection. CarPlay is specifically the feature where the iPhone takes over the center display with its own UI. That connection to the car is either USB or WiFi, never Bluetooth.
I use the Apple Music/Car Play via Bluetooth and, when functioning as I think it should, it does indeed take over my PCM. I get all the little Apple icons, etc. on the screen. As I noted, I've never been able to get the built-in Apple Music operational (my dealer and PCNA have been useless in this regard). And I haven't really worried about this as I always have my IPhone on me -- so not a major crisis by any means. But when I activated the Private Relay, after about five minutes, I could not get anything to work. I could not even utilize the trusty "Hey Porsche" command to have her switch me over to the radio. It was beyond slow and flaky; it was more like the PCM had just OD'd crack.
 

porsche_coyote

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I use the Apple Music/Car Play via Bluetooth and, when functioning as I think it should, it does indeed take over my PCM. I get all the little Apple icons, etc. on the screen. As I noted, I've never been able to get the built-in Apple Music operational (my dealer and PCNA have been useless in this regard). And I haven't really worried about this as I always have my IPhone on me -- so not a major crisis by any means. But when I activated the Private Relay, after about five minutes, I could not get anything to work. I could not even utilize the trusty "Hey Porsche" command to have her switch me over to the radio. It was beyond slow and flaky; it was more like the PCM had just OD'd crack.
Perhaps I'm being too pedantic, but CarPlay does not work over Bluetooth, ever. It's either USB or WiFi. It is true that you can set up the initial pairing handoff using Bluetooth, but Bluetooth actually doesn't have enough bandwidth for what CarPlay is doing (which is basically sharing a high-resolution screen, as well as audio).
 
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Tsingtao

Tsingtao

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Perhaps I'm being too pedantic, but CarPlay does not work over Bluetooth, ever. It's either USB or WiFi. It is true that you can set up the initial pairing handoff using Bluetooth, but Bluetooth actually doesn't have enough bandwidth for what CarPlay is doing (which is basically sharing a high-resolution screen, as well as audio).
That’s good to know, and maybe helps explain why the private relay whacked out my tunes!
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