CarPlay Simulator (from Additional tools) stuck on "Connecting to phone" since March 4th

Question

Created Mar ’26

Replies 4

Boosts 6

Participants 3

We're experiencing an issue where the CarPlay Simulator (from Apple Developer Additional Tools) stopped connecting to our iPhones as of March 4th, 2025. The simulator gets stuck indefinitely on "Connecting to phone" and never completes the pairing.

Environment

App: Oracle Field Service iOS app (with CarPlay support)
Tool: CarPlay Simulator from Apple Developer Additional Tools (developer.apple.com/download/all/)
Issue start date: Wednesday, March 4th, 2025
Tested on: Multiple Mac machines, multiple iPhones
Multiple CarPlay Simulator versions tested

What's happening The CarPlay Simulator launches but displays "Connecting to phone" indefinitely. It was working correctly prior to March 4th with no changes on our end.

What still works CarPlay functions correctly when the same iPhone is connected to a real car, confirming the issue is specific to the simulator.

Troubleshooting steps already attempted

Reset permissions and re-added the simulator
Forgot the simulator and re-paired it
Changed the USB cable
Tested on multiple Mac machines
Tested on multiple iPhones
Tried multiple versions of the CarPlay Simulator
Confirmed no VPN is in use
Confirmed with IT, no OS updates or enterprise restrictions were applied

Questions

Has anyone else experienced this since March 4th?
Was there a change in CarPlay Simulator behavior or a requirement on the Apple side (certificate, entitlement, protocol) around that date?
Is there a known workaround or fix?

Answer 1

YogeshKV07 OP

Mar ’26

Accepted Answer

Correction: Issue start date is March 4th, 2026

Answer 2

ryanisdebuggingcarplay OP

Apr ’26

Also facing this, this worked fine for me this morning on two separate laptops but now both don't work for me. Both macos 26.4 laptops connected to two different iOS 26.4 iphones.

Answer 3

Jegadeesh OP

Apr ’26

We are also facing same issue. It used to work few months back

Answer 4

YogeshKV07 OP

2w

Hi Apple Team,

I’m following up to confirm that this issue is still reproducible after upgrading to the latest beta 3 builds, even though Xcode 27 beta 3 lists CarPlay Simulator issue 179523697 as resolved. Current environment: Xcode 27 beta 3 — 27A5218g iOS 27 beta 3 — 24A5380h macOS 26.5.1 — 25F80 iPhone Air — iPhone18,4

Connected through USB, paired, and Developer Mode enabled I restarted both devices and recreated the CarPlay Simulator, but it still remains on “Connecting to Yogesh’s iPhone” and stops after approximately 30 seconds.

The issue was reproduced on 14 July 2026 at approximately 4:21 PM IST. The relevant error is: CoreDeviceError 4000: A connection to this device could not be established. Underlying error: NSPOSIXErrorDomain Code 83 — Device error Device Hub fails while opening: com.apple.carkit.remote-iap.service

It also reports: Failed to resolve mac address : The specified operation is not implemented This remains reproducible with matching Xcode and iOS beta 3 versions.

Additionally, during this beta 3 test, the iPhone never displayed a CarPlay connection or authorization request. Previously, after a fresh connection, two CarPlay-related prompts appeared on the iPhone. Neither prompt appears now, even after removing the saved simulator and establishing a fresh connection.

Thanks