Apple CarPlay is a fantastic system that brings your iPhone’s interface to your car’s infotainment screen, making navigation, calls, and music control safer and easier while driving. However, there might be times when you prefer to disconnect or completely disable CarPlay. Whether it’s for privacy reasons, to troubleshoot connectivity issues, or simply to take a break from its features, knowing how to turn off CarPlay is useful.
Fortunately, Apple provides a couple of straightforward methods to turn off CarPlay on your iPhone. You can either disable it for specific vehicles or entirely turn off the feature across all cars. This guide will walk you through both methods, ensuring you can manage your CarPlay settings with ease.
Method 1: Disabling CarPlay by Forgetting a Car
This method is ideal when you want to prevent CarPlay from automatically connecting in a specific vehicle, such as a rental car or a friend’s car, while still keeping it active for your own vehicle. By “forgetting” a car, you remove its pairing from your iPhone, stopping CarPlay from launching when your iPhone connects to that car again.
1. Begin by opening the Settings app on your iPhone. This is the grey app with the gear icon, usually found on your home screen.
2. Scroll down and tap General. This section manages various iPhone settings, including CarPlay.
3. In the General settings, find and tap CarPlay. This will take you to the CarPlay settings menu.
4. You will see a list of “MY CARS,” showing all the vehicles previously connected to your iPhone via CarPlay. Tap on the name of the vehicle you want to disconnect from CarPlay.
5. On the car’s specific settings screen, you’ll find several options. Scroll down to the bottom and tap the blue Forget This Car option.
6. A confirmation pop-up will appear at the bottom of your screen, asking “Are you sure you want to forget [Car Name]?”. Tap the red Forget option to confirm your decision.
By following these steps, you have successfully disabled CarPlay for the selected vehicle. CarPlay will no longer automatically activate when you connect your iPhone to this specific car. However, it will continue to work as usual with other vehicles in your “MY CARS” list and any newly paired cars unless you choose to forget them as well.
Method 2: Turning Off CarPlay Completely via Restrictions
If you wish to completely disable CarPlay on your iPhone, preventing it from working in any vehicle, you can do so through the Content & Privacy Restrictions settings. This method turns off the CarPlay app entirely, ensuring it won’t activate regardless of the car you connect to.
1. Start by opening the Settings app on your iPhone, just like in the first method.
2. Scroll down in the Settings menu and tap Screen Time. This section allows you to manage your device usage and set restrictions.
3. Within the Screen Time menu, tap Content & Privacy Restrictions. This is where you can control access to various apps and features on your iPhone.
4. At the top of the Content & Privacy Restrictions page, you’ll see a toggle for Content & Privacy Restrictions. If it’s toggled off (grey), tap it to switch it on (green). This enables the restriction settings.
5. Once Content & Privacy Restrictions is enabled, tap Allowed Apps. This option lets you customize which built-in apps are allowed to function on your iPhone.
6. In the Allowed Apps list, you will find CarPlay. Tap the toggle switch next to CarPlay. Switching it from green to grey will turn off CarPlay completely on your iPhone.
After completing these steps, CarPlay will be entirely disabled on your iPhone. It will not activate in any vehicle until you re-enable it by toggling the CarPlay switch back to green in the Allowed Apps settings.
Conclusion
Knowing how to turn off CarPlay offers you greater control over your iPhone’s connectivity in your car. Whether you choose to forget specific vehicles for temporary deactivation or completely disable the feature for privacy or troubleshooting, these methods are simple to follow. Choose the method that best suits your needs to manage your CarPlay experience effectively. If you are looking to re-enable CarPlay, simply follow these steps in reverse or reconnect your iPhone to your car to initiate the pairing process again.
