Android Auto Wireless no longer connects

[evlee]

Until a few days ago, my Macan 4 connected successfully to Android Auto maybe 80-90% of the time. Sometimes to my phone, sometimes to my wife's phone (we both drive the car and have our own profiles). Now, neither of us can connect. I've tried the 30 sec. volume knob press reboot, turning on and off the vehicle hotspot, and rebooting our phones. We both have Samsung phones (but different models). When I look at available wi-fi networks on my phone, nothing shows up for the Macan.

Is anyone else having a problem? I'm not sure if it's the car or if some Samsung update maybe broke something?

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[PrudentOcean]

Did you check Connection Manager in the PCM to make sure Wifi is enabled and that the network name didn't change?

 

[evlee]

Yep, a few times. Pretty much every time I get in the car I try the same unsuccessful steps over and over.

Also, the car has no problem connecting to my home wi-fi or 4G and 5G.

BTW, I do use WireGuard VPN to route most connections encrypted through my home router, but of course I
have Android Auto as an excluded app.

 

[jwatte]

Can you try connecting without the VPN, just to see whether either the exclusion doesn't work, or there's some other service that also needs to be excluded?

 

[evlee]

Good insight... unfortunately, I've tried that also (and just tried it again).

When I was connecting most of the time, I did actually get phone errors saying to disable the VPN sometimes. I've never been able to figure out what else to exclude (I have 76 apps total excluded). Mostly I just want financial apps going through the VPN. If turning off the VPN totally fixed this, I'd switch to only Include specified apps instead of Excluding ones I know work better without the VPN.

Additional info... I can't connect to or even see the vehicle hotspot when trying to manually connect to it. The PCM doesn't allow me to change the password field, or select the encryption type (if I could, I would choose WPA3 only). When I try to use the PCM's generated QR code to connect, something flashes much to fast to read in the available networks on my phone, then instantly disappears.

 

[evlee]

Updated info... So this isn't really an Android Auto problem. Android Auto works just fine when connected with USB. This is a Vehicle Hotspot problem. I can't get the hotspot to work at all, so there's nothing for Android Auto to wirelessly connect to. I guess I'll have to call the dealer and arrange service when I get a chance.

 

[SuperH]

My CarPlay randomly stopped working yesterday and gave me the black screen of death when it said it was apparently connected. Thanks for the tip on how to do a screen reset via the volume button as that’s got it sorted!

 

[evlee]

Well, I met with the tech guy at my dealership, and after some more repetitive testing, we decided to do a factory reset. It fixed the problem. Had to setup HomeLink again, and download all the apps for both my and my wife's profiles. Seat positions and other preferences all stayed the same as before.

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