[marmer]

iPhone 6s, latest iOS. About two versions ago, Apple seems to have broken metadata display over USB for streaming music and in the Podcasts app. Playing music loaded on the Phone is OK. Playing music from an old iPod is OK. Playing music over Bluetooth is OK (though it doesn't sound very good). But with USB, I get the album art and the progress bar but no artist, track or album info when using Podcasts (downloaded), Apple Music (streaming) or Pandora. Disconnecting and reconnecting the phone brings it back for one song only; the next track doesn't show it. Is this related to the "Powered by Gracenote" display on the radio? I'm pretty sure my HU has the newest firmware update but will check at the next oil change. Anyone have any success with this?

 

[3.6r Limited]

The chances of Subaru updating their head-unit to work fluidly with iOS past iOS 7 is wishful thinking. Every update to iOS (11.3+) breaks the head unit even more in regards to Metadata. Good luck over bluetooth audio! Its even worse!
How is that you may ask? Randomly skipping songs, providing the wrong album art (the best is when it provides the the artists art from Apple Music and not even the album art), progress bar as you mentioned, never even displaying the current song, and it resets the music app when it is connected to immediately start playing all the music on the device regardless of which playlist you where previously on.

Subaru hasn't done anything to the head unit past release, save for some lazy updates from the dealer that don't really do anything.
GPS is still killed immediately on iPhones when they're connected via USB to the car.
Don't even get me started on Starlink, Subaru's app to connect to the head-unit for 'Advanced Features'.
My honest advice? Get a new head unit. Pioneer, Sony, or one of the Android ones. Our WRX cousins have plenty of videos on youtube of retrofits.
Personally I'm going to try and replace it with the 2018 head-unit, if the cabling is the same. Just for CarPlay, because believe me, the 2018 headunit is just as trash as the 2015-17.

 

[Nilemann4105]

I’ve actually found that all of the metadata shows for all media sources with my iPhone - even after iOS 11.3 update ... usb and/or Bluetooth. Things got a little jumbled up before I had the infotainment updated - the latest for my 2015 nav was released to the dealers in either Jan or Feb. FWIW, I have had no more metadata issues with this system than I had in CarPlay in another car.

OP, see if there’s a software update that may address your issues. It’s not normal.

 

[marmer]

Updated iOS to 11.3.1. No improvement. Workaround is to briefly disconnect the phone and reconnect it, which confuses the head unit for a bit.

 

[N4HHE]

The chances of Subaru updating their head-unit to work fluidly with iOS past iOS 7 is wishful thinking. Every update to iOS (11.3+) breaks the head unit even more in regards to Metadata. Good luck over bluetooth audio! Its even worse!

I didn't have any problems with my iPhone SE, and none with my 7 Plus.

How is that you may ask? Randomly skipping songs, providing the wrong album art (the best is when it provides the the artists art from Apple Music and not even the album art), progress bar as you mentioned, never even displaying the current song, and it resets the music app when it is connected to immediately start playing all the music on the device regardless of which playlist you where previously on.

Nope, none of those.

Subaru hasn't done anything to the head unit past release, save for some lazy updates from the dealer that don't really do anything.
GPS is still killed immediately on iPhones when they're connected via USB to the car.

I didn't know that! Blindly drove 1000 miles last week using Waze with iPhone connected via USB to Outback playing a specific playlist.

The Outback Navigation locked up Monday, but not the iPhone. All I could figure to reset the Outback was to stop and turn the car off/on. That worked.

I do note the icons used for Shuffle and Repeat Play are different when using USB vs Bluetooth. No idea why that should be, but it is.

 

[3.6r Limited]

I didn't have any problems with my iPhone SE, and none with my 7 Plus.



Nope, none of those.



I didn't know that! Blindly drove 1000 miles last week using Waze with iPhone connected via USB to Outback playing a specific playlist.

The Outback Navigation locked up Monday, but not the iPhone. All I could figure to reset the Outback was to stop and turn the car off/on. That worked.

I do note the icons used for Shuffle and Repeat Play are different when using USB vs Bluetooth. No idea why that should be, but it is.

Note this applies to Apple Music, not Music from your Apple product, which are two different things.
And yes, if you ever used Starlink on your phone and paired it with your Subaru then the GPS on the iPhone will forever be tainted. This is a known issue and there are multiple threads on this in depth.

 

[N4HHE]

Note this applies to Apple Music, not Music from your Apple product, which are two different things.
And yes, if you ever used Starlink on your phone and paired it with your Subaru then the GPS on the iPhone will forever be tainted. This is a known issue and there are multiple threads on this in depth.

Done all that. No problems. Starlink. Apple (streaming and downloaded) Music.

What it did do a few weeks ago was play some unknown to me streaming channel when the 7 Plus and Outback connected.

Years ago had problems with it launching Pandora. Solved by deleting Pandora app.

 

[3.6r Limited]

Done all that. No problems. Starlink. Apple (streaming and downloaded) Music.

What it did do a few weeks ago was play some unknown to me streaming channel when the 7 Plus and Outback connected.

Years ago had problems with it launching Pandora. Solved by deleting Pandora app.

So you get album art over bluetooth with Apple Music?
So you don't lose GPS functionality on your iPhones when plugged in via usb?
I'd love to see.