[Johnrr6]

Originally Posted by Akiba64

I have the problem where my wife’s phone automatically connects and takes priority over my phone whenever we are in the car, and hers connects without doing anything but mine requires me to go into general settings and connect wifi then connect Bluetooth before I can access CarPlay.

You have described the problem entirely in a nutshell.

Exact same thing happens to me only in this case it’s my wife’s car and she is listed as the priority yet my phone always connects.

Look at your two phone “names”

Which is alphabetical first. Your wife’s or yours?

If it’s your’s…. Rename your phone alphabetically so it comes after your wife and then reset phone priority in the menu and make sure you tap on that phone as the final step after you have set it in the prioritization menu.

A member of the forum suggested this might be a solution, and I am testing it now.

[Photographer918]

I would have tried this too - but I just traded up to a newer X5, and haven’t set beloved spouse’s profile up yet, or connected her phone. I’ll report back when that happens later this week…..

[Johnrr6]

After testing….Changing the phone names so that the phone that you want to be priority is alphabetically first, had no effect.

So that theory is basically out the window.

Also tapping on the phone priority list to possibly “set” it has no effect.

The next theory that I am checking out is the size of the phones in question and whether a larger phone with a larger antenna has greater signal strength and might therefore always want to connect first.

My iPhone 13 pro max is a large phone my wife’s iPhone 14 Pro is smaller. I used an app to measure Bluetooth signal strength and did see a slight difference between signal strength with the bigger phone slightly more powerful but only by a few decibels.

You guys that are running into this issue, are your larger phones always the ones that want to connect regardless of priority?

Or does the size of the phone make no difference and you and your wife have the same phones and still run into the prioritization problem?

[Photographer918]

John,
now I'm wondering if the car connects by "Model Name" field in iPhone settings, but uses "Name" for the on screen display to identify the phone being connected.....

[Johnrr6]

Originally Posted by Photographer918

John,
now I'm wondering if the car connects by "Model Name" field in iPhone settings, but uses "Name" for the on screen display to identify the phone being connected.....

Interesting…thanks!

I guess the only way to test this is find someone with an iPhone 12 or older model.

Model name is locked by Apple and no way I can adjust it.

Let me ask my neighbors…see if I can find an older phone.

Other idea is use an iPad…..

iPad is alphabetically ahead of iPhone and the model number is 11. It doesn’t have carplay but that does not matter on phone prioritization.

[Johnrr6]

Model name of phone does not affect the issue.

After June 16, I am making an appointment with my dealership service manager. I will have some real time to devote to this then.

Will see if they can either solve this or at least get it entered as an official “bug” in BMWs system.

Extensive research all over the net indicates that this has been an unsolvable problem since 2019…..maybe even before. And not just X5 models.

People finally just give up, go through the multiple button pushing to switch phones, or get a different car.

Just spent the weekend with my brother who has a late model Audi with wireless CarPlay. The problem is nonexistent for him and his wife. He was astonished it was like this in my BMW and astonished that phone priority was not simply tied to user profile and the key fob.

Based on what I experience at the dealership….next step is a detailed letter to the President of BMW NA as well as taking advantage of any “customer complaint” process BMW has.

Absolutely love the car….but the “sharing” experience between my wife and I is spoiling the fun. I bought this for her 65th Birthday….incredible wife and Mother. But she is pissed off every time the darn car won’t auto switch to her phone…..and it’s every time I have driven the car. Heck, it switches to my phone even if I am just a passenger!

I am faced with either:

a. Trying to get her to memorize the five button pushes necessary to switch phones (and this with a hot button that eliminates three of those total eight steps.)

b. Deleting my phone entirely (which puts me at a disadvantage any time I drive the car)

c. Turning off my phone or disabling my Bluetooth any time I am near her car (totally unpractical)

d. Stop driving or riding in the car (gee, now that’s practical)

e. Getting her a different car (unpractical, but I hate to see her constantly pissed off at the present I bought her.)

My wife and I are not wealthy….working folks who carved out a life and did OK…thank the good Lord.

We don’t take for granted an over $80K investment in a car.

But I am either going to solve this to our satisfaction….or get her something else.

She deserves that.