I’ve owned two 2021 F-150 Lariat’s, and I swear my first one (Black 2021 Lariat supercrew, 2.7, 5.5’ bed) had way better quality apple car play on it’s 12” display than my second one’s 12” display (Silver 2021 Lariat supercrew, 5.0, 6.5’ bed). The CarPlay on the first one I owned was absolutely crystal clear, almost hurt my eyes it was so good, and on my second one the text seems to be a bit blurry and off centered (especially noticeable on google maps). Has anyone else had this issue, and is there anything to be done about this? Maybe a software update? My second one was imported from Canada so possibly that is linked to the issue? Other than CarPlay, the built in apps./features are just as clear, the issue only appears to be on car play. It is pretty hard getting used to the lesser quality one when coming form the crystal clear display of my first one. Thoughts?

 

That's a first for me.

I don't recall you saying in your post if other parts of Sync 4 look blurry, which would sure help a lot in narrowing things down. Like when you look at the regular Sirius station screen, or the full screen built in Nav, stuff like that. If it's ONLY CarPlay, then I tend to come down on two possible causes, either the bitrate is poor between the phone and vehicle for some reason (are you using Wireless or wired? Does it make a difference if you use one or the other)? Or an App is causing a conflict. I actually did a five second google search on this, and found others complaining of the same issue on the Apple message board. One user found that an app they installed was causing the issue.

https://discussions.apple.com/thread/251960873?page=2
"I tried to read through, my dealer and I have narrowed down that for me it was a 2 factor authentication app I had added. I removed the Apps one by one til I found what I believe was the culprit. I no longer have the issue and have had it since I got the car in august. For some reason it was activated on car play and should not have been. My screen was so pixelated that it looked like it was melting. Could not use if for almost 6 months. They even replaced the whole system for me."

Now, it may seem easy to dismiss an app causing this issue, but that's not unheard of in a way. This forum had a bunch of threads a couple years back where any time you used CarPlay and tried to adjust the volume, it would adjust the "Prompt Volume", which is what plays when navigation says something, instead of the normal volume for music/podcasts/etc. It ended up being a bug in Waze that was causing it to hold open the prompt volume even when it wasn't saying anything, and the car interpreted it as always playing. Since the volume **** controls prompt volume when a prompt is playing, it always made the **** control prompt volume. It was really frustrating, and deleting Waze until they fixed it or making sure Waze was closed completely from the background apps on the iPhone was the only workaround.

So you could start there, go in your phone and open the app switcher and close any open background app (swiping up). Close every single one. Then connect to your truck and see if the display quality improves. If it does, then it's the hard task of finding out which app causes the issue. I would just go about using your phone like normal from then on, and try to track when you notice it become a problem again, and start closing your most recent opened apps one by one until you narrow it down.

 

Thanks for answering. I mentioned at the end of my post that the only issue with the car play, all the rest of the apps/features are crystal clear. I tried everything you recommended to no avail. Unfortunately I think it’s a software issue, I even tried it on two other iPhones and every time apple car play came up blurry. I should note it’s not unusablely blurry, but it’s definitely enough for me to notice. Do you think the dealership would replace the whole screen unit for me? If its possible to order a new screen unit from the dealership I might do that too. It’s a pretty early production model (Feb 21’) so maybe this is an issue with the earlier ones.

 

You didn't answer if you were using wired or wireless. If wired, have you tried a different cable? If wireless, Have you tried a cable?

 

yes I tried wired and wireless, they both look the same

 

In that case, you can show the defect to the dealer, and request a replacement screen unit. Sounds like its bad to me.

 

I don't see how it would be the screen if it's just CarPlay. Maybe a replacement APIM. They would probably ask you to do a Master Reset and test again first, but yeah it may be tough to get them to agree to an APIM replacement at a time where APIMs are hard to come by for those with serious issues from update problems and that on the earlier trucks. I am just worried they would end up keeping your truck for a week or more while they work with Ford engineering on it, this definitely isn't something I see in known issues for the F-150 in the Ford technician system.

Might get lucky, but be prepared to be without your truck for a while.

 

There are a couple things you may have already tried, but if not, might help:

Stick to wired CarPlay for troubleshooting. It’s probably not the issue here, but the fewer variables the better.

If you know anyone else with a similar truck configuration, pull your cable and phone and try CarPlay in their vehicle. If their screen is as crystal clear as you remember your other truck being, then it’s very likely a problem with your current truck. If you find this to be the case, take pictures or video of both screens for use in your discussions with the dealer. While a picture is worth a thousand words at the service department, a demo is worth a thousand pictures. If your “clear screen” truck associate is available to join you in your service department visit, great; otherwise see if the dealer has anyone on site with a similar truck to help in your demo. As mentioned in a previous post, you might be without your truck for a while if the service department can be convinced there is a problem.

If, on the other hand, your CarPlay screen is still not as crisp as you’d like in a similar truck, it’s either something on your phone or perhaps you are remembering it better than it was. For good measure try another iPhone in the other truck just to rule in/out your iPhone. You mention the text on Google Maps… was that just an example, or do you find the issue is most prominent there? I’ve noticed there are a few settings in Google Maps that can affect its performance in CarPlay.

 

This should be a hardware problem of the car itself, which cannot be upgraded by software, and should be solved by a dealer. I'm sure they will solve it for you for free.

 

Have you tried another Iphone? does it do the same thing on all phones or just yours?