USB adapter for iPhone5 (or 6) ?

[jimjohnmarks]

I bought one of the last 2.0T R Spec coupes in 2014 and was shocked (and disappointed) when they handed me a USB adapter for tapping into the entertainment system that was specific to the iPhone 4 (or earlier) style of pin configuration. I was even more shocked (and disappointed) when a communication to the dealer indicated that they were unaware of any effort by Hyundai to update to a newer cable.

Bluetooth is great, but a direct line connection is better (and saves having to keep an AC power adapter in the car).

Anyone know if Hyundai has fixed this problem in the past nine months or knows of a reputable 3rd party producing an appropriate cable?

 

[wtreid]

So easy to resolve for only $29! Just buy an Apple 30-pin to lightning adapter. Works very well. After all the money you spent for this great car, what's another $29?

 

[tjoseph]

Hyundai part does have a lightening to USB cable in stock for 45.00, I passed on it thinking that the Bluetooth would make it unnecessary, and found that with my iPhone 6 using BT or a Apple factory cable, the phone will not connect. More accurately, it will unreliably sync over BT for phone use, of and on spotty function, and then the next day no joy. My daughter does not have this issue with her iPhone 5. Ill purchase the factory cable and report back to whether is resolves the issue. This is on a 2012 3.8 Sedan with Premium only.

 

[tjoseph]

Hyundai part does have a lightening to USB cable in stock for 45.00, I passed on it thinking that the Bluetooth would make it unnecessary, and found that with my iPhone 6 using BT or a Apple factory cable, the phone will not connect. More accurately, it will unreliably sync over BT for phone use, of and on spotty function, and then the next day no joy. My daughter does not have this issue with her iPhone 5. Ill purchase the factory cable and report back to whether is resolves the issue. This is on a 2012 3.8 Sedan with Premium only.

Trip to the dealer to test the Hyundai factory USB to Lightening cable provided the same "Connection failure" as the Apple cable, though I was told the factory cable would be needed and that Hyundai is reporting known issues with IOS8 and an update will be required to resolve the issues and there is no ETA at this time. I can get the iPhone6 to work with bluetooth now after clearing all phones and re-syncing. Not sure how long this will last or how reliable this will be. 300.00 was the expected software patch cost.

 

[jimjohnmarks]

So easy to resolve for only $29! Just buy an Apple 30-pin to lightning adapter. Works very well. After all the money you spent for this great car, what's another $29?

Every review I've seen for this solution says it is very dodgy and rarely works.

Given that I can use bluetooth perfectly well, having a cludged up solution seems foolish, no matter how cheap.

 

[jimjohnmarks]

Trip to the dealer to test the Hyundai factory USB to Lightening cable provided the same "Connection failure" as the Apple cable, though I was told the factory cable would be needed and that Hyundai is reporting known issues with IOS8 and an update will be required to resolve the issues and there is no ETA at this time. I can get the iPhone6 to work with bluetooth now after clearing all phones and re-syncing. Not sure how long this will last or how reliable this will be. 300.00 was the expected software patch cost.

Yikes. I still have a 5c but will be upgrading to a 6 in September.

Sounds like I shouldn't bother to get a cable and may expect my phone to stop working once I upgrade.

Why should you have to pay for a software upgrade? That's bizarre.

 

[Ntovorni]

Any news on this front with it working? I just picked up at 2013 Grand Touring Coupe and just have the 30 pin adapter, but I have a 6.

 

[jimjohnmarks]

Any news on this front with it working? I just picked up at 2013 Grand Touring Coupe and just have the 30 pin adapter, but I have a 6.

No progress. I see no value in buying a cheap adapter cable which is unlikely to work well. I now have an iPhone6 and will simply wait for my _next_ car to have one that works well with the phone.

I wouldn't care about the cable but the @#$! steering wheel controls of media don't work via bluetooth (which is insane and infuriating).

I've had rental cars, Chevy Cruze for pete's sake, which had a smoother, more up-featured blue tooth or USB integration than this allegedly top of the line model from Hyundai.

 

[tjoseph]

I have a iPhone6 with iOS9.1, 2012 Sedan with touch screen Lexicon, Software version V_188_2 with both head unit and amp replaced on a separate issue recently by the dealer. It will connect BT in a maddeningly random nature. An array of techniques of turning on and off BT on phone, powering car off and on (embarrassing…really) and others but when connected, steering wheel controls work. Noting displays on console but Iphone 6. My wife 2013 Lexus handles this seamlessly and every rent car Ive had lately.

While I haven’t tried going to the Apple store and purchasing a USB to 30 pin cable and 30 pin to Lightening adapter, solution mentioned here, every USB cable I have including the Hyundai Factory USB to Lightening cable does not work. I guess I can waste some more time.

It staggers me that this car, otherwise fantastic in every other way (Acura RL owner previously) is hobbled by a ridiculous tech issue like this with no promise of resolution or even concern from the manufacture. Let the 3rd party map update guys handle this, you know they could do it in 30 days, and charge me for it!

Great sounding factory stereo and driving experience hobbled by horrific support. It would make me real nervous to plunk down 2016 Genesis money knowing this. This is a tech world Hyundai and at this price point, you have to keep up. If it’s outside of you evolutionary priority list, which is admittedly impressive, outsource it!

You would think the units would be built to the SIG standard and at least reliably connect and handle volume and channel changing. I’d be elated to have this simple capability that my iPhone can accomplish with a dozen cheesy audio devices I own now. USB connectivity….I’m not holding my breath and that’s very disappointing.

 

[jimjohnmarks]

I have a iPhone6 with iOS9.1, 2012 Sedan with touch screen Lexicon, Software version V_188_2 with both head unit and amp replaced on a separate issue recently by the dealer. It will connect BT in a maddeningly random nature. An array of techniques of turning on and off BT on phone, powering car off and on (embarrassing…really) and others but when connected, steering wheel controls work. Noting displays on console but Iphone 6. My wife 2013 Lexus handles this seamlessly and every rent car Ive had lately.

Mine certainly isn't that bad to connect, but then I'm in a 2014 and the software may be better. In fact, the connection itself is much simpler and faster than my wife's former Lexus IS which was maddeningly slow _and_ Byzantine series of audio commands to connect (even already paired, if you had multiple phones in the system, switching them took forever).

Worst I ever have to do is open the bluetooth settings on my phone and manually click "Genesis Coupe" to prompt a connection but that's maybe once in fifteen connections and usually because I either didn't have the radio on when I powered up the car or didn't have bluetooth turned on the phone when I powered up the car.



But I completely agree that it is insane to get into a Chevy Cruze rental car and have the bluetooth work better in that than it does in my allegedly competing with the luxury brands sport coupe.

The 5.0 sedan or Equus would be the next logical step for me after enjoying my R Spec for a half dozen years, but there's no way I'm actually buying it until they turn one on and prove to me they've made the bluetooth interface worth more than about 25 cents.

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[Ntovorni]

My bluetooth actually pairs just fine and plays music with audio controls working. MUCH better than the Civic I HATED before, where if I put the phone in my pocket, or even in the cup holder, it would constantly unpair and get lost.

It's not a huge want. I just wish I could plug my phone in, have it charge, and play my music that way with album art and all.

I haven't tried the whole lightning to 30 pin adapter. That does work?

 

[jimjohnmarks]

My bluetooth actually pairs just fine and plays music with audio controls working.

Exact model of car?
Exact model of phone?

To be clear, I love the way the phone pairs. I just wish the steering wheel controls worked. Reaching for the phone to change tracks in a car as twitchy as the R-Spec in Houston traffic isn't a good idea.

I have a 2014. The iPhone 5 and thunderbolt was pretty new when they were getting ready to toll out those cars. It may be that in newer models the bluetooth has been updated to compensate for the lack of USB connectivity.

It's not a huge want. I just wish I could plug my phone in, have it charge, and play my music that way with album art and all.

Agreed.
It is stupid that a newer feature (bluetooth) offers less functionality than the thing it is replacing (USB). In the software world, regression is a pretty big no-no and is a sure fire way to lose all your customers.

I can sympathize with Hyundai that Apple's switch from USB to Firewire to Thunderbolt is obnoxious, but it isn't like they're a fringe part of the market or like only a handful of car owners want this kind of feature. It seems to me very much a "must have" functionality to keep selling cars you believe are competing with luxury brands. "Want a Hyundai? Replace your iPhone with a droid" doesn't seem like good marketing to me.

I haven't tried the whole lightning to 30 pin adapter. That does work?

I haven't either -- primarily because everything I've read suggests it doesn't work well at all and ultimately caused problems with people's phones.

There are also a lot of shiesters selling things online that they try hard to make _look like_ a proper adapter but which are really just a normal iPhone 5/6 cable with a converter on the end. You can usually tell because they're a lot cheaper than real adapters. Those _never_ work from what I can gather.

 

[diaster]

Use the adapter from old style iPhone to new style, works fine

 

[jimjohnmarks]

Use the adapter from old style iPhone to new style, works fine

Exactly what adapter do you mean? Every review of every adapter I've found available has been horrible.

 

[brun064]

I managed to get my '11 Genesis 4.6 w/ Tech Package to work with my iPhone 6. Here is what I did:

I purchased the Apple 30-pin to Lightning adapter. This was the normal block type adapter, not the dongle type, although that would likely also work. I also purchased a lightning extension cable (female lightning plug on one end, 3 ft of cable and a male lightning plug on the other). I used the "iPod cable" which has a 30-pin to USB/headphone jack as well. This gave me basic iPod control, charging (albeit very slow charging) and audio in. This also allows me to put my phone in a mount and still have audio/control through the cable. The configuration of keeping your phone in the center console doesn't really work for me.

What works:

1) When plugging in to the iPhone 6, 9/10 times it will switch to the "iPod mode" and display a list of playlists, artists, songs, albums, audio books, etc.
2) When switching between any form of media (such as from iPod from to radio) it automatically pauses the iPod. When switching back it will automatically play.
3) When drilling down into the artist/song menus, I can start a song or enable random/repeat and it will start playing accordingly. It will then go into a "Now Playing" screen which displays the full artist, album title and song title.
4) Next track/last track work as expected. I only used the steering wheel controls for this. This is the right and left buttons on the volume circle on the left side of the steering wheel. Holding down the button enters "fast foward" and "fast rewind" mode which is nice for podcasts.
5) When playing a podcast, the list of podcasts episodes are displayed allowing you to select the next episode. The "Now playing" menu is only active for music.
6) When you have any other app playing (such as pandora) and you click through the songs/select/RND/etc it will enter "now playing" mode and you can see the Pandora/app song title, album, artist, etc. This works even though the Pandora/app information isn't available via the "song/artist" menu.

Gripes/issues:

1) When you first plug in the iPhone, it will start playing the first song alphabetically in the "Music" app on repeat. Once you hit next track, it will play the next song and so on. It seems to have some memory of what was played, so if you skip this song, unplug and then plug back in, it will play the second song in your "Music" app. This might be an issue with the iPhone Music app, but it doesn't seem to do this in other cars.

2) Getting to the "Now playing" screen takes way to many clicks and it's not intuitive. I wish there was a way to just show this from start up. Instead you have to click through to the artist/song/etc just to bring this up. Without the "now playing" screen you just have the song name at the top. It would be nice to see a little more information on the screen by default. This is even more annoying if you use the "mode" to pause/play the media. I switch over to XM to "pause" my iPhone playback because there is no play pause button (I guess hitting the volume knob to turn off the whole system would also work). When switching back, the artist/song/playlist menu is displayed, not the "now playing" screen. Switching between "now playing" and the "iPod" list is, to me, the main issue here.

3) Once in the "now playing" screen, you cannot get back to the song/artist/playlist select screen without either unplugging and plugging back in the phone or switching media to a different source. When switching back to the iPod source, it will display the song/artist/playlists selection screen but you'll have to select something to display the "now playing" screen.

This set up isn't perfect, but it works OK. The sad part is that I had to drive some compact Nissan/Toyota's while on business recently and the iPhone integration is was amazing. All I had to do was plugin in my lightning cable and they started playing (and displaying) music without an issue. I used my normal charging cable, not something provided with the car. The cars themselves were pretty mediocre (what do you expect from a rental). For now, I'm OK with the current configuration but it's not ideal.

 

[jimjohnmarks]

I managed to get my '11 Genesis 4.6 w/ Tech Package to work with my iPhone 6. Here is what I did:

(removed totally insane thing you did which I barely understood)

The sad part is that I had to drive some compact Nissan/Toyota's while on business recently and the iPhone integration is was amazing. All I had to do was plugin in my lightning cable and they started playing (and displaying) music without an issue. I used my normal charging cable, not something provided with the car. The cars themselves were pretty mediocre (what do you expect from a rental). For now, I'm OK with the current configuration but it's not ideal.

This is fundamentally the problem I have. (ignoring for the moment that a solution for a 4.6 sedan with the tech package almost certainly will _NOT_ work on my 2.0T R Spec which not only doesn't have the tech package it has a lot of the standard tech stripped out to save weight.)

Hyundai clearly made a decision a few years ago to simply stop supporting Apple hardware. They expect you to pair by bluetooth only, not a hard line, and simply don't care that this means the steering wheel (and dash) controls will be useless to manipulate your device because the blue tooth connection is so mediocre. As you say, I've had rentals of cars which weren't anywhere near as "nice" of a car (forget that they're a rental, I wouldn't buy one) and yet both the bluetooth pairing and hardline connections are radically more up featured.

For all I know the new "Genesis" brand does a better job, but I sure as sh** won't be buying one, so I really couldn't care less. I'm just shocked and disappointed that such a large company is taking such a tepid line on supporting one of the two dominant phone hardware solutions on the global market. It's fundamentally tin eared.