Third Party Music App Control iOS

[Sabbath6915]

Hi Everyone,

I’m dealing with what I think may be a unique situation so I’m looking for some insight. I have an iPhone (iOS 16.4.1) connected to my cemeteries console USB port via Apple USB to Lightning in my 2013 128i. I do not want to deviate from this arrangement because I want to charge my phone while driving and because it allows lossless audio playback. I use Roon ARC for music although I’d bet the same situation applies to something like Plexamp (haven’t tested). My issue is while I can see current track name on my head unit display (BMW professional Harman Kardon, non-nav) when I first press play on my phone, the track names do not update automatically unless I use the skip forward steering wheel control button. Furthermore, skip backward doesn’t work. I can press the track button on the head unit to see accurate track names, then use the return button and all is well. Aside from that, the car never seems to index my library from this app, whether or not the music is downloaded locally or streamed. If I try to navigate using the artist, album, genre, etc. buttons, it only pulls information from the Music app. This means I have to control any changes to what I’m listening to from my phone. Even more strange is that if I delete Apple Music entirely from my phone, thinking maybe the car gets “confused” between the two music apps (Roon ARC is not able to be set as the default music app on iOS), I get absolutely no metadata, not even track names to display using the workaround I mentioned earlier, the head unit readout is just blank. I’m thoroughly and confused and looking for some help. Thanks!