My wife is thinking of changing here old Motorola to a new i Phone SE or 13 Mini and I may do the same a little later.  These currently seem to come with a cable with Lightning connector at phone end and USB C connector at the other, preumably fine for newer Karoqs but not mine with old style USBs.  You can buy Lightning cables with an older USB plug at the other end, maybe made by Apple, but certainly 3rd party ones.

 

However experience with my Motorola (advised several times at shops etc. at least with Android phones) tells me that you tend to to have to use the cable that comes with the phone, but these have got all mixed up with other cables at home and I've never been able to find a cable that successfully links my phone to the car older USB slot, for say using Google maps.  Bluetooth connection works fine for phone calls and contacts listing though.

 

The question is, will I be able to connect a new iPhone with a non supplied cable, not supplied with the phone, to my 4yr old car & its 4yr old USBs or is this just an Android peculiarity.  Any help appreciated.

While I definitely would suggest to buy a good quality, possibly more expensive cable(to buy one good, rather than many cheap every few months), any cable which allows for data transfer for iPhone will work. Usually it's included on the packaging of the cable.

Alternatively, you can buy a USB A to C adapter, llke this: Syntech USB C Female to USB Male Adapter Pack of 3. I have this one, and works great.

 

If I'm not mistaken you are trying to use Android Auto / CarPlay. On newer versions of Android, when you plug a cable in and connect, you might need to select the specific option which says File Transfer/Android Auto, in order to enable the car to communicate with the phone and use Android Auto.

On iPhone, it should detect and offer you the option right away.

After successful connection, you'll need to do an initial setup for both systems, then it should work fine.

 

Edited 23 July, 20232 yr by MrSecretPotato

Thanks for that info, very useful. Wife got the iPhone 13 mini on Monday from J Lewis & after a suggestion by the salesman, I found I could take the SIM out of her 7yr old Motorola, remove the outer layer reducing it's size to Micro, put it in the iPhone & it worked straight off.  Must say the phone does do very nice photos too - actually I suspect artifially enhanced / too good to be true, but the misses likes that. It copes well with bright lights mixed in with darkish backgrounds so much better than the Motorola.  Will do a U-Switch in the next few weeks as O2 put up the price alot after taking over from Virgin and roaming is extra, but that's all OT.

 

I got a couple of Anker Lightning cables with from Amazon (under £8 - Apple ones £19), but awaiting some extra USB C to A adaptors for the car.  Will try connecting the cable to the car in a few weeks - which may test my brain to the limit - old monkeys & new tricks syndrome.

Anker is one of the leading companies in this space. I have a really nice power brick from them, the Anker 735 GaN Charger. I only take this with me for any trip, it charges our phones, laptop, camera, drone no problem. Got it a year ago, along with 3 cables, no issues what so ever. Pricey, but I definitely recommend it.

 

Connecting it should be fairly straightforward, just follow the steps on the screen of the car and the phone. Takes minutes. If any problem, just write here, I'll do my best to help.