I'm the owner of a 2021 Venture model 4Runner, I have put 1K miles on it so far. First Toyota and first 4Runner. I was driving back from dropping my daughter off at school, and noticed nothing was playing on my stereo. I had my iphone 11 pro plugged in via USB, and Spotify was playing through Apple Carplay. I thought at first maybe I lost cell signal. I had full 5G service, and I could see the timer still counting on the display as if it were playing the song. I tried adjusting volume, volume on the phone etc. nothing. I then unplugged the iPhone, and selected Radio FM as the source. As I cycled through the settings I could hear the beeps in the system so the speakers seemed to be functional. Selected a local FM radio station, no audio. Went to AM, same thing, no audio. Volume up/ down, nothing. I hit the button to turn it off, and it displayed "Audio Off" so I know it was actually on to begin with. Finally, I pulled over, turned the truck off, turned it back on, and the radio was blaring! I plugged my iphone back in and viola! Spotify was playing and the audio was coming through just fine.....
I am not taking it to the Dealer with the problem not happening, as that is just an exercise in futility. Has anyone seen or heard of this issue? Am I going to be chasing some gremlin in this system?? This is really annoying and hopefully it was just a fluke, but would love to see if anyone else has had this.

Technology in general, not just the T4R, has "quirks" all the time.


I haven't seen or heard of many issues with the setup in 4runners, but that doesn't mean they don't exist. It could be anything. (iPhone, IOS or the cable, etc)

I don't have a carplay system in my T4R, but I have 2 other Toyotas with carplay and they have been solid.

If it's only happened once and it was solved by a "reboot" I wouldn't sweat it.

Remember the famous line from the IT department....... "Did you turn it off and back on again"

I've got about 10k miles on my 2020 with I believe the same head unit and haven't had anything like this happen that I can recall but I don't use CarPlay much. I usually just use Spotify via Bluetooth cause I can't be bothered to plug in my phone every time I drive lol.

You may want to look into updating the firmware.

Suggestion, if this happens again, you should video what its doing and/or not doing with your phone.
Video what it takes or doesn't take to get it back online.
With that video, and a visit to the dealership, any reputable dealership will fix it either by updating firmware (if needed) or replacing the HU.

When we first got our 2016 SR5 and not used to all the steering wheel controls, I accidently hit the "Mode/Hold" button on the steering wheel. The audio shut off and I didn't know what had happened, nor which button I had hit. I shut off the vehicle and after spending a lot of time reading the Nav/Multimedia manual I found what all the switches do and figured out what I had done by accident: I hit the MUTE button. Look up Mode/Hold switch function (page 114 in my 2016 manual) in your Nav/Multimedia Manual as I am sure the page numbers are different for your 2021

Not saying this is what you did, but your experience sounds like what happened to me. Just thought I would suggest this possibility. Hope this helps.

You're not alone... it happened in my 21 limited with less than 1000 miles. Bluetooth was connected, no audio. Restarted the truck and it was back to normal. Haven't happened since.

IMO its just a minor glitch in the MATRIX. Turn off, count to 10, turn on. Fixed. Thats how you repair cellphones, computers, and apparently trucks now. Things THEY don't want you to know!