2021 model - stereo lost all audio sound

T

Titan_Bow

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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.
 
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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.
 
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! :happens:
 
Reset holding volume/power knob down. Checked both fuse boxes. Disconnect battery cable for a good couple of hours. I believe it burnt the amp. It did smell a little funny at the time I was blasting some new music, like some electronics smoke smell. No smoke detected.
 
My 2021 Limited has same problem. For me turning the car on / off didn’t fix the problem. I did reset the head unit, still not working. Just wondering if anyone got any other tips? Really don’t want to take it to the dealer for this
 
Titan_Bow said:
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.
Click to expand...

Likely the related to the issues we've been having with Apple's recent 5.0 iOS update. Apparently it's been as big of an issue as when iOS 13 was bricking and spazzing out headunits in the past. The list of symptoms I have run into and have been told fall under this "temporary issue" is vast and encompassing...

Supposedly Apple should have a stable update that fixes the issue (it's been confirmed to be an Apple software side of things, not Toyota... at least according to the engineers...) The best part is that the current "best" fix is to factory reset the customer's phone, headunit, update to the latest iOS version (5.1 or newer) and then have the customer manually reload the phone. The issue seems to be something about the cloud services transferring back up data on customer's phones or when a customer switches phones and all their data gets migrated it has a bunch of junk code that is not playing well when it connects to the headunit (even with AppleCarPlay).

That being said, take a video next time it happens; provide all the information of your phone, service provider, iOS version, etc. and have the Dealer log it and ship it off to Toyota; I know they've been saying that they are working on something on their end to "fix" Apple's issue but they usually take weeks if not months with those things.
 
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2021 TRD Pro Radio Lost sound

I had the same thing happen in my 2021 TRD Pro 2 weeks ago. Was listening to Apple Car Play and lost all sound. Radio doesn't even beep when you push the buttons and volume numbers don't show up either. I was wondering if you ever figured out what the issue was? I have had it into my dealer and they are "stumped" lol
 
Anyone ever figure this out? Had this happen three time over the last few months. Happened with and without phone plugged in, always on start, always rectified by restarting.
 
Been lucky thus far with this issue but now I have it too. 2021 venture non-JBL. Had a IPhone 11 Pro Max corded to the truck and never had an issue but now I upgraded to a IPhone 15 Pro and having dead air over car play. Holding power to reset sometimes works sometimes not. Took the phone off Bluetooth connections for audio and phone thinking it was the issue. Now when it does connect to car play the volume is loud and can’t be controlled for a few minutes by pausing and playing multiple times until the volume is controllable.
So what I’ve noticed is a visual lag between the head unit display of pause/play and the phone display pause/play one shows you pausing while the other shows it playing. This makes me think it’s a lag of some sort between the two and it eventually catches up. The new phone is a USB C so it requires a USB C to USB A cord. Apple gives you a USB C to USB C so using an Apple cord isn’t possible I’m using a Anker brand cord so a decent brand. Anyone have any suggestions with these issues or found the workaround besides getting a new head unit??
 
TOYO74 said:
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.
Click to expand...
Thank you for this reply!
I have been going crazy for days trying to figure this out.
Most posts I found automatically assumed a problem with the car itself, but I knew it was probably something stupid like this.
 
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