Grrrrrr, it happened again last night. Here's the scenario.

I have the Y-cable connected via an adapter to a pass-through ProClip mount. Get in may car after work, drop my iPhone 6 Plus in to the mount, put in the key, switch the head unit to iPod. As is pretty normal, it has "forgotten" what it was last playing (a Slacker app channel) and just starts playing the first track that's on the device. I fire up the MLB At Bat app and tune in to the last couple of innings of the Red Sox game and head off to Costco for shopping and gas.

I get to Costco, turn off the engine, pull out the key, and remove my iPhone from the mount. I do a little shopping come out, go through the same process as before: drop the iPhone into the mount, put the key in, switch over to iPad.

But this time, I get about a second of music from the device, and then I hear the radio again. On the head unit, I can no longer select iPod; the selections are AUX and USB.

I fiddle with the connections. They are all tight. I unplug and re-plug the USB cable. I know it's working because the iPhone recognizes getting power. I pull out the iPhone and cycle the power. I remove my key from the ignition and re-insert it. Nothing works. My iPhone just is not recognized at all. It literally went from there to not there.

I stop for gas. When I am done, I am in the same predicament. I'm stuck with the radio for the drive home.

When I get in my car to go to work, I drop my iPhone into the cradle, put the key into the ignition, and what do I see? iPod is again available to select. My iPhone is once again "seen" by the head unit.

This has happened randomly ever since I bought my MINI. It doesn't happen very often, but this is the clearest case (I can remember) where it was plugged in and recognized one moment, and then the next moment not. (Usually, when this happens, it's not recognized as soon as it is plugged in.) Its return to recognition is as random is its disappearance.

Does anyone have a similar issue with their Y-cable, and is this an issue that a dealer could actually diagnose (especially as it is so random) and fix?

 

This happens to me often. I've chalked it up to random quirks of the crappy Mini/BMW audio interface.

Things to check are making sure your connections are clean and tight. Once a week I unplug and replug in all the phones connections. That seems to help.

Other items are the lightning cable connection, it gets dirty. Wipe it with an alcohol wipe now and then and make sure the port on the phone is clean.

 

I lose my AUX every once in a while and when I lose that, I also lose my Blue tooth. Magically it all comes back later on. I have learned to go with the flow.

 

I've never had my radio remember what was last playing on my iPhone through the y-cable. I always have to open up Spotify (or whatever) on my phone and start playing something THEN plug it in to force it to use that app or it will start playing from the stock Music app (which has nothing in it, so nothing plays and it just sits there with "Unknown" in the now playing screen). I've also had the issue where plugging it in charges it, but it doesn't actually let me use anything (the USB option on my HU stays greyed out) until I unplug it and plug it back in (sometimes more than once). It happens once or twice a week, but I agree with danjreed that it's just crap software and accept it at this point. Sometimes during my drive, it'll even disconnect itself and stop playing (usually when I'm coming in and out of service on my phone, probably a Spotify issue but who knows) and I'll have to fish for my phone, disconnect it, reopen Spotify, and plug it back in.

I don't think there's anything the dealer could do about it but shrug and offer an apology, if that.

On the other hand, with Connected I can stream audio over Bluetooth and that has never failed to pair and start playing from whatever I was doing within seconds of starting the car whether or not I want it to. Go figure.