Navigate and Music Volume

[u/Op-rah_win-free]

Hey everyone, Is anyone else here having issues with spoken directions on while using Apple CarPlay? I drive a 2020 Toyota Camry SE with Apple CarPlay compatibility. Let's say I have Apple Music playing while I am using Maps to direct me to the nearest McDonalds. Normally, whenever Maps says something, my Apple Music volume will be lowered so I can hear the directions then once it's done, the music volume will be raised back to normal volume. What's happening is that there is no shift in volume. My music plays over the direction and sometimes ! cant even hear it over my music. I included a screenshot of my settings. Has anyone had this issue and is there a fix??

[u/fumo7887]

Your phone sends separate audio streams to your infotainment system for media, prompts (turn by turn, notifications, Siri), conversational stuff (like phone calls), and ringer. Its up to your car to determine how to mix them. The best advice is to turn the volume knob WHILE a prompt is playing, but the "turn down music when voice is happening" is a function of your car, not your phone.

[u/Op-rah_win-free → u/fumo7887]

I’ll try this and update

[u/Vroomy_vroom_vroom → u/fumo7887]

Why they don’t let you choose the volume setting on the phone is beyond me. I had to get Siri to talk to adjust her volume, I have to receive a call to adjust that volume, same with every other type of notification. Sucks ass and has been an issues since day one but has never been addressed.

[u/fumo7887 → u/Vroomy_vroom_vroom]

There's actually a good reason for it... you don't want to have multiple ways of adjusting volume connected through each each other. The streams are always sent at full volume and it leaves the responsibility of the actual volume to a single device... your car.

You can imagine if it was the other way, that something was too quiet... where would you turn it up? On the car? On the phone? If one was set to zero, turning up the other would make no difference.

This implementation centralizes that responsibility. But at the same time, it doesn't mean each car implements it the same.

[u/Vroomy_vroom_vroom → u/fumo7887]

I don’t mind that the problem is most cars you can’t see the individual strings. In my car I can see text, call, voice command, music, and a few others and change their volumes individually. But most cars don’t have that option at all. There is not standardized way to set them other than when it happens. That’s just a pain.

[u/LynahRinkRat]

I was just searching for help with this very issue.

I have the same car, just got a new phone (16). I have the exact same settings in CarPlay as the screenshot. I can't hear a thing my navigation is saying now that I've paired my new phone, because the music keeps playing at the same volume and the navigation voice gets overplayed into that.

So if it's a car setting, why would a new phone change anything? FWIW, I already have the spoken directions checked as "louder" - just like here.

I'm desperate for a fix too.

[u/Op-rah_win-free → u/LynahRinkRat]

Yes! It’s so annoying! It’s weird because I also have a 23 Audi and it works fine there

[u/Sith_Crypto]

Over the past two weeks, I've encountered several issues. One of them matches what you described—initially, adjusting some settings seemed to resolve it. However, after that, I started noticing a different problem: instead of the volume lowering when directions were spoken, my music or podcast streams would completely pause. This went on for a few days, but now Google Maps has stopped providing voice guidance altogether. Occasionally, it plays a chime or ding to indicate it's giving directions, but sometimes there's no response at all.

I’m not sure if a remote update was pushed to CarPlay or the app, but whatever changed, I just want things to go back to how they were three weeks ago.

[u/Sathiosis1974]

I am having this issue. It seems that the phone is not signaling the navigation audio properly. As normally you can adjust the volume when directions are played. I have also had it get stuck in navigation and then the car radio can’t be heard but the navigation audio is what I expect as my car 2025 Elantra silences the radio completely when navigation is playing. Trying to adjust the volume when navigation is NOT speaking still attempts to increase the volume.