Tune and Apple CarPlay

Tune Remote, the iPhone app for Tune, shows up on your car's screen through Apple CarPlay. You get your recent plays, favourites, playlists and radios, and you control playback from the screen or the steering wheel. The sound comes out of the iPhone, so it plays through the car's speakers.

What you need

• A car that supports Apple CarPlay (wired or wireless, depending on the car) and an iPhone running iOS 17 or later.
• Tune Remote from TestFlight, build 38 or later. CarPlay appeared with build 38; older builds do not behave as described here. Install the app from the public link: https://testflight.apple.com/join/pcyu1hMm. The build number is shown in the TestFlight app, next to the version.
• A Tune server already chosen in the app: you have opened Tune Remote on the iPhone at least once and finished connecting to the server. Until then, the car shows "Open Tune on your iPhone to choose a server".
• To listen away from home, remote access: see below.

Getting started, step by step

1. On the iPhone, install Tune Remote from TestFlight (build 38 or later) and open it once.
2. Choose your Tune server and check that your library shows up. To listen away from home, also set up remote access now (see below).
3. Plug the iPhone into the car, or connect it wirelessly, as for any CarPlay app.
4. On the car screen, open the CarPlay app list and tap Tune. The app connects to the server by itself, even if the iPhone stays locked in your pocket.
5. Tap a track, a playlist or a radio: playback starts and the Now Playing screen opens.

If the Tune icon is not in the list, you can add or move it from the iPhone: Settings › General › CarPlay, then your car's name.

What you find in the car

The screen is made only of Apple's standard screens. A tab bar gives access to four lists:

The Now Playing screen

It opens as soon as you start music. It shows the artwork, the title and the artist, and offers play/pause, next and previous track, and the position. The steering wheel buttons work like the lock screen controls of the iPhone. Three buttons are added: Shuffle, Repeat and the zone choice (speaker icon). The Up next button opens the queue from the current track: tap a line to jump to it.

The "This phone" zone

In the car, Tune always plays on the This phone zone: the iPhone itself reads the music stream sent by the server, so the sound comes out through the car ("Sound through the car"). This is true at home and away. At the start of a CarPlay session, Tune selects this zone for you, and creates it on the server if it does not exist yet.

• The zone you were using in the app (the living room, for example) is neither stopped nor changed.
• When you unplug or leave CarPlay, if the app is still on "This phone", it goes back to the zone it had before.
• The "Playing on …" line at the top of Recent is informational: it does not change the zone.
• The speaker button on the Now Playing screen opens the Play on list: This phone first (checked when active), then your other zones (Zones heading). If you pick another zone, the music plays there and no longer in the car; tap This phone to come back.
• If the audio output disappears (the phone disconnects from the car, for example), the "This phone" zone pauses instead of restarting on the iPhone speaker.

Listening away from home

At home, the iPhone reaches the server directly on the local network. Away from your home Wi-Fi, you need remote access: the iPhone then reaches the server only through Tune Bridge, the relay run by mozaiklabs.fr. The relay carries both the commands and the music stream to "This phone". Without it, the car shows "Tune server unreachable".

The app first tries the server on the local network (about two seconds), then the relay. There are two ways to prepare this access, to be done once, from home:

• Remote listening with your mozaiklabs account: in Tune Remote, sign in to your mozaiklabs account. The server must be linked to that account and have remote listening, which depends on the server's subscription (otherwise the app says "Remote listening is not included for this server"). Only one device can listen remotely at a time per account.
• Tune Bridge pairing: in the Settings of the Tune web client, turn on remote access, then scan the QR code or paste the pairing link in Tune Remote. The link contains a secret token; do not share it.

In both cases, the Tune server must be on, connected to the Internet and connected to Tune Bridge (remote access enabled on the server). Over 4G or 5G, expect a short delay when connecting and when a track starts; sound quality depends on the iPhone's bandwidth.

Known limits

• No search. This is an Apple rule: a CarPlay audio app cannot ask for text input. To find a track, add it to your favourites or a playlist before leaving, or start it from the iPhone.
• List length. CarPlay caps the number of rows in a list, and the cap depends on the device and the car. Tune follows it: it counts every row of the tab, headings included, and cuts the end when there are too many. In Recent, the "Playing on …" line counts too, and Tune only reads the last 60 plays. Favourite what you want within reach.
• Four tabs, no page browsing. No browsing of the library, artists or genres in the car.
• Listening zone. At startup, Tune selects "This phone" without asking for a zone.
• An iPhone is required, with Tune Remote: CarPlay is an Apple feature.
• Volume is set on the steering wheel or on the car, as for any audio source.

Troubleshooting

The Tune icon does not appear in CarPlay

• Check the build in TestFlight: it must be 38 or later. If not, update the app.
• On the iPhone: Settings › General › CarPlay, your car, then check that Tune is not hidden.
• Unplug and plug the iPhone again (or turn the wireless link off and on). If needed, restart the iPhone, then the car screen.
• If a TestFlight update was just installed, open Tune Remote once on the iPhone before reconnecting.

The screen says "Open Tune on your iPhone to choose a server"

No server has been chosen yet. Open Tune Remote on the iPhone, finish connecting to the server, then go back to the car.

The screen says "Tune server unreachable" or the lists stay empty

• At home: is the iPhone on the same network as the server, and is the server on?
• Away: was remote access set up from home, and is the server on and connected to Tune Bridge? Check in Tune Remote: if the app itself cannot connect remotely either, the car will not manage to.
• "Nothing here yet" only means the list is empty: add favourites or play something.

Nothing plays, or playback does not start

• A "Playback failed" alert appears: the server refused the request. Try again, and look at the details in Tune Remote.
• The track may be unavailable (streaming service disconnected on the server, file missing).
• Away from home, the mobile connection is weak: the stream takes longer to start. Wait a few seconds.
• If the Now Playing screen shows a zone other than "This phone", switch back to This phone with the speaker button.
• If remote playback stopped because you are listening on another device of the same account, start it again: only one remote listening at a time per account.

The sound comes from the iPhone, not from the car

Check in the iPhone's Control Center that the audio output is the car. The "This phone" zone pauses if that output disappears, and does not restart on the speaker by itself.