Tip: Fix problems with the Apple Music remote control in the car

For me, the fact that passengers can determine the music in the car is one of the best new functions in CarPlay. This works wonderfully with my wife and one of my daughters. With my second daughter, however, it doesn’t work out, the connection does not come about. The scanning of the special QR code in Apple Music does not help either. Sometimes the meaningless error message “Function is not available” appears. How could that be?

In principle, at least iOS 17 must run on all iPhones involved so that Apple is available to the function under “SharePlay”.

Also check on the unruly iPhone whether the function “for contacts nearby” is activated in “Settings> Apps> Music”.

If this is not the case, turn it on. This must also be active on your iPhone-but what can be assumed, otherwise the music remote control works correctly.

In addition, the radio interfaces WLAN and Bluetooth must not be switched off.

Most likely, however, they ran into a hidden age restriction.

In the meantime, Apple has also designed the corresponding error message somewhat more informative, where the note “The age specified in your account does not appear to be the minimum age for this function”.

In our experience, German Apple accounts can only use the SharePlay function from the age of 16-a bizarre restriction. For US accounts, the age limit seems to be 13 years. We are not aware of any way to adapt this requirement.

A workaround would be to flee in the age of Apple account, but this has an impact with regard to other age limits during screen time or child locking, which may be undesirable.