A Music Streaming Snafu: Rivian's Apple Music Multi-Profile Issue

Rivian Mom · 2025-05-15T14:45:12+00:00

I've been using my phone's hotspot for months, and my Rivian connects to it automatically to run TuneIn and Spotify through the built-in apps on the main display. To be clear, this wasn’t Bluetooth streaming but actual phone data, and the apps worked perfectly without any issues. In Monday for the first time, I saw a Connect+ message pop up, even though the truck was linked to my phone’s data. I can still stream from my phone using Bluetooth, but the sound quality and user experience weren’t as good. This issue started between over-the-air software updates, though it might be tied to a specific date in the system. I tried a soft reset, but nothing changed. Has anyone heard if Rivian changed their policy on this? I remember Connect+ used to mention it provided "data" for streaming apps, suggesting you could use your own data instead. Now, it seems like you need Connect+ just to access the apps at all. I was surprised they allowed phone hotspots to work before, so this might be a deliberate change. I’m okay with paying for Connect+ if this isn’t just a temporary glitch. Any insights would be appreciated.

wildlife R1T

Member

Apr 3, 2025

Before I say anything else, I want to apologies if this comes off as a rant. I don’t begrudge Rivian making money and charging for things like data or Apple Music (even if Apple doesn’t charge for the app Rivian has to implement and support it). My problem is with their horrendous implementation.

I have three driver profiles on the car, myself, the wife, my kid. I signed myself in to Apple Music and it works great on my profile. When my kid goes to Apple Music they are promoted to log in, which they cannot do. They end up in an endless loop bringing them back to the login screen.

After talking with Rivian support it appears this is “as designed”. Which is frustrating as it means only my profile can use Apple Music and no one else can (I feel like this used to work with sharing the profile but could be totally making that up). I don’t know if this is an issue with Apple Music or Rivian’s implementation but it is absolutely ridiculous.

I’m also a little confused as I've had different apple accounts associated with different profiles before. Hoping it's a software glitch that would be fixed with a soft reset or a new update.

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