Skip to content
AI Box Fix

Audio & callsReviewed

Car Radio Goes Silent When the AI Box Is Plugged In

Car radio stops when your AI box connects or speaks a prompt? Set the alert app to lower audio, not take over. Firmware notes for Carlinkit TBox and UX999.

Quick answer

Open your speed-camera or navigation alert app, switch on its option to lower other audio during alerts and set it as the box's navigation app, so its prompts duck the car's radio instead of switching the head unit over to the box. Three of the four owners who tried this kept their radio. If the radio stops the moment the box connects, that is how most head units treat a CarPlay or Android Auto source; play your stations through an internet radio app on the box instead, as the community FAQ recommends.

Symptoms

  • The car's FM radio stops the moment the box finishes booting
  • Every speed-camera or navigation alert pauses the radio, and you have to restart it on the head unit
  • After a prompt the head unit will not let you go back to FM until you restart the box
  • The radio used to keep playing under prompts, and stopped after a firmware update

Applies to

Connection to the car
CarPlay and Android Auto
Head units mentioned in reports
Haval / GWM GWM head units; Volkswagen MIB 2.5
Firmware in confirmed reports
ApplePie UX999 Rocket: 2026-03
Highest risk on this page
Advanced
Status
Workaround confirmed by the community

Why it happens

To the head unit, the box is a CarPlay or Android Auto device, and those count as a media source like USB or Bluetooth audio. When the box asks for the media audio channel, the head unit switches its source from the radio to the box. That is why the radio goes quiet as soon as the box connects, and the community FAQ treats that case as normal behaviour rather than a fault.

Prompts are different. A navigation prompt sent on the navigation channel is mixed over whatever is playing, so the radio only dips. An app that speaks on the media channel instead makes the head unit switch source, and the radio stays off after the alert. A moderator added that two apps talking at once, for example the navigation app and a speed-camera app, can switch off the stock radio even when each one alone does not.

How well this works also depends on the firmware and the head unit. Owners saw the radio come back after prompts on one firmware build and not on the next, and on a TBox Plus the radio returned after a while where an Ultra kept it off.

Fixes, ranked

Make your alert app lower the radio instead of taking over

  • Safe
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Worked for 3 of 4 reports
  1. Open your speed-camera or alert app’s settings and find its sound or audio section.
  2. Find the option that lowers other audio during alerts (often called “duck” or “lower music volume”). Switch it off and on once, and leave it on.
  3. If the app lets you choose an audio channel or stream, pick the navigation channel. A different channel can also change the voice quality, so try each one.
  4. On the box, set this app as the default navigation app (Settings → Apps → Default apps, or the navigation-app option in the box’s launcher settings), so the system sends its voice down the navigation channel.
  5. Start the radio on the head unit, switch to the box, and trigger a test alert.

A TBox Plus owner in a Haval Dargo found every alert from their speed-camera app paused the radio. Turning the app’s lower-music option off did nothing; with it switched on, the pausing stopped. Another owner had the same problem and cleared it by flicking that switch off and on.

An owner in the TBox Ultra group made it work by registering the camera-alert app as the box’s navigation app and leaving the navigation app as an ordinary app. The box now lowers the radio, speaks and restores it; once in a while the first alert of a drive still switches the source over. A TBox Ultra 2 owner using the same settings that worked on their Ambient got nothing, on several firmware builds.

Go back to an official firmware build on which the radio resumed

  • Advanced
  • Time: 45 minutes
  • Worked for 2 of 2 reports

Warranty warning: this uses developer or engineering access. Follow the undo steps afterwards; some sellers refuse warranty claims on units with debugging left enabled.

  1. Note your firmware date under Settings → About.
  2. Ask Carlinkit support ([email protected]) for the earlier official build for your exact model.
  3. Install it with the FOTA app’s local update; the FOTA update guide has every step.
  4. Test the radio with a navigation prompt before you reinstall all your apps.

In mid-2024 two owners of Carlinkit TBox units rolled back to the April 2024 build; the radio came back after prompts and no longer paused. A TBox Ambient owner with a Kia head unit kept the radio on the June build, which shows how much the head unit matters. The moderators asked owners to report the change to Carlinkit support, so a newer build may behave differently again.

Hand the source back with the steering-wheel media button

  • Safe
  • Time: 1 minute
  • Worked for 1 of 2 reports
  1. When the radio does not come back after a prompt, press the media or source button on the steering wheel.
  2. If that does not switch back to FM, select FM on the head unit.

A TBox Ambient owner gets the radio back this way after the box keeps the audio channel. The owner who asked could not: their head unit refused to switch while the box held the channel, and only restarting the box helped.

UX999 Rocket: update to the March 2026 firmware

  • Advanced
  • Time: 30 minutes
  • Worked for 1 of 1 report

Warranty warning: this uses developer or engineering access. Follow the undo steps afterwards; some sellers refuse warranty claims on units with debugging left enabled.

  1. Open the box’s update app and check for a firmware update.
  2. Install it and let the box restart.
  3. Play the head unit’s radio and trigger a test alert from your alert app.

An ApplePie UX999 Rocket owner reported that the March 2026 firmware fixed sound mixing that had cut out their alert app while radio played. On a VW Tiguan with a Discover Pro MIB 2.5 head unit, the head unit’s radio and a test alert from the box now both play.

Play your stations through an internet radio app on the box

  • Safe
  • Time: 10 minutes
  • Recommended in the community FAQ
  1. Install an internet radio app on the box that carries your local stations.
  2. Add it to your launcher or a split-screen preset next to the navigation app.
  3. With the box’s SIM or a hotspot, play the station from the box instead of the head unit.

This is what the community FAQ recommends for the case where the radio stops as soon as the box connects: the head unit’s source belongs to the box, so let the box play the radio too. Prompts then mix with the stream inside the box, and nothing has to switch sources.

Things to try (unverified)

  • Turn alert voices off in one of two apps. If your navigation app and a camera app both talk, let only one of them speak. A moderator said two at once switch the radio off; nobody reported testing it.
  • Remove and reinstall the alert app with its data cleared. Suggested to the Haval Dargo owner before they found the setting in Fix 1; not tried.
  • Switch the box’s protocol and back. Suggested to a TBox Ultra owner whose radio started cutting out after the car stood for two days; no report back. See switching between CarPlay and Android Auto.
  • Third-party firmware. One owner said that on a third-party build navigation prompts duck the radio while Carlinkit builds switch the source; they had turned prompts off and were not sure. See third-party firmware before considering it.

If nothing works

Write down the box model and firmware date (Settings → About), the car’s make, model, year and head unit, the protocol, and which app’s sound makes the radio stop. Note whether it happens with every prompt or only some (“turn right” versus a camera warning).

Send that to the seller or to Carlinkit at [email protected], mentioning the firmware on which it last worked. If your head unit always switches source and none of the settings help, playing radio from the box is the reliable route; start here if you want to compare boxes. For prompts that crackle rather than cut the radio, see crackling or muffled sound.

Related fixes

Did this work for you?

Tell us which fix worked (or didn't), with your box, firmware date and car. Reports are how fixes get confirmed and re-ranked.

Send a report

Changelog

  • Last reviewed against new community reports:
  • Confirmed by 7 community reports on Carlinkit TBox Plus, Carlinkit TBox Ambient, ApplePie UX999 Rocket.
  • Page updated:

"Confirmed" means a community member reported that the fix worked on their unit. We have not tested it on our own hardware. How we verify.