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AI Box Fix

Power & connectionReviewed

Head Unit Shows Only CarPlay? Switch the Box's Protocol

Car offers only Android Auto, or the box vanished after a mode change? Press the box's mode button 2–3 s or use the microSD file. Carlinkit TBox, Ottocast.

Quick answer

With the box powered and fully booted, press the recessed mode button next to its LED with a paper clip for 2–3 seconds, then release and let it restart in the other protocol. That worked for seven of the eight owners who reported back on Carlinkit boxes, and the community FAQ recommends it; older units need the protocol file on a microSD card or the option in the factory settings instead. Never hold the button for 10 seconds or more.

Symptoms

  • The head unit has only Android Auto (or only CarPlay), and the box shows nothing when you open that tile
  • You changed the protocol in the box's menu, or held its button, and now the car does not see it at all
  • The box's LED is green or blue and you do not know which mode it is in
  • The phone says to confirm on the car screen, but no prompt ever appears there
  • The protocol file on the memory card does nothing, or the file comes back empty

Applies to

Connection to the car
CarPlay and Android Auto
Head units mentioned in reports
Avatr Avatr head units; Chery / Exeed Chery and Exeed head units; Jetour Jetour head units
Highest risk on this page
Advanced
Status
Workaround confirmed by the community

Why it happens

An AI box pretends to be a phone. To the car it is either an iPhone running CarPlay or an Android phone running Android Auto, never both at once. Most Carlinkit boxes ship in CarPlay mode, so if your head unit offers only wired Android Auto, opening its tile shows nothing until you switch the box.

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The box connects to the head unit as either a CarPlay or an Android Auto device. Switching changes which tile on the head unit it answers to.

The same thing happens the other way round: a menu tap or a long button press can move a box into Android Auto in a car that only has CarPlay, and the car then seems to have lost it. Each method below changes the mode; which one your box accepts depends on its model, hardware revision and firmware. Older Ambient units with a blue-violet LED, for example, cannot switch by button and need the memory-card file.

Fixes, ranked

Press the mode button for 2–3 seconds on the running box

  • Safe
  • Time: 5 minutes
  • Worked for 7 of 8 reports
  • Recommended in the community FAQ
  1. Connect the box to the car or a USB charger and wait about a minute until it has fully booted.
  2. Find the small hole with the LED behind it. On the Ambient it is on the end of the case; on the Ultra 2 the LED is inside the case and hard to see.
  3. Insert a paper clip and press for 2–3 seconds, then release. The Ultra 3 product page gives 3 seconds and asks you to leave at least two minutes between switches.
  4. If the head unit shows a prompt asking whether to switch, accept it and let the box restart.
  5. Open the matching tile on the head unit: Android Auto after switching to Android Auto, CarPlay after switching to CarPlay.
  6. If nothing changed, wait two minutes and try again with a firmer press.
Prompt some boxes show after a short press of the mode button. Reconstructed screen, labels may differ by firmware.

Four TBox Ambient owners switched this way, including a Hyundai Santa Fe 2018 owner who uses Android Auto: the box connected the moment the mode changed. One needed three or four attempts, another a firmer press after the memory-card file had failed. Three TBox Ultra 2 owners brought their box back to CarPlay with a short press, one after switching it to Android Auto by accident in the factory settings. The community FAQ describes the button for newer units and the file for older ones.

One second-hand Ambient did not react to any number of presses; that unit was probably an older revision without button switching. Use the file method below on those.

Use the protocol-switch file on a microSD card

  • Safe
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Worked for 3 of 5 reports
  • Recommended in the community FAQ
  1. Ask Carlinkit support for the protocol-switch file for your model. There is one file for each direction.
  2. Format a microSD card as FAT32 on a computer.
  3. Copy only the file for the protocol you want to the root of the card. Do not leave the file for the other direction on the card.
  4. Insert the card into the box and confirm the switch prompt on the screen. Owners succeeded both with the box running and with the card inserted before power-on.
  5. After the restart, delete the file from the card, or it may switch the box again next time.

Three Ambient owners, one in an Exeed, switched with the file. Two others got nothing: on one box the file came back empty after the card was inserted, and on another the CarPlay file brought up the prompt but the Android Auto file did not. Both later switched with the button. When an owner could not get back to CarPlay with the second file, the first question from other owners was whether the Android Auto file was still on the card.

Change the protocol in the factory settings (2025 firmware and later)

  • Advanced
  • Time: 5 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. Open Settings → Other → Factory settings and enter 4545.
  2. Open the Other tab and change the CarPlay / Android Auto connection option.
  3. Confirm. The box restarts in the new mode.
  4. Before you change it, check that your head unit supports the mode you are choosing.

Two Ambient owners switched with this menu, one after forgetting it existed. Whether the option is there depends on the firmware. Be careful with it in a car that has only one protocol: one owner selected Android Auto here without knowing what it did, the box disappeared from the screen, and they needed the CarPlay file on a memory card to bring it back. More codes are on the engineering codes page.

Ottocast Picasou 2: set the value in the protocol file

  • Safe
  • Time: 15 minutes
  • Worked for 2 of 2 reports
  1. Get the protocol-switch package for the Picasou 2 from Ottocast support and unzip it on a computer.
  2. Copy the file to the root of the microSD card and set the value inside: 1 for Android Auto, 0 for CarPlay.
  3. Power the box off, insert the card, and power it on.
  4. Delete the file from the card, then power the box off and on again.

Two owners switched a Picasou 2 to Android Auto this way, and the launcher icon on the head unit changed from CarPlay to Android Auto. The switch did not erase their data. One owner on a Picasou 3 could not switch with the reset button, so use the file on that model too until Ottocast confirms otherwise.

Picasou 3: switch to CarPlay if Android Auto keeps failing

  • Safe
  • Time: 5 minutes
  • Worked for 1 of 1 report
  1. If the head unit shows an error and only an exit button when the box is in Android Auto, check whether it also offers wired CarPlay.
  2. Switch the box to CarPlay.
  3. Open the CarPlay tile.

A Picasou 3 owner in a GAC GS8 got an error screen in Android Auto; after switching to CarPlay the box worked. Android Auto is stricter than CarPlay about matching date and time between the box and the head unit, so check both clocks if you want to stay on Android Auto.

TBox Ultra: update firmware if Android Auto never connects

  • 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. Check which firmware the box runs (Settings → About).
  2. Install the latest official build for your model with a local update, as described in update TBox firmware with FOTA.
  3. Switch the box to Android Auto with a 2–3 second button press.
  4. Accept the connection prompt that now appears on the head unit.

An Ultra 2 owner in an Avatr could only connect in CarPlay: in Android Auto the phone side asked to confirm on the car screen, but no prompt ever appeared. After installing the August 2026 firmware (the 21 Aug build, made for the Ultra 4), the prompt appeared and Android Auto worked. Another owner running that build on an Ultra 1 heard buzzing in CarPlay and occasional crackle in Android Auto, so test audio afterwards.

Things to try (unverified)

  • Phone Android Auto through a box in CarPlay mode looks small and blurry. On a CarPlay-only car, a Picasou 3 Pro owner bridged their phone’s Android Auto through the box and got a low-resolution, soft picture, while the box’s own screen was sharp. Replies explained the double conversion (Android over CarPlay, then the phone’s Android Auto inside it) and that results depend on the car, the box and the phone. No fix was reported; if you only need phone apps on a CarPlay-only car, a simple CarPlay-to-Android Auto adapter does that job more directly.
  • Picasou 3 reset-button method. One owner said they switched a Picasou 3 several times by pressing and holding the recessed button on the underside right after the LED lights, on the latest OTA firmware. The owner who followed those steps could not get it to switch.
  • Ottocast Nano. A reply said holding reset for 3 seconds, then a short press, switches the Nano. Nobody reported trying it.
  • Old Carlinkit TBox Plus and UHD. The community device list says the UHD switches with a button press and older boxes need the file. No owner of these models reported back in the threads reviewed.

If the sound turns bad after switching to Android Auto, a factory reset or turning off voice-assistant hot-words fixed it for owners; see noise after switching to Android Auto. If the car still ignores the box in the right mode after a cold start, see car doesn’t detect the AI box.

If nothing works

Note the box model, hardware revision (the LED colour helps tell TBox Ambient revisions apart) and firmware date from Settings → About, the car’s make, model, year and head unit, which protocols the head unit supports by cable, and every method you tried with what happened. A video of the LED during the button press is useful.

Send that to the manufacturer’s support channel: Carlinkit at [email protected], Ottocast at [email protected]. If the box no longer boots at all after a long button press, it needs the recovery procedure rather than a protocol switch. If your head unit supports neither wired CarPlay nor wired Android Auto, no protocol switch will help; start here explains which boxes need which connection.

Parts the fixes above need

  • microSD card (32 GB or smaller, formatted FAT32)

    Local firmware updates, reset files and protocol-switch files are read from a FAT32 card.

Related fixes

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Changelog

  • Last reviewed against new community reports:
  • Confirmed by 16 community reports on Carlinkit TBox Ambient, Carlinkit TBox Ultra 2, Ottocast Picasou 2, Ottocast Picasou 3.
  • 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.