Z120BT-- not able to "select" music/songs through head unit...

[Dro]

Hi. Apologies in advance if this has been addressed previously (or if it's a stupid question). I looked, and didn't see any topics about this exact issue.

 

I've had a Z120BT for years now, and it's always worked perfectly. I have the cable installed that allows me to hook up my iPod/iPhone, in order to play music. I have an old iPod touch (pre-lightning connection model), and an iPhone 5S (and the "lightning" adapter, which I have to use when I hook up my iPhone to the head unit). I have a lot of different music on each device, and I've been using my old iPod in my car, pretty much exclusively, for a while now. I haven't updated the iPod's OS in forever (it's still on iOS 5.x.x), and it's still working as it always has. 

 

So recently I added a bunch of new music to my iPhone (which I've always kept up-to-date-- I'm currently on version 9.3.2), and when I hooked it up to my Z120, it automatically launched the music app, like it always has, but it didn't play anything-- it showed up on the screen, and recognized the connection as usual, but it didn't automatically start playing audio. I started navigating through the menus of my music, and it handled all of that as usual, but even pressing the "Play/Pause" button wouldn't play any audio. So I tried to use my actual iPhone to play it, and it worked. Once I started the music from my iPhone, I could control the volume through my unit, and I could even press the "Forward" and "Back" buttons to skip songs, or go backwards. I can navigate to the specific song I want to listen to through the unit, but when I press the song, it goes to the main music screen, as if it's about to play, but it won't start. I have to go back to my phone to launch the song (unless, as mentioned before, I'm just skipping forward or backward).

 

My iPod, however, still functions normally, as it always has. So I was wondering (since it's been a while since I used my iPhone in the car, and I'm not sure whether I've updated the OS on it since the last time I used it in the car), does that sound like something that happened as a result of updating my iPhone iOS, and it caused the issue (I know previous updates never messed it up, but a recent one could have I guess, assuming it's been updated since last time)-- or does that seem like a different issue altogether, like maybe a problem with the lightning adapter I'm using, or something? 

 

Sorry for the long-winded post. I just wanted to try to clearly explain what's happening-- which I probably still didn't do haha. If anybody has any suggestions or ideas about what might be causing this problem, I'd definitely appreciate it. It's not a critical issue, since my iPod still works normally, and my iPhone still works also-- I just have to use the phone itself for most actions, which is irritating. It's no emergency or anything, but it would be great to pinpoint the problem and fix it-- so thank you in advance, for taking the time to read this, and for any knowledge anyone can share. I really appreciate it!