I recently began having issues with my unit connecting to CarPlay.  The unit would prompt, "To use Smartphone Connectivity..., pairing is required, etc".  If I paired the unit, CarPlay would work until I powered off the unit.

I thought this was an Apple Problem, but I realized this thing was NOT saving any of my bluetooth devices at all. Every time I powered it off, it requests to re-pair again.  I went ahead and did a factory reset on the device, and now it's stuck in a boot loop.  I've pulled all power, still stuck.

I cracked the unit open and there is NO SD card for me to attempt a resurrection on this unit. Purchased in July 2021. Died in April 2023. The unit has never quite lived up to what I was hoping for. The UI would be unresponsive a good 50% of the time. Maybe I had a dud and the filesystem was throwing errors that caused all this. No idea, just guessing. Either way, this is my second Pioneer head-unit and both had lack luster UI response.

I purchased this Pioneer thinking it would have been a big improvement from my 4100NEX. Swapping units was going to be easy because they used the same power connections, etc. I really liked that. Not sure if I want to stay in the Pioneer family anymore.

Firmware 3.0

this model uses eMMC
chip IC7691 in the second photo
unfortunately there is no solution to this problem in Pioneer service documents

Thanks! I'm waiting to hear back from support. I'll update this post once I do.

I'm curious if this issue was ever resolved.  I'm having exactly the same issues.  Attempted a "factory restore" that made a maddening situation worse.  Unit now sticks in a boot up loop.  Splash screen for about 5-7 seconds, then black screen for about 7 seconds, then splash screen, etc.  Will do that all day long until I pull main power fuse.  

I had it repaired by Pioneer. They replaced the “board”.  Cost me $380 which I’m hoping my Credit Card extended warranty will cover.