When I got my car (2019 MK4) it had Apple Car play and AA icons on the screen. I set my phone up and it worked OK, the AA app opened up on my phone just fine. I couldn't install any apps on the car infotainment system though, it always said no mobile apps found, I've no idea what apps I could add, I thought possibly Waze or Google Maps, anyways....I left it as I'm quite happy with the in-car navigation for now.

Well....a few weeks ago I got a new phone, I did a clone so AA was automatically added to the phone. I went into the car settings and removed my old phone from both the bluetooth and the AA settings, as soon as I removed it from the AA settings the AA app disappeared and I cannot get the flippin' thing back, the Apple app has also vanished. I did bring this up at the time and was advised that just adding the phone should (could) add the AA icon back to the car screen but it didn't.

One thing to note though is that as soon as I start the car the phone is linked to the car and the AA app on my phone starts up so I get the distinct impression that AA in the car is working fine even though the icon isn't there. I'm not too bothered about the apps/icons on the infotainment system not being there but it is bugging me that they've vanished, I've looked through all the settings and cannot find a way to get them back, do you think I need to do a factory reset? And if so would that reset the trip computer too or is it just isolated to the infotainment?

TIA

Martin

Try clearing app data for android auto on your phone and setting up again. If that doesn't work do make sure android auto is enabled on your sync3 unit. 

I had a similar problem when my phone updated from android 9 to 10.

Master reset is fast and painless too. 

Is AA wireless ? I use Carplay with a usb cable. I still have AA as a mobile app from a Samsung I had. Very few mobile apps are compatible but AA should definitely be on screen.  If it is wireless I’d definitely try using a cable. 

So, I've figured out what the problem was/is. 

AA works for audio only if the phone is connected via bluetooth or the USB port in the glove box. If you plug the phone into the front USB port then the apps are available and the icon becomes visible in the sync screen. My front USB port is permanently used for the dashcam so I'll need to hard wire that if I want to use apps off my phone.