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I’m sure there are many other BMW drivers out their, who in what is probably just a lack of concentration, remove the key from the ignition of the car followed by pressing the start and stop button.
I know I have done this a number of times, probably as I am so used to putting the key in, followed by immediately pressing the start button.
Last night, on returning home, I did this very thing.
I parked the car, put it in Park, pressed the stop button, took off my glasses and then took the key out. For some reason known to no one, i then pressed the start/stop button again (thinking the car was still running).
What happened next was surprising, the car started. There was no key in the slot. But the car started.
Before pressing stop again, I took a picture. Not a very clear picture, but this really happened. I revved the engine so you can see the engine is in fact working with no key. I obviously didn’t try driving it, but everything seemed to be working. Key Less.
Strange, very strange…
BMW Running without a KEY
Image 2
Image 3
So last night as i got out of the car I re-paired my phone to the car.
This morning, whilst driving to work. A miracle happened.
My full telephone list was available on the car – for the first time since I switched to the iPhone.
The car was at the garage because when the key was inserted, the car intermittently locked everything down. I was presented with an orange steering wheel with a padlock on it. Taking the key in and out a few times eventually allowed me to start the car.
So – The garage “reset” the car.
I do not know what specifically this entails, but the radio did loose all its pairings.
So, 2005 330d M Sport with Bus Prof Radio is working, i do have the 2000 dummy entries as suggested by scoopz. Further reading http://blog.scoopz.com/2008/10/11/fix-for-iphone-and-bmw-idrive-address-book-not-synchronising
Fingers crossed it will stay this way. I’ll let you know how it goes after the weekend.
After visiting my local BMW dealer (for another reason – the car was faulty) I decided to enquire on the current situation regarding the iPhone and my car – 2005 330d M sport.
Interestingly, I received a 2008 325d M Sport as a temporary car, it had SatNav+iDrive so I paired my phone.
The address book worked first time.
When picking up my car and enquiring I was told that cars after 2007 should work fine but prior to that there was no guarantee. The iPhone is not on the BMW Bluetooth supported phones list.
I enquired about a Bluetooth upgrade, it was going to cost over £200 and there was no guarantee that it would work. There was also the possibility of other components of the car not working correctly and needing resolving on top of this, which would then potentially increase the costs almost exponentially.
So looks like I’m stuck until I replace my car.
Interesting that 2.2 is out later this week, although given the above, and past reading on the web – I suspect it will not make much difference. Fingers crossed.
Further reading http://blog.scoopz.com/2008/10/11/fix-for-iphone-and-bmw-idrive-address-book-not-synchronising
Scoopz has finally had some success, although not for everybody.
In a new blog entry Scoopz has documented what needs to be done: http://blog.scoopz.com/2008/10/11/fix-for-iphone-and-bmw-idrive-address-book-not-synchronising. It seems to work for many people but not all, it hasn’t worked for me.
In summary, he creates 2000 contacts and add them to the iPhone, this then allows the BMW to synchronise the contacts list.
Hopefully, BMW/Apple will come up with a correct solution soon, my iPhone stability seems to have got worse with the 2.1 firmware release. Although it hasn’t really been useful since purchase.
I have now had the 2.1 firmware for around a week.
I have been keeping a close look at reception issues, as I had issues before, and according to apple, one of the main fixes was to improve the 3G reception.
On the whole, I think the 3G reception is marginally better, although its hard to say as I don’t get a 3G signal in my main locations.
The other noticeable difference has been the 2G signal. Before 2.1 it was near impossible for me to get a signal at home, now – since 2.1 – I can get the occasional signal in various parts of the house. It is still not usable at home, but I can get the odd text message through the phone now – assuming I leave it in one of the magic locations.
Talking to o2 about this in August, they will be building a new transmitter in about 9 months time, so hopefully then I will have a decent signal. I need to either wait or switch back to the T-Mobile or Orange which do supply a usable signal. And a point to note, I’m not in the back of beyond. Just terrain issues seem to be the problem. But if T-Mobile and Orange can provide suitable signals its a shame o2 can not, especially in the year 2008.
Did the 2.1 improve my life, not really, still waiting on too many key components of functionality.
Battery life is better tho, so at least I can use the iPhone as an iTouch.
Roll on April 2009, hopefully by then we will have a new transmitter, and maybe even a new firmware update that allows the phones bluetooth to work correctly with my car again.
Well, 2.1 firmware has now been released.
So, upgraded and moved to my car.
Re-paired the phone with the car, and it still does not work.
So still continuously drops connection to the car, and does not populate the address book.
Disappointed? Yep
Apple have released a plethora of product changes, all in pretty colours (see apple.com). But probably the most important announcement is that of the 2.1 software for the iPhone.
They state that it improves issues like:
dropped calls, battery improvement, fast backups (again)
The big question, will it resolve the CarKit Interface issues? Will i finally be able to use the phone in my car again.
Lets hope (fingers crossed) – its released this Friday, lets wish the week away.
With the release of the iPhone 3G Apple released Version 2.0.0 of their firmware for the phones.
Unfortunately, it appears that in doing this, they broke the Bluetooth software integration with Cars.
The BMW appears to be suffering more than others, but this is not limited to just BMW cars. Some BMW’s do work, but they tend to be just released cars, e.g. March 2008 onwards. But it is not this clear cut.
After many comments to and from Apple/BMW, according to scoopz, it looks like Apple will be releasing another software update in September to resolve this.
Feedback from various people regarding this issue can be found here http://blog.scoopz.com/2008/07/11/iphone-20-update-breaks-bmw-idrive-contactaddress-book-syncing/ if you have this problem, why not add your 2c.
Lets hope this gets fixed sooner than later, maybe they may even address the 3G signal problem at the same time.
iPhone Integration with BMW and Others – Fixed?
November 27, 2008 in Comment, iphone | Tags: 2.2, apple, audi, bmw, car, car integration, fixed, integration, iphone | Leave a comment
Out of the blue it looks like the 2.2 firmware release for the iPhone as resolved the Bluetooth connectivity problems with cars in general.
I haven’t seen any mention of this on release notes or anything, but a number of people who were struggling with the partial compatibility with their vehicles now seem to have no problem.
If you have been trying to get your phone working with your car you want to try again, delete the current pairing if you have one, and start again afresh.