iPhone iOS6 Integrates with BMW Office (iDrive Email & Text Message) via Bluetooth!

[Mike Benvo]

Just got my iPhone 5 64 last night.. Well, it's been sitting here in a FedEx box for a few days while I was out of town.

After finessing some settings, email and SMS seems to be working OK. Apps is working fine with the lightning cable, even though I never use apps. BMW Live and Internet working properly over BT tethering. My next point of interest is finding an adaptor to go from the snap-in to the lightning port to see if the videos work on the iDrive.

All in all, seems like the same phone as my 4S. Lighter, faster, LTE is fast as hell (was pulling 27mbps down and 18 up), and the extra real estate is great.

[boi222]

Originally Posted by Mike Benvo

Just got my iPhone 5 64 last night.. Well, it's been sitting here in a FedEx box for a few days while I was out of town.

After finessing some settings, email and SMS seems to be working OK. Apps is working fine with the lightning cable, even though I never use apps. BMW Live and Internet working properly over BT tethering. My next point of interest is finding an adaptor to go from the snap-in to the lightning port to see if the videos work on the iDrive.

All in all, seems like the same phone as my 4S. Lighter, faster, LTE is fast as hell (was pulling 27mbps down and 18 up), and the extra real estate is great.

How do you do BT tethering?

[mhaghighi]

what do you mean email is working? no ones io6 email is working on their idrive??? regardless of the the phone!!!

[VMcV3y]

Originally Posted by mhaghighi

what do you mean email is working? no ones io6 email is working on their idrive??? regardless of the the phone!!!

Sorry, but that is not entirely correct...

A few people have reported spotty functionality with e-mail...

I've had it happen a couple of times when I received e-mail messages. It has been impossible to duplicate the scenario, though, via all the different settings, etc...

At first, I thought that e-mail would function AFTER having received at least one SMS/text message (a sort of "prime the pump" thing.) But that's not correct...

Then it seemed that the e-mail would work only AFTER a lock-screen time-out had passed. In other words, hitting the "sleep" button has no effect, but that after a pre-set lock-time the e-mail would function. Eeeeeep! Nope. But I received an e-mail once in that scenario...

It seems to be random and completely intermittent.... perhaps sort of similar to the MS Exchange replication issues that occurs with iOS devices...

Hopefully an iOS 6.1 update will fix it... !!!



...




.

[M3 DCT]

Here is the update email I received from BMW AG about the issue. They are fully aware of the incompatibility of the iphone and idrive.

They do however not have a solution yet - they are "working on it" with no ETA.

Good day

The software (iOS6) is still being tested, we do not have a time frame when there will be a fix, to sync your emails on the vehicle’s idrive system. However, we do refer you to the following website: www.bmw.co.za/bluetooth

You may use your vehicle’s VIN to check the available devices that can be used to sync emails/Office on the idrive system. As previously mentioned, this case is logged, once a “fix” becomes available, I will notify you.

Thanks

Regards

BMW

[Sedan_Clan]

Originally Posted by Mike Benvo

Just got my iPhone 5 64 last night.. Well, it's been sitting here in a FedEx box for a few days while I was out of town.

After finessing some settings, email and SMS seems to be working OK. Apps is working fine with the lightning cable, even though I never use apps. BMW Live and Internet working properly over BT tethering. My next point of interest is finding an adaptor to go from the snap-in to the lightning port to see if the videos work on the iDrive.

All in all, seems like the same phone as my 4S. Lighter, faster, LTE is fast as hell (was pulling 27mbps down and 18 up), and the extra real estate is great.

Care to share your settings for enabling all of the things mentioned?

[Mike Benvo]

Originally Posted by Sedan_Clan

Care to share your settings for enabling all of the things mentioned?

Sure..

And I want to make a correction too..

The emails are not coming in at all, but the text messages are working perfectly.

I just have the settings changed on the iphone to show both text and email in the notification center, and have notifications on.

If you go to the cars BMW##### in the bluetooth settings of your iPhone, just make sure everything is turned on there too. And then in the car make sure that Office is checked too under the settings for the phone.

Also tried Internet and BMW Live! using iOS6 on iPhone 5 over tethering yesterday, and it worked much faster than with my 4S on iOS5.

Now I need to go out and buy a bunch of those stupid lightning adapters!

[Sedan_Clan]

Originally Posted by Mike Benvo

Sure..

And I want to make a correction too..

The emails are not coming in at all, but the text messages are working perfectly.

I just have the settings changed on the iphone to show both text and email in the notification center, and have notifications on.

If you go to the cars BMW##### in the bluetooth settings of your iPhone, just make sure everything is turned on there too. And then in the car make sure that Office is checked too under the settings for the phone.

Also tried Internet and BMW Live! using iOS6 on iPhone 5 over tethering yesterday, and it worked much faster than with my 4S on iOS5.

Now I need to go out and buy a bunch of those stupid lightning adapters!

Thanks! I have yet to get my text messages to come through on the iDrive screen, so I may not have "Office" selected in the menu. How do you set up the tethering? Is it via bluetooth or using the lightning cable?

[Sedan_Clan]

I've enabled Office and my texts still aren't coming through. My notifications on my phone are on too. Any suggestions?

Update: After fiddling around with the settings, the only thing that needs to be turned on are the "view in lock screen" options. Notifications don't need to be on, nor do Badges, etc. Everything will work fine without the need to activate those options. Also, the phone doesn't need to lock itself after a prescribed time (..as previously mentioned) in order for the notifications to push to the iDrive. The phones screen just needs to be on the lock screen. Text messages were even pushed to my iDrive with the screen on.

Mike, are there any coding options to allow dictation to the sender of a received text?

[Sedan_Clan]

I also just discovered that the phone's screen does not need to be locked to receive email and texts. I was surfing the web from my phone while parked and the text messages were pushed to the iDrive screen.

[Technic]

iPhone Emails will display at the iDrive screen only if the email notifications at the iPhone is changed manually after each pairing.

For example: if your current iPhone Notification Center setting for emails is "Show 5 Unread Items" then manually change it to "Show 10 Unread Items" after each pairing is completed.

[zamboni]

Ive only seen one text message so far and still had no luck on email yet.

[aussiem3]

Originally Posted by Technic

iPhone Emails will display at the iDrive screen only if the email notifications at the iPhone is changed manually after each pairing.

For example: if your current iPhone Notification Center setting for emails is "Show 5 Unread Items" then manually change it to "Show 10 Unread Items" after each pairing is completed.

What do you mean by each pairing? Is it when you get in the car each time, or one needs to unpair and pair and then change the settings. That's ridiculous. I think iOS6 sucks. I thinks others with Win 8 OS are getting emails. There is more to this rubbish.

[Technic]

Originally Posted by aussiem3

What do you mean by each pairing? Is it when you get in the car each time, or one needs to unpair and pair and then change the settings. That's ridiculous. I think iOS6 sucks. I thinks others with Win 8 OS are getting emails. There is more to this rubbish.

1. get in car
2. start car
3. iPhone connects/pairs automatically to the iDrive via Bluetooth (initial pairing done already when iPhone was new and after first time connecting to car)
4. change email notifications at the iPhone
5. received emails will be displayed in the iDrive screen

Repeat each time.

[aussiem3]

Thank you, it work. SMS and email under one folder. Bit confusing, hell, it works, and that's what matters.

[DLANCE888]

I am a new user, so please accept my apology if this subject is being repeated. I searched the forum and found some conflicting info, so I am hopeful someone can clarify.

Just bought this beautiful vehicle with more bells and whistles than anyone could possibly use, but I cannot get "OFFICE" to work on the idrive system. I have had it back to the Dealer and talked with BMW Customer Relations with very little luck since they say BMW is still working on getting the software from Apple to work with BMW. However, on this forum I see that some people have had success.

IF ANYONE CAN WALK ME THROUGH THE SET-UP I WOULD BE VERY GRATEFUL.

MY DETAILS:

2013 650ix
iphone4 (IOS 6.1.2)
BMW APPS
IDRIVE software:
Multimedia - MX-003.005.004
Telephone - TX-003.005.006
SW Version - TX-003.005.006-003.004 (I really dont know what this is)

MANY THANKS....THIS HAS BEEN VERY FRUSTRATING
DAVE
dwlance888@gmail.com

[DLANCE888]

Still Confused With "office" & Iphone4
I am a new user, so please accept my apology if this subject is being repeated. I searched the forum and found some conflicting info, so I am hopeful someone can clarify.

Just bought this beautiful vehicle with more bells and whistles than anyone could possibly use, but I cannot get "OFFICE" to work on the idrive system. I have had it back to the Dealer and talked with BMW Customer Relations with very little luck since they say BMW is still working on getting the software from Apple to work with BMW. However, on this forum I see that some people have had success.

IF ANYONE CAN WALK ME THROUGH THE SET-UP I WOULD BE VERY GRATEFUL.

MY DETAILS:

2013 650ix
iphone4 (IOS 6.1.2)
BMW APPS
IDRIVE software:
Multimedia - MX-003.005.004
Telephone - TX-003.005.006
SW Version - TX-003.005.006-003.004 (I really dont know what this is)

MANY THANKS....THIS HAS BEEN VERY FRUSTRATING
DAVE
dwlance888@gmail.com