BMW Connected making iDrive reboot loop

[Erie Von Otto]

*2011.75 E90 M3 w/6NR*
I went to the dealership today and picked up a new Y-Cable for my iPhone 6s. I have been using a regular lightning cable and its been fine but the volume was always low. Plus I wanted all the office features and such and since they no longer support with the clip in, I bought the cable. Anyway, I get in the car, download BMW Connected, plug it in and pow! Everything starts working real nicely. Pandora pops up, office, everything. Im super happy since it was a $99 cable and I really wanted it to be worth it and it was... For about 4 minutes. About the time when I went through the BMW Connected and setup the account and found out that my "Cellular signal not compatible" and no other services would work. Thats when the iDrive screen locked up. Then it rebooted. Then the phone wouldnt connect. Then it reboots. Then it says start BMW Apps. Then it reboots. Locks/Reboot over and over. I signed out of the BMW Connected and it stopped but then none of the software is available on the iDrive and its like having the old lightning cable connected.

If you have read this far, thank you. If you can help me out, I would appreciate it. Im at a loss. I havent had the computer connected to anything from BMW since we moved to the states 1.5yrs ago. Matter of fact, we never got the sirius or internet service as that was disabled in Europe.

Anyway, can you point me in the right direction? Is it possibly a software update to get it to be compatible with the iPhone 6? Any ideas would be great.

[Rainer M]

Hello
I have a 2011.75 and I never felt the need for the Y cable ?
I connect my phone over Bluetooth and the messages show up in the screen.
I do use the regular USB cable for the music.
There are settings that relate to Bluetooth.

Didn't they change something regarding the combox that made the Y cable obsolete?
For your satellite and internet you can find someone here that can code you the things in.

There is a software update for you should your car be still "original"

https://www.autoevolution.com/news/d...ion-54817.html


Not sure if the link shows up.
Just google combox software update.


This might already help you with the boot cycle.

[Erie Von Otto]

They stopped support of the cradle. I got the Y-Cable to get all the features to work but like I said I have the reboot issue. Bluetooth would work fine but I have to plug it in to charge while playing music and then it disables the music via Bluetooth and sends it through the USB. I'll try the update and I hope that helps. Thanks for the tip!

[Erie Von Otto]

There was an update available for the Telephone but that did not help. I can connect it and everything else works fine until I try to turn on the latest BMW Connected. Thats when everything starts going wrong. It works for about 30 seconds. Then locks. Then reboots. So it must be a compatibility issue between the E9x, the Y-Cable, iPhone 6, and Connected Drive software. If I use the older version of BMW Connected, I can use it but the Pandora is not there, just a "Web Radio" link that gets me some other internet radio channels.

According to the BMW Support site for multimedia, there are no other updates available. The Y-Cable had a download but it was version 5.4.6 and I have 6.1.1 firmware installed.

Any other suggestions would be great.

[Dtype]

Originally Posted by Erie Von Otto

There was an update available for the Telephone but that did not help. I can connect it and everything else works fine until I try to turn on the latest BMW Connected. Thats when everything starts going wrong. It works for about 30 seconds. Then locks. Then reboots. So it must be a compatibility issue between the E9x, the Y-Cable, iPhone 6, and Connected Drive software. If I use the older version of BMW Connected, I can use it but the Pandora is not there, just a "Web Radio" link that gets me some other internet radio channels.

According to the BMW Support site for multimedia, there are no other updates available. The Y-Cable had a download but it was version 5.4.6 and I have 6.1.1 firmware installed.

Any other suggestions would be great.

I have the same problem since I change my iPhone 5s for a 6s plus. 5s work great. 6s with connected app make cic freeze and reboot.

[Shazz]

I thought the y cable was for use with the CCC system and not the CIC. What happens when you use a normal USB cable? (2nd poster touched on this point already.)

[Erie Von Otto]

Originally Posted by Shazz

I thought the y cable was for use with the CCC system and not the CIC. What happens when you use a normal USB cable? (2nd poster touched on this point already.)

Normal USB cable doesn't support the original BMW Apps. The Y-Cable is the only thing you can get with the lightning connector as they did not make a cradle for anything after iPhone 5. BMW totally dropped the ball on iOS/Android support on these cars. I bought the $95 cable last week and it will not allow my CiC to work as it just goes into a reboot cycle.

Also, you can BT the music, but once you plug in either the normal USB or the Y-Cable, it cuts the BT option off and just flows the data through the cable. So if you want to charge your phone, you lose BT music streaming.

I spoke with BMWNA about the airbags and they expedited them to my dealership and should be here by end of week. Whenever I get the car turned in for that, Ill ask about the software and any updates that may help. So far, nothing is working. I can use the legacy BMW Apps but not the new one with Pandora.

[Rainer M]

Well.
I am using a regular USB cable in the armrest and I am be able to use all of the apps on my cic. Not only the web radio.


E93 2011.75.


Charging is nevertheless slow.
This USB port doesn't provide much power to the phone.
At least it doesn't drain it but slowly charges it.

Perhaps I am missing something here.
I am using the BMW connect app to get all the other apps like pandora. I am not using it but I believe I saw this in "other apps".

You are saying "the new one with pandora"???
Maybe I am behind in app Technologie

[Erie Von Otto]

Originally Posted by Rainer M

Well.
I am using a regular USB cable in the armrest and I am be able to use all of the apps on my cic. Not only the web radio.


E93 2011.75.


Charging is nevertheless slow.
This USB port doesn't provide much power to the phone.
At least it doesn't drain it but slowly charges it.

Perhaps I am missing something here.
I am using the BMW connect app to get all the other apps like pandora. I am not using it but I believe I saw this in "other apps".

You are saying "the new one with pandora"???
Maybe I am behind in app Technologie

Well I asked the dealership to update the software. They did and the iPhone integrated very well. I can use the latest BMW Connected Drive software. Pandora works well and there are no more restarts. There are too many steps for it to actually be user friendly, unlock phone-click BMW Connected icon- unlock BMW Connected - hit the skip button because I can't enter the VIN with the old 2G system in the car- on idrive select menu/connected drive/more apps/pandora - wait... And yea! Music! But it works. $15k Kia just connects. It is a 6 yr old car though and way more fun to drive than a Kia.... Lol! It works so I have that going for me. Thanks for everyone's input.

[PACarGuy]

Thanks for this thread. I was having issues myself getting BMW Apps to work with my iPhone 6S via the USB port in the center console. They were flaky - sometimes an app would launch and work for a minute or two, and then sometimes it wouldn't. I got a reboot the other day too. This was even after updating the iDrive software to the versions you posted above (looks like 2014 was the last real update for this iDrive version).

Then...I realized this morning that I was using an aftermarket (supposedly Apple certified) lightning cable. Just for S&G, I figured I'd try a genuine Apple lightning cable, and lo and behold, it now works like a charm. Apps all launch as they should, stay open and are controllabel from the iDrive. Victory! Hope it stays this way...

[PACarGuy]

And, by the way, I don't even need to open the BMW Connected App to use Napster, Pandora, Lap Timer, etc. I can just see them in the ConnectedDrive menu and launch them directly. Still need to confirm on the phone, though.