[Mr.G20 M340]

Am I the only one who's experiencing a lot of issues with iDrive? Specifically when it comes to audio.

For the life of me I can't figure out why my car doesn't want to connect via Apple car play to play music. It doesn't even allow me to play music via Bluetooth anymore.

I'm starting to be a strong believer that this new update was the worst thing I did to this car. Engine sound went to crap and the iDrive gets overwhelmed so easily. It's clearly a huge step down from the previous iDrive update.

Anywho, anyone have this experience and know how I can fix it?

[wrickem]

I used to have all kinds of problems in the very early days of idrive 7 in my '19 x-5. Eventually it got sorted out with updates and became flawless and it's been perfect in my G22.

This always worked for me during those frustrating early days:

1 - make sure you have a decent iPhone (not like an iPhone 3 ) and you're running current software.

2. - unpair your phone from your car, then turn your phone off completely

3 - remove that device from your car

4 - reboot your idrive (hold the vol button until it goes off)

5 - turn your phone on and pair it again from scratch.

Hopefully this will work for you. Good luck

[FrostNixon]

I'm with the latest iPhone and I have annoying issues as well:
- Cannot open trunk with foot movement with digital key
- Car always switches to carplay audio, even when I don't want to, because I just want to use built in spotify
- Half the time waze doesn't have a display so I have to restart the phone

[Mr.G20 M340]

Originally Posted by wrickem

I used to have all kinds of problems in the very early days of idrive 7 in my '19 x-5. Eventually it got sorted out with updates and became flawless and it's been perfect in my G22.

This always worked for me during those frustrating early days:

1 - make sure you have a decent iPhone (not like an iPhone 3 ) and you're running current software.

2. - unpair your phone from your car, then turn your phone off completely

3 - remove that device from your car

4 - reboot your idrive (hold the vol button until it goes off)

5 - turn your phone on and pair it again from scratch.

Hopefully this will work for you. Good luck

I've done everything you have said and have an iPhone XS Max and it still doesn't work.

This is definitely an iDrive problem. Reason I say that is because when I pair my phone from scratch my phone says "connected" right away while the car still says connecting for a good minute until you get impatient and go back on the menu and see that the phone is miraculously connected and stays connected. But guess what? The headaches don't stop there, for some odd reason the Bluetooth connection doesn't have the "allow music" through Bluetooth when you pair, so you click connect and you got that right, "error unable to connect via Bluetooth" it's so annoying! I had a bad feeling about this DME update but Alex at mission tuning updated it when he flashed the car. So If I want to get the DME updated again I'd have to go lock my DME again and update it.

So happy this is going to be my last regular 3 series. Going to get an f87/f80 after this, I don't like the trend the future of BMW is heading.

[PKells]

Originally Posted by Mr.G20 M340

Am I the only one who's experiencing a lot of issues with iDrive? Specifically when it comes to audio.

For the life of me I can't figure out why my car doesn't want to connect via Apple car play to play music. It doesn't even allow me to play music via Bluetooth anymore.

I'm starting to be a strong believer that this new update was the worst thing I did to this car. Engine sound went to crap and the iDrive gets overwhelmed so easily. It's clearly a huge step down from the previous iDrive update.

Anywho, anyone have this experience and know how I can fix it?

I am an Android User and also have constant issues with Android Auto and iDrive. Specifically often times Android Auto just starts automatically and takes over iDrive when I start up the car. At first I thought this was being caused by placing phone on wireless charger, but it happens even if phone is in my pocket.

Also sometimes once Android Auto has opened up I cannot exit it no matter if hit the AA BMW exit button, change to a different audio source, iDrive just jumps back over to AA.

AA has an "autolaunch" setting which I have disabled so can only assume this is iDrive related.

Annoying and on verge of removing Android Auto altogether as I had none of these issues in my previous vehicle with wired AA.

When using just iDrive by itself my experience has been good, so some updates are needed by BMW i believe.

[wrickem]

Originally Posted by Mr.G20 M340

I've done everything you have said and have an iPhone XS Max and it still doesn't work.

This is definitely an iDrive problem. Reason I say that is because when I pair my phone from scratch my phone says "connected" right away while the car still says connecting for a good minute until you get impatient and go back on the menu and see that the phone is miraculously connected and stays connected. But guess what? The headaches don't stop there, for some odd reason the Bluetooth connection doesn't have the "allow music" through Bluetooth when you pair, so you click connect and you got that right, "error unable to connect via Bluetooth" it's so annoying! I had a bad feeling about this DME update but Alex at mission tuning updated it when he flashed the car. So If I want to get the DME updated again I'd have to go lock my DME again and update it.

So happy this is going to be my last regular 3 series. Going to get an f87/f80 after this, I don't like the trend the future of BMW is heading.

Sorry about that, I hoped that would help you. I know how frustrating it is, since my G05 was their first idrive7 car, and it had so many problems. I'd take it in and let them fix it if I were you, but be prepared for a nice loaner, mine spent 2 weeks trying to get the wifi hotspot sorted out between BMW and AT&T!

Good luck

[ramparts]

Originally Posted by wrickem

Sorry about that, I hoped that would help you. I know how frustrating it is, since my G05 was their first idrive7 car, and it had so many problems. I'd take it in and let them fix it if I were you, but be prepared for a nice loaner, mine spent 2 weeks trying to get the wifi hotspot sorted out between BMW and AT&T!

Good luck

Try pairing from the CarPlay menu (settings->general->CarPlay) , not the Bluetooth one.

Then do everything from the phone first then then car.

I have no issues whatsoever doing it this way, but if I start it via Bluetooth, it uses to have the same issues you did.

[stanfonj]

Do you have Siri enabled? That needs to be on.

[Eagle Creek]

Originally Posted by Mr.G20 M340

Am I the only one who's experiencing a lot of issues with iDrive? Specifically when it comes to audio.

For the life of me I can't figure out why my car doesn't want to connect via Apple car play to play music. It doesn't even allow me to play music via Bluetooth anymore.

I'm starting to be a strong believer that this new update was the worst thing I did to this car. Engine sound went to crap and the iDrive gets overwhelmed so easily. It's clearly a huge step down from the previous iDrive update.

Anywho, anyone have this experience and know how I can fix it?

Came here to look for carplay music issues after my upgrade and found this thread right away. To be honest it's the only issue I experienced so far but it's very annoying since driving and music go hand in hand like British tea and milk.