[Keith_C]

Originally Posted by davidoff86

There's good reasons for both - ilevel updates have the danger of bricking your car ( it happens more often than you think over Ethernet at dealerships ! ) so if your car is excluded, there's likely a good reason :

- a combination of ecus makes the chance of failure higher
- a certain ecu needs a lot of changes that could fail under certain conditions
- losing power during the process due to a lower than necessary battery.

If you've ever read the ista release notes, there's a section at the end of a lot of conditions where it's a known update issue.

As for the usb route, blame the car modders this doesn't exist. You used to be able to get direct accesss to ECUs via it ( how map patches and CarPlay patches worked ), but it was removed as it was an attack vector.


If you ever struggle to get a dealer to flash your car, just say the Idrive Crashes / CarPlay won't pair

Mine was in for service, end of warranty and recall yesterday, just told them the apps kept disappearing and I had to iDrive reset to get them back and they have updated to 11.2021.

[Charlie (Wessex)]

I'm still on 03/2021.50

I had an OTA update 7 months ago (according to the app) but I'm wondering whether this actually installed. Wouldn't 03/2021 be from March, and the 07/2021 from 7 months ago (rounding things up)? Or does it all take months to get out to vehicles?

[ramparts]

Originally Posted by Charlie (Wessex)

I'm still on 03/2021.50

I had an OTA update 7 months ago (according to the app) but I'm wondering whether this actually installed. Wouldn't 03/2021 be from March, and the 07/2021 from 7 months ago (rounding things up)? Or does it all take months to get out to vehicles?

March was the *start* of the i-level. Changes were made to 03/2021 up until June 2021. .50 actually corresponds to S18A-21-03-550, which i believe came out late April if memory serves.

As for as the remote upgrades go, they are usually delayed a cycle, so as dealers & factory are getting 21/07, they release 21/03 as a RSU, as there's been enough time and enough cars made with the software to have a good level on confidence in them.

You should however by now at least received 21/07, and tbh 21/11. Do you know the % charge of your battery ?

[Charlie (Wessex)]

How do I find the % charge?

[ramparts]

Originally Posted by Charlie (Wessex)

How do I find the % charge?

Do you have an ODB reader at all? I just tend to use bimmerlink as it's got a nice battery state icon.

I never do ista updates until its above 85% , as it normally dropps into the low 70s after programming

[Charlie (Wessex)]

No, only got an OBD11 for VAG.

I'm not overly worried about it though, save for I know an update is out there, so will get it done at a dealer (which is a bit of a pain).

[a.summers86]

Originally Posted by davidoff86

March was the *start* of the i-level. Changes were made to 03/2021 up until June 2021. .50 actually corresponds to S18A-21-03-550, which i believe came out late April if memory serves.

As for as the remote upgrades go, they are usually delayed a cycle, so as dealers & factory are getting 21/07, they release 21/03 as a RSU, as there's been enough time and enough cars made with the software to have a good level on confidence in them.

You should however by now at least received 21/07, and tbh 21/11. Do you know the % charge of your battery ?

Historically I have always received the update 3 months (ish) after the date the software is named.

07.21 however is now nearly 6months after release and I am still showing 03.21.

I assume its probably not going to push itself through now and a visit to the dealers is my only option?

[xenon]

I don't understand the obsession with OTA updates - I can't even tell any difference from 03.21 to 07.21 so why waste all that time and effort? The only thing that was good going to 03.21 was the adjustments to the lane departure stuff but it's not often there's anything significant.

[Minimalist_BMW]

Originally Posted by xenon

I don't understand the obsession with OTA updates - I can't even tell any difference from 03.21 to 07.21 so why waste all that time and effort? The only thing that was good going to 03.21 was the adjustments to the lane departure stuff but it's not often there's anything significant.

I’m still stuck on 07.20 so the lane departure update would be nice lol it’s a nightmare atm

[user1811]

Originally Posted by a.summers86

I can’t understand the logic behind what cars get what update and when.

seems the same as the logic behind what cars get a touchscreen and what don't...

[Minimalist_BMW]

Just got a call from my dealer and they told me they will get my car in next week. I’m hoping this doesn’t come at a cost lol. Someone said updates were free..

[Assassin]

Originally Posted by Minimalist_BMW

I’m still stuck on 07.20 so the lane departure update would be nice lol it’s a nightmare atm

I just called them up and told them that my idrive keeps rebooting and also having trouble changing tracks when streaming music from an Android 11 phone ( which I didn't have with me when I dropped the car off as it was my wife's phone..yeah right). Car was updated and the dreaded lane change software can be switched off and it stays off .... thank goodness.

[Minimalist_BMW]

Originally Posted by Assassin

I just called them up and told them that my idrive keeps rebooting and also having trouble changing tracks when streaming music from an Android 11 phone ( which I didn't have with me when I dropped the car off as it was my wife's phone..yeah right). Car was updated and the dreaded lane change software can be switched off and it stays off .... thank goodness.

When was it updated and how long did it take they told me they want to keep my car for 2 days I don’t know why they’d ever need to do that lol. I feel maybe over estimated it… did you have to pay for the update? If I drop it off first thing in the morning I’d expect it to be done by EOD

[ramparts]

Originally Posted by Minimalist_BMW

When was it updated and how long did it take they told me they want to keep my car for 2 days I don’t know why they’d ever need to do that lol. I feel maybe over estimated it… did you have to pay for the update? If I drop it off first thing in the morning I’d expect it to be done by EOD

They might need to wait for a slot on their diagnostics machine, but an actually i-level update on a Gxx car takes no more than about 70 minutes (usually a lot less than this). What can take some time is any items that come up in the measures plan prior to programming that need to be address before the programming session can start

[Paul D3]

Originally Posted by xenon

I don't understand the obsession with OTA updates - I can't even tell any difference from 03.21 to 07.21 so why waste all that time and effort? The only thing that was good going to 03.21 was the adjustments to the lane departure stuff but it's not often there's anything significant.

Plus the fix for the HUD rev counter in Sport mode.

[bmnut]

Originally Posted by xenon

I don't understand the obsession with OTA updates - I can't even tell any difference from 03.21 to 07.21 so why waste all that time and effort? The only thing that was good going to 03.21 was the adjustments to the lane departure stuff but it's not often there's anything significant.

I feel the same way as you do on this one Xenon. Most of these updates seem to have limited effect on how my car runs or performs so I never stress about having to have the latest software installed.
Indeed the senior tech at my local dealership was only concerned about latest software updates if they flagged up whilst my car was with them for service or warranty work.
My philosophy these days is if my car’s running perfectly fine and nothing appears untoward then it’s best to leave the bastard thing alone than run the risk of introducing potential further problems!

[Paul D3]

Originally Posted by Charlie (Wessex)

How do I find the % charge?

Think you’re on a bit of a wild goose chase. The battery charge doesn’t determine if there is an update, it just determines if there is sufficient charge to allow the update to apply.

So if you have a pending update and it won’t apply due to low battery. Then finding your charge % is worth it.

[Paul D3]

Originally Posted by bmnut

I feel the same way as you do on this one Xenon. Most of these updates seem to have limited effect on how my car runs or performs so I never stress about having to have the latest software installed.
Indeed the senior tech at my local dealership was only concerned about latest software updates if they flagged up whilst my car was with them for service or warranty work.
My philosophy these days is if my car’s running perfectly fine and nothing appears untoward then it’s best to leave the bastard thing alone than run the risk of introducing potential further problems!

Problem is later versions do contain fixes and improvements. Sadly gone are the days of fully testing before releases and everything is fix as they go along.

Since the dealer updated mine when it was in for service to 11/2021.40 after it had never done one since new, was on and early 2020 version I noticed last night that a message was in notifications about updating apps ... never seen this before so maybe it has fixed my issue of not updating..

[__AD__]

FYI. I'm actually taking my g16 in to update tomorrow as it's stuck on 03/2021.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...04533-9999.pdf

[Talisman77]

Originally Posted by __AD__

FYI. I'm actually taking my g16 in to update tomorrow as it's stuck on 03/2021.

https://static.nhtsa.gov/odi/tsbs/20...04533-9999.pdf

Fwiw I had mine back from the dealers a couple days ago about this. They manually tried updating me to 11/21.61 and acknowledged there was a Puma case for it. Mine was confirmed to not be one of the builds excluded from the OTA(s) (Sep 19 build) but they did pick up an error code for low TCB signal strength, essentially meaning the connection to BMW remote servers might not have been strong enough on average for where I am to receive the updates. I forget what the top rating was but I was in the "poor" band (18-33) with a value of 22.

They also suggested tuning the radio to a national carrier, which supposedly narrows the waveband that the car is tuned to for listening out for update notifications too. They did acknowledge it sounds like something wacky but apparently it was there in the case notes.

HTH

[__AD__]

Originally Posted by Talisman77

Fwiw I had mine back from the dealers a couple days ago about this. They manually tried updating me to 11/21.61 and acknowledged there was a Puma case for it. Mine was confirmed to not be one of the builds excluded from the OTA(s) (Sep 19 build) but they did pick up an error code for low TCB signal strength, essentially meaning the connection to BMW remote servers might not have been strong enough on average for where I am to receive the updates. I forget what the top rating was but I was in the "poor" band (18-33) with a value of 22.

They also suggested tuning the radio to a national carrier, which supposedly narrows the waveband that the car is tuned to for listening out for update notifications too. They did acknowledge it sounds like something wacky but apparently it was there in the case notes.

HTH

That's very interesting, thank you. I do have spotty cell service at my house and add to that the car is always garaged so that could be it, but I have the my bmw app and it supposedly should notify me.

I'm in the US, but by national carrier do you mean an FM station?