It doesn't work for me either. I can lock the car, etc. but it won't connect to gather current vehicle info. Used to work, but hasn't now in some time.

 

If you mean stuff like DTE and how much gas is left, that requires the phone to be plugged-in. I just tried the locate vehicle function and it failed saying I had to turn on GPS in the car, which was already selected. I deselected it then reselected it and the app found my car just fine (in my garage). I also get the weather on the split screen side.

 

I never use the weather feature, but my dealer tells me that it currently functions on my car. Also, I have tried deselecting and selecting the car's GPS feature and still could not locate my vehicle. As for locking/unlocking, flashing lights, honking horn, none of that functions using the Connected app. Despite my cynicism, BMW may indeed be telling the truth about this problems with its connected app. Although it seems odd to have a problem like this without a solution.

Thanks to both of you for your feedback.

 

I never use the weather feature, but my dealer tells me that it currently functions on my car. Also, I have tried deselecting and selecting the car's GPS feature and still could not locate my vehicle. As for locking/unlocking, flashing lights, honking horn, none of that functions using the Connected app. Despite my cynicism, BMW may indeed be telling the truth about this problems with its connected app. Although it seems odd to have a problem like this without a solution.

Thanks to both of you for your feedback.

I assume you have an active subscription.

Mine works fine as of this morning - at least as well as it ever did (limited lock/unlock/ventilate/horn/lights only). 2014 535dx and iphone 7.

PS. What is the "weather on the split screen side"? I don't see anything about weather in the ios app.

It isn't an iOS app. Look under split screen content and there's an option for BMW widgets, or something like that. It requires a subscription to the ConnectedDrive service.

By plugged in do you mean to the car? I've never been able to get that feature to work. Seems like a useless feature if I need to have the phone in the car.
My wife is on her way to work right now. I'll test the other features and report back. 2015 535iX and iPhone 8plus.

Yes, to get access to the fuel remaining and DTE the phone has to be tethered to the car via either the USB cable or snap-in adapter. Without a direct connection the BMW App has no idea what that information is as the car doesn't transmit that info.

 

I connect fine with the f15, but cannot connect with the f10 and have not. I will try to connect and deselect. The one feature that I was hoping to leverage was the ventilation during hot summer days.

 

Mine works fine as of this morning - at least as well as it ever did (limited lock/unlock/ventilate/horn/lights only). 2014 535dx and iphone 7.

PS. What is the "weather on the split screen side"? I don't see anything about weather in the ios app.

 

Same with mine with an iPhone 6s.
Weather is an iDrive app. Right click in idrive, select split screen, click on split screen content, select Weather. This hasn't worked for me in a couple of years. It just says unable to connect to cell service.

 

If you mean stuff like DTE and how much gas is left, that requires the phone to be plugged-in.

By plugged in do you mean to the car? I've never been able to get that feature to work. Seems like a useless feature if I need to have the phone in the car.
My wife is on her way to work right now. I'll test the other features and report back. 2015 535iX and iPhone 8plus.

 

Mine also works mostly not. I can sometimes see mileage and fuel level on the "new" app, but only when initially connected in the morning via usb, if disconnected time that day... not working. The old app however always shows... i think the app and bmw online s#cks.

 

Same with me. In the latest version of My drive app I see the fuel remaining, DTE and other vehicle stats such as door / windows locked, etc. Intermittently. That feature randomly appears and disappears ! I must say that I've not connected my phone via USB in months now. However my phone is always paired with car's bluetooth. And it is only yesterday the stats were working but not today!

Very frustrating.

I can use other remote features consistently though such as lock / unlock / ventilate / honk.

2016, f10, UK, Android.

 

I was not aware of the "fuel remaining" and "DTE" functions if plugged by USB into phone. However, if these readings require a physical connection to vehicle, what's the value of this info versus similar readings from car's display? Obviously DTE can be easily seen and a quick check of MPG relative to DTE gives one an estimate of remaining gallons in the tank. Is there other uses for this info on a phone, that I've overlooked.

 

My thoughts exactly. I was hoping that I'd be able to check the level from my couch, so that if my son or wife was last driving and not sure how much was left, we could schedule a fill up that wasn't "crap, I need gas!!" BMW doesn't make this clear at all on the website where they show the benefits of connected drive.

 

I'm with you guys on the DTE and fuel level topic - I've got a gauge (and a nagging idrive) for that. Note that I had some trouble with the USB connection until I went to a 4" short cable, and even then I have to replace it every year or so. It's really finicky.

@ezaircon4jz, thanks for the explanation - I thought I was missing out on something on my phone. I have to say that between the outside air temp readout and the windows, I can usually work out what the weather is without the help of idrive...

 

While there are some functions, like ventilation in the summer, I like, one of my current fears is that I believe our '14 f10 535xd has a 3G connection. Most providers are sunsetting their 3G networks as of 2022. When they shut it down, just as what occurred with the 2G shutdown for those vehicles with a dedicated 2G connection:bawling::tsk:, our cars will no longer have a connection.

 

Yep. When 3G is phased out those of us with 3G connections (Combox & NBT) will need a TCU upgrade to 4G if we want to maintain a cellular connection.

 

You have to update your car. I know sounds odd right?
Go to bmw.com/update, download the update to a USB flash drive, plug the drive into your cars usb port and in the settings on your display select update.

 

Since I started this thread, I should have advised members of the solution. As it turned out (after three trips to the dealer), there was no truth in the dealer's initial explanation: blaming BMW USA and stating that there were "thousands" of Connect customers experiencing similar outage. In fact, there was no hardware faults in my vehicle and the problem was that the car had not been properly registered in the Connect system. Therefore, when I attempted to use Connect features on my cell phone, my car was not associated with my account. In short, the Connect software in my phone did not fully speak to the car. Once the vehicle was re-registered in the system, all was well.

I should also add that BMW credited me with for more months of Connect service that was lost as my dealership dithered with a solution.

 

the car had not been properly registered in the Connect system. Therefore, when I attempted to use Connect features on my cell phone, my car was not associated with my account. In short, the Connect software in my phone did not fully speak to the car. Once the vehicle was re-registered in the system, all was well.

I would have thought you would notice this on the BMW Connected website. Did the vehicle show there and still not properly registered/associated with your account?

BTW, I find that since we have been 'working from home' for 11 months now the car does not register itself very often with Connected....apparently our garage stops it from communicating while it resting.

 

On cell phone appt two vehicles appeared when I logged on: my X3 and (problematic) 535. The X3 worked without problem, so that ruled out my phone. The Connect website recognized both cars and indicated when 535 subscription was due to end. The 535 was on warranty, so the assumption was that it had a software or hardware problem. On my first visit, the dealer incorrectly ascribed problem to a larger Connect system outage so that further delayed resolution. All toll, it took three visits over four months for dealer to finally fix issue.

 

Ii bought my 2015 BMW 535I Xdrive MSport. Since day one, i was not able to use the functions on my car at all. so far I was able to send only few (less than 10) commands successfully. I am very disappointed as the app (old version and the very new version) is simply not doing the job at all..