I’m also on 3.0 now, and still have the 2000 contacts “repair” and is still working in my car (120d from 2006 with nav. pro )

1st gen iphone

I just upgraded the same iphone to 3.0. Now the only contacts that will load into the car are V-Z. Same iphone, same car. The contacts still are in the iphone they just will not appear in the phone book in the car.

I can’t seem to find any thing about this issue so far. Any thoughts?

Today’s event was mainly a press release. Apparently, people can apply for the beta of the 3.0 software here (http://developer.apple.com/), but the real deal is due this summer sometime.

I’d probably wait for the real deal unless you’re feeling adventurous or curious about the new features – sounds like Apple added a ton of good stuff in the 3.0 software.

Are you able to determine if the need to repair each time applies to all iPhone 3G models? If possible try with a friend’s 3G and see if that acts the same? If you’ve not already delete all pairings from both the car and the iPhone and for good measure change the iPhone name (you have to do that in iTunes) from “Scott’s iPhone” or whatever it is now to just “iPhone”, apostrophes could be causing an issue?

I beleive BMW now say the 3G is a fully supported device and there is now even a dedicated iPhone 3G cradle so it’s definitely something that you should be able to get rectified even if the dealer has to do a free software update.

Good luck and let us know if you find a solution!

Scoopz (Admin)

1- I’m an owner of a BMW X5 2007 with iDrive and use a MacBook Pro at home and extensive Medical Software for my ED Physician job. I utilized Palm Pilots since their inception for work and home up until last year when I went to an iTouch. I’m extremely comfortable and proficient in MS and Mac based products.
2 – I purchased an iPhone 3G for myself and fiancee when the phones first came out this past July 2008.
3 – The phone continually dropped calls, the battery life was abysmal (phone dead at the end of a 10 hours shift), and worst of all the phone echoed horribly when used on the Bluetooth for my BMW (something I had no issue with my 3 year old Motorola Razor through TMobile). This also occurred with my girlfriend’s Lexus IS 250 built-in Bluetooth. This happened with both of our phones in each other’s car. This happened with my best friend’s (another ED Doc) iPhone 3G in his 2008 BMW 3 series.
4 – Myself, my fiancee and my best friend all returned our iPhones within the 14 day Apple return period.
5 – I subsequently went back to my TMobile Motorola Razor and waited for a new device to come to the market that would fit my purposes while continuing to use my iTouch to sync seamlessly (via Mobile Me) with my Mac at home.
6 – I changed service to Verizon and had the best service I’ve ever had with an cell carrier. Absolutely crystal clear calls without having to repeat myself to be heard. Within Verizon’s 30 day “test drive program” (can try any phone and the network for free if canceled for 30 days) I used the Samsung Omnia (Windows Mobile) which was a very good phone, but a horrible smart device. It couldn’t decide when to be touch screen or menu driven and tried to be an iPhone/iTouch, but failed miserably. All the good reviews I read on it were by Windows Mobile users who appeared to be quite used to what I considered to be a difficult to utilize product. I returned the phone after two weeks and traded in for a Blackberry Perl. Overall a very beautiful phone that did much of what I wanted and very very easy to use. However, the calendar functions and contact functions required me to purchase a third party app (Missing Link) to work with my Mac. Also, if I read mail on my Blackberry, it would still be there on my Desktop to clear or read yet again. I missed my iTouch Mobile Me over the air synchronization with my Calendar, Contacts and Mail. I returned this as well (as did my Fiancee) and went back yet again hat in hand to TMobile to restart my open contract on my trusty old Razor.
7 – I took one last gander at your blog and saw that the problem with the iPhone had appeared to be remediated. I took your advice Scoopz and borrowed one of my friend’s iPhone and linked it to my BMW X5 and ‘bam’ instant Karma. It worked and synced without an echo. It was painful to go from the crystal clear Blackberry to the iPhone which hissed and popped, but damn, I love the ease of use, compatibility and ’set it and forget it’ use of the iPhone that I was willing to trade phone quality for a universal product that performs it’s business and smart functions without a hiccup.
8 – Of interest, when I purchased the iPhone and plugged it right into my car I bit my lip at the horrible echo problem back to plague me yet again. I suddenly (one might say stupidly) realized that I hadn’t plugged it into my computer for the latest upgrade. I did this, and used it in my car and no echos. Battery life is still fair/poor, but is better than before. Signal strength and dropped calls are still a problem, but this appears to be ATT related and not the iPhone. I predictably drop the call at the same exact three spots driving to work in Chicago everyday. This has been noted by other ATT and iPhone users as well when I queried. My fiancee’s phone works in her Lexus IS 250 without a hitch as well.
9 – Only the dropped calls and hisses/pops and poor voice quality at many places along my route are my only issues. Overall, I forgive moderate and minor problems for the overall usefulness of the phone. I have tried the top of the line Windows Mobile phone and the revered Blackberry and as smart devices, they just don’t keep up with the iPhone. As phones, they are much better, but I suspect this to be an ATT issue and not the phone. Also, try buying an App from Verizon. A movie app (to find local showings) is almost $20 and you have a choice of one. Other apps are as ridiculously priced (such as games). The same apps are fantastic and free on the iPhone.
10 – Of interest, the Verizon rep tried to get me to stay by telling me that they would soon open up their network to all phones and that locked phones were going to soon be a thing of the past. I thought he was pulling my leg (Verizon uses CDMA and Apple GSM), but did find this article (note: the timeline has come and gone). So maybe one day Verizon and iPhone could be combined! Link to MacWorld Article: http://www.macworld.com/article/61217/2007/11/verizon.html
11 – Overall I feel very qualified to give iPhone a big thumbs up with a few frustrating limitations (call quality), but a world of benefit.
12 – Lastly, I recommend new users to find any sort of discount program they may qualify for. They are not advertised and only found out because Verizon and ATT were trying to recruit me to their service at work. Both gave my company discounts (15% off monthly service) that offset taxes and other costs to make the transition from plain cellular service from TMobile much more affordable. They also have discounts for Military, many corporations, many groups (AARP), etc… that many people I know who qualify never thought to ask.

THANK YOU VERY MUCH Scoopz and everyone else who has shown such help and concern on what to me was an important (albeit not life-threatening) issue! You folks are all wonderful. Keep up the good work and advice!

Dirk D.
Chicago, IL

My car is a 3-series coupe (E92) built July 2008 and has Professional navigation, Bluetooth 633 and USB audio 6FL (with an iPod adaptor cable which works well). Its not clear whether the phone + audio snap-in will work and the dealer isn’t sure.

New 3-series have a newer iDrive setup (multiple buttons) and the Bluetooth option appears to have been updated with the option number now being 6NF. I don’t know if this is actually different to the previous option.

I’m keeping my fingers crossed that I get both iPhone 3G telephone and audio functions in one but the BMW documentation is maddeningly unclear.

There does appear to be a new BMW snap-in adapter specifically for the iPhone 3G now and from what I’ve read, BMW appear to have integrated a USB fly lead out of the new snap-ins that then integrates with the USB audio interface (if you have that option on your car) to allow simultaneous phone charging, bluetooth connectivity and music access via the stereo/iDrive. So there are now 4 snap-ins for the iPhone, the original iPhone one, the original iPhone one with integrate USB audio, a new iPhone 3G one and a new iPhone 3G one that integrates USB audio.

Bluetooth telephone audio connection
To enable the use of the audio player built into specific bluetooth phones, BMW offers the optional Bluetooth telephone audio connection for all new BMW’s (excluding X3). This allows you to use the mobile phone as a combined device for telephone calls and audio playback. This feature is only compatible with mobile phones where we offer a specially developed snap-in adaptor with a USB connection (please refer to compatibility chart). It also requires the car to be fitted with the optional USB audio interface.

Unfortunately I don’t have the USB audio interface in my car but I’m starting to wish I did now.

I also notice that this option is currently only available for the iPhone, all the other handsets listed have a “-” in these columns.

Scoopz (Admin)

BMW UK Bluetooth:

http://www.bmw.co.uk/bmwuk/bluetooth/overview/0,,___,00.html?siteID=1312

now MOST of the 6000+ contacts i have sync, but not all. go figure; i have them arranged in various subfolders, but there seems no consistency as to what syncs and what doesnt…..

and of course the 3G doesnt charge in my 2008 M5 (which i didnt realize until the battery ran down, and now that i did a search, found this is expected….damn)

The remaining big problem that lots of people still had was with older (pre 2007) vehicles not sync’ing the address book contacts with iDrive, hence the detailed fix on this blog entry, but this has been completely resolved with the latest 2.2 update. So it probably would be worth you trying the iPhone 3G again just make sure you have the 14 day return policy just in case. If possible though, I’d find a friend who has a 3G iPhone updated to 2.2 and ask them if you can try connected with your X5 and verify the echo is gone.

The battery life is still shocking if you are used to Nokia’s that can go for nearly a week without charging. I have my b/tooth and wifi on 24/7, its permanently connected to wifi in my house and work and checking an IMAP email account every 15 mins and also live PUSH connection to my work Exchange server. I use it got talk and data for quite a long time each day and I generally get the 20% battery remaining warning around early evening every day. As a general rule I charge it in the car on any long journeys, it’s an annoyance but if you turn off b/t and wifi, put screen brightness right down you can get a few days standby out of it, I’ve had about 3 days with moderate use for SMS only on holiday. I have noticed an improved battery life since 2.2, but not much.

I have heard that BMW may have finally brought out a proper snap-in for the 3G iPhone but not been able to confirm this yet, the part number is apparently 84 21 21 51 038. I shall check with my dealer in the new year and if this is true.

Regarding dropped calls, again this is another issue I was never plagued with but 2.1 and 2.2 were meant to address issues with dropped calls.

Hope that helps? All the best for the New Year!

Scoopz (Admin)

PS – If you take the plunge again steer clear of the WHITE 3G, I’ve had nothing but problem after problem with the casing on the white one cracking or showing hairline fractures all over the back.

Thanks

The 3G iPhone is marginally bigger than the original iPhone and as such it doesn’t fit *easily* into the adapter but you can make it fit if you push it hard. Once in it does charge but don’t expect it to “pop up” when you press the eject button, it’s too tightly wedged and needs lifting up at the same time you press eject. I put my 3G in the BMW snap-in as a last resort if I know my battery will die before the end of the day but I don’t like forcing it into a cradle not designed for it and certainly would use it on a daily basis. BMW have not indicated yet if they are making a 3G version of the cradle but if I were you I’d simply buy a Cigarette Socket to USB adapter from Maplins or Amazon for £10 and use that for now.

Photos and review of the BMW Snap-In adapter for the original iPhone

Scoopz (Admin)

The fix has come from Apple in the form of 2.2 and not BMW in this case. The only reason I had my iDrive updated was just in case iPhone 2.2 didn’t fix things but regardless of whether I had the iDrive updated or not, updating my iPhone to 2.2 would have got it all working again.

Luckily you didn’t have to pay to have your B/T modules updated otherwise you might be slightly annoyed that it didn’t make a difference when your iPhone was running 2.1.

Apple did indeed fix BMW’s problem but then again I’m of the opinion that Apple may have created BMW’s problem in the first place. Since original iPhones running 1.4 seemed to work OK with BMWs, Apple’s introduction of 2.0 caused BMW’s problems and it’s taken until now for Apple to put things right again. Unfortunately for BMW it does look like Apple have emerged as the heroes when they were possibly the villians to begin with?

Scoopz (Admin)

2.2 has miraculously fixed the issue of constant bluetooth dropping/reconnecting that many were having too which is why it has all started to work for you now

Scoopz (Admin)

Many many thanks you have just eased 3 months of total and utter pain.

5 Series 06 (July) Plate.

Scoopz (Admin)

Scoopz (Admin)

Scoopz (Admin)

Scoopz (Admin)

Thanx

Cheers for offering to help with my idea too

Scoopz (Admin who’s now ecstatic his iPhone is working as it should with his car, one step closer to the “Jesus-phone” nickname it has acquired yet still so far from perfection!)

A while back, you finished a post in a previous thread with this, Neil:
“Scoopz (Admin who’s now given up all hope of using his iPhone with his iDrive ever again, I miss 1.1.4)”

So, today must be a very happy day for you?!

As for that idea you’re ‘toying’ with- I’d be happy to help you out, no problem at all.

Viv

• iPhone 3G White (16GB) v2.2 [5G77]
• BMW E60 M5 with iDrive v31.2 [Dec-2005 build]

@Kris_C - Update your iPhone from 2.1 to 2.2 (update released last Friday) and you should have everything working like it was with 1.4 without the need for the 2000 fake contacts.

@Chris - Nice detailed information, thanks ! I must say I’m surprised 2.2 fixed the b/t dropping connections every 20 seconds, I thought they might only fix the contact sync for those with steady b/t connections but no contacts but it looks like they’ve pushed the boat out and resolved it all.

Scoopz (Admin)

Firstly, great thanks and kudos to you for doing all this!

Secondly – a fuller update since 2.2 was installed on my iPhone.

My problem with iPhone 3G/2004 BMW E60 (5 series) with ProNav and ProRadio was that the iPhone would par/drop-re-pair every 20 seconds or so withiout any address book transfer and inability to make/receive calls at all. I knew it wasn’t the car (I used an original iPhone with 1.1.4 OS to test this repeatedly and was successfully using a WM6 phone prior to the iPhone 3G purchase) so it was definitely the iPhone 3G OS causing this.

With 2.2 all problems are resolved – phone paired no problem and re-pairs without manual intervention when I get into the car. Phone book transfers quickly, and voice dialling/caller recognition works without flaw.

For me, I need the phone to be usable in the car, so this was Apple’s last chance and I was just about to order an HTC Touch – thankfully this release resolved all iPhone connectivity issues with the car.

Shame on Apple for now following Microsoft’s policy of beta-testing software on “released and paid-for” products!!!

I’m guessing it’s due to the problem of the iDrive being unable to decide which caller ID to display (as it’s present across multiple contacts), if you were to receive a call from the company’s ‘main number’, so I’m assuming the iDrive is simply ignoring it completely.

The only way I can see round it, is to remove the ‘main number’ from all of your contacts, set-up a new contact for the company with that number & just remember those contacts belong to that company.

Viv

Did a complete restore on my iPhone, deleted all contacts and added back about 400 contacts via MobileMe sync.

I can and always have been able to sync via Bluetooth to my car, no dropped connection, but I am still not seeing all my contacts’ phone numbers. Specifically, those people who work at a company with the same main phone but might also have a unique mobile number. I see their unique mobile number, but not the main number that might be the same across multiple contacts.

I’ve just downloaded & installed firmware 2.2 & removed the additional fake 2000 contacts, leaving my original 200 contacts on the iPhone.
I removed the original pairing in the car & the iPhone & started again. After about 20-or-so seconds later, there was a display of ‘No entries available’, quickly followed by all of my contacts!

Incoming caller ID works fine as does the usual voice dialling.
I’ve not tried updating the contacts using MobileMe, but I’ll give that a go next.

Car: BMW E90 330i SE with SatNavPro
Build date: Sept 05
Current Progman: v27.x.x

So, it does look like a little persistence & feedback to Apple does have a positive effect!

I’m happy once more!

All the best.

Viv

Just something to monitor.

Well done to Bmw and Apple for fixing a fault that they never really admitted to