iPhone 2.0 and BMW iDrive address book not syncing

14 Jul

Posted by Horatiu B. as Interesting

The guys at Scoopz.com have some bad news for those of you that upgraded your iPhone to version 2.0 or recently purchased a new iPhone 3G. As we reported earlier also, the new iPhone seems to have some issues with the BMW's navigation system or the factory kit.

The 2.0 update will stop your BMW iDrive from seeing your iPhone’s contacts list. Basically, all the iPhones running the 1.0 to 1.1.4 software version should connect perfectly to BMW's integrated bluetooth and the contacts should appear on your iDrive screen or on your radio display, for those of you that did not order the BMW Nav System.

Scoopz has checked the compatibility between the first generation iPhone running the 2.0 software and his 2006 BMW M5, which accordingly to previous reports, it works flawlessly with the iPhone.

I will let them take over from here and explain to you more about this issue and the steps they have taken trying to sync up the two systems.

Full Article with photos

Thanks for the tips and the great photo.

P.S If any of you experience the same issue or found any solution to this problem, please let us know and we will pass on the info further to BMW.

18 Responses

Mark

July 14th, 2008 at 7:02 pm
1

Oh well, as someone who has never given a fart about the iPhone, all I can say is c’est la vie!!!! Or, as we are talking about German cars, das tut mir leid!!! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Cheers,
Enzo

July 14th, 2008 at 8:45 pm
2

Unfortunately, the list of 2.0 problems continue to grow.

By the way, if you don’t give a “fart” about the iPhone, don’t respond to an article about it with asinine comments because nobody cares what you have to say. I hope whatever you do give a “fart” about breaks tomorrow.
Mark

July 15th, 2008 at 10:28 am
3

@Enzo:

Do NOT tell me what I can or cannot post here……
3SeriesGuy

July 15th, 2008 at 12:55 pm
4

I have a first generation iPhone with the 2.0 software update, address book works fine in my iDrive 328xiT.
Horatiu B.

July 15th, 2008 at 4:41 pm
5

Ok guys, let’s keep this discussion constructive. Each one of us has different preferences but we can discuss them peacefully
Tom Anderson

July 15th, 2008 at 6:38 pm
6

I have been able to sync an original iPhone with 2.0 and a iPhone 3G to my 2007 760 with no problems.
Horatiu B.

July 15th, 2008 at 9:43 pm
7

@Tom Anderson: It seems like he might have had a defective cable. I did hear the same story from another person, but in the same time, majority of people were successful in pairing them, so we will post an update to the article. Also, remember this is a UK car.
Horatiu B.

July 15th, 2008 at 9:44 pm
8

@3SeriesGuy: Is it an US spec car?
Scoopz

July 16th, 2008 at 5:20 am
9

@Horatiu B.
Just an update - it’s not related to a defective cable since were talking about wireless bluetooth connectivity. This is regardless of whether it’s in the iPhone cradle or not (which is only there for charging purposes).

Of all the comments I’ve received so far, and the comments on 3 or 4 of the Apple support page threads this issue is affecting BMW, Mercededs, Jeep, Chrysler, Landrover and many more.

It does seem that those with very recent build cars (late 2007/2008) do not have a problem after updating to iPhone 2.0 or getting the iPhone 3G.

Here’s an extract of the ones from my blog that I’ve just scanned through:

Not Working:
2006 330D
200? Freelander 2
200? 535d
2007 335 (Canada)
2007 325
2005 535d
2005 525d
2006 520
2007 X5
2008 X5
2005 5series
2006 Merc SL350
2007 X5
2007 530xi
200? 530

Working:
2008 335
2008 335 cabrio
2008 135
2008 M3
2008 X5
2008 M3
Mark McRobie

July 16th, 2008 at 7:51 am
10

Address book syncing doesn’t work in my 2005 BMW 530 using a 1st gen iPhone with 2.0 firmware
Enzo

July 16th, 2008 at 12:00 pm
11

iPhone 3G syncs the address book in my brothers 2006 330i.
BRETT

July 20th, 2008 at 4:32 am
12

2006 328i with Sat Nav and no addresses synch
girlsavvy

July 22nd, 2008 at 8:16 pm
13

First Generation iPhone 2.0
2007 BMW 328i no sync
Cazisk

August 4th, 2008 at 2:27 am
14

My 3G iPhone is working fine with my e92 335i (late 07). The address book comes out fine..
scoopz

August 4th, 2008 at 6:57 pm
15

Apple have just (20 mins ago) released iPhone 2.01 update. It’s a chunky 240MB download, I’m just waiting for my backup to complete before updating then I’ll go and check if any of the bugs introduced by 2.0 are fixed.
Enkur

August 5th, 2008 at 11:58 pm
16

2007 328i Coupe 1G iPhone 2.0 … no contact list but hands free bluetooth works.
scoopz

October 12th, 2008 at 5:47 pm
17

I appear to have found a fix for those who still aren’t getting the iPhone contact list to appear on the iDrive. If you add 2000 fake contacts to the iPhone it seems to extend a timeout and allows all the contacts to suddenly appear on the iDrive. Don’t worry about having 2000 contacts to scroll through on the iDrive that you don’t want, they’re all z-contacts….z0001, z0002, etc so appear at the end of the iPhone list, but all 2000 have the same phone number so they only appear on the iDrive as one entry.

I have created a walk through for both Apple and Windows users on how to add 2000 fake contacts easily, there’s even a vCard file for Apple users to download that does it all in one step, and a CSV file for Outlook users with step by step screen shot instructions.

So far I’d say around 25/27 people have reported back that this method works, the 2 that are having problems don’t have iDrive just standard Prof Radio.

More details and all the instructions on my blog post:
http://blog.scoopz.com/2008/10/11/fix-for-iphone-and-bmw-idrive-address-book-not-synchronising/

If it works for you please leave a comment here or on my blog so others can see the success rate.

Scoopz
sudhir

October 16th, 2008 at 12:43 pm
18

I upgraded to firmware version 2.1 on my iPhone (2G) and all my contacts are back on my 2007 523i.