Comments on: iPhone 2.0 and BMW iDrive address book not syncing

By: Joewill

Joewill — Fri, 03 Dec 2010 07:45:42 +0000

I own two iPhones, and I thouhgt iPhone contacts backup was quite difficult. But now I got an easy way with my friend’s help. All I need is to use this iPhone contacts backup software http://www.gutensoft.com/Utilities/backup-iphone-contacts-to-computer.html

It can easily help us backup iPhone contacts as well as contacts photos to computer. Besides, we can also use it to restore iPhone contacts backup back to iPhone.

By: Steve Varley

Steve Varley — Tue, 12 Oct 2010 15:38:11 +0000

Just in case anyone out there finds this useful…….

I have finally after 2-3 days of experimentation found the reason for my wife’s iPhone4 not syncing address book (and being unstable on bluetooth).
To cut a long story short the cause was open and/or closed round brackets in the Firstname or Lastname components of the contact.
I removed all entries of these in her address book (3 out of 127) and immediately as I was sat in the car it synced the contacts and was stable from then on.
I really believe the ‘illegal brackets’ is the cause of this problem.
Give it a try and please post your results.
Note that prior to doing this I had done numerous factory resets, copy data to other iPhone3 devices etc etc, but it seems like only iPhone4 and the brackets caused the problem.

By: Peter Fines

Peter Fines — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 11:08:27 +0000

I have a 318d SE Business edition with the inbuilt NAV etc. When I first got it (Nov 2009) the iphone paired perfectly no problems. Just recently I can make and receive calls but cannot be heard by anyone I call or who calls me. This is really frustrating as it all worked fine. I did upgrade to OS4 but I’m not sure if that caused the problems or not. Anyone out there with any advice?

By: AlexanderKent

AlexanderKent — Sat, 30 Jan 2010 09:42:21 +0000

I would like to share Tansee iPhone Transfer Contact with you all. Quite a powerful software to help you backup your iPhone contacts along with contact photos to your pc. And you can even view your contacts in Text file format and Antc file format, too. What’s most important, you can add password to keep your privacy! For more information, you can try http://softwarebbs.com/index.php?title=Tansee_iPhone_Transfer_Contact

By: BrettH

BrettH — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 00:47:15 +0000

We had this issue. Took the car to BMW, had the car firmware updated and no problems since

By: TOm

TOm — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:54:01 +0000

My 2009 750il reads the phone book just fine, and does it quickly

HOWEVER, it doesnt get them all. I get entries from A-Z but for some reason, there are many missing, seemingly random, from throughout the phone book in the iphone that dont end up in the car…

By: sudhir

sudhir — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 17:43:42 +0000

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

By: scoopz

scoopz — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 22:47:05 +0000

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

By: Enkur

Enkur — Wed, 06 Aug 2008 04:58:19 +0000

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

By: scoopz

scoopz — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 23:57:00 +0000

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.

By: Cazisk

Cazisk — Mon, 04 Aug 2008 07:27:14 +0000

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

By: girlsavvy

girlsavvy — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:16:49 +0000

First Generation iPhone 2.0
2007 BMW 328i no sync

By: BRETT

BRETT — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 09:32:21 +0000

2006 328i with Sat Nav and no addresses synch

By: Enzo

Enzo — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 17:00:00 +0000

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

By: Mark McRobie

Mark McRobie — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 12:51:15 +0000

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

By: Scoopz

Scoopz — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 10:20:18 +0000

@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

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:44:34 +0000

@3SeriesGuy: Is it an US spec car?

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 02:43:02 +0000

@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.

By: Tom Anderson

Tom Anderson — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 23:38:00 +0000

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

By: Horatiu B.

Horatiu B. — Tue, 15 Jul 2008 21:41:32 +0000

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