Serious problem with new BMW ConnectedDrive Website (USA)

alohart · May 7, 2019

BMW ConnectedDrive updated its U.S. Website recently which broke the script that allows me to read the Batt. Kapa. max value from my laptop. I was trying to figure out whether this information was available in a new location on the Website without any luck. Apparently there should be a "Remote Cockpit" tab that would contain this information, but it is missing.

In the section that indicates which cars have been registered with ConnectedDrive services is a checkbox labeled "Remote Services are active." I expect a checkbox field to remain after the checkbox is unchecked, but this checkbox field disappears when unchecked so it cannot be checked again! When unchecked, all remote services are deactivated even when one has valid subscriptions. I can no longer access our i3 with the BMW Connected app, RTTI is no longer available, I cannot send messages to our car, etc.

I called ConnectedDrive hoping that this could be fixed quickly. Unfortunately, ConnectedDrive cannot access any accounts because its system has been down for hours. I was told to call back tomorrow

This is pretty disappointing.

So don't uncheck the "Remote Services are active." checkbox!

CharonPDX · May 7, 2019

Wow. This new ConnectedDrive website is crap. I liked being able to use the range estimator map on my computer to help plan a trip, rather than just in the in-car nav and on my phone screen.

vreihen · May 7, 2019

FWIW, I just tried to add my new-to-me i3 in the iOS ConnectedDrive app, and it told me that my vehicle's embedded cellular technology is not supported. Nice of the developer to make the support phone number on that error screen tappable to dial. The support person said that their system to verify vehicles is down, and told me to call back in two hours. I don't know if he was just trying to get me off the phone because it was two minutes until quitting time EDT or if there is legitimately a problem, but this isn't boding well for day one of ownership.....

Anonymous · May 7, 2019

I called in to BMW Connected the other day, because in checking my profile, found my address listed as one from 10 years ago, and NOT one I had ever entered. Tried correcting it, and the old address just kept popping back in. Was told when I called that the entire site is currently being re-vamped and because of this, the site is basically none-functional until the work on it is finished.

alohart · May 7, 2019

I decided to try deleting and re-adding my car on the ConnectedDrive Website. This has resulted in some progress. However, I am asked to enter a security code to complete the registration. The code should be sent to our car in a message in ConnectedDrive > Messages. So far, no such message has arrived. However, all subscribed services except RTTI are again active. Hopefully, a code will arrive before its 3-hour expiration time, and entering the code will activate RTTI.

The BMWConnected app is also asking for this code before it will do anything.

With the Website update apparently still in progress, I won't be surprised if no code is sent.

gps1539 · May 7, 2019

Having the same issue and emailed [email protected]

alohart · May 7, 2019

alohart said:
With the Website update apparently still in progress, I won't be surprised if no code is sent.

The code I requested was not sent within the validity period (stated as both 3 hours and 4 hours in different Website locations), so I requested a second code. When I went to the car to check its messages, there was still no code message. However, after I chose a different iDrive location and then returned to ConnectedDrive > Messages, 2 messages containing codes suddenly appeared. After I entered the valid code, our car has been re-registered and all subscribed services seem to be active.

However, Batt. Kapa. max, the charge level, and other data read from the car no longer seem to be available.

gt1 · May 7, 2019

I use an automatic system to pull the data from BMW. The server went offline on 3/26. It came back up on 4/16, but the Kappa.Max is gone from the data set. Users in other parts of the world still get it.

vreihen · May 8, 2019

I'm still not having any luck adding my car. The app went a little bit further around 9:00 PM EDT last night, where it gave a spinning circle instead of an immediate screen about unsupported cellular in the car. This morning, it was back to the unsupported message when I just tried.

Trying through the web gives a new error that may be the cause of my grief. It claims that the vehicle's mobile network connection has been deactivated. I was under the impression that it is good for 10 years on 2014-2015 cars, so I guess I'll be calling support again today.....

vreihen · May 8, 2019

Still no joy in Whoville with getting the ConnectedDrive app linked. I called support again, and was told that their systems were still down and to try again tomorrow because they can't help me.

When I launched the iOS ConnectedDrive app for the gazillionth time, it popped up a customer satisfaction survey asking how likely I was to recommend ConnectedDrive to a friend. I wish that I had thought to grab a screen shot of my response blurb, because I did not have one nice word to say about their incompetence.....

alohart · May 8, 2019

vreihen said:
Still no joy in Whoville with getting the ConnectedDrive app linked.

I had no luck adding our car using the iOS version of the BMWConnected app. However, I was able to add our car using the BMW Connected Drive Website. After it had been added, the BMWConnected app worked normally.

vreihen · May 9, 2019

The web site is also failing for me:

I was reading a web article yesterday about how ConnectedDrive was being hosted on Microsoft's Azure cloud service as of a few years ago. Azure had some downtime a few days ago due to a DNS oopsie, which might explain some temporary errors but not this ongoing one.....

vreihen · May 10, 2019

Still not working from either the web site or iOS app (screen shot below):

I sent an email to [email protected] at 6:30 AM yesterday morning, and have not heard peep from them besides an auto-responder reply saying they will respond soon.

From reading other BMW forums, I get the impression that ConnectedDrive has frequent outages and undependable reliability. Is it *really* this bad of a train wreck all the time, or is this week's issue an isolated event?????

vreihen · May 10, 2019

It finally let me past the initial registration screen when I just tried! Received the confirmation code message in the car, and typed the six digits into the web page. The web site gave me a ~4 minute spinning wheel of doom processing message, and then threw an error saying to start all over again with sending a new code. Sigh.....

vreihen · May 10, 2019

https://www.engadget.com/2019/05/10/bmw-carplay-outage/

A BMW outage made Apple CarPlay unusable

The German car company is working on a fix.

Amrita Khalid
7h ago in Transportation

BMW owners in both the US and UK have been locked out of Apple's CarPlay interface on their vehicles due to system-wide outages of ConnectedDrive. 9to5Mac reported that complaints from drivers on both sides of the pond began racking up on social media earlier this week. The German car company's subscription-based connectivity service lets drivers to connect to Apple's CarPlay, which manages everything from navigation to phone calls. With ConnectedDrive being down, cars are unable to confirm that drivers have paid for the CarPlay options in their vehicle.

Perhaps adding to driver frustration is that BMW has made no public statement about the ConnectedDrive outage or given an idea of when it will be fixed. A spokesman from BMW UK confirmed to Engadget that it experienced several outages to ConnectedDrive services in recent weeks, and has solved the problem for most of its customers. "We have identified the cause of the outages and have implemented fixes whereby the majority of customers have had their services restored," wrote BMW in an email. Some drivers are still unable to access back-end data, which BMW says it is fixing on a one-on-one basis.

BMW told Engadget it restored ConnectedDrive service in the US prior to 12 pm ET on Friday. ConnectedDrive runs on a separate server in the US, meaning that some BMW owners in the US were still offline as early as Friday morning. "BMW is currently undertaking ConnectedDrive systems migration to improve future performance. This upgrade has unfortunately impacted some services. We are working on restoring the interrupted services as quickly as possible and we sincerely apologize for any inconvenience this may have caused some of our customers," wrote a BMW spokesperson to Engadget on Friday.

Nick Summers and Richard Lawler contributed to this report.

alohart · May 10, 2019

vreihen said:
It finally let me past the initial registration screen when I just tried! Received the confirmation code message in the car, and typed the six digits into the web page. The web site gave me a ~4 minute spinning wheel of doom processing message, and then threw an error saying to start all over again with sending a new code.

When I finally got to the point on the Website where a security code was being sent to our car, no message containing the code arrived before the code's expiration time, so I requested a second code. Two messages containing both codes arrived almost immediately, so apparently the process that sends messages to cars was not functioning initially. I was able to enter the second code to complete the re-registration of our car. All the subscriptions that I have paid for now function normally. I haven't driven our i3 since yesterday, so I can't tell whether the BMW Connected app is updating appropriately.

user 5157 · May 10, 2019

After trying to add my i3 back into the phone app to no avail, it magically appeared today. As far as the new ConnectedDrive website, it's crap. No duplication of any phone app remote functions.

vreihen · May 11, 2019

Somebody must have cleaned up the failed transaction from last night in the back-end systems, because my app and the web site are both finally working.

Ironically, there is nothing wrong with their billing service. The first thing it did was notify me that the real-time traffic and another service are due to expire next week. Needless to say, I'm hesitant to give them a dime of my own money after the hassles they gave me this week just trying to get the car connected..... :roll:

symonray · May 11, 2019

vreihen,

Do you now have access to the remote cockpit functions for your vehicle on the Connected Drive website?

Many of us have been able to use such functions through the app but not on the website over the past several days.

fireball08 · May 11, 2019

New to this forum, first post!

Yup, did the same thing as Alohart - unchecked the box. Suddenly car is gone from the app. No features on the portal through computer. Not sure whether to wait or unregister, then re-add the car. I can't understand why they would release a new interface, leave one checkbox and not expect people to explore this????

Serious problem with new BMW ConnectedDrive Website (USA)

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