Time Slots unusable due to Remote Services

[Parky14]

Since late October I have been unable to charge my i3 using the Charge in Time Slot option. The reason is due to a Remote Services Charging Profile update that is being sent to my car every 4 hours. The Charging Profile update deletes any time slots I have set up and the car is set to charge immediately. I contacted the Connected Drive team and they said :

“I can confirm that this is a known issue with the ConnectedDrive services that many of our customers are experiencing across the UK market.
I'm afraid there's currently no timeframe for when this will be resolved, but please rest assured that BMW are urgently developing a fix.
i understand that this may be frustrating, but as soon as we receive an update or a resolution you will either be update on the situation, or an update will be sent out to your phone or vehicle with a possible fix.”

They then sent me instructions to update the software in the car using Remote Software Update which as well all know is not possible in an i3. That also said :

“You need to take your vehicle to a local BMW Centre. However, please be advised that every BMW Centre is independently owned, so all costs and charges are up to their discretion.”

So does any one have or has had this issue? Did you fix it? Do we think it is an issue with the car or their servers?

Help please!

 

[mojo]

It is now a very widely reported issue on the i3 UK Facebook group. AFAIK nobody has found a fix.

Question: Do you use, or have you ever used Octopus Intelligent Go? Nobody is completely sure whether there is a link to that service/tariff - evidence suggests not, but we're still not certain!

 

[Parky14]

It is now a very widely reported issue on the i3 UK Facebook group. AFAIK nobody has found a fix.

Question: Do you use, or have you ever used Octopus Intelligent Go? Nobody is completely sure whether there is a link to that service/tariff - evidence suggests not, but we're still not certain!

I have used Intelligent Octopus in the past but I have removed my car from it and it is turned off. I did wonder if it could be related to IO but as I removed the car from the service and it made no difference I then discounted it.

 

[mojo]

I'm in exactly the same position - my car is disconnected from Octopus but I still get the symptoms. What we don't know is whether it's a historical hangover from having used Octopus at some point in the past. Sadly we have no way to diagnose that.

The one thing we are fairly sure of: fixing it should not require any updates to the car. BMW just need to stop their servers from sending a corrupted message to the cars every ~4 hours!

 

[Parky14]

I'm in exactly the same position - my car is disconnected from Octopus but I still get the symptoms. What we don't know is whether it's a historical hangover from having used Octopus at some point in the past. Sadly we have no way to diagnose that.

The one thing we are fairly sure of: fixing it should not require any updates to the car. BMW just need to stop their servers from sending a corrupted message to the cars every ~4 hours!

I agree it’s not the car at fault but BMW don’t seem to be accepting that there is an issue they can help with. Its very annoying.

 

[alohart]

If Octopus requires one's BMW ConnectedDrive login credentials so that it can communicate with one's i3, changing the BMW ConnectedDrive login password would prevent Octopus servers from communicating with one's i3. This from an i3 owner who has no experience with Octopus and doesn't know how it works but who does have experience with 3rd-party access of our i3 using my BMW ConnectedDrive login credentials.

 

[Parky14]

If Octopus requires one's BMW ConnectedDrive login credentials so that it can communicate with one's i3, changing the BMW ConnectedDrive login password would prevent Octopus servers from communicating with one's i3. This from an i3 owner who has no experience with Octopus and doesn't know how it works but that does have experience with 3rd-party access of our i3 using my BMW ConnectedDrive login credentials.

Thanks for the suggestion. I have changed the password and I will report back to see if it makes a difference.

 

[Parky14]

Thanks for the suggestion. I have changed the password and I will report back to see if it makes a difference.

Sad news, it made no difference.
I set a new time slot for tonight and a few minutes later another remote update was sent to the car setting it to charge immediately. Looks like it is not related to Octopus as they no longer have the password.

 

[Parky14]

The latest nonsense from BMW…

“It appears that your My BMW app is running an out-of-date software. The first thing I would suggest, before we escalate this any further, is to update your app to the latest software.

I have found that your car hasn't had a software update since 2019. This may be what is causing the issues as this can affect information being sent to or from your car.

I would advise booking your car in with a BMW centre as they will be able to manually update your software.

Please be advised that there is a charge for the updated. If your vehicle is currently under warranty, then these costs for this update may be covered, if any. Once the diagnostics test has been completed, the centre will be able to advise you further on the costs. “

Clearly these people don’t have a clue what is going on.
I have the latest version of MyBMW app installed, which does not offer Remote Software Updates for the i3 anyway.
If my car that was manufactured in 2020 and is still on software from 2019, why was it not updated when my car was serviced twice by BMW since then? Including an end of warranty check.

Sounds to me like they have no idea what the hell they are doing!!!!

 

[Gonville]

If Octopus requires one's BMW ConnectedDrive login credentials so that it can communicate with one's i3, changing the BMW ConnectedDrive login password would prevent Octopus servers from communicating with one's i3. This from an i3 owner who has no experience with Octopus and doesn't know how it works but that does have experience with 3rd-party access of our i3 using my BMW ConnectedDrive login credentials.

That is 100% correct from i3 Owner who has used Octopus for a number of years.

Thing is it isn’t Octopus necessarily. They may have triggered some delayed empty charge profile which keeps getting spat out by the BMW servers. Who knows. Seems to happen to folks who haven’t used Octopus too.

 

[Gonville]

Sad news, it made no difference.
I set a new time slot for tonight and a few minutes later another remote update was sent to the car setting it to charge immediately. Looks like it is not related to Octopus as they no longer have the password.

This is correct. Have noted this in previous posts maybe on another thread?

 

[Gonville]

T

The latest nonsense from BMW…

“It appears that your My BMW app is running an out-of-date software. The first thing I would suggest, before we escalate this any further, is to update your app to the latest software.

I have found that your car hasn't had a software update since 2019. This may be what is causing the issues as this can affect information being sent to or from your car.

I would advise booking your car in with a BMW centre as they will be able to manually update your software.

Please be advised that there is a charge for the updated. If your vehicle is currently under warranty, then these costs for this update may be covered, if any. Once the diagnostics test has been completed, the centre will be able to advise you further on the costs. “

Clearly these people don’t have a clue what is going on.
I have the latest version of MyBMW app installed, which does not offer Remote Software Updates for the i3 anyway.
If my car that was manufactured in 2020 and is still on software from 2019, why was it not updated when my car was serviced twice by BMW since then? Including an end of warranty check.

Sounds to me like they have no idea what the hell they are doing!!!!

That is typical dealer bs. Yes you need to be on the latest app - yes the car will be up to date and won’t need any dealer intervention. They are reading from the 2024 service procedure for iX, iX3 and i4. All can do OTA sadly not our old i3.

 

[Gonville]

Mine is still doing this today. Here is the log. Nothing to do with Octopus currently although may have been a historical cause. We need to escalate to BMW UK HQ.

Just for amusement I checked the Mini app which made me login again and then ….crashed. Never had that before. I have a sneaking suspicion that as I was still logged in on my iPad it’s doing some security checking it never did before?

 

[Parky14]

T

That is typical dealer bs. Yes you need to be on the latest app - yes the car will be up to date and won’t need any dealer intervention. They are reading from the 2024 service procedure for iX, iX3 and i4. All can do OTA sadly not our old i3.

That information was from the Connected Drive team not from a dealer. I did point out to them many times that the i3 does not have the capability to do Remote Software Updates, but it seems to have fallen on deaf ears.

What annoys me is that initially they admitted it was an issue, they said :

"I can confirm that this is a known issue with the ConnectedDrive services that many of our customers are experiencing across the UK market."

Maybe all the cars with Remote Software Updates are able to be fixed and we are just left to fend for ourselves with the dealers.

My car is having an MOT tomorrow so I will mention the issue to the dealer see what they say, I don't expect much help.

I asked the Connected Drive team to escalate the issue, they just told me to complain to Customer Services, which I will do.

I'm not a Facebook user so I have not seen how many people have been affected by the issue, does anyone have feel for how widespread the issue is? Any data will be helpful for my complaint to Customer Services.

 

[Parky14]

Problem solved….

I have just ordered a Mini Aceman

 

[Parky14]

 

[alohart]

Thing is it isn’t Octopus necessarily. They may have triggered some delayed empty charge profile which keeps getting spat out by the BMW servers. Who knows. Seems to happen to folks who haven’t used Octopus too.

Not residing in the U.K. or being an Octopus customer, I haven't paid close attention to this problem. However, I don't recall reading that any i3 owner outside the U.K. has been suffering this problem. If so, what would make this problem U.K.-specific? There are probably BMW servers just for the U.K., but if this is a BMW server problem, BMW should be able to install server software from another market not suffering this problem. I'm sure some localization would have to be performed, but that shouldn't be a big deal unless this software is really poorly designed and/or written.

Certainly, BMW would not allow any 3rd-party company like Octopus to install its own software on an i3 because of the significant security risks. However, if Octopus somehow installed its own software on an i3 charger module, for example, this software could continue modifying charging schedules even if an i3 owner is no longer an Octopus customer or merely bought a used i3 from an Octopus customer. This seems highly unlikely, but software from various electronic module manufacturers runs on i3's already. Unlike Tesla, BMW didn't write all the software that's running on its EV's.

 

[mojo]

From observation we can be pretty sure that it's not being driven by the Octopus phone-based app, nor the myBMW phone-based app, nor is it being generated within any of the modules in the car - it is a remote command being sent via BMW's infrastructure, but nobody is completely certain where it originates.

Ironically for Parky14, I've seen some reports that Mini EVs are being affected in a similar way as well!