Bluetooth erratic behavior

[AustinJerry]

I use my iPhone to stream music to my M4 audio system. After owning the vehicle for 3 1/2 years, connecting the iPhone using the USB port has become completely unreliable, so I have switched to using Bluetooth.

When connected to Bluetooth, a song's album art, artist name, and song title are displayed. However, approximately every 30 seconds, the album art will disappear, and the other fields with show "Unknown artist", "Unknown song", etc. After a second or two, the correct information is displayed again. This cycle repeats itself every 30 seconds and is distracting.

I checked the vehicle's iDrive software version, downloaded a fresh copy, and re-installed it. This did not fix the problem.

Anyone else seeing this issue? Any tips on how to fix it?

[danchee]

Reset your phone?

[AustinJerry]

Originally Posted by danchee

Reset your phone?

Of course I tried that, and it made no difference.

BTW, what is an 18-foot M3? Or do you mean ‘18 as in 2018?

[danchee]

Originally Posted by AustinJerry

BTW, what is an 18-foot M3? Or do you mean ‘18 as in 2018?

18' as in 18 Prime. 2nd one of the same thing.

[danchee]

Maybe your iDrive HDD is dying? Does the information get cached in the drive? Does this happen only with your phone or all types of phones connected? What else have you tried?

[GrussGott]

Originally Posted by AustinJerry

However, approximately every 30 seconds, the album art will disappear, and the other fields with show "Unknown artist", "Unknown song", etc. After a second or two, the correct information is displayed again.

do you have the BMW app installed on your phone? That can cause BT issues

[KeoniM3]

Any update on this issue?

[AustinJerry]

The USB connection continues to be unreliable, so I have stopped trying to use it. I now use Bluetooth exclusively, but Bluetooth has an issue as well. When I connect to the iPhone, the vehicle display shows song information (Artist, Title, etc.) as well as the album art. However, every 30-60 seconds, the display loses the information, showing instead “unknown artist”, and no album art. After 2-3 seconds, it recovers, and displays the information correctly. This continues in an endless cycle for as long as I am connected using Bluetooth, and is somewhat distracting.

The BMW support desk suggests that I take the vehicle in and have the software re-flashed but, since the vehicle is no longer under warranty, I am reluctant to spend the money for something that might not fix the issue.

[NYBulldog]

Originally Posted by AustinJerry

The USB connection continues to be unreliable, so I have stopped trying to use it. I now use Bluetooth exclusively, but Bluetooth has an issue as well. When I connect to the iPhone, the vehicle display shows song information (Artist, Title, etc.) as well as the album art. However, every 30-60 seconds, the display loses the information, showing instead “unknown artist”, and no album art. After 2-3 seconds, it recovers, and displays the information correctly. This continues in an endless cycle for as long as I am connected using Bluetooth, and is somewhat distracting.

The BMW support desk suggests that I take the vehicle in and have the software re-flashed but, since the vehicle is no longer under warranty, I am reluctant to spend the money for something that might not fix the issue.

Exact thing happens to me!

[SD ///M4]

Originally Posted by AustinJerry

After owning the vehicle for 3 1/2 years, connecting the iPhone using the USB port has become completely unreliable

Did you buy your car new? If so, it's still under warranty. Take the opportunity before your 4 year warranty expires and have the dealer fix the USB problem.

The sound quality of the USB connection is far superior to the Bluetooth connection.

[AustinJerry]

The post where I said the vehicle was 3 1/2 years old was quite a while ago. My warranty expired in Nov 2018. Regardless of which connection method is better (I don’t hear a difference between USB and Bluetooth), I have to use whichever method provides a consistently reliable connection.

So, are you having no issues with either connection type?

[SD ///M4]

Originally Posted by AustinJerry

The post where I said the vehicle was 3 1/2 years old was quite a while ago. My warranty expired in Nov 2018. Regardless of which connection method is better (I don’t hear a difference between USB and Bluetooth), I have to use whichever method provides a consistently reliable connection.

So, are you having no issues with either connection type?

Audio quality can be significantly degraded when using Bluetooth vs. USB. I did a quick search and came up with this post, which has a pretty straightforward explanation as to why: https://www.quora.com/What-is-better...B-or-bluetooth.

I did Euro Delivery in my 2016 M4. Because the Euro maps are on a USB stick that's plugged into the USB port in the center console, the only way to listen to my iPod during the trip was via Bluetooth. I was really disappointed in how flat the music sounded, no matter what I was listening to. The bottom-end lacked punch, the top-end seemed cut off, and the mid-range sounded flat and muddy. The whole dynamic range was limited and the music sounded "dead". My favorite tunes sounded "off", definitely lacking, but I put up with it during the trip because I had no choice. When the car was redelivered, and I was able to plug my iPod into the USB port, all the music came alive again, with the full dynamic range and punch that was missing when listening via Bluetooth. I've also never experienced "drop-outs" when listening via USB which can happen with Bluetooth.

Disclaimer: In my 20's I was actually taught how to critically evaluate high-end speaker systems and have had audiophile-quality audio equipment in my home most of my life. So I'm probably way more sensitive to the differences than you are, but there are differences. It's not that critical in a relatively noisy automotive environment with the accompanying traffic noise, but I can tell the difference. That said, my wife can't tell the difference between a $300 pair of home speakers and a $3,000 pair of speakers. If you can't, then you don't have to worry about it.

I've been mostly listening to music from my iPod plugged into the USB port for the last three years. I've renewed my Sirius/XM subscription so I also have that as an alternate source of music that I might not have on my iPod, but it doesn't sound as good as using the iPod via USB. I occasionally listen to streaming music from Amazon Music from my Samsung phone via Bluetooth for even more musical variety, but the sound quality is definitely lacking. Drop-outs happen far more often when streaming though.

Bottom line, I've had no issues with either connection type, although USB is far superior overall.

[AustinJerry]

I don’t doubt that USB provides better audio quality, and the BMW Connected App via ISB has more functionality. However, as I have stated previously, my USB connection is not stable, so my choices are to use Bluetooth, or to have no streaming music. I don’t feel that any potential audio differences would warrant the cost of having BMW service re-flash my software, which may, or may not, fix the issue.

[KeoniM3]

Has anyone taken their vehicle recently to the dealer to have this corrected? The bluetooth keeps dropping every 3 minutes, so brutal.

[AustinJerry]

Bluetooth is dropping every few minutes? That sounds pretty serious. My issue is that it drops the song name, artist, and album art briefly every minute or two, but the audio never drops. BTW, what phone are you using?

If BMW can actually fix these audio issues, I would appreciate hearing about it. I don’t want to incur any expense unless I can be sure the issue will be resolved.

[awg0020]

I was having reliability issues with USB for a long while, but it turns out that the cable I was using was failing. Probably not your problem, but it doesn't hurt to try if you haven't already. I'm sure you have checked, but do other iPhones have the same problem in your car?

Also, have you installed the connectivity update from bmw.com/update ?

[KeoniM3]

AustinJerry, I have the same issues as you. After my last post it was working flawlessly but the issues will come back the next time I’m in the car again.

[karlskry]

I have the same issues with my 2015- very frustrating, especially considering the truck I traded in for this had CarPlay and seamless connectivity

[thorHAM]

XS max and bluetooth randomly disconnects for me, so have to pretty much use USB which seems to be fine so far, but annoying. m4 2019

[hastym3]

I was having erratic bluetooth issues, losing connection every 3-5 minutes. I just installed newest iOS (12.3.1). Uninstalled iphone from idrive and then reinstalled it and seems to have fixed the issue

[AustinJerry]

To the earlier posters, yes, I have tried different USB cables, and made sure that I am on the current version of the software.

An interesting update: I upgraded to an iPhone 10XR last fall, which is approximately when my issues started. As a test, I moved my SIM card back to my iPhone 6s and tried it in the vehicle for several days. USB connectivity was solid, and Bluetooth had no issues as well. Then I went back to the IPhone 10XR, and the problems returned. USB cycled between connected and disconnected every 30 seconds, making the connection unusable. And Bluetooth kept cycling from showing the artwork and then showing “artist unavailable” every several minutes. Bluetooth audio remained unaffected, so I am sticking with Bluetooth for now.

This leads me to believe that there is something wrong with the iPhone 10XR, either I have a defective device, or something with the later technology is incompatible with the BMW software. I am tempted to schedule a Genius Bar visit to describe the issue, and see if I can swap out my phone for a new one.

[KeoniM3]

AustinJerry - same thing happens with my iPhone 10XS. Had the dealer update the software a while back but the same issues occur.

Whenever I have an issue now and it can’t be corrected with turning off and on Bluetooth, I just forget the device and reconnect it as a new phone.

I just spent a week in Nissan car rental and Bluetooth didn’t fail once. Jeez BMW, get your shit together.