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iPhone unable to connect with car via Bluetooth

Intri

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Hi,

its been some time since I started trying to solve a specific problem. My boss has a BMW car and he wants to be able to connect his iPhone 4G (iOS 5.1.1) to it, thus accessing the Internet via the cars interface. And he has been able to without any problems until some time ago. Steps taken to connect with the car are simple:

1) pair the iPhone with the car (iPhone initiates connection)
3) make sure hotspot and mobile data are enabled on the iPhone
2) open cars built-in browser and have it connect it to the internet. If successful, Google homepage appears and life is great.

But ever since it started doing troubles, it is only possible to connect to the car if iPhone is showing the Bluetooth settings screen. It is impossible to connect unless the screen shows anything else, be it desktop, another setting screen or an application. The connection attempt simply fails with the car saying that it is impossible to connect (no error code or anything to determine the reason), iPhone doesnt show any activity whatsoever. No activation of hotspot connection, nothing.

Bluetooth connection is generally ok, there are no problems with phone calls whatsoever, everything works fine. Its just that the car is only able to get Internet connection if the iPhone shows the BT settings. I tried the iPhone with my Windows 7 laptop, the connection and Internet sharing worked flawlessly. I tried my Android phone with the car, it worked flawlessly as well. But when I try to connect the car via iPhone...

BMW service has no idea what the problem could be either. They reinstalled the cars software more than once, updated it to the latest version but no success whatsoever. We first experienced this problem when the phone returned from warranty repaired. It has been updated to iOS 5.0, which proved incompatible with current version of the cars software. When the car got updated, it worked again no problemo. Then they added a piece of extra hardware to the car, the connection problems returned. They removed it (no changes to either cars or iPhones software), the problem persisted. They put it back, updated the software, the problem is still there.

I have no idea which device to blame, the car works fine with my phone, iPhone works fine with my laptop. But the two just dont talk to each other. Maybe they need some good partnership advice.

Does anybody have any idea what could possibly cause the car to connect only when iPhone shows the Bluetooth setting screen? The only thing that is different on BT settings screen (that I know of) is that iPhone searches for devices to connect to. But I just dont see how could that affect an incoming request for hotspot connection.

Things I have yet to try:

- connect iPhone with my Android phone via Bluetooth (presumably shouldnt work, I believe)
- connect the car to another iPhone 4GS

Any thoughts would be welcome. Many thanks to anyone who tries.:)
 
Last edited:
Intri said:
Hi,

its been some time since I started trying to solve a specific problem. My boss has a BMW car and he wants to be able to connect his iPhone 4G (iOS 5.1.1) to it, thus accessing the Internet via the cars interface. And he has been able to without any problems until some time ago. Steps taken to connect with the car are simple:

1) pair the iPhone with the car (iPhone initiates connection)
3) make sure hotspot and mobile data are enabled on the iPhone
2) open cars built-in browser and have it connect it to the internet. If successful, Google homepage appears and life is great.

But ever since it started doing troubles, it is only possible to connect to the car if iPhone is showing the Bluetooth settings screen. It is impossible to connect unless the screen shows anything else, be it desktop, another setting screen or an application. The connection attempt simply fails with the car saying that it is impossible to connect (no error code or anything to determine the reason), iPhone doesnt show any activity whatsoever. No activation of hotspot connection, nothing.

Bluetooth connection is generally ok, there are no problems with phone calls whatsoever, everything works fine. Its just that the car is only able to get Internet connection if the iPhone shows the BT settings. I tried the iPhone with my Windows 7 laptop, the connection and Internet sharing worked flawlessly. I tried my Android phone with the car, it worked flawlessly as well. But when I try to connect the car via iPhone...

BMW service has no idea what the problem could be either. They reinstalled the cars software more than once, updated it to the latest version but no success whatsoever. We first experienced this problem when the phone returned from warranty repaired. It has been updated to iOS 5.0, which proved incompatible with current version of the cars software. When the car got updated, it worked again no problemo. Then they added a piece of extra hardware to the car, the connection problems returned. They removed it (no changes to either cars or iPhones software), the problem persisted. They put it back, updated the software, the problem is still there.

I have no idea which device to blame, the car works fine with my phone, iPhone works fine with my laptop. But the two just dont talk to each other. Maybe they need some good partnership advice.

Does anybody have any idea what could possibly cause the car to connect only when iPhone shows the Bluetooth setting screen? The only thing that is different on BT settings screen (that I know of) is that iPhone searches for devices to connect to. But I just dont see how could that affect an incoming request for hotspot connection.

Things I have yet to try:

- connect iPhone with my Android phone via Bluetooth (presumably shouldnt work, I believe)
- connect the car to another iPhone 4GS

Any thoughts would be welcome. Many thanks to anyone who tries.:)

Go to settings, general, reset, reset network settings. Then try to do the whole pairing process again.
 
Thank you, I will try. Which settings will it affect? Will I have to set up everything related to networks again?

Also, are there any other ideas, please? In case reseting the network settings doesnt work.
 
Intri said:
Thank you, I will try. Which settings will it affect? Will I have to set up everything related to networks again?

Also, are there any other ideas, please? In case reseting the network settings doesnt work.

It resets all network connections, which affects wifi, Bluetooth, and any apn or VPN settings you have installed or configured.
 
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