[matt_435xi]

anyone insall the velcro/leather pouch on the under-side of the armrest? i just got the pouch from my dealer (i was one of the 1st 6FL cars) and was wondering if there are DIYers out there? i didn't see anything.

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by matt_335Ci

anyone insall the velcro/leather pouch on the under-side of the armrest? i just got the pouch from my dealer (i was one of the 1st 6FL cars) and was wondering if there are DIYers out there? i didn't see anything.

I just got some double-sided adhesive squares and used as many as I could fit without it looking bad. It's coming up on 9 months now with no problem.

[matt_435xi]

Originally Posted by jmonier

I just got some double-sided adhesive squares and used as many as I could fit without it looking bad. It's coming up on 9 months now with no problem.

thats what i was thinking at first, but my fiance has the car and it is secured with 3 screws. my dealership is going to send me these screws, just not sure how easy they screw into the armrest? i guess if i F it up i can always use tape as a backup.

[Geoman]

Sorry if this question has been covered.
When I get in my car, the bluetooth picks up my phone and can display my contact list on the radio screen. I can scroll individual names starting at "A" or I can push a button that allows me to start scrolling starting at "G-M" it's really handy since I have more than 1000 contacts in my list. With my ipod however, I have no such option. If I choose artist and it starts at "A" and I want to listen to Wyclef, it takes me like 5 minutes to scroll through all the of the artist on the Ipod. No good. I haven't tried to manual scroll on the Ipod itself, nor have I tried making A-F, G-M, etc. playlists. Does anyone know if there is an alphabetical solution to this problem?

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by matt_335Ci

thats what i was thinking at first, but my fiance has the car and it is secured with 3 screws. my dealership is going to send me these screws, just not sure how easy they screw into the armrest? i guess if i F it up i can always use tape as a backup.

I believe that they're self tapping screws so you would drill a small hole for each (the same or a little less than the inner diameter of the screw thread) and you should be able to drive the screw right in. Maybe the holes exist on later builds but mine (early March 07 build) did not have them.

[matt_435xi]

Originally Posted by jmonier

I believe that they're self tapping screws so you would drill a small hole for each (the same or a little less than the inner diameter of the screw thread) and you should be able to drive the screw right in. Maybe the holes exist on later builds but mine (early March 07 build) did not have them.

that is what my dealer said today, thanks!!

[cisoid]

Originally Posted by jcwww

forgive me if the information I seek is hidden in one of the 48 pages, but:

Does the USB interface charge connected devices 24/7 or does it switch off some time after removing the key?

Power is switched off about 3 minutes after removing the key (and locking the doors). Thus, charging is not available around the clock.

[cisoid]

Originally Posted by 77si

Likewise, 30gb iPod updated iTunes 7.6.1 when connected to the car I get the Do Not Disconnect screen - the iPod does not register with the car, only reads as USB device, and then makes up its own playlist of which I can access and read through the radio, as well as skipping tracks from the wheel, but cant be read on the ipod, and I cant choose the tracks.

Any suggestions?

You connect your iPod with the original cable by Apple. With this cable the iPod is mounted as USB key (USB mass storage device class). That's not the intended operation mode for an iPod. You need a BMW adapter cable (y cable) to obtain full functionality with the iPod. The cable is available with the car (US) or can be obtained with any BMW dealer (rest of world). The official name is "cable adapter for Apple iPod/iPhone"

[LEDZEP]

Originally Posted by matt_335Ci

thats what i was thinking at first, but my fiance has the car and it is secured with 3 screws. my dealership is going to send me these screws, just not sure how easy they screw into the armrest? i guess if i F it up i can always use tape as a backup.

Advice: I secured mine with two sections of Velcro - and for about a year it has held fine. I really didn't want to drill holes. This way I can remove it if I ever want to.

[cisoid]

Originally Posted by I-Won-Today

Unfortunatelly we do not have any of those cables now. The BMW "Y-Cable" is now put in any BMW containing the USB option when it is processed at the port. Unless they are still on backorder, you should be able to order that part # (somewhere in this thread) from any BMW parts department in the US (even other countries should have access to the cables using that part # as they ship from Germany I believe).

I honestly don't know why the other countries decided not to include the cable with the option It was either a decision made by that specific entity (BMW Canada, BMW AG, etc...) or a decission Apple made to only have that cable provided in the US.

The black box in the "Y-Cable" is what tells the radio that an ipod is connected and decodes the AAC files. Everything you described regarding the direct USB to Ipod operation is correct as it is basically thinking the ipod is a hard drive.

I hope you are able to find a cable to use

To include or not include the cable with the option is a country specific decision. US market to include the cable because the iPod has some 70% market penetration. Therefore, the option includes the price for the adapter cable in the US.

In other countries the iPod is less popular and it would not make that much sense to include the cable for all users. In Europe many people use, e.g., a USB key - and there are 16GB keys available already.

The box in the cable includes a specific USB-to-serial converter. There are similar cables in the market (e.g., for Ford sync). These (most likely) use other converters and, therefore, will not work with the BMW option.

[cisoid]

Originally Posted by MFL101

Boy....I hate their closed system! I guess it makes sense for content protection....but it sucks for us who want to play digital music off the damn device!

If you go for Apple's DRM-free music you can play it anywhere. There are programs around that transcode aac to other formats like mp3 or wma.

If you have copy protected music a workaround is to burn an audio CD and then rip the music in the format you like, e.g., mp3. However, this is a time consuming effort ... I "heard" that there are programs around that do this job in software without burning real CD's. Maybe you should try to use Google on this issue.

[LEDZEP]

Originally Posted by cisoid

Power is switched off about 3 minutes after removing the key (and locking the doors). Thus, charging is not available around the clock.

Yep. Pretty sure we've discussed this in this thread before - cisoid is referring to "sleep mode", at which time all power is extinguished. You'll also notice that your iPod stays on after you remove the key, but it goes off when the car enters sleep mode.

[Definitive]

Ok, so FYI to all... I told my dealer about the problems I was having with my new 80gb iPod, and he weas reluctant but finally found some info from BMW about it.

They took the car in and reporgrammed the iDrive and gave me the NEW smaller rounded connector cable...

Everything works now! Including the charging! The only thing is that the update seemed to mess up some other things. Like sometimes when I get in the car it just goes and plays all songs, instead of the playlist I left it one...

Oh the ongoing battle of the iDrive vs. iPod...

D

[canada_dude]

This sounds like another good item to add to the "FAQ" document.

[Definitive]

So after some time with the new firmware and ipod dongle I have found a new problem. The worst part is that this did not exist before the upgrade.

The iDrive does not take your shuffle setting on the iPod into account anymore. Before I could set my iPod to shuffle and any playlist or anything I played would shuffle. Now, no matter what the setting on the ipod is, I have to select random every time I get in the car if I want it on random.

Has anyone else noticed this? I am pretty frustrated with this. Its like they improved some things and killed others... WHY?????

D

[LEDZEP]

Originally Posted by Definitive

So after some time with the new firmware and ipod dongle I have found a new problem. The worst part is that this did not exist before the upgrade.

The iDrive does not take your shuffle setting on the iPod into account anymore. Before I could set my iPod to shuffle and any playlist or anything I played would shuffle. Now, no matter what the setting on the ipod is, I have to select random every time I get in the car if I want it on random.

Has anyone else noticed this? I am pretty frustrated with this. Its like they improved some things and killed others... WHY?????

D

I haven't gotten the update yet and have to admit I don't use shuffle that much. But it figures that fixes for some things would break others...

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by Definitive

So after some time with the new firmware and ipod dongle I have found a new problem. The worst part is that this did not exist before the upgrade.

The iDrive does not take your shuffle setting on the iPod into account anymore. Before I could set my iPod to shuffle and any playlist or anything I played would shuffle. Now, no matter what the setting on the ipod is, I have to select random every time I get in the car if I want it on random.

Has anyone else noticed this? I am pretty frustrated with this. Its like they improved some things and killed others... WHY?????

D

Yes, and it will no longer do shuffle by album under any conditions even if the iPod is set that way.

[///MJ]

I am really confused. I just read thru almost 10 pages of this thread and I think I have this right- 6FL is the cable that attaches to the ipod in the center arm rest and has the USB adapter dangling, right?

[///MJ]

Ok. I think I've got it figured out- 6FL is factory installed and I have the cable that I mentioned above.

I just plugged the cable into the jack and it plays the music that is playing on the ipod. BUT, the only control that works is the volume- nothing else from the head unit works. Any suggestions?

[trion20001]

Hi All,

Hope this is the right thread for this post.

Just got my E92 (love it!) with iDrive, 6FL and they Y connector but I'm really having trouble getting the iPod functionality of my iPhone to work properly.

Bluetooth pairs and works fine so that is no issue but iPod is another story.

When connecting it does one of two things:

1. Starts playing from where it last left off, no songs list, no play list. Just shows current song only. Select playlist from the menu and it shows the "loading, may take some time" message and just stays there till I disconnect it. Bottom left of iDrive screen shows iPod so it recognises it.

2. Turn on the iPod function, hook up the cable, start the car and it displays song list (whole library), Genre, Artists etc BUT select playlist and the bottom of the screen will roll back to the last selected function.Bottom left of iDrive screen shows iPod so it recognises it.

So in either condition playlists seem to either freeze the iDrive iPod screen function (1) or not be selected (2).

Does anyone have the same experience or has heard about this?

Thanks!

[jmonier]

Originally Posted by ///MJ

Ok. I think I've got it figured out- 6FL is factory installed and I have the cable that I mentioned above.

I just plugged the cable into the jack and it plays the music that is playing on the ipod. BUT, the only control that works is the volume- nothing else from the head unit works. Any suggestions?

Are you saying that you have the 6FL option from the factory (USB connector next to the AUX connector in the armrest) and have plugged in your cable to BOTH the AUX and USB?

[Wires]

Originally Posted by ///MJ

Ok. I think I've got it figured out- 6FL is factory installed and I have the cable that I mentioned above.

I just plugged the cable into the jack and it plays the music that is playing on the ipod. BUT, the only control that works is the volume- nothing else from the head unit works. Any suggestions?

I have a 2008 335xi, bought the IPOD cable from the dealer, and it was bad. Parts guy came out with a second one, and it works now. If you have the actual BMW ipod cable, I'd take it back, as there probably something wrong with it.

On my deck, the bad cable would only play through the AUX (I'd have to manually control the ipod). The good cable shows "IPOD" where the "USB" used to be, and works slick.