iPhone 6 and BMW

Only interested in charging and music (well, it's usually audiobooks rather than music!)  I'll try it your way tomorrow.  Hopefully it will work and save the cost of a new lead.

I do exactly the same as Lontano, works well for me. I guess it's a problem if you don't have Bluetooth or USB connectivity 

Just plugged iPhone 6+ into the 18 month old BMW 3 using the charging Lightning cable.  Went through the menus and no playlists visible on the BWM monitor screen.  So, it seems to me that you 2 are actually transferring your music to the BMW using Bluetooth, and just using the Lightning cable as a charger.  Think I'll get the proper Y cable, as I have no other need for bluetooth - never use the phone with one of those in-ear thingies or hands off in the car.

We hardly ever plug our iPhones into our BMW at all. Not sure why you'd want to. We have a cable to use from the USB in the golvebox for emergency charging, but that's it. My understanding is that the BMW cable is "special" in price only.

My iPhone6 plays music into the USB in the armrest of my X5, using the same lightning to USB cble that came with the phone.  Control from the iDrive, display on the dash.  

I am not playing the music using bluetooth  - I am doing it through my apple cable. I then use the idrive to access my iphone through the "external devices" choice on the menu. This takes me to a menu where I can select the music I want to play. These features are on all recent BMW's as far as I am aware. 

Winky : I only plug the iPhone into the BMW to use as a 'music' (usually audiobook) source.  More convenient than having multiple CDs

Lontano, Chris, Charlie : My BMW is a 3 series, bought new end of April 2013.  So, hardly an old model, unless you are one of those who change cars every year!

I suspect that BMW have changed the iDrive firmware/software/hardware not long after my car was made, so perhaps a trip to my dealer to see if they can do a firmware/software upgrade might be in order.  The iPhone 3GS certainly needs a Y cable for playlists to be accessed directly in my BMW.  I did consider getting an adapter (30pin to Lightning) for use with the old cable and new phone, but apparently the adapters don't transfer any audio info.

Don't really know who to blame - BMW or Apple.  Though I suspect it may be mainly Apple's fault, as apparently Mercedes, Audis etc have similar problems.  I thought about bluetooth streaming the audio, but apparently there are problems with iOS 8 and bluetooth the BMW as well! (info from web searches).  The solution to these is apparently to reset the iPhone, but then I would lose my iCloud access (temporarily?)

I am going to try just connecting the iPhone 6 headphone socket to the BMW aux in.  Means I'll have to control the music selection on the iPhone itself, but as I usually just set it going then just listen, probably not much of a hardship unless I want to rewind a little bit when I miss what the narrator says.

I bought a cheap 128GB USB stick, and filled it with WAVs, taken from my Unitiserve. The sound quality is streets ahead of my iphone connected to the car, and the stick just lives in the car. It was about half the cost of a genuine BMW Y-cable!

Not sure about the problem being with Apple Dg. I can plug my iPod or SWMBO's iPhone into my 3-year-old Honda & it reads all the music files, shows them on its display, and plays them just fine. However, SWMBO's new Mercedes has similar problems to your BMW - if you plug the same devices into its USB connection it doesn't recognise the device - to play music you have to select exterior device on its information screen, then press play on the iPod/Phone & it'll play, but it doesn't display any of the information on the devices and you have to do all the controlling on them, not the car.

It's not as if the Apples are unusual devices; when her car was collected for its service the other day I mentioned the problem to the chap who came to pick the car up & I might as well have been talking gobbledegook. He suggested they might have to keep her car in "For a few days" to sort the 'problem' out!

I've tried posting about this on a Mercedes forum but no one seems to know the answer. Bonkers if you ask me.

Seems bonkers to me as well.  New iPhone will allow me to play music/audiobooks via the BMW radio if I connect it via the Aux input, but I have to do all the management (pause, run, find point I have reached in the book etc) on the iPhone itself.  Was so much more convenient with my old iPhone which let me do all that via the BMW's display.

No reply to my email to BMW asking for their help/advice.  I sent it via the email form on their customer support web page (using Safari on my Mac).  No sign of that email in my 'sent' folder in Mac mail.  Is that usual?

Chris : Can you navigate to a particular point in a track on the files on your USB stick, and when you switch off your car and remove the USB stick, does it remember what point you had reached in your listening.  I ask because I am currently listening to a book from Audible.co.uk, and each file is several hours long!  Would be extremely tedious to have to find and restart from where I left off.

We do the same, but with an old 160GB iPod classic. It lives in the car in the console. Full control and album art on the dash display. It used to "hang" and require a full iPod reset from time to time but recently has been flawless. Our phones can then stay in our pocket/handbag. Bluetooth for making phone calls works great. The contact list also shows up fine on the centre display.

Wonder if that would work with something like an iPod Nano.  Might be easier than having to keep plugging/unplugging my phone.

Hi, I have a 2013 3 series too and was expecting to need an expensive Y cable - but I was pleasantly surprised to find that my old iPod touch works very well with the normal USB cable (everything displayed properly and controlled through the car). My iPhone 5 works as well but I just use that for calls.

I don't have the enhanced bluetooth so the music must be flowing through the USB.

Is it a genuine Apple cable? I'm sure I read somewhere that cheaper cables and adapters can be a bit quirky and just charge the apple device. I use an Amazon branded cable which works and is much cheaper.

Hope you get it sorted out soon.

Regards,

Matthew

Y cable used with iPhone 3GS genuine BMW part.  Lightning cable is the one that came with the new iphone 6+, so genuine Apple part.

Completely off-topic, but very happy ATM.  Youngest daughter (and family) have after several months finally exchanged contracts for the sale of their nominally 4 bed terrace and also their one bed flat (both in Wimbledon.  So they're moving to a 6 bed house in Sutton Coldfield on Friday week.

London house prices are crazy.  The Sutton Coldfield house is £100,000 less than they got for their London terrace!

Be nice to have 3 of our grandkids only 20 minutes drive away, but I suspect we'll get more requests for baby sitting!

Chris : Can you navigate to a particular point in a track on the files on your USB stick, and when you switch off your car and remove the USB stick, does it remember what point you had reached in your listening.  I ask because I am currently listening to a book from Audible.co.uk, and each file is several hours long!  Would be extremely tedious to have to find and restart from where I left off

I don't think I can navigate, FF or rewind through a track on iDrive. However, I've tried removing the USB stick, and when I replaced it and started the car again, it resumed play where it left off. (I only waited for a minute or so before starting up though, I'm not sure if it would remember the next day?)

Update :

Rang BMW Customer Services this morning.  I had tried emailing them using the form on their website, but have had no reply to that so far.

Apparently BMW are working on the problem, and a solution will hopefully be found, whether it be a firmware upgrade or a new Y lead.  I have been told to contact my dealer at intervals to check availability.  I did suggest to Customer Services that a little note about possible solutions to my problem should be on their website, to save others a lot of hassle.

Presumably Mercedes etc are also working towards a solution.

Just as an addendum, I tried plugging the 3GS (now belongs to SWMBO) into the BMW using just the USB/30pin cable (not the Y cable), and iDrive said 'not supported', so the Y cable appears to be necessary.

I'll just carry on using a minijack/minijack cable in the aux socket for now.

I'll just carry on using a minijack/minijack cable in the aux socket for now.

I found sound quality playing WAVs from an iphone awful using the minijack; that's why I switched to the USB stick. Not really a problem for audiobooks, though.

All very strange. is the problem playlists or that you can't get any music off your iPhone at all using the idrive or both?

i don't use playlists and the idrive does not cater for them As far as I can see. But I can sort through my collection, choose songs and albums to play. All done using the apple Lightning cable. No y cables involved. All on a March 2012 5 series. No software updates required for me or y cable.

Did you plug in the console or the glove box? An iPod or iPhone won't work through the USB in the glove box, only the one in the console.

Funny that.  With the iPhone 3GS my iDrive shows playlists along with albums etc.  Connecting the iPhone 6 plus with Lighting cable, all I get is 'not supported'.  Hence the only way at present to use it with the BMW radio is via Aux input, and controlling the music etc directly.

Console (the one between the 2 front seats).  As I said in my post earlier today, BMW are aware of the problems and are apparently working to sort it out.