Partial Solution to Partial BT Phone Book Downloads

[Skylaw]

I have an MHI equipped car with the AWS/MB RAZR V3c/V3m Bluetooth cradle and a Verizon RAZR V3c operating under AWS "approved" firmware. What follows may not apply to all phones or BT pucks, but may answer some of the "partial phone book download" problems that appear on the forums. The particular problem appears as failure to load names of individuals, possibly together with their numbers, after a download of a Bluetooth phone book, even if the names have loaded successfully in the past - a "partial download" of the BT phone book. It seems that this problem may occur from one or both of two situations: 1) where you have entered a name in the voice control/recognition system as well as on your cell phone, or 2) you have multiple phone numbers entered under a person's name on your cell phone - but in either case the person's name will not appear in the COMAND or instrument cluster display. You cannot scroll to or select the name. In some cases, you cannot see the number, either. The multiple entry of numbers under one name has been often discusssed, but because the initial appearance can be the same as the first problem, I'll include it here. Problem 1) If you enter voice phone book entries into COMAND through your Voice Control (recognition) system that contain the same numbers listed (with names) in your cell phone's phone book, they will appear only as phone numbers on COMAND and in the instrument cluster display; the names associated with the number will not display no matter what you do - switching between alphabetical/numeric display, and pressing "display" will not show the name. The numbers do not disappear, however - they appear after the very last name listed for which you did not make a voice control entry, at the end of your phone book on COMAND. The quick solution is, if you have entered dialing instructions into voice control/recognition sysyem, delete the voice entries in COMAND (by selecting and deleting each number on the COMAND screen for which you made a voice entry; they're at the end of the list of names) and re-load the phone book; the names will now display (in some cases, the names and will reappear without reload when you delete the number if the phone book had in fact downloaded properly). Problem 2) If you enter multiple numbers, e-mail addresses, and so forth under one name, every name for which you do that will be grouped together as a single entry, "several numbers" on COMAND, and both the names and numbers will be inaccessible from COMAND or the instrument cluster display. They remain available on your cellphone, but you seem to have lost them on COMAND (or gotten only a partial download). The quick solution is, use only a single phone number for a name. Repeat the name, possibly with additional identifying information, for multiple numbers. Then go into your phone book on COMAND (not the voice control phone book) and delete the entry "several numbers." ALL the names, formerly grouped under one entry as "several numbers" will now display properly as names in the "ABC" mode, and ALL the numbers will now display in the "123" mode. They will not display as individual names and numbers, even if you change them in your cell phone's phone book, until you do this deletion. Discussion: When I removed my plug-in V710 cradle and phone, and installed the BT cradle and RAZR, the voice phone book I had loaded into the Voice Control system for the V710 disappeared. My RAZR BT phone book downloaded, except that where I had multiple numbers listed under one name, ALL such listings appeared as a single entry on the COMAND display - shown as "several numbers." Neither the numbers nor the names appeared on the MFD (instrument cluster display) at all. The"several numbers" was a single entry for all the people with multiple numbers listed, and neither the names nor the numbers were individually accessible. The names of the people having multiple numbers also failed to appear on either display. Thus they seemed to have "disappeared" from the phone book on COMAND, although listed in the phone itself. I re-entered numbers into my phone as single entries for each phone number, deleted the single entry "several numbers" from the COMAND phone book, and COMAND and the MFD properly displayed each name and number. That's the answer to one "partial download" problem. However, after getting a good and complete phone book download, I then entered a limited set of the names and numbers orally into COMAND voice control. When I did, the names disappeared from the COMAND phone book and MFD display, and only the numbers appeared - at the end of the listing of names of all of the people for whom I had not entered voice dialing information. No names could be displayed with the numbers I had entered orally into the Voice Control System - although all could be dialed by voice (by name or by number) - and of course, the numbers could be dialed by selecting them in COMAND or on the MFD. One would have to remember the name that went with the number. As I deleted the voice entry for each individual, the person's name once again appeared (in its proper alphabetical location) on the COMAND and multifunction displays. That's the solution to the second "partial download" problem. There seems to be a conflict between the Voice Control voice dialing system and the Bluetooth phone book that prevents the display of names associated with numbers entered in both. I do not know why entry of voice dialing instructions deletes the display of name in the phone book after a BT download. This did not happen with my plug-in V710 system. However, when it occurs, the appearance is one of a "partial" download of the phone book. Caveats: This post does not address phone book entries that exceed the storage capacity of your COMAND - only what I have listed. I have not tried this with BT pucks, though I suspect they work the same way as my RAZR/BT combo cradle. I definitely cannot answer questions about specific phones and puck combinations. All I can say is, give it a try - and be aware that other problems (especially firmware incompatibilities - e.g., "unapproved" firmware) may prevent proper phone book downloads. This problem stumped the tech support folks I spoke to at the dealership about it yesterday, and it took my sorting through 5 sets of instructions at once to work this out - COMAND, Voice Control, Phone, Bluetooth Cradle, and my cell phone instructions (the solution is in none of them - just the procedures for clearing, pairing, entries, etc.). Nightmare. Hope this helps someone.

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[Skylaw]

I should have added the following after the quick solution to problem 1:

If you need the voice dialing feature of COMAND (using names), and also to be able to display all of the names and numbers in COMAND for scrolling, you may manually enter the "missing" name and its associated number into COMAND. The name will then display together with the phone book when it loads. The numbers that were stored at the end of the list (associated with voice names) will also remain in your COMAND phone book. Neither the numbers manually entered into COMAND nor the numbers at the end of your COMAND listings will be added to your cell phone's phone book unless you take aditional steps to store them (which is unnecessary - the names and numbers are already there!)

[rbelz]

I have a 2000 S-500 with Universal PSE (Q6820971), V60 Cradle Eliminator Cable (Q6820976), and V60 Bluetooth Cradle Adaptor (B67875856). I use an Apple Iphone 3GS.

It works fine, except i do not get any Phonebook download. I am wondering what the possible solutions to this are?

Is this a known incompatibility?

Is there a method for changing to the MHI Bluetooth Interface Module instead of the V60 Bluetooth Cradle Adapter?

Thanks for all your insights.

[Skylaw]

There were phone book download problems with the 3GS if it was upgraded to iOS 4.0. Later versions of iOS4 solved those problems.

There is no way you can change to an MHI (MOST fiber optics) system from a V60 (D2B fiber optics system). Many people have had success with the Universal PSE and V60 puck together with the iPhone - except for the iOS4.0/3GS combination. Check the operating system you're using.