Wireless, MFT, 3.5.1, SYNC and now 3.6.2

[GrySql]

My FFH came with Sync VersionGen2 - V3.5.1 and the Nav SD card.

I've been studying all the features/functions it has in the 'Settings' area.

One item of interest is the 'Wireless' function, what is it for? Additionally, how do you get it to work since the screen keyboard is grayed out for passwords.

The FFH's Owners Manual is no help, only general info.

With all the talk about 3.5.1 being the 'fix' for SYNC and MFT I have been reading and doing internet searches about this wireless function.

 

After a considerable amount of time I found a Syncmyride dot com Forum called 'Owner to Owner' and an interesting description of the status of SYNC.

I'd give the exact URL, names, dates and etc, but don't know if that is legit here.

Near the end of a particular discussion thread I found a post from a knowledgable member over there that may be the current summary.

I just copied his response to another member about their new 3.5.1 update, see next:

"Now they just need to fix the issues 3.5.1 created. The iphone can receive text but can not send. The text to speech ringer selection is broken, the wifi won't let you use the keyboard, the Nav system is missing the direct input of GPS coordinates, the Song & artist are not displayed on 4 out of 5 screens, the music counter for usb counts up to nowhere- not backward or not 1.30 of 2.30, there is no progress bar for the music, the remote start for the heated seats only comes on at 32 or below- 38 is still cold, the sync services announces all the hockey games with the date & time that do not exist, the GPS will not always acquire the sat & the nav puts you miles off, the phone contact addresses will not pass to nav system if they have a USA in the field ( iPhone & others have) since Ford doesn't recognize the good old US of A."

 

If you log into syncmyride dot com and look at the Community tab there is a Topic about the newest update, available in January (dated 12/10/12) posted by the Microsoft Moderator.

It mentions the 'complimentary' SD Nav card and update and I know this is not news to anyone here.

 

In my car's screen, my home wireless system & my iPhone 'hotspot' can be seen by Sync, but I cannot enter any alphabet keyboard info for the password.

I tried using the USB iPhone connection and no joy with that.

This mobile system has a lot of possibilities and one hopes this little item will get resolved someday, when Ford and Microsoft have time.

I'll keep fiddling with the other features that I can understand, there are plenty more to look into.

 

Oh well, the car is fun to drive and I find all sorts of excuses to drive somewhere. :D

[coach81]

As soon as I left the dealership, I plugged in my Iphone5.. it quickly downloaded all my contacts, and began playing my music. I'm brand new to the sync stuff, but the navigation seems very solid, and overall it seems to be working great for me. Only a few times the voice rec did not understand what I was saying...but that could just be my Louisiana accent :tease:

[Former Expedition owner]

I am interested in knowing more about the wireless feature and if the system will do text to voice with an iPhone.

Edited January 14, 2013 by Former Expedition owner

[acdii]

The wireless is a hotspot amplifier. Basically if your phone can act as a modem the MFT will setup a wireless hotspot for laptops to use. Nice feature, when it works. If you have a USB 4GLTE card, you can plug it into one of the USB jacks and connect to 4G then use the mobile hotspot for more than one laptop. This is good if your passengers like to watch Netflix on a long drive.

[GrySql]

This is very confusing.

Edited January 14, 2013 by GrySql

[GrySql]

Regarding wireless only:

How does that work when it states that it only works in 'park'?

My iPhone has a 'hotspot' using 3g, I tried using the USB, Bluetooth or any other way.

The car sees both my home wireless and the iPhone hotspot but the alphabet keyboard will not work, it's grayed out.

Reportedly, at some future time there is supposed to be a browser that can be used in "park', like the video playing from my iPhone when it's connected via Component and USB.

 

acdii, does this feature work in your 2010 or current '13 with the older software?

BTW, I read that when they update your system to 3.5.1 you lose all your Nav destinations and you have to re-enter all to your new SD Nav card.

Mine are on the SD card and when it's removed all the destinations are not available.

Edited January 14, 2013 by GrySql

[Former Expedition owner]

I have a Novatel USB727 internet stick that uses Verizon Wireless for service. I can plug this into my laptop and have access to Verizon Wireless' 3G Internet.

 

Will I be able to plug this into one of the FFH Ti's USB ports and provide a wifi hotspot inside my vehicle? Will it do this while I am driving or only when in "Park"?

[acdii]

I dont know about when it will do it, but you program the car to use the USB dongle like you would on a laptop. I have used it as a repeater from my home AP, and it worked good. Kind of useless for that purpose though since You have to be in range of the AP to use it, so would your laptop or phone.

[GrySql]

Been sitting in the car trying different variations with my iPhone 4.

I have no problem pairing the iPhone with the Bluetooth in the car.

All my telephone contacts downloaded easily, the iPhone responds to voice commands (if you use the right ones).

 

I tested with the car running this time, in Park.

Bluetooth setting in the car says 'no wireless provider' with iPhone hotspot on and USB connected.

USB Modem setting with iPhone plugged in w/hotspot on the iPhone was 'No device attached'.

I don't know how to create a USB hotspot 'tether'.

The car Wireless setting can see both my home network and iPhone, I even have a network repeater in the garage, shows a strong signal on the car's screen.

 

Bottom line, using the iPhone hotspot or my home wireless I can't enter a password because the alphabet keyboard is N/A.

Perhaps someone more adept at this stuff can figure this out, I'm out of ideas. :wacko:

Edited January 14, 2013 by GrySql

[acdii]

That is carrier dependent, of on Verizon, forget it, you wont be able to. AT&T though, if you have that package will let you do it.

[Fastronaut]

Has anyone tried a Verizon iPhone5 with iOS6 on a 2013 FFH? Any limitations - I hear audio streaming doesn't work.

[acdii]

the 4 with iOS 6 works OK. Mine doesn't have Siri, so maybe thats why it works, no conflict of interest between the ladies.

[Fastronaut]

the 4 with iOS 6 works OK. Mine doesn't have Siri, so maybe thats why it works, no conflict of interest between the ladies.

Are you using Verizon?

[acdii]

Yep

[neod192]

In my car's screen, my home wireless system & my iPhone 'hotspot' can be seen by Sync, but I cannot enter any alphabet keyboard info for the password.

Same here ... no keyboard to enter my wifi password (SYNC 3.5.1). Any updates on this issue?

[Fastronaut]

Same here ... no keyboard to enter my wifi password (SYNC 3.5.1). Any updates on this issue?

Try contacting "Rebecca at Ford" on Facebook. She's the Sync/MFT guru. Post your answer if you get one please.

[corncobs]

Interesting I have 3.5.1 as well and had no problem with the keyboard and typing in my wireless password.
The only pain is that caps is always active when you switch between letters and numbers.

 

Do see the screen to enter a password after you selected your network and hit connect?

 

It starts with the num pad...I tried to add some screen shot but something went wrong.

Edited April 7, 2013 by corncobs

[neod192]

Interesting I have 3.5.1 as well and had no problem with the keyboard and typing in my wireless password.

The only pain is that caps is always active when you switch between letters and numbers.

Hmm, what encryption/authentication method are you using on the Wi-Fi network? I use WPA2 - Personal and AES encryption.

[neod192]

Try contacting "Rebecca at Ford" on Facebook. She's the Sync/MFT guru. Post your answer if you get one please.

Yup, that was going to be my next step :) I asked her and I'll update this thread if she provides a solution.

[corncobs]

Hmm, what encryption/authentication method are you using on the Wi-Fi network? I use WPA2 - Personal and AES encryption.

 

Same thing WPA2 - Personal / TKIP or AES those are the settings on my router...

[neod192]

Same thing WPA2 - Personal / TKIP or AES those are the settings on my router...

I tried a few more things and this is what I found out: when it first asks for a password it shows the numeric keypad and it is active. If I switch to the full keyboard or any other input method, it gets disabled - coming back to the numeric keypad doesn't re-enable it either.

 

I set up a Wi-Fi network on my phone and used only numbers for the password (same WPA2 method). I was able to enter the numeric password in SYNC and connect to the network. I was also able to set up SYNC as a wi-fi access point and create a Fusion network. I then connected to the Fusion network with my wife's iPhone and was able to go online - so as long as you can connect to a Wi-Fi network, SYNC will act as a repeater and let other devices connect to the internet.

 

I then tried getting SYNC to connect to the Internet over bluetooth instead of Wi-Fi. I turned on bluetooth tethering on my phone but in the SYNC settings DUN was disabled (which is fine) and PAN didn't seem to want to connect. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here - maybe the problem is with the phone, maybe not - still trying new things.

 

Update: it's not the phone - I was able to tether the phone over bluetooth to my laptop over BT.

 

After playing with SYNC, the Nexus 4 and iPhone 5, SYNC stopped connecting to the iPhone over bluetooth. Connecting the iPhone through USB allows it to play music (Pandora), but not as a phone to make calls. I think I've seen that issue before, I'll have to look it up.

Edited April 8, 2013 by neod192

[neod192]

I then tried getting SYNC to connect to the Internet over bluetooth instead of Wi-Fi. I turned on bluetooth tethering on my phone but in the SYNC settings DUN was disabled (which is fine) and PAN didn't seem to want to connect. Not sure what I'm doing wrong here - maybe the problem is with the phone, maybe not - still trying new things.

 

Update: it's not the phone - I was able to tether the phone over bluetooth to my laptop over BT.

 

After playing with SYNC, the Nexus 4 and iPhone 5, SYNC stopped connecting to the iPhone over bluetooth. Connecting the iPhone through USB allows it to play music (Pandora), but not as a phone to make calls. I think I've seen that issue before, I'll have to look it up.

Well, I think I figured it out. I was able to connect SYNC to the Internet over bluetooth and share that connection over Wi-Fi to other devices in the car.

 

So if you want to connect SYNC to the internet, either use a numeric password for your Wi-Fi network or use BT PAN. Hope Ford will address the keyboard issue sooner rather than later.

 

As far as SYNC not connecting to the phone ... it ended up crashing and rebooting. When it came back up I was able to connect again. This is the 2nd time MFT crashed today. First time it even showed a "Windows" type of pop-up with an error message before it shut down.

[GrySql]

Well, I think I figured it out. ---- it even showed a "Windows" type of pop-up with an error message before it shut down.

BTW, I want to mention that you are a great troubleshooter on all kinds of things we run into in this Forum, cudos!

 

Corncob's keyboard is not greyed out and was able to access the wireless at home, but had problems.

You got it to work with a numeric password and BT, but it crashed.

 

IMHO, until this wireless function can be used easily in a normal fashion. and does not crash, it is useless.

Any work-around that works temporarily is just you being smarter than the programmers that made this thing.

So far, makes me think that the MFT SYNC wireless screen is not ready for prime time.

 

Your efforts in figuring out that it can be made to work is impressive, thank you.

[acdii]

Heck the MFT in general wasn't ready for prime time! When you look at car reviews for Ford, most of the marks against them are the MFT. The one I had was the older version and the WIFi worked fine, and my PSK are complex(gee CCSP go figure), however, it really is useless to use it at home, considering, um, I am at home?

[neod192]

Heck the MFT in general wasn't ready for prime time! When you look at car reviews for Ford, most of the marks against them are the MFT. The one I had was the older version and the WIFi worked fine, and my PSK are complex(gee CCSP go figure), however, it really is useless to use it at home, considering, um, I am at home?

It would be nice to be able to use it to update the software (instead of using a USB stick), update the maps (will never happen since they want their $) or download/update apps. Heck, I would be happy if it would use Wi-Fi to send the Vehicle Health Report to owner.ford.com instead of using up my minutes on my cell to do it.