Redd

Emily, I've had a similar problem on my 2014 (base audio system, not MMI) that has persisted across 3 phones. Normally my phone is on, and bt is on, before I get to the car. In fact one day my phone range while I was 30' away from the car in a storefront--and the car captured the call and I couldn't figure out why I couldn't pick it up.

So, the system is capable of working, and the phone(s) have worked flawlessly with BT.

But sometimes, I'll either get a call while I'm in the car (the phone is clamped in a gooseneck mount next to the dash) or I'll try to place a call, and the car will insist there is no phone connected. Or ignore the incoming call.

Rebooting the phone does not help. Getting out and shutting down the car and rebooting the phone and restarting the car--so everything is reset cold--doesn't always help either.

Last year I had the dealer check the BT, and they "upgraded the BT software", while they were updating the climate control auxiliary heater. And last week...it happened again anyway.

I think there are intermittent BT failures and the only thing you can do is keep going back to the dealer and CC:ing AoA, and after your patience wears out, insist they replace the entire module, whatever hardware the BT receiver and controls are actually a part of. They won't want to do that (unless you've got a really great dealer) but you might want to mention "LEMON LAW" and that you'll force them to take back the entire car if they can't fix it.

Barraged

I have a 2015 Q5TDI and have seen intermittent connectivity issues with my iPhone 6S...was at the dealer yesterday and asked them to see if could find anything, then asked me to show them that only happens <30% of the time... asked if there were any BT updates, there are none.

I have to turn off BT on my iPhone, then turn it on, I will see the Audi BT, I connect and all is well...for awhile.

Redd

I have a BT headset that usually works like a champ, but sometimes if I am walking, phone in pocket, headset on head...it gets intermittent with the connection. The problem is in the headset, either a hardware or software design issue so it can never be fixed, only resolved by replacing the whole thing with something else. BT can be that way sometimes, there's no way for a "civilian" to know how well a particular BT installation is working. Since the NHTSA doesn't get upset about BT issues, and Audi are certain their technology is never obsolete much less dead...You can either push for replacements, or pick a different battle. Sadly.

kitchenboy

My wife's 17 Q5 which we've only had for a little over a month is giving her issues with the Bluetooth. Once the whole MMI system crashed and shut down and the dealer said it was because of how she has her contacts and emails listed so she went through and redid them all and today she can't connect again. Never had any issues with the Honda Pilot we had before this so not sure what Audis issue is.

kitchenboy

My wife's 17 Q5 which we've only had for a little over a month is giving her issues with the Bluetooth. Once the whole MMI system crashed and shut down and the dealer said it was because of how she has her contacts and emails listed so she went through and redid them all and today she can't connect again. Never had any issues with the Honda Pilot we had before this so not sure what Audis issue is. Her phone is a 6 plus also.

superswiss

What specifically did they say was the issue with how she had the contacts? I know that they had a bug in earlier firmware versions that crashed the MMI if you had special characters in the contacts, but that's been long fixed. What I would recommend is to go into the main settings and do a factory reset for Directory and Bluetooth and then pair the phone again. This will clean out any potential corrupt contact data and sync it all fresh from your wife's phone.

Redd

Disconnecting the phone (unpairing it and removing it) from the car, should wipe put any contacts and other information associated with it. Then of course shut down and restart the car. While the car is shut, it can't hurt to remove the car from the phone's pairing list as well, and restart the phone.

Now when the car restarts and the phone is back on, repair the two. If everything doesn't work properly again--the BT system in the car needs a warranty service. Reflashing the programming, updating it, whatever they want to do. The problem will be on their end.

Sometimes the contact list on my (Android 6+) phone causes other software to throw fits. Possibly because there are over 100 numbers from telemarketers and the like, all listed as "other" under one entry for callers that I can't seem to block, so I have them set to silent ring.

superswiss

Except it doesn't. The MMI caches all the synced contacts even if you unpair the phone. Unpairing actually only temporarily severs the link. If you re-pair a phone that was previously paired it recognizes that and associates it with the previous profile. You can check yourself. Go into the directory and then memory settings it will tell you how many phone profiles there are and how many contacts are associated with each one. Then unpair the phone and go back to the memory setting. You'll see that you still have the same number of profiles and still using up the same number of contacts. The only way to clean the system of any traces of a previous phone is to factory reset the Directory and Bluetooth. I've gone through this a few times now. I do this factory reset every time I get a new phone. The MMI will eventually delete an old profile once you have paired 4 or 5 phones and you try to pair another one. It will then get rid of the contacts and profile of the oldest unpaired phone to make room for the new phone.

Redd

Thank you, that is valuable to know since one day I may sell the car, and would prefer to wipe my contacts from it at that time.

How does one go about wiping the MMI and BT memories to a blank slate?

I'd use the big hammer, but I have this deal with Thor, I don't use his hammer, and he doesn't drink my beer. Honest.(G)

superswiss

Yeah, even though things like the home address, private contacts, myAudi PIN etc. do not show up unless your phone is paired, it's a good idea to do a full factory reset when selling the car to clear all the public data such as navigation history etc. I do this even on a loaner before returning it and if I had used the MMI.

To do the factory reset, go to the main menu and then Setup MMI (upper right corner). Depending on the model year you'll find an item that says something like deleting user data or factory reset. They changed the wording over time. Select that and then you get a list of components that you can check to reset. It's nicely done, you can either select everything and wipe the whole system or only select the subsystem(s) that you wanna wipe.