That must be how BMW got around Apple's music copy protection. I assumed they had struck a deal with Apple for USB access.

Too bad they didn't do it with WiFi. Then the silly Y-cable wouldn't have been necessary.

 

Is this the Robin Casady that makes the exostic wood Mini accessories? If so, you do nice work...

 

Yes, thanks.

 

I would try another y-cable if you can get access to one. Or reload the software on the phone and try it again.

 

ecupip:
I haven't got another Y-cable - but that same cable worked perfectly before the upgrade and continues to work perfectly with non-upgraded iPhones. I have completely reinstalled everything without sucess.

 

works fine for me. iphone 3g, 3.0 os, and 2009 MINI Cooper S with ipod cable

 

Sorry you're having troubles getting it to work, is it resolved?

For statistical purposes, I upgraded to the 3gs (from 2g) and all is well with the usb/aux connection in my 2009 Clubman (except that it does not charge the phone and I need to get the adapter to do so).

Here's to a fix for you!

 

i updated my 3G phone i think it still works i can play music streams via the ipod or aux in just fine and when bluetooth is enabled it detects i haven't tried placing any calls ill try tonight after work

 

Just to be clear about the problem - there is no difficulty using the bluetooth telephone portion of the interface. There is also no difficulty playing music through the stereo using only the AUX input.

However, as soon as I hook up the USB connection of the Y-cable, the iPhone's display begins to flip back and forth between the "Device Connected" screen and the iPod "Now Playing" screen. The option to select "iPod" from the radio's audio menu never appears - just "USB" (and that doesn't work either). If I unhook the USB connection while keeping the AUX connection hooked up, I can use the AUX setting to play music. The volume controls on the steering wheel work fine.

The Backwards and Forwards controls on the steering wheel (to select the track) do not work, and none of the Track Name, Artist, Album Name interface works - nor any of the navigation controls on the radio's display.

Basically, the Mini's audio system no longer recognizes the iPhone as an "iPod".

 

There are no commercially available solutions yet for the charging problem according the threads on this forum that I have read. None of the current crop of adapters work correctly (not sure why).

 

Just tried my 3GS on the Y-cable. The iPod functionality works, but I get the 'put in airplane mode?' question as always. And I'm told I can't charge the phone either. I went from the 1st gen iPhone to this one, so maybe it's a power-draw thing?

I did try my DLO car charger and it works fine. I have an iPod for the car, so I'm alright. But I was hoping to have an all-in-one device in the iPhone. Which I can, as long as the battery lasts

BTW BT functionality works fine.

-Jim

 

The plot thickens...

I just plugged in a different iPhone 3G that is running the same version exactly of O.S. 3.0 - the audio interface worked just fine - just like it always did before.

So, it is not the Mini or the Y-cable that is the problem (I wish I could change the title of this thread). It must be one of:

- corrupt download of O.S. 3.0 (I did a reinstall - but not sure if that uses the same download file or not)
- hardware problem with the dock connector on my iPhone (I hope not)
- some configuration or application setting that is conflicting with the audio interface.

Sorry if this thread is boring people - but I am not the only one having this problem according to some of the answers - so if we can solve it, we are all better off.

 

Just restored my 3G with 3.0 for the second time. Still not working with Y cable or Snap-in Cradle.

On a related note, I have the newest revision of the Y cable that charges the iPhone 3G without fail. I remember seeing a document a few months back that indicated a new part number that supported charging the 3G. Since I took delivery of this car in January, I got the new cable.

Car is going in for other issues on Thursday, and I'll see if they can submit a PUMA case for the issue.

 

 

I got the iPhone 3G cradle today (for 6NE, i.e. no smartphone prep) and it seems to work fine for my 3GS. The Y-Cable does not charge. My service manager gave me a newer cable to try and it also fails to charge. He is calling MINI NA tomorrow to see what can be done for me.

 

YES!!!!!!

Good news! after almost a week of radio stations and no Ipod, i finally was successful at making it work. First off i ran the restore on my ipod - from the Ipod its self, then i ran it again through the Itunes option just to be on the safe side. I did not run the restore option and then a previous backup, because i felt something might mess it up again. i don't know what at this point but i was right. I placed a full album ran to my mini plugged it in and its up and running. The dashboard recognizes the ipod right away. i select a song and it works flawlessly. I think you should give this a try. and let me know if it works on the Iphone, i'm going to get one soon and i hope it functions correctly. Good luck and let me know how it goes.

 

Glad to see someone is on the same track as me - I have not reported back because I am still adding stuff.

First of all I did a restore without restpring from a backup. The iPod worked fine. Then I started adding everything back from scratch - and I encountered the same problem again. Now I am adding things back one by one and testing to see where it "breaks" or IF it breaks.

I have added everything back except for a few apps and the bulk of the music. I have a couple of songs loaded because I need to see if it works and I need a couple of songs to do that.

So it looks like you are in much the same place. Fingers crossed...

 

As an FYI, I have the latest iPod Nano. It plays and charges with the cable I have. My iPhone 3GS does not charge, but plays.

 

Damn! Had everything almost restored - right up to the last 650 songs - after installing those it started to be flaky again. I doubt if it is the songs - they all were working perfectly and continue to work perfectly on my old iPod.

Next step is a hardware change-out of the iPhone, I think.

 

I wonder if it is the quantity or folder structure of your songs that the MINI is having problems with?

 

Oh its definitely volume related alright. Having worked on this problem for the better part of a week now, I have the following to report:

- I have a little over 11 GB of music on my iPhone - approximately 2850 songs.

- With everything loaded (apps, calendar data, contacts, all songs, etc. etc), the Mini Audio interface (Bluetooth + audio using the Y-cable) will not function properly - only the AUX connection will work and that will only work if I physically disconnect the USB part of the Y-cable.

- I discovered that if I loaded the iPhone with everything else except for the music, and then added just a few songs, everything worked properly.

- So...I started adding the music back in blocks rather than all at once.

- At 2250 songs, the Mini interface still worked as expected

- At 2450 songs, it technically worked - but was becoming slow to connect

- At 2650 songs, the interface would only work in sequential mode - it would start with the first song alphabetically and play the songs in sequence. The Random function on the Mini interface would not randomize. If I selected a different starting song on the iPhone or selected Shuffle mode, the interface would stop functioning. If I re-booted the iPhone and started over in sequential mode, it would work again. I could step through the songs in a strict sequential order using the steering wheel controls. Shuffling or selecting another song would break the interface again.

- At 2850 songs, the interface was broken completely. Rebooting did not help - even sequential play didn't work.


So what does this all mean? It looks like the Mini interface does an upload of some music data on initialization - and it has a hard limit. The behavior that I am seeing looks like buffer overrun. The switch to O.S. 3 on the iPhone seems to have exacerbated a problem that may already have existed (at a higher song volume). Maybe this is because the data uploaded has changed in some subtle way.

My choices:

1. Continue to keep my entire music collection on the iPhone and settle for AUX connectivity.

2. Trim my collection by 500 to 600 songs and enable the full Mini interface functionality.

3. Pray for a solution from Apple in some future upgrade to O.S. 3. I have already logged a support ticket with Apple.

<rant mode on>
We all have seen the "Unsupported Accessory" message that comes up when you connect an iPod or iPhone to the Mini Y-cable and we have historically ignored that message.

Apple does not accept any responsibility for the performance or functionality of accessories not certified by them (and why should they?).

BMW / Mini is selling the Bluetooth / Audio package for a big buck. Why don't they take the trouble to certify their cable with Apple before selling it to us? That would ensure that Apple remains compatible with our accesories or alternately that BMW / MINI provide some method of doing a firmware upgrade to remain compatible with Apple.
<rant mode off>

 

That's an excellent documentation of your problem, not easy to do either. Because the iPhone now holds 32GB I think more and more people will have problems with the Mini's interface. From what you say people with an 8GB iPhone will have no problems. That's probably the most popular phone. From reading all this stuff I'm beginning to think that abandoning the Ycable and just going with a dedicated thumb drive in the USB port would be my choice if I had a car with this feature. I don't think they have the same interface problems that the iPod/phone has because there's no operating system on a usb drive, just songs in folders, and of course you don't have to charge them either. Just use the iPhone with BT for voice and be done with it.

 

I ahve the 32GB 3GS. It plays just fine (and I have 19 GB of music on it). It's the charging that is a problem for me.

 

When did you buy your Y-cable? Can you take a look at it and let me know what the part number is? Its on the bit in the middle of the cable where it splits into the Y.

Also - do all of your songs have track artist and album information tagged?

Makes me also wonder if there has been a firmware grid somewhere along the way...

 

Just talked to my service manager again. He says that MINI is having problems with the charging on the 3G/S and is working on it. It may involve replacing a new module later this year.

Meanwhile, one of the service techs says he heard a report that the iPhone will play music via bluetooth if you set the radio to AUX (which requires removing the iPod cable). I don't see how that works.