Nice phone, but...

Paired up the phone initially with no hiccups.

When a call comes in, HandsFree Link picks it up, announces "You have an incoming call" as usual, displays the number on the dash. I hear the caller for 1-2 seconds, then the call falls silent.

The dash display ceases to display the number, but HandsFree Link continues to take over the central display from the stereo, and the stereo remains muted. It almost seems as if HandsFree Link thinks the call is still in progress.

I know iPhones are supposed to work with our RLs, and my outgoing calls work fine. Anybody else encountered, or solved, a problem like this with any iPhone?

 

I'm still on the 4s.

 

I too am on 4S. No issues. Planning on upgrading from ios 5.1.1 to 6. Wonder if it's the ios version or the hardware.

 

Im on 6 now.

back your phone up before you upgrade.

 

I could not pair my iPhone and replaced the Bluetooth box with a used one ($200). Problem solved. I'll bet replacing the box will solve any problems.

 

I too have been having a few issues with the iPhone 5 and my RL. A couple times I was just driving and talking when the HFL cut off the call with no service alert and the call went dead. Hit the end call button on the steering wheel and the call was still there. I don't think it's the phone because we haven't had any issues with my wife's TL and her iPhone 5. I've also had a few times where I made a call through the HFL and when the person answered it transferred the call back onto the phone.

 

Update: Been experimenting. Had encouraging early success thus far with hitting the talk button and saying "Transfer" right after the call comes in.

 

Further update: Technique described above doesn't work well enough. Call sometimes shifts to the phone for several seconds, with a poor quality connection, then reverts to the phone or gets dropped.

Outgoing calls, still perfect. Weird.

 

So just so I'm clear when the call comes in are you answering it via the button on the steering wheel?

Have you tried answering the phone via the handset and hitting the source button on the phone then selecting HFL

 

Yes, Heavy, that's what I'm doing. I'm answering it via the button on the steering wheel. That's what worked for my previous (rather primitive LG Sentio) smartphone.

The problem with answering the phone via the handset is that calls always come as a surprise. I'm driving, and the phone's in my pocket.

(Isn't the whole idea of HandsFree that it's supposed to keep you from having to look away from the road at your phone and swerve all over the place? Not trying to be a smart-aleck, just confused if it's really designed so you have to do that.) Sincerely, I'm open to education on this entire subject, because this is frustrating the hell out of me thus far.

 

gotcha, thanks for clarifying.

 

The purpose of Hands Free Calling is to keep your hands free to drive while engaging in a phone call.

 

Heavy, how does your 4S work? I have no prior experience with iPhones. Do you have to answer calls from your phone? Seriously, it would help me to know.

 

Sure thing, I am using a 4S with IOS6.

When the phone first rings, there is a slight delay for it to appear on the MID. Once it does, I use the steering wheel buttons to answer and again it takes a second (literally) to connect.

Now if I am on a conference call I will have the phone on the console so I can mute/unmute as needed. There is still a delay and sometimes a failure when I use the phone to switch to HFL.
I usually just switch back and forth between speaker and HFL then it works.

Let me know what other details you want.

 

Thanks, Heavy. When you use the steering wheel buttons to answer an incoming call, do you just hit the button and start talking, or say "transfer" or some other command? With my old phone, I was able to do the former. With my iPhone, this doesn't work.

 

jus so we are clear I am using the HFL button under the stereo controls not the round command prompt button

 

Right.

 

ok, I dont say anything. Let the phone ring until it shows on the MID and hit the button then say hello.

 

Yeah, that's exactly what I always did. Always worked with my previous phone. Doesn't work with this one.

I know I have a 5 and you have a 4S, but I'm puzzled that they don't act the same given that they're running the exact same operating system. I'd suspect a physical problem with my car, such as this Bluetooth box that some other posters have talked about, but it's just too much of a coincidence that it worked perfectly UNTIL the very moment I started to use this phone.

 

yeah, def a weird coincidence.

I wonder if the 5 has a different bluetooth set up.

 

Is there someone with an iPhone 4, 4S, 3GS, etc. that you could try to pair with? This would eliminate the variable of it being an iPhone sensitivity or an iPhone 5 sensitivity.

 

Learned more.

A friend just got a brand new 4S. Both the 4S and my 5 were running iOS 6.0.1. When the 4S was the "driver's phone" linked to the RL via Bluetooth, it took the call flawlessly -- call came in, car announced "you have an incoming call," I pushed the Hands Free Link (HFL) button on steering wheel, and the call seamlessly transferred to Hands Free Link.

When the 5 was the "driver's phone" linked to the RL, the call came in and the car announced "you have an incoming call." But after 1 second, the sound cut off and the evidence of the call disappeared from the Multi Information Display in front of me between the tach and speedo.

I learned that when this happened, the call was NOT disconnected. It was taken back by the phone, and I could talk to the caller through the handset. I could then push two buttons on the iPhone's face: "Audio Source" and then "HandsFreeLink," and when I pushed the latter, THEN the RL's Bluetooth retook control of the call.

The problem with this, of course, is that by the time I fish the phone out of my pocket, get that display on the phone's face, and make two distinct commands, I've confused and probably lost the caller, botched any chance to make a greeting that's coherent to them, and most likely wrapped my car around a tree trunk -- not exactly the safety that hands-free calling was designed to promote.

In short: The exact same iOS 6.0.1 operating system worked as a perfect teammate to the RL with the 4S hardware, but not with the 5.

 

Hmm. It's weird. You and I are having different but similar problems. I have had a few instances of your answering issue when dialing out. I haven't had the issue in a couple weeks though and it probably only happened 3 or 4 times total. I had a 4 before this and never had an issue. I'm pretty sure there was some sort of Bluetooth software upgrade between the 4 and 4S that has carried on to the 5.

When you get an incoming call does your car actually say, "You have an incoming call"? My phone car just gives out an obnoxious ringing sound and displays "Incoming Call" on the MID.

 

Yes, BDogg. It always announces aloud, "You have an incoming call."

 

That's weird. I wonder if it's some kind of setting. I wish mine would do that. The ring tone is annoying.

 

My car does neither. It just mutes the stereo and displays "incoming call" on the MID. I have never heard a ring or a voice indicating a call.

 

I'm having the same issue as tony. Outgoing calls work great. Incoming calls come in like they did on my 4 and 4S, I push the answer button and hear the answer tone, and then immediately the HFL "back" tone and the call stays on my handset rather than the HFL. The MID says "MAIN MENU" as if I clicked the "hang up" button after answering. For fun, I re-paired my 4, and it works just like it should... it's maddening!

maybe this will push me over the edge to get the Media Bridge...

 

Same problem with my iPhone 5 in my '10 RL and my '08 TSX.

 

There you go. That's valuable data. It's obviously a hardware or a software conflicting with hardware issue. Acura's can't be the only cars which means it will make it's way back to Apple. An iOS update will fix it in the future.

 

Same thing here. My iPhone 4 worked fine but the 5 doesn't. HFL indicates the call is dropped but it's still active on the phone. Sometimes, the "transfer" works, sometimes it doesn't. What does seem to work it to answer the call on the phone, then "transfer." Not very practical.

At least outgoing calls seem to work OK.

LL

 

It's weird. When I get an incoming call I answer it with the steering wheel controls. It gives the connected beep immediately followed by the disconnected beep but the call is still on the HFL. It doesn't bounce it back to the phone.

 

Very screwy but apparently not just Acura. Message boards have similar complaints from owners of Infiniti to Citroen! Hopefully, Apple will fix soon as it is clearly an iPhone 5 issue.

LL

 

Seems to work better on my '08 TSX than it does on my '10 RL.....stil dicey though.

 

TonyCD,

I have an Iphone 5 and have the EXACT same problem that you describe. I have an 04 TL that had the HandsFree module updated in 2008 because of a "first model year bug" issue it had.

Have you made any progress? It's almost like I need to ignore my incoming call via the steering wheel and do it manually on my phone, then hit the button. Exact same problem. I wonder if a ticket with Apple would be worth doing?

-Jeff

 

I think the more feedback they get, the faster they will give a software fix.

 

I'm finally getting around to jump in to this thread, I have the same issues described on my 5 but not my 4S. I'm a member of the Apple Developer program so I have early access to new versions of IOS to test with. Before the 5 came out I was running a 4S with pre-release IOS6, never had a Bluetooth problem on that device.

I looked through some of the code references and while I don't see any specific change references, they're both BT v4, the chipsets are likely different as the 5 can now do various new AirPlay controls over BT, etc.

I'm upgrading my 5 to IOS6.1beta2 now to see if the issue persists. Given my experience with Apple and bugs, they get around to fixing them whenever they feel it works for them, I'm not holding my breath.

 

Update...After loading IOS6.1 beta2 on my iPhone5 I was able to try some test calls and Bluetooth seemed to be working as it should, or at least it has for me previously. Calls came in and audio passed through to the car smoothly, and call controls all work.

Certainly not a guarantee, but this future update may have this issue resolved.

 

Have you tried connecting via USB and Bluetooth at the same time?

I still have an iPhone 4 and haven't had any problems. Have you upgraded to iOS 6.0.1 yet? I know iOS 6 had Bluetooth pairing problems with many devices.

 

Do have 6.0.1; it made no difference, alas.

I'm sorry, but I don't know what your first question means about connecting via USB and Bluetooth at the same time. Bluetooth, yes. My car is a 2006, and I don't have any USB from the factory.

 

I can confirm what swake457 saide, the betas of IOS 6.1 seem to fix this issue... so just hold tight