Hondalink Down (Again)

Discussion in 'Clarity' started by Steven B, Oct 7, 2021.

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  1. Dan Albrich

    Dan Albrich Well-Known Member

    So an update and some thoughts. I usually check my honda link a couple to three times a day. Nothing fancy, mainly checking to see if it shows its charging. Also if I use a charger at work we have a 2 hour recommended time limit, so I plugin, car fills, HondaLink notify's full charge, I move my car so someone else can use the charger. Overall the stuff as been pretty reliable.

    Anyway, tonight I checked after work, and the car still shows at work with different EV charge status than actual. Doing things like attempting climate on/off not working. So yep, has now happened to me (and maybe did in past and I failed to notice).

    In the past when it didn't work, maybe older version of HondaLink it seemed to update when I clicked FindMyCar. As was indicated this didn't work for me tonight (maybe it never did, but I'd almost swear at least with old versions of Honda Link it seemed to update).

    Finally I have no data on how this is implemented, but in my mind I've always assumed the car sends/receives SMS/or MMS messages. It's possible to buy text messages even on "machine to machine" plans with carriers, and it would seem least costly to implement. Of course they could be doing a TCP/IP connection to the car, but that would likely be less reliable than SMS; SMS text keeps trying if it initially fails.

    -Dan

    Edit: Since I originally wrote this post, opened HL again, and it auto-updated. I now have the correct EV range etc. So it was very slow to get its update (but now appears to be "back" -- that is at least until it fails again.)
     
    Last edited: Oct 12, 2021
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  3. RickSE

    RickSE Active Member

    What I find strange is that HondaLink is down again tonight and it shows my location and charge status as of about 14 hours ago. Even with the app not updating I just got a notification that my car is done charging (I plugged my car in when I got home a few hours ago). While the app won’t find my car, but the notification that it was done charging worked.
     
  4. Rav

    Rav Member

    Typical Honda garbage, I gave up on that app long ago.
     
  5. Frankwell

    Frankwell Active Member

    I saw your note that it is working now, but while it wasn't working do you mean that it gave you an error message on the app when you tried to used remote climate? If so were you able to check if climate actually was working, i.e. listening from outside the car, or opening the passenger door and checking if you can feel air coming from the vents (opening the driver door doesn't work because that turns off climate). When I was having the problem the app gave an error which implied that remote climate failed, but when I checked the car remote climate had actually started. It sounds like su_A_ve experienced the same although I am waiting for confirmation on my question to them about that.

    That is an important piece of evidence, assuming that you mean that you saw the message in your phone's notification area not in the HondaLink app. That further confirms my suspicion that the problem is entirely in the Honda software, not in the actual physical communication with the car. In my case I confirmed that the car is receiving commands even when the app says it isn't, and in your case it confirms that the car is successfully sending data and the Honda server is receiving it, even though the app is not displaying it.

    For a free app I think it works quite well for managing charging and remote climate which is what I use it for. Glitches are rare, and times like this when there is clearly something wrong in their system they typically get it corrected in a few days. This particular problem has gone on for at least a couple of weeks (that's when I first experienced it), but in that timeframe the problem has only happened a few times. Intermittent problems like this are harder to solve.
     
  6. RickSE

    RickSE Active Member

    I received the notification though the iPhone Notification Center. I am running iOS 15.0.2, but I have seen this behavior in iOS 14 as well. What I haven’t tried to do is see if I can start the remote climate feature to prove that the car can receive a notification from the app even if the app doesn’t update from the car. When this happens again - and I’m sure it will - I’ll update this thread.
     
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  8. Frankwell

    Frankwell Active Member

    Thanks. Sorry to be persistent on this but so far I haven't heard anyone else say that they got an error message in the app when they attempted remote climate. The message that I was getting consistently was "Connection Error. Unable to receive a response from the vehicle at this time. Please try again later". Do you remember seeing an error message similar to this? Not trying to be dense about it, I realize that "not working" and "getting an error message" are basically synonymous, but I just wanted to confirm that the symptoms that I experienced are the same as what other people have.

    Also as far as I know my car is the only one that makes very audible clicks and whirs when it communicates via the cellular network. I am guessing that my car is not unique and that this is perfectly normal, but at the moment I have no way to know that since I have never heard anyone else mention it in this thread or in fact in any other threads in the past. Obviously most people are not near their car when they use the HondaLink app to start charging or turn on climate, and I am usually not either except when I'm testing something out. Maybe others have at times been standing next to their car and heard the same sounds but assumed that it had something to do with starting charging or remote climate. A better test is to schedule a timer charge, when I do that I still hear the click and whirring sounds when Honda sends the new schedule to my car, even though nothing else is happening in the car. I am guessing this is normal, but with only six months left on my original warranty I would just feel more comfortable knowing that all Clarities behave this way.
     
  9. su_A_ve

    su_A_ve Active Member

    Again acting up here. On the phone with In Car Support and basically, issues happening in particular with iOS 15.

    Currently on iOS 15.0.2 and latest version of the app. In fact, I just deleted it and added it back again. What I noticed is the following:

    * Notifications are coming in. For example, Charging stop, or Remote Climate turned on.
    * You can start Remote Climate and it does send the signal to the car
    * The app updates when it wants to.

    Last update for me was today at 2pm. I put the car on the charger at 5 and it finished at 7. I got the notification about charging stopped. While on the phone with Honda, I sent a remote climate via the app, but the app kept on filling the green bar and did nothing. Within a few seconds, I got the notification that Remote Climate was turned on, but the app kept on "sending command, waiting for response, etc". I killed the app after several minutes and when I went back in it, it was showing dashes for information and did not notice climate was on.

    Honda said to call in with your issues. That said, be specific about this particular one with regards to the app not updating as there is another problem with iOS 15 forgetting bluetooth connections.
     
  10. su_A_ve

    su_A_ve Active Member

    Yes. - at the time, the app gave an error like it could not connect to the car or something like it. Today testing again, it kept sending, waiting for response, etc and I eventually killed the app after knowing the car had already turned climate on and I had received the notification alert that climate was on. It's like the app itself is not getting the correct data, but the functions are being pushed and notifications do come back.
     
  11. RickSE

    RickSE Active Member

    I didn’t have to wait very long to see the behavior again. The car was plugged in tonight while in my garage. The app didn’t update to show it was charging. Just got the spinning wheel. I then tried to locate the car (this has sometimes worked to get the app connected). Got a message “could not locate your vehicle” along with a message that HondaLink can’t retrieve the location of a moving vehicle. The location in the app was the place where the car was parked earlier today. I could not send a message to the car to start the climate control. Two hours later HondaLink was working again.
     
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  13. Dan Albrich

    Dan Albrich Well-Known Member

    So when my app failed recently, it gave no errors. I knew it was showing inaccurate information. Things like the EV range being what it was at say mid-day but not evening when I checked, and the climate request not being acknowledged in the app-- no error messages at all. I did not go check the car in the garage to see if the climate actually turned on despite the lack of notification. I'll do that assuming it happens again, but the app is working presently, including acknowledging my requests on the app.
     
  14. coutinpe

    coutinpe Active Member

    iOS 14 here. Same issues during the last 2 weeks. Three times contacted Honda support, they called back, the app worked but next day it stopped working again. Today I just gave up.
     
  15. coutinpe

    coutinpe Active Member

    [QUOTE="For a free app I think it works quite well for managing charging and remote climate which is what I use it for. Glitches are rare, and times like this when there is clearly something wrong in their system they typically get it corrected in a few days. This particular problem has gone on for at least a couple of weeks (that's when I first experienced it), but in that timeframe the problem has only happened a few times. Intermittent problems like this are harder to solve.[/QUOTE]

    It worked almost well for me until 2 weeks ago, just like you, but then I started having the same problems, reported to customer service, they call back, it fixes for a day and next day it's out again. My guess is that the IT fellas at Honda fixed something that wasn't broken. Typical.
     
  16. Frankwell

    Frankwell Active Member

    I use Android. The few times in the past three weeks that I experienced the problem it solved itself within a day, I never contacted Honda support. The last time that I had a problem was four days ago, it has worked fine since then.
     
  17. Kerbe

    Kerbe Well-Known Member

    It disconnected itself and won't allow me to log in - so I thought, perhaps, it wants me to change my password: It will not allow me to change my password. Next step is to delete and reinstall the app then re-register the car, I suppose...
     
  18. Mowcowbell

    Mowcowbell Well-Known Member

    Really upsetting when I check to see how much I'm being charged for Hondalink, and...ohh... wait, it's free. :)
     
  19. Kerbe

    Kerbe Well-Known Member

    Many of the "smart" devices in my home also came with "free" apps - and they, by and large, work flawlessly. This isn't so much about "you get what you pay for" - it's about a corporate culture that really doesn't GAF about how its quality is perceived. I precondition the car both summer and winter and I'm not always within "fob range" so having an app that works is a terrific convenience.
     
  20. northof49ev

    northof49ev Member

    I did get a message saying HondaLink would be down for a period today. Could be the issue. It has been working better since the last update.
     
  21. Kerbe

    Kerbe Well-Known Member

    1. It has stopped accepting my login. 2. It will not allow me to change my password. 3. It will not allow me to register as a new account. I'ma try calling the 800 number on Monday...
     
  22. leehinde

    leehinde Active Member

    Last time it quit working for me, deleting and reinstalling the app let me in. YMMV
     
  23. Kerbe

    Kerbe Well-Known Member

    I tried that, too - didn't make a difference. Just got through to Honda's 800# - they sent me a link to change my password and now it's all working again. Apparently you're just supposed to know to change your password every so often and, if you don't, you can be locked-out of the app...
     

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