Newbie MINI app question

F

FrancoMINIPNW

New Member
Hello everyone,
None of the remote functions on the MINI app work for me. Any command I send to the car comes back as "failed" after a few minutes. And the Charge & Climate Timer are also not available. Anyone else experience this recently? Is this something I should expect to encounter from time to time?
My car is outside under a carport. Any ideas? Am I missing something? Thanks.
 
FrancoMINIPNW said:
Hello everyone,
None of the remote functions on the MINI app work for me. Any command I send to the car comes back as "failed" after a few minutes. And the Charge & Climate Timer are also not available. Anyone else experience this recently? Is this something I should expect to encounter from time to time?
My car is outside under a carport. Any ideas? Am I missing something? Thanks.
Click to expand...

It could be that your seller / dealer did not "register" your use of the app with the VIN of your car. Check with your seller / dealer or call into the service center for your country to confirm you are a registered user. That might be the issue?
 
I actually had the exact same problem. After working with my dealer, calling Mini Assust, and a couple other things, we finally figured it out.


Go to Mini Connect in your car, press Options and scroll down. Under Update Services, there should be a Login menu item. Login in with your Mini Connect account info, the. Update services, and voila!


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
DisgruntledSanta said:
I actually had the exact same problem. After working with my dealer, calling Mini Assust, and a couple other things, we finally figured it out.


Go to Mini Connect in your car, press Options and scroll down. Under Update Services, there should be a Login menu item. Login in with your Mini Connect account info, the. Update services, and voila!


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
Click to expand...
thanks for the tip. I followed your instructions and was hopeful but it didn't work in the end; I updated services several times and deleted and reinstalled the app too. Mini Assist had me reboot from the car but that'd didn't help either. They generated a ticket with IT, now I wait 7-10 business days for any sort of updates.
 
FrancoMINIPNW said:
thanks for the tip. I followed your instructions and was hopeful but it didn't work in the end; I updated services several times and deleted and reinstalled the app too. Mini Assist had me reboot from the car but that'd didn't help either. They generated a ticket with IT, now I wait 7-10 business days for any sort of updates.
Click to expand...

Was there not a Login button, or were you already logged in?


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
 
FrancoMINIPNW said:
Yes there was and I wasn't logged in. So I logged in using the same username and password for the Mini App then updated services.
Click to expand...

Well, I think your problem has many of us SE owners stumped (me, certainly). My last suggestion would be for you to PM your problem details and efforts to fix it to @Carsten Haase on this forum, whom I think may be the most knowledgeable forum member on IT issues. He may just say to let MINI handle it, but it's worth a try to see if he has any further substantive suggestions for you.
 
Texas22Step said:
Well, I think your problem has many of us SE owners stumped (me, certainly). My last suggestion would be for you to PM your problem details and efforts to fix it to @Carsten Haase on this forum, whom I think may be the most knowledgeable forum member on IT issues. He may just say to let MINI handle it, but it's worth a try to see if he has any further substantive suggestions for you.
Click to expand...

I don't have much to add (information on how connected services works is pretty limited) but I would start by determining if the problem is your car or the phone/app.

Disconnect all phones from the car (to ensure data isn't coming from Bluetooth) then go to MINI connected and try to get the weather to refresh.
20211219_075023.webp

You can also try another location just to be sure. It should have some dots moving up and down on the left side for a bit then they'll stop.
20211219_075038.webp

If the weather refreshes, that proves the car has data signal. From there I'd try uninstalling/wiping the MINI app to see if that helps.

If the weather won't refresh, try repeating the same steps somewhere else (a decent size city?).

Even if this doesn't solve the issue, it should be helpful info for MINI to start their troubleshooting.
 
Ugh, nope.
I removed my phone from the car, refreshed the weather/changed cities, browsed the news then reinstalled the app and still nothing. I even logged out from Mini Assist then logged back in and updated services again, nothing.
Thanks so much for all the help, guys. This is all good troubleshooting for when I connect with MINI later. I'm hoping this gets resolved relatively soon.
 
FrancoMINIPNW said:
Ugh, nope.
I removed my phone from the car, refreshed the weather/changed cities, browsed the news then reinstalled the app and still nothing. I even logged out from Mini Assist then logged back in and updated services again, nothing.
Thanks so much for all the help, guys. This is all good troubleshooting for when I connect with MINI later. I'm hoping this gets resolved relatively soon.
Click to expand...

It seems positive to me that at least the car can connect to the network, that means it's most likely just a server glitch connecting your MINI account to the cars VIN and can be solved remotely (rather than a trip to the dealer or needing some sort of signal booster)

Hopefully you can get it sorted out soon! The remote preheating is one of my favorite features now that it's freezing outside
 
FrancoMINIPNW said:
Hello everyone,
None of the remote functions on the MINI app work for me. Any command I send to the car comes back as "failed" after a few minutes. And the Charge & Climate Timer are also not available. Anyone else experience this recently? Is this something I should expect to encounter from time to time?
My car is outside under a carport. Any ideas? Am I missing something? Thanks.
Click to expand...

what phone are you using? I just got a MINI and this is happening to me (I can see the charge state of the car, but the remote features don’t work). I haven’t looked at any settings on the car yet though so maybe that’s why. I thought maybe it was this old iPhone 6s I’m using. Sometimes apps don’t work well with old phones.

side note: I was shocked it sent me the state of my battery charge to my phone because I didn’t pair the car with my phone. I had no idea the car had its own cell signal!
 
Unfortunately I’m having the exact same issue :(
As I posted elsewhere, I couldn’t get the car connected to the app until I spoke to the right person at the Mini Connected helpline yesterday who got it connected. I was really pleased to have it working but last night I realised I hadn’t actually tried any of the remote functions. I tried setting a charge timer last night but on clicking the “button”, I get a message saying charge and climate timer are not available. Similarly if I try to unlock the car from the app, the circle just spins for a couple of minutes before failing. It’s so frustrating. Mini knows about this issue. I’m in the UK and my car was built two weeks ago, at which time they’d have been aware of these Mini Connected issues so could check it at the factory before they put it on the truck to make sure it’s working. I’m using an iPhone 13 Pro Max with iOS 15.2. It’s not a communication black spot either as remote services worked perfectly on my X6 and my wife’s i3, so it has to be Mini’s system.
 
SpeedyRS said:
Unfortunately I’m having the exact same issue :(
As I posted elsewhere, I couldn’t get the car connected to the app until I spoke to the right person at the Mini Connected helpline yesterday who got it connected. I was really pleased to have it working but last night I realised I hadn’t actually tried any of the remote functions. I tried setting a charge timer last night but on clicking the “button”, I get a message saying charge and climate timer are not available. Similarly if I try to unlock the car from the app, the circle just spins for a couple of minutes before failing. It’s so frustrating. Mini knows about this issue. I’m in the UK and my car was built two weeks ago, at which time they’d have been aware of these Mini Connected issues so could check it at the factory before they put it on the truck to make sure it’s working. I’m using an iPhone 13 Pro Max with iOS 15.2. It’s not a communication black spot either as remote services worked perfectly on my X6 and my wife’s i3, so it has to be Mini’s system.
Click to expand...

Bummer that you're still having issues...

MINI remote services is a separate thing from the other MINI connected stuff so maybe that bit wasn't activated properly. Just to confirm, does your build sheet show "6AP" remote services?
Screenshot_20211223-065007_Acrobat for Samsung.webp

This is from the manual:
The options provided by the Remote Services of the MINI Connected app include the ability to lock and unlock a vehicle. This requires an active MINI Connected contract and the MINI Connected app must be installed on a smartphone.
​
It's possible that the "MINI connected contract" wasn't activated properly.

Did you get this email or similar from MINI? You may have already tried but I'd suggest #4 about what is actually activated for your car.
Screenshot_20211223-065633_Gallery.webp
 
I’ve never had a build sheet from Mini with the three digit codes. I know others who have ordered ICE Minis from this dealer and they didn’t get build sheets like that either. I don’t know if a build sheet like that could be US only? What I got is basically a print out of the configurator at the time I ordered the car and it shows remote services. The helpline this morning confirmed there was a known issue with remote services on some cars and they are working on a fix. They confirmed my Mini has remote services and should be active, they’re just not getting through Mini’s server. I don’t know if you’ve called the US helpline but on the UK one there is an automated message before you get through to an advisor stating that they are aware of issues with Connected Drive/Mini Connected services and are working to resolve them asap. I have had a similar email to the one you have posted (thanks for that) when the car was added to the account yesterday. I think I’m just going to have to try to be patient until they fix it.
 
MINI NZ gave me a link to MINI Connected NZ site, where I log in with the account that I setup with my dealer. Here I can see the status of the following services: Digital Services (Concierge Services, MINI Online / SIM, Connected Services / App, Map Update, RTTI, Online Speech, Digital Services (Remote Services / App, Teleservices / Service Check, Emergency Call, CarPlay). Probably different but this was were I checked if my remote services were active or not.
 
I appreciate the suggestions but unfortunately the problem is not due to remote services not being activated. Mini; both the dealer and Mini’s central helpline have confirmed that all digital services including remote services have been activated for me. Your website suggestion is a good call @azausa. For info you can see all active services via the app too. If you click on the account tab then go to the shop, you’re taken to your account page where you can see what you have and when, in the case of things like concierge services, Mini eDrive services, RTTI etc., they expire. In the UK those particular services are included for 3 years then you need to pay an annual subscription to continue using them. In the app these services show that they’re booked until March 2025 (in my case), so just over three years. Items such as remote services and smart emergency call are included with no expiry date, so when active they have a small tick beside them as you can see in the screenshot below. There is just a problem affecting a number of cars where there’s a communication issue somewhere between the app, Mini’s servers and the car.

4387C3EE-76CB-40D8-9B97-09439AFC9BB3.webp
 
DisgruntledSanta said:
I actually had the exact same problem. After working with my dealer, calling Mini Assust, and a couple other things, we finally figured it out.


Go to Mini Connect in your car, press Options and scroll down. Under Update Services, there should be a Login menu item. Login in with your Mini Connect account info, the. Update services, and voila!


Sent from my iPhone using Inside EVs
Click to expand...
Hi DSanta,

New 2022 Mini SE owner here.

I believe that I have the same issue as the OP. The Mini App knows about my car. It sends info to the device indicating the state of charge etc. However, none of the functions that require the device to talk to the car work, e.g. "Charge and Climate Timer" and "Lock the Doors" etc.

I wanted to try your fix but I could not find the Mini Connect function in the car's display. I see "My Mini" but it does not have an "Update Service" option. Could you point me in the right direction. Thanks.
 
Last edited:
Update and some progress to report!
My dealer did some troubleshooting on their end today and I'm now able to use the 5 remote commands on the MINI app. The Charge and Climate timer, however, is still not available saying "Something went wrong, try again later".
I'm not 100% sure what he did on his end, but he texted asking I update services via Mini Connect in the car then leave the car alone for at least 30 minutes allowing it to enter sleep mode; I waited about 90 minutes.
 
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