5000Nex & iPhone5, iOs 8.1

[Zaggin]

First, just wanted to say that I've been on this forum for a while, lurking & reading. I've been able to answer a lot of questions I've had with my 5000nex since I put it in. Unfortunately, I've run into one that I haven't been able to figure out.

 

I bought my 5000nex a few months ago & it worked perfectly until Apple released iOs 8. I was starting to have bluetooth connectivity issues where sometimes it would connect, sometimes it wouldn't. The phone functions through the radio would still work, but I couldn't get Pandora to connect. Usually, shutting the car off & turning it back on, or turning off/on bluetooth on the phone, would resolve the issue.

 

After a while, it seemed to get worse, which is when I discovered Pioneer's firmware update 1.06 had come out, so I installed that & bluetooth didn't seem to work any better. I could get in the car, drive for a while & all would be fine. Get out to get gas, go into a store, etc, start the car back up & pandora wouldn't connect for several tries.

 

Finally, today it seems to have quit working completely. I made several stops & everytime it connected perfectly, until the last stop when I got gas & it wouldn't connect at all. No phone, no pandora, nothing. After I got home, found firmware update 1.08 had come out & from what I read, it addresses bluetooth connectivity issues. Got it installed & no help.

 

So here is where I'm at. If I go into the settings main menu, the bluetooth icon is grayed out & I can't click on it for several minutes. Eventually, it will light up & I can click on it, but the only sub-menu I can click on is "Bluetooth software update". I try to perform an update & after several seconds, I get an error message. I've also tried to go into the "restore factory settings" menu for the entire unit & bluetooth, both of which give me an error message after several seconds. If I go into the bluetooth menu from the home screen, it says "Error 02" at the top.

 

Now, I'm not sure if any of the error messages are new since 1.08, because I didn't try to update the bluetooth software while it was running 1.06.

 

I have a feeling it's a hardware failure in the bluetooth module (assuming there is one internally) or something similar.

 

This radio is installed in my 2014 Subaru WRX STi, which is my weekend car that I rarely drive. It sits in the garage for most of the week, so it's not like I've really used the radio all that much. This is the second Pioneer product that I've owned (first one being a MVH-8200BT) and I'm really disappointed with both of them. In the past, I've been an Alpine fan, but I was talked into Pioneer by a friend & have regretted it since I made the switch.

 

If anyone has any suggestions or has run into this issue, any help would be greatly appreciated. I do have an email in with Pioneer & will be trying to contact their customer support during their business hours tomorrow. If they do help me get this thing working again, I'll post my findings here.

 

Thanks in advance.

-Brian

 

[Zaggin]

*Update*

 

Just got in my car for a quick store run & bluetooth worked fine, all the sub-menus were available when I checked. Got back in the store after being inside for 2 minutes & it's back to not working. Car sat for over an hour the first time. Seems that if I let it sit, it resets itself & all is well for a little bit. But if it works, & I shut the car off for a brief period, it gets stuck & Bluetooth fail.

 

I also noticed, everytime it doesn't work, the entire unit takes longer than normal to start up & display the splash screen (more than 20 secs vs 2-5 secs normally).

 

I'll try again in the morning & see if I can get it to update the bluetooth.

[n7vy]

Zaggin,

There seems to be Bluetooth issues with iOS 8.0. The first update to 8.0.1 caused connectivity issues with the phones carrier so they issued 8.0.2. You can't update to 8.0.2 now so to correct your issue you will need to upgrade to 8.1. Thus has taken care of most of the problems with the iOS. It doesn't correct our Siri and CarPlay issues however. 8.1 I believe will take care of your connectivity issues but there are always +'s and -'s in doing upgrades. Good luck.

[Zaggin]

I got in touch with pioneer's tech support today. The phone is not the issue. I have 8.1 on the phone & it didn't correct the issue. The radio had been throwing an "Error 02" code, which tech support says is an internal communication error.

 

It's going into the mail to pioneer tomorrow morning for repairs. I should get it back in 2-3 weeks.

 

What a PITA, glad this isn't in my DD, not having a radio for the better part of a month.