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Understanding Audi Connect

15K views 15 replies 6 participants last post by  bruce_miranda 
#1 ·
I think I've had practically every problem in the book and I had to work through each of them myself. So I figured I might as well document my findings.

My car is a 2018 A5 in the UK, this comes with an internal SIM (eSIM). This is used for SOS functions, roadside assistance, Google Earth and Audi Connect. However the eSIM cannot be used for streaming or wifi hotspot.

If you need any of the streaming services you need to one of the following.
1. Sign up to a data plan with the eSIM provider.
2. Use a data SIM in the slot in the glovebox.
3. Or use a phone that support the rSAP Bluetooth protocol.

However if you use 2. or 3. ALL Audi Connect data will go through that SIM and the eSIM is not used.

Audi Connect comprises of broadly two functions.
A. Services that the car can connect to via your myAudi login.
B. Data that the car sends back to your myAudi profile.

A. Requires you to set-up a myAudi profile. Note this is different that the Audi profile you might have set up to track your order. Once you set this up, you can then login into your myAudi profile in the car using either the login name and password, or using the 6 digit pin that the myAudi site gives you. Think of it this way, now the car knows who you are and allows you to look at your data in the car. Like Destinations etc.

B. If you want the car to talk to you. You need to be set up as the Key User. This involves going through a user identification process that can be done at home. You send a code (mTAN) to your phone, you enter that code into the myAudi portal and that's it. Now you need to link the car to your myAudi profile. To do that you need the 10 digit scratch card from your key. You then choose the Connect User Management option to enter your myAudi login name and the 10 digit code. This will set you up as the Key User. Note : If the key user option does not show up, then shut down the data module, lock the car for 10 mins and then start it up again, from the Telephone menu! All being well you will set up as a Key User. This now allows the car to talk back to you. It sends details to the myAudi app about the status of the car and also allows remote locking and unlocking.

There is another app called MMI Connect. This allows you to use Apps designed for the MMI e.g. Amazon Music, Web radio etc. It also allows the MMI to play songs from your phone directly over WIFI as opposed to playing them on your phone over bluetooth.

The Amazon Music and Web Radio need a data streaming service.

If you prefer to just use the data from your phone's SIM then you need to use another roundabout method. Choose the Car phone in the Bluetooth profiles. This gives access to your phone's SIM to the car (rSAP). Then you connect your own phone to the car's WIFI hotspot, which is infact using your own SIM for data!

It's been quite a rough ride for me, in some ways I wish I had asked the dealer to set this up for me. But if I did, I would have never figured out all to make this work.

Oh. And I had a bigger issue to begin with. My car came from the dealer with the eCall module sitting in Service Mode. Using a VCDS cable, I forced that out of Service Mode and that allowed my Audi Key User to connect in the car and also got rid of Emergency Call function unavailable error.

Hope all this helps someone else.
 
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#2 ·
Nice write up Bruce! [emoji106]


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro
 
#3 ·
Another update. I read somewhere that once you set up the Data Connection to be via your phone then the eSIM is not used at all. While this might be true while you are in the car, it is certainly not true when you get out. You can still communicate with the car using the myAudi portal or app, which means the car reverts back to using the eSIM to talk to the outside world when your phone is not in range.
Also I am pretty sure that the SOS and Roadside assistance calls might still go via the eSIM, regardless of how the Data Connection is set up.
 
#5 ·
Thank you for this well written guidance. I wish I had seen this before I started on my own tedious journey with Audi Connect! I had an extra complication in that, although I bought my car in France and it is registered there, I could not register as a Key User until I returned to the UK. I never figured out if it was because my mobile number is a UK number or not.
 
#6 ·
To be fair i think i'm not that daft with the advancing technologies, but this has made me vomit!
Cant we make things more complicated? Id rather have a push button fucking radio rather than going thru all that palarva!
But yes, good writeup which will be helpful if you have just bought one and havent used the gadgets before reading this:)
 
#7 ·
The biggest drawback I now face using the rSAP method is that the car has complete control of my phone. I cannot even dial a number from the phone. I have to use the car for that too!

Also the car seems to force whichever phone it's using to be the Primary phone, even if it was set up as the Secondary phone.
 
#8 ·
SO after all the trouble I went through to figure out the steps and got everything setup, I have decided that the pain just isn't worth it.

Needing two apps on the phone was just plain stupid. And the MMI Connect is 95% duplication of the myAudi App any way, with the additions of a few Apps. And also the MMI Connect App want to run a background process on my phone all the time even when the App is shut down. So bye bye MMI Connect.

Then the fact that the phone is rendered fairly useless when I use my own data from the phone using the rSAP profile is mad. Add to that you need to have WIFI running on your phone for data from the car which is getting it from your phone is just worse.

So now I have gone back to use the internal eSIM and normal Bluetooth profiles. Might as well squeeze every bit out of Audi for the 36 months of Audi Connect data included with the eSIM. I still have all the remote services running on myAUDI, Google Earth works and all the other basic Connect features are fine too. The only thing that doesn't is my car's WIFI hotspot and any WIFI based Apps. I can live with that.
 
#9 ·
Isn’t it just a case that the myAudi app is an app version of the website whereas MMI connect is the proper app for controlling and finding your car, sending destinations etc. MMI connect is much more user friendly on a phone IMHO but I don’t really understand why two apps exist.
 
#10 ·
myAudi App now also has all the remote car features, service messages and lock/unlock etc. MMI Connect App has all that, in a slicker UI, but then also has the WiFi Apps too, Webradio, Amazon Music, Napster and WIFI Media Player. Issue is that the MMI Connect app needs the myAUDI app to make a connection to the car using WIFI and only then will it publish its WIFI apps on the car. So utterly pointless. So you are forced to use WIFI on your phone. And unless you use a data SIM in your car, you own phone can't access the Internet because phones dont use their own Data network if a WIFI network is connected. I'll look into that part further because if my phone can be connected to both a dataless WIFI network and a 4G data network, that might be the answer.
 
#11 ·
Some new information.

Android has the ability to keep the data connection on along with the WIFI but because the car has an Internet connection using the eSIM, the phone doesn't switch to the Data connection even though the car's connection doesn't allow external teethered devices to use its data, unless you buy a data package. The Android phone needs to detect no Internet over WIFI (! Mark) for it to use its data connection.

If you wanted to play media from your phone, but didn't want to use the MMI Connect App, any DLNA server app will be fine. You simply publish your library from your phone, like you would on a NAS etc and the car uses its own DLNA client to access the media from your phone over WIFI. BUT again, the moment you switch the WIFI on your phone, you won't have data. But your phone is still usable. You could do this over Bluetooth too, but the compression is higher over Bluetooth.
 
#12 · (Edited)
...

B. If you want the car to talk to you. You need to be set up as the Key User. This involves going through a user identification process that can be done at home. You send a code (mTAN) to your phone, you enter that code into the myAudi portal and that's it. Now you need to link the car to your myAudi profile. To do that you need the 10 digit scratch card from your key. You then choose the Connect User Management option to enter your myAudi login name and the 10 digit code. This will set you up as the Key User. Note : If the key user option does not show up, then shut down the data module, lock the car for 10 mins and then start it up again, from the Telephone menu! All being well you will set up as a Key User. This now allows the car to talk back to you. It sends details to the myAudi app about the status of the car and also allows remote locking and unlocking

...

Hope all this helps someone else.
Hello @bruce_miranda I’ve been going nuts since I picked up my car not being able to setup a key user. I had one chance to do this when I first got in the car with my sales person and I failed to get the 10 character code from under the scratch area on the plastic key fob. I hope that your ‘turn off data connection’ tip works when I try it (I have a Q5 but registered here as a former A5 Sportback owner 2010-2014). Will let you know!!!
 
#13 ·
...

B. If you want the car to talk to you. You need to be set up as the Key User. This involves going through a user identification process that can be done at home. You send a code (mTAN) to your phone, you enter that code into the myAudi portal and that's it. Now you need to link the car to your myAudi profile. To do that you need the 10 digit scratch card from your key. You then choose the Connect User Management option to enter your myAudi login name and the 10 digit code. This will set you up as the Key User. Note : If the key user option does not show up, then shut down the data module, lock the car for 10 mins and then start it up again, from the Telephone menu! All being well you will set up as a Key User. This now allows the car to talk back to you. It sends details to the myAudi app about the status of the car and also allows remote locking and unlocking

...

Hope all this helps someone else.
Hello @bruce_miranda I’ve been going nuts since I picked up my car not being able to setup a key user. I had one chance to do this when I first got in the car with my sales person and I failed to get the 10 character code from under the scratch area on the plastic key fob. I hope that your ‘turn off data connection’ tip works when I try it (I have a Q5 but registered here as a former A5 Sportback owner 2010-2014). Will let you know!!!
Praise be it worked! One small caveat on the latest MMI system before I switched the car back on after turning off the data module, I made sure my phone was not connected via bluetooth. At this point connection manager did not give an option to turn the data module back on. Instead I started Audi Connect and the system prompted me to turn the build in data connection back on. At this point I was prompted to enter my myAudi email/username and the10 character password from my plastic key fob.

The hope that your post would help someone else has been fulfilled!!!

Best Wishes.
 
#15 ·
I did read that, however in connection manager from both telephone and car settings the option to turn on was marked as ‘unavailable’. Not to worry though as having the Audi connect turn the module on itself was straightforward.
 
#16 ·
Yes it is not the most obvious way to turn the data module back on. I did have a mild fit when I realised I couldn't turn it back on from the menu I turned it off in the first place. Audi have really taken, what should have been an easy task and complicated the heck out of it. I can bet my dealer would not have worked out what to do with half the errors I got. Because he did admit that he had never seen some of the messages I was getting. In the end he told me to visit a local Audi dealer to get the car recoded !! But it turned out to be the eCall Module Service Mode.
 
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