iPod control via USB stopped working

[rawhog]

Are either of these iPhones jailbroken? If so, you could try the disable Apple kill switch.

 

[GeekEV]

Are either of these iPhones jailbroken? If so, you could try the disable Apple kill switch.

Nope, not jailbroken. FYI, I have to give credit to Nissan support, they've been calling me EVERY MORNING with a status update. The latest is that they're still not able to reproduce it, but I'm definitely not alone. They're now looking to set up an appointment for me to drop my car off at the dealer so they can send an engineer out to look at it... +1 for trying!

In the mean time, I've abandoned the USB port and gone back to a third party charger coupled with the bluetooth audio out. For ease of use, I've also gone back to my very own FlickTunes app.

 

[Fabio]

When I upgraded my iPhone to 4.3 it broke compatibility with a JBL speaker. But my iPhone 3Gs still works with the LEAF.
Since your iPhone was not updated, I highly doubt the problem is in the iPhone.

Nissan called again with another update this morning. They still don't know what's going on, but they're getting increasing reports of problems with the iPhone (only). While it does kind of sound like Apple updated something (and broke everybody at once), as stated earlier in this thread two different iPhones on different iOS versions exhibit this problem - and neither of them were updated between when they worked and when they didn't. I guess we'll wait and see what they come up with, in the meantime I'll use bluetooth...

 

[GeekEV]

Curious that your 3GS works but my wife's doesn't. Also curious that Nissan can't reproduce it, but I'm not the only one reporting issues. As a software engineer I'd love to know the root cause when they find it.

 

[Fabio]

As a fellow Software Engineer, my money is on a bug in Nissan's software (no I don't work for Apple).

Curious that your 3GS works but my wife's doesn't. Also curious that Nissan can't reproduce it, but I'm not the only one reporting issues. As a software engineer I'd love to know the root cause when they find it.

 

[GeekEV]

Nissan has arranged for one of their engineers to meet me at my local dealer on Monday morning so I can demonstrate the issue and let them have my car to debug it. They admit others are having the problem, but have been unable to reproduce it thus far.

 

[azdre]

Ever since my husband started tinkering with being able to play slacker over Bluetooth while the phone is plugged into the USB slot for charging, neither of our phones will charge anymore over USB, but the iPod controls still work. First I'll try another cable, though nothing should have changed there. Then I'll maybe reset the car and see if I can reproduce the issue. I'll see if I can post the sequence he figured out and if it's reproducible. (no iPhone updates were installed, 2 different software versions on 2 3gS phones, stopped working at the same time.)

Guess I should have had the dealer look at this while it was in the shop for 2 days for the AC issue. Oh well.

 

[GeekEV]

Oh, good point! I wonder if that broke it? I was doing something similar. I actually got it to work. Plug it in and let it start playing via USB. Then switch to the Bluetooth input and hit pause. Then switch to whatever app you want on your iPhone. It's a pain in the butt, just use a separate USB charger.

 

[GeekEV]

Hey guys, I wanted to give another update. This morning I met with a Nissan USA engineer, a Nissan Japan engineer and a Clarion Engineer to discuss this issue at my local dealer. After demonstrating the problem for them, they tried their iPod touch and couldn't get it to work either. They indicated that this was NOT a problem they've seen before. They indicated that they've seen other iPod issues, most seeming to stem from worn and/or third party cables, but that clearly wasn't what was going on here. They have the car all day today to play with it and troubleshoot, but in all likelihood they'll replace the entire unit and take the old one back with them for study. Nice folks!

 

[GeekEV]

Yep, they replaced the whole head unit. It's working now...

 

[mwalsh]

Good stuff!

 

[townsat]

After 3 months of the iphone interface working perfectly with both my iphone 4 and my wife's iphone 3G, we started having this exact problem. I've found that I can actually control the ipod from the iphone, and it plays, but I can't get it to display the information on the nav screen or control the ipod from the screen or steering wheel controls. Has anyone else besides Geek EV experienced this? And is there any fix to this besides replacing the whole nav unit? Thanks!

 

[GeekEV]

My units been working fine since they replaced it... I guess you should visit your dealer.

 

[townsat]

I was afraid of that. I guess it's good to hear that they fixed it. Thanks.

 

[cirrus1]

I am having exactly the same problem! When I got my Leaf everything was just perfect but all of the sudden the controls stopped working and taking an incredible long time to load and there was no music information showing on the screen as it used to. I called the dealer, they told me to trouble shooting changing the cable... I went and bought a new apple USB cord and nothing. I took the car to the dealer, they couldn't solve the issue and they argued that it was withing normal function and some Ipod versions were not fully compatible... I was afraid to find out the actual solution was to replace the head unit... How long did you have to wait for them to replace it?

 

[LABLeaf]

I just started experiencing this same problem. USB was working fine with two different iPods, then my daughter's friend used the USB once for her iPhone and the iPods stopped working on the USB connection. Obviously something is going on with the Leaf's iPhone interface. Is this something only a pro can fix?

 

[GeekEV]

Seems like it. Since I was the first to have this problem Nissan flew out a team of engineers, complete with replacement parts. They took care of it in just a few hours. YMMV

 

[acowell]

I recently had the same issue, the iPod worked for the three months and just stopped. The USB port was working fine as it played music from my iPhone and a USB memory stick, but with the iPhone/iPods it no longer displayed the track information and could not be controlled with the LEAF touch screen or steering wheel controls. I tried two iPhones 3G and 4S models and two iPods, generations 3 and 4 which had prevously worked and three different cables.

I spoke to Nissan Support who advised to take the car to the EV dealer (Romford, UK) and they brought in Nissan Technial Support, I was told they disconnected the battery and performed a software update and now it works, yippeeeeeeeee!

Two days without my LEAF I couldn't wait to get it back!

Thanks for all the previous posting on this issue, very helpful!