Activating the MMI - Sim card installed

[AndrewMD]

Hi all - What am I doing wrong?

I've registered the car with myaudi, put a sim card in the glove box, tried to enter my 8 digit code into the MMI to get things started and just keep getting a 'the service is unavailable at the moment, please try later' message everytime I try the code.

Is there something else that I have to do?

Thanks in advance from a thickie!!

 

[alFR]

Have you done whatever the SIM provider requires you to do to activate the SIM?

 

[AndrewMD]

Yes the sim is active and I can get some features for the nav, however no other services load. for example I tried to send map destinations from the myAudi app and the MMI asks me to log in with my pin. I enter my pin and I get the error message

 

[hmy7k]

Mine registered first time, I just entered the pin.
Did you have a good signal when you entered the pin.

 

[AndrewMD]

Yep full strength 4G, tried it in more than one location too

 

[Stuart Graham]

You need to enter the Mtan 8 digit password you get from myaudi on your phone.

Prepared to be disappointed when you try to enter the 10 digit code from your spare keyset to 'personalise' your car and use the mmi app

 

[AndrewMD]

I've entered it on the app and all is good on that front, it's when it asks for it in the MMI I get the error message

 

[AndrewMD]

This Pin here? That's what I have been trying to put into the MMI in the car. Is this the right one?

 

[hmy7k]

yes thats the one I used, 8 digits long.
presumably it somehow links to the chassis number of the car.
I trust you have the right car set up on my audi.

 

[hmy7k]

I would compare the chassis number in my audi against your car.
I added mine through the web application not the app and only gave my reg number.

 

[AndrewMD]

I've checked everything! But nothing is working. When I look at the available services on the MMI, it lists calendar, travel, entertainment etc. But when I press on travel it says it's loading and then goes to an error message, the same with communication. So I push the controller to the right and select login, I've tried my full login and the 8 digit code, both return error message.

Also when I try to import addresses to the sat nav it says the audi server cannot be reached.

It also says that when I check the licence agreement
Aaahhhhhh what am I doing wrong!!

 

[cuke2u]

Did you activate the card in phone?

 

[AndrewMD]

Did you activate the card in phone?

The sim is in the car not the phone

 

[hmy7k]

I would call Audi customer services, it does seem odd.

 

[alFR]

Try the SIM in another device to make sure it's working and try another SIM in the car if you can (e.g. a cheap PAYG one). I know you say you've got full signal but you can have a full signal showing but not have an active network connection if there's something wrong with the SIM/account details at the provider's end. Sounds to me from what you're describing that the car can't connect to the Internet for some reason.

 

[cuke2u]

The sim is in the car not the phone

Yes I realise that, but I seem to remember on the A3 8V forum that some have activated the card in a phone first...

 

[AndrewMD]

Solved!!

Because as soon as I tether the phone to the car, it defaults into Android Auto and it locks the phone you can't see what's on the screen. Tonight I stopped Android Auto running and my phone was on the ee website asking me to activate the Sim.

You would have thought it might prompt you somewhere, but no!!

 

[cuke2u]

Good news and useful for anyone else performing this, well done..

 

[ScottishA4B9]

How do you activate a data sim? Is it online?

 

[mcwharam]

I had the same problem as you and tried for days. Finally got the code to enter when I reset the WLAN settings. It worked when I didn't have my Andriod Sony Z5 in the car.

Only a minor grumble but I cannot get my contacts to load from phone, sd card, usb to the MMI sim card. Tried all sorts of ways. As the SIM is full size I don't want to break it down to its smallest size to fit into the Sony phone. Waiting for a SIM reader to arrive to try that way. Only a minor grumble as I generally have my phone with me when in thecar.

Mines a 16 reg A6 with Technology pack.

 

[RAF_S7]

I had the same problem as you and tried for days. Finally got the code to enter when I reset the WLAN settings. It worked when I didn't have my Andriod Sony Z5 in the car.

Only a minor grumble but I cannot get my contacts to load from phone, sd card, usb to the MMI sim card. Tried all sorts of ways. As the SIM is full size I don't want to break it down to its smallest size to fit into the Sony phone. Waiting for a SIM reader to arrive to try that way. Only a minor grumble as I generally have my phone with me when in thecar.

Mines a 16 reg A6 with Technology pack.

The Contacts are not stored on the SIM card, they are stored in the MMI memory.

In the MMI settings you should have an option to use the car SIM for data, and the phone for calls via Bluetooth. This should automatically load the phone contacts into the MMI database.

 

[mcwharam]

Thanks for the reply RAF, for the odd occassion I am in the car without my phone I would like to be able use the car sim for calls etc. When the phone is not in the car I have no contacts. I can manually enter them but don't fancy inputting nearly 100 contacts though the MMI.

 

[RAF_S7]

Thanks for the reply RAF, for the odd occassion I am in the car without my phone I would like to be able use the car sim for calls etc. When the phone is not in the car I have no contacts. I can manually enter them but don't fancy inputting nearly 100 contacts though the MMI.

Ah OK, now l understand what your trying to do.

You actually want to be able to use both SIM cards independently to make calls, but effectively using a common directory/contact list.

When you first connect your phone to the MMI Bluetooth, it automatically downloads all the contacts to the MMI directory, however there are three different types of contact storage.

One is bonded to the mobile phone - the MMI SIM Card directory - which is only visible when that specific phone/SIM card is connected to the car.

One is contained within the Mobile Phone only - on the SIM card - and visible on the MMI (when that phone is connected) but not its not downloaded to the MMI.

The final type of contact list is what Audi calls the "Public" directory - any contacts stored here can be accessed by any SIM, including the built in one, and up to 4 phones connected by Bluetooth. This one can make using the directory via MMI quite complicated, as when you have the primary phone connected, and also have the primary phone contacts in the public directory, you end up with double entries - because the MMI accesses the SIM card directory as well as the public directory - it effective merges both while the phone is connected via Bluetooth. And if like me you have multiple numbers stored under a single name (I.e. home number, mobile number, office number) you end up with six separate entries on the MMI directory which makes everything very messy.

I've not used the "public" directory myself, as I use my inbuilt SIM just for data, and my mobile for everything else which keeps the directory somewhat tidy. These is a reasonable write up in the MMI User Guide, page 51 onwards.

God luck!

 

[AndrewMD]

How do you activate a data sim? Is it online?

I had my phone tethered and turned off Android Auto, opened the browser on my phone and it was on the EE page asking me to activate the sim. Just clicked the button and that was it.

 

[mcwharam]

RAF - thanks again for the really detailed response - I am grateful.

It's not as easy as I thought it would be. My phone contract has no limits on minutes and texts, so will probably end up doing the same as you and leave the car sim just for the data.

 

[ScottishA4B9]

I've too up my new data SIM card online so hopefully it should work as soon as I put it in the car tomorrow!