BMW iDrive - iPod connectability

[Scott]

Yet again I find myself cursing the i-devices upside down.

 

I'm trying to get a 2G iPod Touch to connect to my iDrive but it's having absolutely none of it. From what I understand there is a y-adapter cable required (I have 2), does anyone know what the background to this nonsense is? The BMW forums that I have joined are fairly hopeless to be frank, as the members just aren't like "us" in the sort of technical/anal/details aspects of owning a car.

 

Ok so here is what I have done so far....

 

Car came with a black original BMW y-adapter. Plugged my iOS 4.3 iPod Touch into it and not a lot happened, it started charging but that was it. Went into the menu, aux, etc but it was greyed out.

 

Googled my backside off and read posts about people having issues with version 4+ so I went through the painstaking process of dropping it down to iOS v3.0. Tried it again.... same result.

 

Googled my backside off again and read posts about people having issues when the change to 3.0 came about so I dropped it down to v2.something. Tried it again, yep you guessed it...nada.

 

I decided it was most likely the cable so I ordered up a new "generic" one on ebay. It came today, plugged it in.... and it went white. Success you may be thinking, hell no! I click on it and get "incompatible device". I google again and find many happy campers enjoying their iPod touch connected to the iDrive with no issues. Out of sheer curiosity I connect it via the std iPod cable and it does EXACTLY the same thing. This leads me to believe that this generic cable is just a standard cable with an Aux output, even though it's labelled as being specifically for the BMW.

 

Out of desperation I pulled out my old Nano (1st gen), it works exactly like it should with the standard iPod cable and the new generic "BMW" cable. The old one charges but does nothing else (pretty much ruled the BMW cable that I have out).

 

So, what are my options? Anyone have a working BMW cable that I can borrow? I don't mind forking out £40 for the cable but I need to make sure it works first before I do so.

 

Cheers

[johnny g]

I had the same in the X6 mate.

 

My iPod Classic, 5th Gen, worked perfectly in the 535d - but I got the same as you in the X6. My iPod Classic, 6th Gen, works perfectly though.

[Scott]

Coolio, reckon I'll pick up a classic then.

 

Does it work off the standard cable or did you have to use the y adapter?

 

Cheers

[Al Massey]

It could be the I drive and not the iPod.

 

My mate fitted an idrive to his car and it was a pain

[johnny g]

Coolio, reckon I'll pick up a classic then.

 

Does it work off the standard cable or did you have to use the y adapter?

 

Cheers

 

Y adapter, Dude. Which incidentally is identical to the ones found in the new Mini with iPod. I know this, as I took one from a hire car

[Scott]

Popped into the local BMW dealer today and got one of the cables. It seems to have solved my problem, I say seems as I've only tried it on the Nano so far. Will check out the touch when I get home.

 

One thing to note though, the Nano was fully functional other than playlists with the std cable. Using the std cable the music is played digitally directly over the USB cable, when using the BMW twin cable the sound comes through the 3.5mm AUX so the quality isn't quite so good. Swings and roundabouts but if you want high quality you lose playlsits, if you want playlists then you lose high quality.

 

Typical

 

Oh, came out £49 lighter too. Very kind of them.