2011 Uconnect Touch 4.3/8.4 Problems

[drb227]

There have been a number of separate threads regarding various issues with the Uconnect Touch system in the 2011 Dodge Journey. I created this thread so that we would all have just one place to go to for info/updates.

If I have missed anything, please let me know. I will keep this thread updated as needed.

In no particular order, the following issues are being reported by owners:

iPhone/iPod connected via USB(many of these items also apply when using an SD card or a USB memory stick):

- It takes quite a while for the music Browse button to show up on a newly purchased vehicle or when a new device is connected. It took several days before the Browse button showed up for my iPhone connected via USB. Previous to that, I could only select the songs in alphabetical order. Extremely long indexing time to blame?

- There is no playlist support for iPhone/iPod.

- Voice control of music playback does not work. Trying to select an artist, album or song using voice command always results in "Command Not Understood".

- Album artwork is hit or miss. I seem to get album artwork displaying for maybe 70% of the music on my iPhone.

- The system shows the wrong artist name for a small amount of my music. All my music is tagged correctly with both album art and artist/song titles.

- Songs on the iPhone/iPod are displayed and played in alphabetical order within an album, not in track order.

- Song titles on an SD card are usually (but not always) displayed using the filename of the song file, not the ID3 tag inside the file. If you want songs on an SD card to play in track order, you seem to have to have the track number as the first part of the filename, which also results in the song title showing the track number along with the song title. However, it has sometimes worked for me where it will display the correct song title from the music file but then other times it displays the song title by using the filename.

- The Shuffle option sometimes picks the same shuffle order. Also, if you are many songs into a shuffled play and you leave the vehicle, when you come back it doesn't always begin playback from where it left off. This features sometimes works perfectly, where it will pick up right from where it left off but then sometimes it will start over again from the 1^st song of the shuffled list.

[Netcowboy]

Apple Products & Uconnect

CLICK --> Apple Device PDF

[Armendegga]

Thanks for the consolidated post.

I have a few of the issues with using my iPhone -- No Playlist support, album artwork sometimes doesn't show up.... And the shuffle issue (always playing the same shuffle order). I'm glad that I wasn't the only one seeing that issue. The only work around I have found is select a random song from your track list, and then turn shuffle on. Usually that will create a different shuffle order, but sometimes it still reverts to the standard one.

[drb227]

I have noticed a few more issues in the past few days:

- Whenever I answer a call, if I am playing music via SD Card or iPhone connected via USB, the music does not resume once the call has ended. I have to go back to the Player screen and press the Play button. Music should automatically resume once the call has ended.

- When playing music on my iPhone connected via USB, it skips the last 4 or 5 seconds of every song and goes to the next song. I'm not sure when this started happening but I have noticed it a few times. It does not do this when using the SD Card.

- I get different results with on-screen music info depending on whether or not the option for music cleanup is turned on or off. I made this video to show what I am talking about: Uconnect Touch 8.4 Music Display Problems

Does anybody else have any of these problems?

[Armendegga]

I've noticed the second issue drb227.

[PeterJ73]

I have a new 2011 Mainstreet with the touch screen sound system and have been having two problems. The first is the raido seems to loose all power if the car sits for more than a day or two, which resets the Sirus radio and the clock. Now yesterday, the day after one of these power losses, my phone will not connect to uConnect. I've deleted the uConnect from the phone and the phone from the radio but now the uConnect doesn't show up when I try to add a new device. The company I work for has a hands-free policy on cell use in a car and not having it is a real problem.

Any thoughts? Is there a way to restore/rest the radio to factory settings?

Thanks!!!

Edited April 27, 2011 by PeterJ73

[drb227]

Sorry, I don't have an answer. My suggestion is to call the dealer.

[zmttoxics]

I dont have voice control but I did get to try my iphone on the uconnect today and it seemed to work great! Took a minute or 2 for the browse and stuff to work, but the album covers and stuff all seemed to be fine.

[suniedaze]

I have a new 2011 Mainstreet with the touch screen sound system and have been having two problems. The first is the raido seems to loose all power if the car sits for more than a day or two, which resets the Sirus radio and the clock. Now yesterday, the day after one of these power losses, my phone will not connect to uConnect. I've deleted the uConnect from the phone and the phone from the radio but now the uConnect doesn't show up when I try to add a new device. The company I work for has a hands-free policy on cell use in a car and not having it is a real problem.

Any thoughts? Is there a way to restore/rest the radio to factory settings?

Thanks!!!

I had the same issue with my phone I think... if you click the phone button on the touch screen does it actually go the the phone menu? If not, then its probably the same problem as mine which was a module needed to be changed. It sounds stupid, but it actually has something to do with the brake pedal.

Edited June 19, 2011 by suniedaze

[bramfrank]

I'd like to revive this thread and add what I consider a serious complaint about the 4.3 uConnect . . . .

In this day and age it seems that there is an undocumented limitation of 1 Gig for connected mass storage. If you have more than a Gig of music (and who doesn't?) the radio will only take the first gig of audio - and that's just wrong.

With an 8 Gig memory stick costing less than $8 and given that virtually everyone out there supports virtually unlimited media (even the 2010 radio lineup had a huge hard drive), why should we be subject to this limitation? It isn't as if the USB key is in a easy to access location, either.

Another issue I've noticed is that when playing from a memory key the processor starts lagging - the volume adjustments become jerky and the tempo of the music varies (which is what an MP3 player will do when the system can't keep up). It is beyond annoying.

Something already reported to Chris here is that I personally find the lag when trying to honk the horn annoying - my 17 year old daughter was riding as a passenger and SHE noticed the delay.

Come on Chrysler, get your act together and stop coding in 4th generation languages - all it does is create bloatware. Clearly the processor in the vehicle is underpowered and the code inefficient.

[drb227]

Have you confirmed with Chrysler that there is an actual 1 Gig limit? How did you come to that conclusion? I am currently using a 16 Gig SD Card in my Journey and it has way more than 1 Gig of music on it. I have also used a USB memory stick that had more than 1 Gig of music on it without issue. Granted, I have the 8.4N system but there would be no logical reason for Chrysler to impose a 1 Gig limit and not document it.

Have you shown this to the dealer and asked them to fix it? Have you tried multiple different USB sticks to see if you have the same issue with all of them?

As for the horn - I can't imagine there is any software interface between the steering wheel button and the actual horn.

You really need to show all these issues to a dealer to get them fixed. If one dealer isn't helpful, go to another.

[coolram62]

I apologise for being a bit off topic. Drb227 ,and Bramfrank, on the horn signal it goes through the BCM. I haven't noticed any unusual lag between pushing the horn pad and the horn sounding. The old style contact/relay systems aren't instant. It's interesting if the dash/interior lights have powered down with the door open and you bump the horn they come back on. My guess is a change in ,or additional load detected, causes this.

[bramfrank]

Have you confirmed with Chrysler that there is an actual 1 Gig limit? How did you come to that conclusion? I am currently using a 16 Gig SD Card in my Journey and it has way more than 1 Gig of music on it. I have also used a USB memory stick that had more than 1 Gig of music on it without issue. Granted, I have the 8.4N system but there would be no logical reason for Chrysler to impose a 1 Gig limit and not document it.

Have you shown this to the dealer and asked them to fix it? Have you tried multiple different USB sticks to see if you have the same issue with all of them?

As for the horn - I can't imagine there is any software interface between the steering wheel button and the actual horn.

You really need to show all these issues to a dealer to get them fixed. If one dealer isn't helpful, go to another.

I had an offline exchange with DodgeCares who asked corporate and confirmed the 1 Gig limitation . . . I have ~1900 songs on the stick & the radio is only reading 250 of them . . . .

And, as indicated, the horn is routed through the BCM - it is on the Canbus, which is actually quite stupid, since they need a relay to drive the horn because it is an inductive load. So why route it through the controller at all? Yes, there is a delay in going through a relay - likely less than a millisecond. But I'm observing something between a quarter and half a second - I could break out the storage scope and measure it more accurately, but that won't make a difference.

I tried to discuss this with the stealer closest to mne and I was informed that they needed to go into diagnostic mode and that if they didn;t find a problem I would be charged. I told them to piss off - I have to get over to the selling dealer to take up the issue.

Edited September 13, 2011 by bramfrank

[coolram62]

It is somewhat stupid to install a USB port for access to the entertainment system and then have that kind of limitation on read/storage. It must be less expensive per unit to make all the consoles the same.

I haven't looked but would imagine the horn relay is either in the in car fuse panel (it's located next to the BCM) or may be in the underhood distribution center. It seems that for every two steps forward in design/engineering these days there's a step back. Take the location of the battery in the Journey for instance.

As for the attitude of some dealer service departments these days I'm completly at a loss. One would think they would do what it takes to take care of a customer (within reason taking into account abuse or neglect). This should be a special point if the vehicle was purchased from them. Some dealers don't even trouble themselves with the proper procedure when they sell a vehicle (new or used).

[Armendegga]

It is somewhat stupid to install a USB port for access to the entertainment system and then have that kind of limitation on read/storage. It must be less expensive per unit to make all the consoles the same.

I haven't looked but would imagine the horn relay is either in the in car fuse panel (it's located next to the BCM) or may be in the underhood distribution center. It seems that for every two steps forward in design/engineering these days there's a step back. Take the location of the battery in the Journey for instance.

As for the attitude of some dealer service departments these days I'm completly at a loss. One would think they would do what it takes to take care of a customer (within reason taking into account abuse or neglect). This should be a special point if the vehicle was purchased from them. Some dealers don't even trouble themselves with the proper procedure when they sell a vehicle (new or used).

For the longest time I just assumed that it didn't come with a fusebox because I couldn't find it... Didn't expect it to be underneath and behind the glovebox!!

I am very lucky with my dealer it sounds like as they have been nothing except awesome to me. Even my sales rep keeps in contact with me to check on how things are going, and remembers my name whenever I'm there. It's little things like that that go a long way for customer satisfaction.

[greg]

I have been having the issue with voice command for music as well it just states command not valid or whatever. Also has anyone experienced an issue with the usb playing only a few seconds of a song and then skipping through several others before it plays one through completely?

[bramfrank]

I have issues with the 4.3 on my unit recognising only the first 255 songs on my memory sticks and poor control performance while playing musinc from the keys - plus the tempo of the music varies (it is not the source material). Poor code in the device - I've raised the issue with Chris here and with my dealer.

Edited October 10, 2011 by bramfrank

[DodgeCares]

I have been having the issue with voice command for music as well it just states command not valid or whatever. Also has anyone experienced an issue with the usb playing only a few seconds of a song and then skipping through several others before it plays one through completely?

Greg,

There are some software updates for a number of radios with this condition. If you PM me your VIN I can check if there is an update for your model at this time.