Darned MFT upgrades!!!

[Laurel]

We bought our SEL in November of 2012.  Our MFT was always perfect with wonderful voice commands that always worked.  Our navigation was stellar.  I dragged my heels fearing that they would screw things up when we took our car in for the upgrades.  Our 3-4 hour appt. in mid October turned into 3 days.  Now our wonderful system is just friggin' awful.  It does not recognize voice commands and it is driving us crazy with its awfulness!  I guess we neglected to test the voice commands as we weren't doing a lot of driving until recently.  It won't even understand when I tell it to call home.  It goes through some convoluted thing and then the screen comes up with a series of unrelated phone numbers instead of dialing home. I totally understand Valraider in Oregon who was so pissed off.  This is enough to ruin the whole C-Max experience.  The rational people on the forum will say to take it back and complain, and I guess we will have to do that but what an absolute pain in the butt as we know they will keep our car for days again and it will likely come home worse.  We don't have any Galpin like dealerships locally--they all seem to be flying by the seat of their pants with doing MFT upgrades etc.  Can anyone direct me on the way to do the master re-set?  I've never had to go that route before.  Maybe it will help.

[drdiesel1]

What version did they update it with ?

[Laurel]

Well doc I am embarrassed to say I am not sure.  I figured it was the latest available as they just did it on October 16th and kept it for 3 days.

[drdiesel1]

Well doc I am embarrassed to say I am not sure.  I figured it was the latest available as they just did it on October 16th and kept it for 3 days.

 

Probably 3.6.2.  You can go into the Nav system info and look at the ID info. Here's what it should be if it's 3.6.2.

 

My car came with 3.5.1, but I updated it to 3.6.2. before ever using it. My voice command isn't working very well either.

So, I just don't use it. I guess we will need to wait for the next update, because the dealer won't be able to do anything about it.

Edited November 22, 2013 by drdiesel1

[Adair]

Sorry to say I gave up on voice commands long ago. I just use the touch screen before leaving the driveway. The only things I can say, with any confidence that it will be recognized, is *Call.....(whoever)" change the radio station, and Weathermap!

 

The good news is, once I get the address entered, the spoken directions and the map are wonderful!

Edited November 23, 2013 by Adair

[Laurel]

Oh dear.  I wish it could go back to the way it was before!  It worked like a charm .  So it doesn't sound like it is worth a trip in to the dealer.  Darn this is disappointing.

[Adair]

Oh dear.  I wish it could go back to the way it was before!  It worked like a charm .  So it doesn't sound like it is worth a trip in to the dealer.  Darn this is disappointing.

Mine never worked, Laurel. Maybe it was *operator error*, but I could never get the sequence of commands right. What I thought should be intuitive *she* didn't recognize. Then it was do over, do over, do over until I was swearing at it. It became so frustrating that I just gave up. When we are going somewhere, I get the address entered before we leave the house, much as I would do with the Garmin. Then it works just fine, and the instructions and map are great! It's just the voice commands that have never worked well for me. I figured it was my Southern accent 

[Laurel]

Adair I was going to reply to what you wrote, but it turned into one big whine LOL.  So I will re-group and hope that Dr. Diesel is right that things will get fixed down the road.

[DaveofDurham]

We have not noticed any difference with voice command after any of the upgrades.  The worst day I had was when I tried to use it to make a phone call after leaving the dentist.  One side of my mouth was numb and nothing I tried to say was recognized.  I finally gave up and used the keypad to make my call.

[Laurel]

Adair thought it was her Southern drawl and Dave it didn't recognize your voice with numb mouth.  Ours used to recognize what we were saying and now it is so bad that I want to scream at it.  It recognizes nothing.  I will then spell the city for example and after it comes up on the list when I say "line one" it won't recognize that and up will pop another list.  It is just terrible. It's like they made it worse and not better.  Time for letter to Ford I guess.

[wab]

Adair thought it was her Southern drawl and Dave it didn't recognize your voice with numb mouth.  Ours used to recognize what we were saying and now it is so bad that I want to scream at it.  It recognizes nothing.  I will then spell the city for example and after it comes up on the list when I say "line one" it won't recognize that and up will pop another list.  It is just terrible. It's like they made it worse and not better.  Time for letter to Ford I guess.

 

Try not saying "line one" just say ONE.

I have ours set on advanced, that seemed to help.

I also try to hesitate after she stops talking, SLOW processor.

 

Example:

pull the sync paddle

"bong"

I say "call"... "Don"... "home"

 

or

 

Paddle

"bong"

call ... home

She responds with

"Calling home at home"

[ScubaDadMiami]

I have had excellent success with MFT.  However, I believe that I made my purchase just after the problems had been resolved.  So, it came with 3.5 already installed.

 

Before the 3.6 update, the only problem with I had was the NAV reboot.  However, that only happened after I arrived at my destination and shut down.  So, although it was disturbing and caused a lack of confidence, I never had any actual problem when in use.

 

About the voice commands, let me say two things.  First, don't start purposefully over-enunciating.  Just speak in normal conversational level volume, and speak as you would during a conversation that you would have with someone seated next to you.  Believe it or not, overdoing it will be more of a problem than just speaking normally.

 

Second, I made it my business to start learning the commands and doing as much as possible by voice, from day one.  If nothing else, I found the very most essential commands, and I started by memorizing those.  I used the commands every time, even if I had to work step-by-step through input of the street address.  Eventually, as I memorized the core commands, they became second nature.  So, I next learned a few more, and I then added those to the memorized list.

 

Some examples:  I don't love the Home Screen on MFT.  (It would be a great upgrade to allow the screen to show the last screen before shutdown rather than always going to the Home Screen.) 

 

Command: SHOW MAP

 

I need to go someplace.

 

Command: NAVIGATION, DESTINATION, STREET ADDRESS or POI

 

Okay, I will admit that MFT can get the street address wrong.  Fix it by voice.

 

Command:  CHANGE SOMETHING 

 

Just look at the screen, and call whatever you are changing the same thing as on the screen.  You don't even have to memorize such a deep command.  Warning:  this is about as complex as it gets.  So, be patient, and don't give up on this--no matter how tempted you are to just resort to using the touch screen.  BTW, you can input information while on the move, unlike doing it by the touch screen.  Advantage: voice commands!

 

Listen to music.

 

Command: AUDIO ON, BLUETOOTH AUDIO or NAME OF SIRIUS STATION or AM/FM STATION NUMBER, PLAY (STOP, NEXT)

 

Make a call.

 

Command: CALL JOE SMITH AT HOME or AT WORK/OFFICE (both commands seem to work) or ON CELL

 

Climate is pretty basic stuff. 

 

Command: TEMPERATURE 73 DEGREES

 

If you just memorize the above, you are pretty much set for typical operations that you will be doing all of the time.  The only thing that you would have to add to the list would be something that is unique to your drives or style that you also do all of the time.  You don't have to memorize the extremely infrequent commands.

 

MFT is like learning a foreign language.  You start off with difficulty, and then you get competent by practicing.  Once you have it, you have it.

 

Even my friend that went on a 2,000+ mile road trip with me was able to learn the NAV and other commands for his share of the driving.  So, it can be done.  Don't give up!  :thumbsup:

[Laurel]

Lots of good comments about using voice commands.  But we were real pro's with the voice and did have it all figured out.  Now it  is wonky and does not recognize much of anything.  Wab I did try saying 1 instead of line 1.  I find all sorts of odd things come up on the screen now and I am frequently getting the whole thing freezing with "paused" on the lower left displayed.  It is like is has just gone crazy. I am hoping it will just straighten itself out somehow.  Tomorrow I will do as Dr.Diesel suggested and confirm what version they actually installed.  Maybe we should pull the SD card too and put it back in.

[Adair]

Laurel, did you do the one upgrade you could download yourself from a thumb drive? 3.6.2, I think?

[JohnTrigger]

Have you tried deleting the bluetooth pairing inside the phone and from MFT, and then doing a master reset of the MFT, and then repairing the bluetooth.  I had good luck with voice before any of the upgrades, and good luck with voice  post upgrade to 3.6.2 as well, and this is what I did after updating it myself.  

 

A master reset of MFT is as follows:

 

Touch the button at the bottom center of the home screen that looks like two gears turning.  Then touch the SETTINGS tab.  Then touch the SYSTEM bar.  Then SCROLL DOWN to MASTER RESET and perform it.  It will delete some of your preset radio stations, bluetooth, etc, but it might fix it all.

 

Before you do the above, you might want to try a "delayed reboot" first, which won't affect your preset stations nor your bluetooth pairing, but might not fix your gripe either:  Google "MFT delayed reboot app" and download it from outofmytouch.com.  I used to use this a lot on 3.1.3 and 3.5.1 when it started getting "buggy" as "preventative maintenance", but haven't had to use it yet, knock on wood, with 3.6.2.

Edited November 23, 2013 by JohnTrigger

[ArizonaEnergi]

What JohnT said ^^^.

[wab]

+1 on what John and Arizona said.

 

Or would that be +2

[Laurel]

www.syncmyride.com says we have 3.6.2. installed on Oct.17, 2013.  We went from 3.1.3 installed at the factory one year before at the factory.  No mention of 3.5.1 (or was it 3.5.2?) ever being installed.  Is that okay i.e. going from 3.1.3 directly to 3.6.2?   Maybe that is the usual way.

[drdiesel1]

www.syncmyride.com says we have 3.6.2. installed on Oct.17, 2013.  We went from 3.1.3 installed at the factory one year before at the factory.  No mention of 3.5.1 (or was it 3.5.2?) ever being installed.  Is that okay i.e. going from 3.1.3 directly to 3.6.2?   Maybe that is the usual way.

No problems with going from 3.1.3. to 3.6.2.. You had to have 3.5.1. to update to 3.6.2. using the SD card at home. Otherwise,

the dealer had to install it like they did yours.

[Laurel]

Thanks Doc that relieves my mind on that score.  We will try John Triggers master reset etc. later on.

[mtb9153]

I find the best results for us is when we input through the touch screen and give the phone number or zip code (if known) then the whole process of setting the NAV is pretty painless.  But if I try verbally inputting the info for my destination, I usually just get pissed and curse the damn thing.   It never understands.

[wab]

Laurel

could you let us know how traumatic the master reset is?

 

I did one shortly after we got the cmax, wasn't too bad, I didn't understand how/why it remembered the radio presets BUT couldn't remember where it  :lol: lived.

 

For the past week I have to turn my phone off/on everytime I get in the car???

 

Thanks

wab

[Laurel]

Wab we'll let you know.  Hubby is procrastinating due to the re-programming stuff.  He'll get to it this week and I'll report back.

[wab]

Wab we'll let you know.  Hubby is procrastinating due to the re-programming stuff.  He'll get to it this week and I'll report back.

 

My grandson helped me do some testing today.

He stayed at the house with MeMaw (DW) playing with my phone.

 

So I took hers, it worked. The question is will it work the next time?

[Laurel]

My husband did the reset today and it seems to have improved things greatly.  He says it was quite painless really.  Before he started the reset, he deleted the paired up phones, he pulled out the nav. card, he deleted sync from the phones, and he recommends keeping the engine running as the accessory mode shuts down too fast to complete the job. Then he pushed the button to do the master reset and it went blank for awhile, the radio stopped and things went totally dead.  Big sync sign came on with system update written on it.  He then shoved in the nav. card and it took awhile for the nav. card to figure things out, then the Sirius radio started its demo mode.  Then he then went into the system to reset all his preferences as everything was erased such as preset radio stations, all the nav. favourites, home address etc.  He then paired the phones using Bluetooth to the system, he went in and started fiddling with all the setting i.e. system loudness, home address,and he started re-entering favourites.  Voice recognition is 75% improved other than using the command "navigation, destination, POI".  That seems a weak link.  However the command "navigation, destination, address" works flawlessly.  The detail and colour of the maps looks totally different for our maps.  I think our voice recognition is back!  We love that feature and it was buggered before the reset.  All is right with the world--so far.