Ya it's a huge thread, I've been dipping in and out occasionally to see if there was progress on the TFT or connected app. Thanks for the tip about overheating.This thread is far too large for you to have read much, but I have often stated that the Pixel is the ideal phone for this application. I also had that wireless charging add-on, and just want to warn you that if you ride in hot climate, you may want to think about a short USB cable for charging inside the cubby, because with the wireless charging, your phone will shut down from over heating when ambient temperature, as shown on your dash, is about 90°F. The immediate solution, if you run into that is to open the lid of the cubby before the ambient temperature has reached that point, and you will be good to go. Just make sure it's not raining hard!!!
You should look at what I had posted, post #1523 TFT and General stuff on the 21 including Sept/Dec 21... for reference.
TFT and General stuff on the latest TFT/App update
This will change as I and others learn about the new bike, so, if we put the pieces of knowledge in a common location we can all collectively become wiser.
What I know so far, the four buttons have permanently assigned functions.
Button Assignment
1 Pause or play music, when you stop the bike the music is paused. When you start it again, you have to navigate through the TFT to music to start again
or push button 1
2 Heated grips and seat, not played with this.
3 Change audio output, this will switch from Radio to music on bike with a radio, if you don't have a radio it will bring up the music screen so you can push
the wonder wheel to move to a different track.
4. Displays Map in full screen, don't really use this.
TFT
Its pretty straight forward to navigate down to menu's and left to right. When you have a sub menu, say music open and you push the menu button up to return to the main screen, pushing the down menu will return you to your last sub menu.
There is no temperature gauge on the TFT all you now get is a warning light if you are too hot, engine temperature is shown on the vehicle sub menu.
There is nothing to show the damping on the TFT, if you push the right button on the handlebar to change engine modes, dynamic will change the damping to dynamic, sometimes when I go over bumpy roads I want to change the damping to Road, this was easy on the older bikes and K16 as it was the first option on the menu button, but now I have to go through menu's to find the damping and change it, when I do change it there is nothing on the TFT to tell you what you have set it to, BTW there is only Road or Dynamic damping as on previous bikes.
When on the main screen pushing the wonder wheel right will open up the split screen and there are four displays for the split screen, trip 1 and trip 2 then map and music.
Pushing the menu button up shows user info e.g. fuel left, tyre pressure etc. You can choose from a list of options.
Music.
Its playing fine from my phone, but you have to remember to switch on your music app. I had a problem with my Sena SRL getting the volume high enough to hear it, I also have a Sena RC 3 remote on the handlebar to change volume, the wonder wheel does not do this. I contacted Sena and they said the wonder wheel is propriety to BMW and that's that. I know BMW said they made the API available, but who knows. Anyway, I think I have the volume fixed, when you have it all connected and working push the volume on you phone to max volume. I had to push the volume up button on my Galaxy S10 to do this.
Phone
I had an issue with making and receiving calls, as in, the phone connected, but no audio or mic. However, it worked yesterday, so a leprechaun must have fixed it when I wasn't looking.
Reference phones, we all now have a dilemma. We used to have dedicated Sat Nav's that could play music and could be locked into the bike when we had a lunch break, coffee etc. Now we have our mobile phone's locked in a cupboard. I like my phone on my person when I go for a coffee etc. Maybe phone my wife or check emails. Now, I have to remember to take the phone out of its hidey place. Yesterday when I went to the dealer he took the bike to check the TPMS and the phone went with him, so that was that, twiddle thumbs time.
So, I am contemplating getting a second phone for the bike, (bit of back to the future), since my phone is now my sat nav etc.it is essentially my old Nav Vi and I don't want to be putting in in and taking it out of its hidey hole all of the time, in addition, what happens if I drop it and break it.
Of course there is a benefit here, I will have two phones on my trips so if I break one, my backup will be in the cubby hole.
To be continued by me and I hope others.........................................................................
What I know so far, the four buttons have permanently assigned functions.
Button Assignment
1 Pause or play music, when you stop the bike the music is paused. When you start it again, you have to navigate through the TFT to music to start again
or push button 1
2 Heated grips and seat, not played with this.
3 Change audio output, this will switch from Radio to music on bike with a radio, if you don't have a radio it will bring up the music screen so you can push
the wonder wheel to move to a different track.
4. Displays Map in full screen, don't really use this.
TFT
Its pretty straight forward to navigate down to menu's and left to right. When you have a sub menu, say music open and you push the menu button up to return to the main screen, pushing the down menu will return you to your last sub menu.
There is no temperature gauge on the TFT all you now get is a warning light if you are too hot, engine temperature is shown on the vehicle sub menu.
There is nothing to show the damping on the TFT, if you push the right button on the handlebar to change engine modes, dynamic will change the damping to dynamic, sometimes when I go over bumpy roads I want to change the damping to Road, this was easy on the older bikes and K16 as it was the first option on the menu button, but now I have to go through menu's to find the damping and change it, when I do change it there is nothing on the TFT to tell you what you have set it to, BTW there is only Road or Dynamic damping as on previous bikes.
When on the main screen pushing the wonder wheel right will open up the split screen and there are four displays for the split screen, trip 1 and trip 2 then map and music.
Pushing the menu button up shows user info e.g. fuel left, tyre pressure etc. You can choose from a list of options.
Music.
Its playing fine from my phone, but you have to remember to switch on your music app. I had a problem with my Sena SRL getting the volume high enough to hear it, I also have a Sena RC 3 remote on the handlebar to change volume, the wonder wheel does not do this. I contacted Sena and they said the wonder wheel is propriety to BMW and that's that. I know BMW said they made the API available, but who knows. Anyway, I think I have the volume fixed, when you have it all connected and working push the volume on you phone to max volume. I had to push the volume up button on my Galaxy S10 to do this.
Phone
I had an issue with making and receiving calls, as in, the phone connected, but no audio or mic. However, it worked yesterday, so a leprechaun must have fixed it when I wasn't looking.
Reference phones, we all now have a dilemma. We used to have dedicated Sat Nav's that could play music and could be locked into the bike when we had a lunch break, coffee etc. Now we have our mobile phone's locked in a cupboard. I like my phone on my person when I go for a coffee etc. Maybe phone my wife or check emails. Now, I have to remember to take the phone out of its hidey place. Yesterday when I went to the dealer he took the bike to check the TPMS and the phone went with him, so that was that, twiddle thumbs time.
So, I am contemplating getting a second phone for the bike, (bit of back to the future), since my phone is now my sat nav etc.it is essentially my old Nav Vi and I don't want to be putting in in and taking it out of its hidey hole all of the time, in addition, what happens if I drop it and break it.
Of course there is a benefit here, I will have two phones on my trips so if I break one, my backup will be in the cubby hole.
To be continued by me and I hope others.........................................................................
1641 - 1660 of 1717 Posts
Anyone info or experience with tft update 013_013_020???
Hello,Guys here is my advice having put about 20k miles on TFT R1250 GS/A bikes (currently have a '21 GS).
It takes a while to get used to the TFT and at first I didn't really care for it. Go into your settings and only select the info that you absolutely need for the "menu up" display. I set mine to only show the fuel gauge and fuel range. This way I can easily see what's most important to me with only one button push. Switching to the bike computer display will give you all the other info if you need it.
For music I use an Iphone 11 Pro. I mount it on a ram ball in the middle of the handle bars. I use a wireless charging mount made for motorcycles. It works very well. The GS/A doesn't have the fancy wireless charging cubby so if you want to use your phone for audio and keep it charging it needs to be mounted.
It sounds like the RTs new TFT is essentially a bigger version of the GS/A TFT with map display ability and split screen ability. So on these early RTs without the stereo the music and phone implementation is the same as the smaller TFT. I have figured out a few things to make the music sound great with hearing protection all while being easy to use.
The Bluetooth on my GS works fine but but it doesn't get as loud or sound as good as a direct headset connection to my Iphone. I didn't want to give up the music display and wonder wheel control on my bike so I came up with a solution. I bought a USB BT adapter that I plug into the USB port on my bike. I then pair this USB BT adapter to the bike as "Rider's headset". The sole purpose of this is to trick the bike into thinking a headset is attached so the phone's music is displayed on the TFT and you can skip tracks. I then BT connect my headset directly to my Iphone. I can still hear the TFT navigation prompts when connected directly to the Iphone (this was a pleasant surprise).
When getting on the bike the BT adapter automatically powers on and connects to the bike as does my Iphone. I pull up Pandora and start my playlist. I have to hit the BT connection on the Pandora screen and tell it to connect to my headset instead of the bike's TFT. Not a big deal since my phone is mounted in front of me.
I gave up on trying to get decent sound from my Sena 10r headset. For me it's just impossible to get decent sound from helmet speakers and hear it at speed through earplugs. At highway speeds I would have to max out the volume. Not good for your ears or listening pleasure. So I started experimenting with BT wireless earbuds with active noise cancellation (ANC). I started with my wife's Airpod Pros but at speed they would make a fluttering sound which I assume was air getting through the earpiece seals.
I tried inexpensive headsets like the Tozo NC2s and NC9s and they worked great. However, I wanted the ability to disable the ANC if in heavy traffic or if at a gas station and somebody was trying to talk to me.
I finally tried the Jabra 85t earbuds which have highly customizable ANC that can all be controlled with the Jabra app on my phone. I can choose five levels on ANC, five levels of "hear through" or ANC off.
With ANC at the highest level I can be rolling at 80mph and still hear the music crystal clear at very low volume levels. I can crank the music up very loud if I want but that kind of defeats the purpose. I can also ride with no music and the ANC is still active and very good at muting road, wind and engine noise.
ANC is a game changer for me. Coming off a 400 mile ride the other day in heavy wind I felt good. Last hour of the ride was at 85 plus mph. Without ANC that ride would have left me feeling like I had been hit by a train.
I had assumed that I would not be able to talk on the phone using the 85t earbuds since the microphones are in the earbuds. To my surprise I was able to speak with my wife on the phone going 70mph on the highway. She said I sounded muffled but she could hear what I was saying. I could hear her perfectly.
Now back to the TFT. IMHO BMWs TFT setup is going to have limitations until they embrace Apple Carplay and Android Auto. But the TFT is certainly worth having if you like to listen to music on your bike. Plus it's not like you have a choice if you want a '21 RT.
If I was spending 25k plus on a new RT I would definitely want the stereo for the Sirius option alone. Without the Stereo I likely would mount my phone the same as I do on my GS and not use the phone cubby.
Assuming the stereo setup is similar to the '14 - '20 RTs I would wire in a line level audio adapter and use a separate BT transmitter so I could control the volume to my earbuds with the Wonderwheel. Same thing many of you are currently doing on RT your RT and GTs and which worked perfect on my '18 RT.
It would be nice if BMW embraces Apple Carplay when the new GS comes out in 2023 and new RT most likely in 2024 but I suspect they will stick with this TFT setup for many years to come. I'll continue giving BMW my business until somebody else can compete with the BMW boxer touring experience. Nothing else even comes close IMHO.
Can you tell me what type of USB BT you have? because I bought one and the bike doesn't " see" it . I plug it to USB on bike and nothing happens. Cheers
USB on these bikes is only for power.Hello,
Can you tell me what type of USB BT you have? because I bought one and the bike doesn't " see" it . I plug it to USB on bike and nothing happens. Cheers
I’ve have already posted some info regarding this update on the thread ‘TFT version of R1250RT’ - but basically in terms of functionality and features of the TFT, nothing different that I can see from version 013_012_050.Anyone info or experience with tft update 013_013_020???
Tried the bike at the weekend with the latest 4.3 App update. Now I have no voice instructions on my Galaxy S10. My Galaxy Z-Fold works. Others have said that BMW know about this and we are awaiting a bug fix due in April. In the two years I have had the bike this is the first time voice instructions have disappeared. It must have to do with splitting the voice/music channel into two and giving us two inputs instead of one, even their wording below is not acceptable, it basically says "Try the phone and if that don't work have a go a music" What they didn't say "If none of these works you are going to have to wait till we get feedback and develop a bug fix".
![Font Screenshot Software Technology Electronic device]()
Off to Scotland in 3 weeks, so my Z-Fold will hopefully live in my cockpit bag and do the business for me.
Off to Scotland in 3 weeks, so my Z-Fold will hopefully live in my cockpit bag and do the business for me.
Is is just me or does BMW not actually test anything before release to include the bike itself before release in 2021? The bike was finally enjoyable until this app version. In addition to no voice it also now drops off several times an hour and comes back in about 30 seconds. It even did something have never seen before too. The entire nav view (Main or off to the side) went black. A total black square, no letters or IDs. After about 10 minutes it came back. I have asked them to please enable a capability to roll back to the previous version in the future.
This always cracks me up, its the "What's New" bit. I think the last version was released in September 2022 so they had six months to find ways of breaking it.
Zero testing and zero information on what they have done.
My bike is getting a service next Tuesday, I asked the dealer what is it being updated to, his answer is "I don't know" BMW have my bike marked as "Update" and no one knows what that means.
![Font Screenshot Number Parallel Rectangle]()
Zero testing and zero information on what they have done.
My bike is getting a service next Tuesday, I asked the dealer what is it being updated to, his answer is "I don't know" BMW have my bike marked as "Update" and no one knows what that means.
It will probably be the 013_013_020 update which is being pushed out by BMW.My bike is getting a service next Tuesday, I asked the dealer what is it being updated to, his answer is "I don't know" BMW have my bike marked as "Update" and no one knows what that means.
They will know because along with having your bike down as requiring an update, there will be a short description to explain that it’s to correct the colour of a warning in the case of a suspension failure. My dealer read it off the screen to me when I asked what the required update was for.
This latest issue I submitted via the app issue report I even told them all I had done (reset connections, reinstalled app, etc.). I still got the scripted replies telling me to do what I had already done. Sent them a nasty reply and voiced my concerns with their lack of testing and responses. I even volunteered to be a beta tester in the future but don't expect any response as I did this over a year ago too and no answer.
Their first assumption always seems to be user error - rather than a fault with their work.
We are all Beta testers for BMW!
Except the software is already in the wild... we're Gamma testers for BMW. 
April comes early! I just downloaded 4.3.1 and my spoken instructions are back.
The 4.3.1 update is also now available for iOS.
As spoken instruction never disappeared on the iPhone, I wonder if there is anything new in this update at all other than to keep the release version number the same across the platforms.
Release notes state the usual “This update contains stability improvements and bug fixes”.
As spoken instruction never disappeared on the iPhone, I wonder if there is anything new in this update at all other than to keep the release version number the same across the platforms.
Release notes state the usual “This update contains stability improvements and bug fixes”.
4.3.1 seems quite allright now. I have tested it in the garage, all functions and sounds work now.
Just got update 013_013_020. App version 4.3.1 fixed my issues too.
Here is what dealer gave me with update.
Here is what dealer gave me with update.
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Huh, I dont see this yet on my iphone, or in a forced update of apps in the app store...yet
I had to go to App Store to get the update...Huh, I dont see this yet on my iphone, or in a forced update of apps in the app store...yet
1641 - 1660 of 1717 Posts
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