Empty! Tighten up the valve cores. Put a vacuum on it. Charge it up!

I'll check that when she gets back home later today. I wasn't using INPA to activate the clutch when checking so I only had a static pressure.

checked pressures just now. 88 ambient temp. 82psi on high and low. Activating the compressor does not change at all. Normally I would go with bad compressor, but the system is not activating without inpa either, so I wonder if I have 2 problems at the same time. But manually activating it should have pulled the low and raised the high even if everything else is out of the picture.

Make sure your gauges are properly attached and reading correctly. What happened to the 40 PSI ??

I must have been wrong. I was going from memory and admittedly I have memory problems, so I started fresh and took photos this time.
Gauges have worked fine on other vehicles. I even burped both lines and only opened them one at a time to make sure I was not cross reading.

I have completely rebuilt AC systems on my other vehicles, so I have some experience.

What were the gauges reading before you turned the valves down ?? It sounds to me an awful like you are not reading the actual pressure in the lines and the system is actually too low to let the compressor activate.

Zero.

then after opening the low side and the low gauge went to 83, I vented it back down to zero and did the same to the high. Then treated them like normal and opened the quick disconnects and read both sides at the same time. Then used INPA to activate the compressor with no change to high or low. No bottle attached at the time.
I do appreciate the help, but I have been working on AC units in cars for 30+ years. Just not the BMW systems. Normally I would have just jumped the pressure switch and looked at my levels.

Then you are right and you have 2 or more problems, one of them likely a compressor stuck on zero volume which some people have been able to unstick, at least temporarily, by revving the engine.

And any clue on the non engagement of the compressor?

As already suggested, aux fan not working could be another issue.