Tailgate is NOT creaking...
 

...anymore. I found direction online to adjust the bottom car side hooks and moved them back slightly. This solved it.

Now I have a new issue:

When I open the tailgate with the rubber switch above the license plate it only opens about 18 inches and then stops. The setting in iDrive is for full open. If I use the button on the dash it usually will open all the way, but not 100% of the time.

This is annoying and now it is painful as I hit my head on the partially opened tailgate a few minutes ago. Ouch!

Can anyone tell me how to solve this partially opening tailgate issue?

Lower Tailgate too tight? How hard to you have to slam it to get it to latch now? I've been messing around with the lower latch and strikes and the upper latch stops trying to get mine to stop creaking without success..

Initially, I did have to slam it pretty hard. The maddening creaking went away so I was fine with it. Then the partial opening issue started.

How would the upper hatch know the bottom was tight such that it will only open the top hatch about 18 inches?

Not entirely sure, still 'figuring it out' in my case. My thought was if you pull the lower tailgate in more, and the upper stop adjustments don't change, does it put too much load/stress on the soft close mechanism and cause issues?

I honestly don't know the answers, just throwing it out there. I did notice once that I had closed the lower tailgate and pressed the power close button on the hatch and it didn't move. Had to open and re-close the tailgate, so there is some type of sensor in the closure of the lower tailgate that affects if the the power hatch operates or not..

I hear ya. It is frustrating trying to find the exact perfect spot to set the latches to that will stop the creaking and allow the upper hatch to function properly.