Bluetooth phone pairing for a 2008 X5
 

BMW has a list of compatible bluetooth phones for Verizon Wireless and the other service providers. For Verizon, all of the phones are from Motorola, with the exception of two Blackberries, 7130e and 8703e. I really don't have a high opinion about the quaility of the Motorola phones. Has anyone had good luck pairing and integrating with iDrive other phones than these?

I iphone pairs perfectly and is a great phone. Sorry i did not realise you wanted something from Verizon. Iphone unlocked will work fine though.

My 14year-old paired both my Nokia and his Sony-Erikson with the E70 during the testdrive we did in a matters of minutes so I was pretty impressed.

Thanks, Beefy. I know it's a great phone, but unfortunately it's not available on Verizon.

Picked up my X5 a few weeks ago and the dealer told me that if I used a non-compatible phone (one not on the BMW approved list) that I could damage the whole communication system and that BMW would not replace it. Is this something that could actually happen by using a non-compatible phone? I have Sprint and apparently there is like one or twi phones that work correctly with the system. Sounds weird to me...

ANY Bluetooth compatible phone should work with your system to allow hands free calling. There are some compatibility issues with older phones that cause problems in loading your phone book correctly, but calling still works. There is no way that using a non-approved phone can damage your system (take it from an engineer who has designed these systems). There are just simply too many phones on the market for the folks at BMW to test every one. The list for Verizon is short because these are CDMA phones, while the rest of the world uses GSM.

I have a Verizon Blackberry 8130 World Edition and it works fine. The Address book is downloaded and I am able to make calls using voice recognition.

So, all recently released bluetooth phones should pair and load the phone book correctly?

I have a samsung i760 which paired and works great!

Yes. BT is a standard that is getting to be more mainstream, and less phone-specific. Any normal brand late-model BT phone should work.

Dave

I have Verizon's Motorola Z6 TV, it pairs very well !

Paired few different phones, All worked ok to pair and place, recieve calls. Not all gave full functionality. Most blackberries including 8800 and 8830 work fully, Also paired ATT's curve 8300 and that worked perfectly. Tried pairing Nokia E65 as well as some other older Nokia and didnt get the addressbook sync. I am told Nokia Luna should work, although havent had a chance to try it. Tried few samsungs and had the same problem with synchronizing addressbook. I hear most motorola phones work well with the addressbook, at this time no personal experience with those.

New E70 with Nokia 6110 navigator
 

I've just upgraded to a E70 3.0d and I'm having difficulty getting my Nokia 6110 navigator phone to upload the Address Book. Pairing worked eventually but the phonebook refuses to move.... any ideas??:rolleyes:

Yep, me too. Same phone; just picked up my X5 yesterday (Sunday), paired it with my phone in about a minute and all aspects work perfectly. As did Sirius and my iPOD. Damn, I'm going to get spoiled. 700 mile drive home; all is good; what a wonderful, serene cabin to eat up the miles in.

The phonebook may or may not download but you should certainly be able to use the phone hands free.

Tim

I have something that seriously is bothering me and that is same with variation of blackberry phones.
When I am on the phone and walk into the car the bluetooth in the car turns on few seconds after ignition is turned on, Phone connects with X5, the call is "transferred into the car", but nothing is heard in the car for next 10-20 seconds (the call is in limbo) I have to transfer call into the phone untill bluetooth in X5 is fully ready. In general it takes about as much time as it is to transfer the addressbook (I have 200+ entries on my blackberry)

Anyone experiencing same, or what do all of you experience when call gets tranferred into the car. How do all of you handle getting out of the car and keeping your conversations going, I do the switching manually before the car automatically releases the call.

Actually...
 

Any bluetooth phone should pair for voice. The issue with the phonebook pairing is basically this:

Bluetooth uses a protocol called OBject EXchange or OBEX to transfer data. Verizon in their greed to force people to buy games, ring tones and other junk disables OBEX on the majority of their phones so that their customers cannot connect their bluetooth phone to their computer and transfer data directly to it. That is why you will sometimes find a specific phone that is "approved" from say Sprint but will not work if it is from Verizon. OBEX is the protocol used to pair your phonebook to your car.

Whether the phone is CDMA (Sprint and Verizon) or GSM (Everyone else) doesn't have anything to do with whether or not it can integrate the phonebook.

The Verizon phones that work with the BMW (to include phonebook) are the ones that they cannot disable OBEX on. Those include certain blackberries and the Razor etc.

Any phone that has the full bluetooth protocol stack and does not have OBEX disabled should pair the phonebook to your BMW. On the plus side, because of issues such as this Verizon seems to be moving away from disabling OBEX on their phones. Just type like "verizon+model of phone+obex" into google and you should find out pretty quickly if it'll work.

Also, you cannot put an unlocked iPhone on Verizon or Sprint because it is a GSM phone which will not work on a CDMA (Sprint/Verizon) network.

Hope that helps.

MOTO Z6TV pairs wonderfully, no major issues so far. The minor problems I had were related to phone getting unpaired, for no reasons. Happened twice,not sure if this is MOTO or BMW bug.

My LG VX8700 pairs fully and well with the Bluetooth system. Phonebook is downloaded automatically as well.

Thanks, bimmerfan, for the explanation. I guess the phonebook on my Blackberry Pearl will not be showing up in my X5 since I believe OBEX is disabled on it.

Monty04, Blackberry Pearl (both Verizon and AT&T versions) are fully compatible with BMW bluetooth system, including address book download. I've used both, and they work fine.

For what it's worth, I've also paired a Samsung i760 and it was fully compatible.

Paired a samsung SGH F300, d600 as well as the Sony Ericsson k810 had full access to phone book etc whilst i had the car on demo.

Great news! Thanks, Texas5!

Samsung i760 issues with Phonebook
 

I have just purchased a Samsung i760 phone and have it paired with my 2005 X5. The issue I do have is that on the screen it says "downloading Phonebook!" It has been doing this for over an hour. The buttons on steering wheel do nothing. I can answer and hangup calls with the nav screen knob. Anyone have a solution for my problem????

Need Help!
Thanks in advance.
Zdigital1

I have the Verizon XV8600 (Sprint Mogul) and it pairs perfectly. The downloading phonebook took a good 5-10 minutes with 175 contacts and the bluetooth signal wasn't even maxed. I just waited it out hoping for the best. If it takes an hour, I'd re-start. My phone wasn't listed as fully compatible either.

Wife has Palm Treo 750 and had to update software to Windows Mobile 6 in order for bluetooth to operate properlyl.

Same phone on my end, but in the 650i, the phonebook doesn't always load. I guess it depends on what mood it's in. Other than that, the phone works well. The B/T module might be the same as a 08 E70........Phil

Just picked up my 08 X5 yesterday. I have the LG VX8700 from Verizon and it paired and downloaded the phone book (about 150 entries) in a minute or two. Work great and excellent overall quality.

Need help with Blackberry Pearl from Verizon. Initially I can pair the Pearl and the '07 X5. Everything works and phone book downloads. Problems are when I return to car they do not pair. Screen says looking for phone, and phone says connection failed. To re-pair I must delete phone from list on BMW and then begin process new. Everything now works until I leave the car and return, then nothing pairs again.


Is there a setting in the phone or in the BMW i need to change? or is this the issue with Verizon's software in the Pearl?

Help greatly appreciated! Currently I only use bluetooth in the X5 when I will be in the car for a long time because it takes a while to pair everyhting. Also My wifes Motorola works properly (pair it once and every time you return it connects automatically and downloads her phone book).

Thanks

I don't know the answer to your question, but I also have a Verizon Blackberry Pearl and it pairs seamlessly with my 2008 X5 every time I start the car. I never experienced any pairing failures like you have.

found a setting in the phone under:
Manage Connections>
Bluetooth options>
Paired device,BMW>menu>
Device properties>
Trusted: set to "Yes" was set to "no"

Now it connects every time. My phone book does not completely download, but I have 300 contacts with multiple numbers each, so thats OK.