# Head Unit Firmware Updates?



## utsava (Jun 5, 2002)

Anyone know how/if VW ever updates the firmware for their head units? I've experienced some bugs in the handoff of audio between the head unit and my iPhone in CarPlay, that I'm pretty sure are head unit related and not iOS related. In particular, going into reverse (which will typically duck the audio) while CarPlay is still connecting itself, will oftentimes result in no audio from any iPhone source. When you go to adjust the volume, the volume slider will be gone - it does not go up or down. 

Anyone know how often VW updates the firmware to address things like this? Just curious of past experience to know if I should hold out hope or if they basically ship it and forget it.


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## stevehayes01 (Aug 5, 2005)

utsava said:


> Anyone know how/if VW ever updates the firmware for their head units? I've experienced some bugs in the handoff of audio between the head unit and my iPhone in CarPlay, that I'm pretty sure are head unit related and not iOS related. In particular, going into reverse (which will typically duck the audio) while CarPlay is still connecting itself, will oftentimes result in no audio from any iPhone source. When you go to adjust the volume, the volume slider will be gone - it does not go up or down.
> 
> Anyone know how often VW updates the firmware to address things like this? Just curious of past experience to know if I should hold out hope or if they basically ship it and forget it.


From my understanding it is dealer only so far.... I have not seen any link to pull updates yourself. If you find one please post the link.


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## utsava (Jun 5, 2002)

stevehayes01 said:


> From my understanding it is dealer only so far.... I have not seen any link to pull updates yourself. If you find one please post the link.


That's what I thought too, but even at that, how often does VW actually update the firmware on their head units after they are in production.


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## stevehayes01 (Aug 5, 2005)

utsava said:


> That's what I thought too, but even at that, how often does VW actually update the firmware on their head units after they are in production.



My 2012 Beetle has had 1 or 2 in 4 years.


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## juched (Nov 12, 2004)

I thought I saw in the manual to check out www.volkswagen.com for updates on the Atlas "Composition Media", but I don't see anything useful on that site.


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## knedrgr (Jun 6, 2011)

stevehayes01 said:


> My 2012 Beetle has had 1 or 2 in 4 years.


Did they send you a letter to notify of your update?


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## knedrgr (Jun 6, 2011)

My only issue right now is the interface of Amazon Music in the car (Apple Carplay). It won't show the correct songs that were just recently played, which doesn't match up to what's on the phone.


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## nkresho (Aug 8, 2010)

I've had a couple glitchy starts with android auto where the screen freezes without audio or the volume knob (and steering wheel) do not change the volume.

An upgrade would be nice, or even a tesla-style OTA or WIFI auto update would be cool.

Regardless, i have found that a hard reset of the radio fixes it every time. Just hold the power button in until you see the VW logo. It'll restart and fix the freeze.

Incidentally, my gti has done the same thing from time to time (with android auto). MQB as well, but has the smaller composition radio.


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## utsava (Jun 5, 2002)

knedrgr said:


> My only issue right now is the interface of Amazon Music in the car (Apple Carplay). It won't show the correct songs that were just recently played, which doesn't match up to what's on the phone.


Spotify is a hot mess in CarPlay. So much so, that I'll probably be switching to Apple Music because of it now that I have a car with CarPlay. I'm pretty sure it's all app/iOS related, and it's been going on for years at this point. Freezes, song library wont populate, play button does nothing, songs play at double speed... it's terrible.


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## stevehayes01 (Aug 5, 2005)

No they told me when I went in for oil changes


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## kamouche (Sep 22, 2017)

stevehayes01 said:


> No they told me when I went in for oil changes


 I have been experieneing some glitchiness with the infotainment system in my SEL Premium and I do think these bugs can be attributed to firmware issues.


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## is95a (Jul 6, 2017)

First software glitch in almost 5 months yesterday. Shortly after starting the car and the infotainment system going through its start-up routine, it continued to reset probably 4-5 times over the course of the next 5 minutes until we reached our destination and turned off the vehicle. Once we restarted, everything was fine and has not been replicated. The only thing we think we did different this time is that my wife plugged in her iPhone as it was starting up. Normally she waits until everything has powered up and we get the normal infotainment screen before she plugs it in.


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## kamouche (Sep 22, 2017)

The issue that I get is sometimes the Audio will automatically mute itself while I am switching between Pandora and some other streaming service. It happened a couple of times since i've gotten the car 2 weeks ago. Normally, if I switch it to Radio and go back to Media, it fixes it.


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## utsava (Jun 5, 2002)

is95a said:


> First software glitch in almost 5 months yesterday. Shortly after starting the car and the infotainment system going through its start-up routine, it continued to reset probably 4-5 times over the course of the next 5 minutes until we reached our destination and turned off the vehicle. Once we restarted, everything was fine and has not been replicated. The only thing we think we did different this time is that my wife plugged in her iPhone as it was starting up. Normally she waits until everything has powered up and we get the normal infotainment screen before she plugs it in.


I've noticed that most of the seemingly firmware related issues I've encountered are similar corner cases like this. Basically do anything simultaneously and see what happens. Try connecting your phone and then quickly putting the car in reverse (bringing up the rear camera), that's another one that will sometimes break things. Unfortunately, it seems like the infotainment validation team didn't spend enough time recreating corner cases like this during testing. 



kamouche said:


> The issue that I get is sometimes the Audio will automatically mute itself while I am switching between Pandora and some other streaming service. It happened a couple of times since i've gotten the car 2 weeks ago. Normally, if I switch it to Radio and go back to Media, it fixes it.


I've encountered similar issues and came up with the same workaround. Switching the audio source always seems to bring it back into alignment. 

These seems like pretty straightforward bugs. Does anyone know the most productive way to get these sort of issues reported to the VW infotainment firmware team?


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## Daekwan (Nov 5, 2017)

Not sure if upgrade is available but here is my current software version:


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## utsava (Jun 5, 2002)

Bump. Any info on this?


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