rnem_uk Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 I called Ford customer service today to ask about Sync updates. In the US, you can download them and install them yourself. The UK site just says "soon you will be able to....". My father-in-law has a 63 plate and this version is two later than my 13 plate. Has anyone request an update via their dealer. I read somewhere that they will charge £80 for it - which I can't believe.. It should be free. Has anyone had any experience of requesting it? I complained to them that there is no Europe equivalent of a customer support forum, so there is no way for the masses to complain about the horrendous design. I asked why there are two info buttons for example. I also asked for someone to define the word 'soon'. As to me, 7 month is not 'soon' in my book. Rant over.... btw, I did find a great site called syncsucks.com. It seems the US don't like some bits either. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artscot79 Posted November 6, 2013 Share Posted November 6, 2013 the sync has been a bit of a fail for ford the updates should be free as its a update to fix software bugs microsoft designed it to fords specs and the system clearly wasnt tested as well as ford claim but a neighbour has the same issue and was told by the dealer thay dont know when the update will be available they would enquire and call her back they never did she really doesnt like the system and its glitches ive tried it myself and was unimpressed radio 1 was radio 4 etc etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnem_uk Posted November 7, 2013 Author Share Posted November 7, 2013 the sync has been a bit of a fail for ford the updates should be free as its a update to fix software bugs microsoft designed it to fords specs and the system clearly wasnt tested as well as ford claim but a neighbour has the same issue and was told by the dealer thay dont know when the update will be available they would enquire and call her back they never did she really doesnt like the system and its glitches ive tried it myself and was unimpressed radio 1 was radio 4 etc etc I think you need to get a new keyboard. It's faulty. Several keys aren't working. Does Sync operate the radio? It doesn't in mine. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artscot79 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 yes activates radio you say ford radio 1 and it does it for you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuke Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Hi, firstly microsoft are not responsible for the voice recognition, this is software designed by Dragon who produce the voice recognition software for the PC, and it works well there. However it is to Ford specification thus I doubt if MS are to blame for anything. Secondly, I frequent a focus forum that is for the US built version and from what I am reading any issues with the sync system, and it is a different one, have been largely sorted out and the majority of owners are happy with it. Far more cars are sold in the US too. Although now in the US any update can be performed by USB, on request, this wasn't the case in the begining, thus I expect this to be the same here. But where you get £80 from I don't know and I think you are confusing a ecu update, which can take more than an hour. A sync update is unlikely to take this long. Probably Ford are holding back so that they can produce an update that will fix all reported issues not one that fixes a couple. Obviously this takes longer... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artscot79 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Ford SYNC is a factory-installed, integrated in-vehicle communications and entertainment system that allows users to make hands-free telephone calls, control music and perform other functions with the use of voice commands.[1][2] The system consists of applications and user interfaces developed by Ford and other third-party developers, and runs on the Windows Embedded Automotive operating system designed by Microsoft.[3 SYNC's Microsoft Windows Auto-based operating system can be updated to work with new personal electronic devices. A Cambridge Silicon Radio (CSR) BlueCore4 chip provides Bluetooth connectivity with compatible phones and devices. SYNC's major circuit board chips cost roughly US$27.80, which allows Ford to profitably sell the system at a much lower price than competitive offerings the platform is microsoft who have admitted that the sync issues are needing fixed but they built it to fords specs so arent taking the blame for it also it should be noted ford are facing court action in the u.s over there massive complaints of sync systems at present ford want the bugs fixed whicjh means its an argument between microsoft and whoever makes other bits of such as the voice recognition as to whos to blame ford have admitted for 2014-2015 they may go to microsoft windows 8 in car platform and bring back simple to use buttons rather than on screen buttons etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
cuke Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 Hi, so you basically agree with me??? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artscot79 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 pretty much its a shame ford didnt sort it out before release as its a good system but having so many involved in it and all debating whos fault it is something doesnt work is pretty silly on fords part i think they are looking at apples system and microsofts windows 8 as the next platform all i will say is my neighbours isnt fixed and the dealer is in the dark as to when they can get the update for it so at the moment a lot of voice commands dont do what they are supposed to the only problem i had with it was when youre driving if the voice commands dont work it isnt easy to get what you want it has the potential to be the best system on the market Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnem_uk Posted November 7, 2013 Author Share Posted November 7, 2013 pretty much its a shame ford didnt sort it out before release as its a good system but having so many involved in it and all debating whos fault it is something doesnt work is pretty silly on fords part i think they are looking at apples system and microsofts windows 8 as the next platfo...breathe...I found a cost mentioned here (Although that's from 2011, so it may not he the same system) http://fordsyncforum.com/topic/1652-sync-firmware-upgrade-in-europe/ I've tried saying "Radio" to mine and nothing happens. The manual also says nothing about the ability to control it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
artscot79 Posted November 7, 2013 Share Posted November 7, 2013 If what you say is true its disgusting ford are asking people to pay to fix poor system flaws the neighbours has voice control not sure if all new focis have it or just certain trims i know a courtesy car i had had it with the parking sensors etc Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnem_uk Posted November 8, 2013 Author Share Posted November 8, 2013 My dealer has said that there are no updates. That seems very very strange, since I have two identical cars with different versions.. I get the impression I'm being fobbed off. Time to call CS again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevbell Posted July 21, 2015 Share Posted July 21, 2015 I notice the last post on this was back in 2013. It looks like Ford have got away with mis-selling - I'm amazed they have got away with it. A couple of years have gone by and there are still no downloadable updates. I called Ford customer services and went round in circles talking to them. They couldn't even tell me the latest version number for a basic sync system (as fitted to my 13 plate Focus). They avoided answering why the Ford website has said that downloadable updates will be available "soon" for over 3 years! All I got was "contact a Ford dealer" which I have done and got nowhere. Is there is anyone who has any ideas about lobbying Ford to get some action on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobGates Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 I have tried several garages and contacting Ford directly themselves with no joy as I am pretty disappointed by my Synch and the Navigation system within my new Focus as it has a few niggles, like maps woefully out of date and the sync showing wrong temp or getting stuck at the first temp in the morning. I have had it in for half a day only to be told no updates ! I have found the Ford Etis page though and it list several software updates for my car for my BCM and PCM (body and Power control Module) http://www.etis.ford.com/home.do But not sure if I should be pushing ford for the updates, spent 30 + years in IT so know my way round servers and updating firmware better than I do round car mechanics We seem second class citizens to our friends across the water as they also have sites like syncmyford etc. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevbell Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 Rob, I have looked at the FordEtis website and noticed several available updates as well as one for Sync for my Titanium Focus 1.6 diesel. Unfortunately I've not yet managed to download the Sync update - I'm not sure but the download may be blocked because I'm not an accredited Etis Independent. I have emailed their customer services but have received a reply yet. I have installed the latest version of Java but still no luck with downloading. If you manage to download an update please would post something here about how to achieve this. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobGates Posted July 23, 2015 Share Posted July 23, 2015 I dont think we can i think its down to the local garage to do. But i would love to be corrected, mabye someone more knowledgable might pop in and explain how we could go and get the updates. I am lucky my Focus is only 3 months old so I guess I can take it straight to a ford dealer and get it done under warranty, I have even tried registering on the American site. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevbell Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Rob, I would be very interested in how you get on with free updates at your local dealer. I asked about Sync updates while mine was still in the warranty period and was told to contact Ford (who in turn referred me to the dealer!). Re the FordEtis website: Some of the downloads are free and from what I can make out you don't need to have an account with them for the free downloads. I managed to download some files but something is going wrong when I try the download the Sync update. It would be great if I could hear from someone else on here who has made a successful download. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobGates Posted July 25, 2015 Share Posted July 25, 2015 Hopefully get a reply from the dealer on Monday so I will let you know Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
rnem_uk Posted July 25, 2015 Author Share Posted July 25, 2015 I wouldn't hold out too much hope. The last time they updated my car the broke my ability to change the colour of the ambient lighting. When I complained, their attitude was that I must have imagined having it. When I complained to Ford customer service, they said the same. I've also complained that the cruise speed is always displayed in mph even when the car is set to metric for odometer and fuel consumption. They have the fix for that stateside. .. also the Sony radio doesn't display track info via bluetooth but on my inlaws Fiesta it does. ... and whoever designed the UK needs shooting. Why do you need two info buttons when playing from USB, but one when playing a CD. Why can't we have a button for shuffle instead of the duplicate info button. Dumb. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevbell Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 I have found out a little bit more about the FordEtis website regarding downloading updates for Sync. I should have realised that FordEtis is a service set up for dealers and is not for owner's use - there are heavy charges for most of the services and a strict accreditation process to go through. So it looks like there will never be free downloads available to Ford owners for the early Sync systems (I'm talking about a late 13 plate Titanium Focus). Why have Ford been able to get away with advertising free updates when they sold cars with Sync and then announce it is old superseded technology and there are no free updates to give us the 'evolving technology' and additional features they promised? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobGates Posted July 27, 2015 Share Posted July 27, 2015 Kev, Still waiting for my contact to come back to me but i agree its not a very good service. Try sending Ford Uk a private message over facebook if you have it as they seem to respond that way. My little niggles aint that bad as the car is only 3 months old i reckon i can press them under the 3 year warrenty otherwise i will be kicking up a stink and seeing what i can get done. Mine are just niggles like sync showing the wrong temperature some times ie saturday it was showing 12 degress until 17:00 at night and the navigation system has real old maps and says go one way and points the other ! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_60 Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 All ford uk on fb will say is "Please contact your local dealer for service and support" Nice cars shame about the people that run ford Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JW1982 Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Updating the APIM (SYNC) module on the Focus MK3 is pretty risky. There are several kown cases where the update procedure resulted in a bricked module. This is possibly one of the reasons that Ford dealers do not want to update the APIM module. When I bought my car last year the APIM module was set to German. It was possible to change the language to English and some other languages but not to Dutch like I wanted. To change the language to Dutch the APIM module had to be reconfigured completely using the correct language pack which supports Dutch (there are a few different language packs containing different languages). Last year Ford released a TSB about this procedure. When the dealer performed this procedure the APIM module was bricked. The module became unconfigured and it was not possible to configure it correctly again. The mechanic told me this happenned several times before. At the end the dealer installed a brand new SYNC with APPlink module and configured it correctly for my car. Until now I did not have any problems with the SYNC system so for me there is no need to update the APIM module. However it would be nice to have the possibility to update the module by using a USB thumb drive (like the Ford Audio Update on the old Bluetooth/Voicecontrol system). I did some research recently and the USA SYNC (not the My Ford Touch) module looks identical to the European SYNC 1.0/1.1 system but is in fact different. The USA module has 2 USB ports which are both active. If connected the 2nd USB port can be selected by voice commands (USB 2). The European module does also have 2 USB ports but the 2nd USB port is not active. The port is powered (so it can be used to charge something) but it does detect a USB source. I suspect the 2nd USB port and probably also the firmware update function to be deactivated in the European firmware. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kevbell Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 All ford uk on fb will say is "Please contact your local dealer for service and support" Nice cars shame about the people that run ford Jamie That's about what I would expect from any source of Ford customer services. I've had the same response when calling them. They tell you to contact your local dealer who in turn tell you to contact Ford Customer Services! 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
james_60 Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 I know this is a seperate issue but i asked ford why its taking 5 months to order-build-deliver a focus st3 and all the customer services agent said was wht i quoted above, The ford dealer knew Nothing as well. he showed me the sheets telling him how long it would take but not why We get an unfair deal in the uk. They run on this basis - see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil Jamie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alexp999 Posted July 28, 2015 Share Posted July 28, 2015 Supply and demand is the reason for the delays on the ST. They have struggled with the Style pack wheels, and I know they have struggled on components needed for the ST3, all leather interior I think was one... I ordered 22nd June and currently have an unspecified September build... With regards CRC, they are a powerless waste of space. If you want action, you have to go through head office. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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