Team-BHP - Ford EcoSport S (1.0L EcoBoost) : Official Review

I recently purchased a pre owned, 12.5K kilometer run Ecosport S diesel. While I am impressed with most things, I am facing certain issues with a few aspects of the SYNC 3 system. Please state if you know any remedies.please:

Mobile Apps- I don't know why the apps on my Android phone never open or even appear in the app list when connected via bluetooth. My father was able to save the GLYMPSE app when he paired his phone using bluetooth. However, we still aren't able to even see many of the apps that are supposed to be compatible with SYNC 3, such as, SPOTIFY, WAZE, HUNGAMA Drive, Inshorts and Pparke. All I get on clicking on the mobile apps button is "No Apps found". I have enabled running applications via bluetooth through the settings.
Android Auto- Perhaps the most important app, i.e. Google Maps doesn't mirror on the screen. All I get is a black screen, with a exit button to come out of AA. The google maps does open on our mobile phones through AA, but somehow it does not replicate on the screen. Weirdly enough, the navigation works fine when I connect my dad's phone through AA and use the WAZE application.

I hope I am missing something, as I least expected the issues in SYNC 3, considering it's supposed to be best touchscreens at this price point.

Please note-

This is our first car with a touchscreen infotainment system.
Our mobile phone's are REDMI Note 5 Pro and 7 Pro (before you ask, yes these will be the last chinese phone's in the family!)
SYNC is in version 3. I had read on this thread that the latest version is SYNC 3.4.

@Mods reposting from Ecosport 1.5 litre thread, as I feel I can gain more information if I post on both threads. Request you to not delete either of the posts.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 07CR (Post 4829193)

Mobile Apps- I don't know why the apps on my Android phone never open or even appear in the app list when connected via bluetooth.

Me too haven't been able to get any android apps to work through SYNC3 over Bluetooth connection. It just searches for apps and displays the message 'no apps found'. Only the fordpass app could be found by it. That too the US version I had installed on my phone before ford released the Indian version of the app. I haven't bothered to check about the Indian version as there isn't any useful features available for BS4 EcoSport in the app(the connected car features are only available in the newer BS6 variants). As far as I know the compatible apps get only shown when the phone is connected via USB and is in Android Auto mode. I think its like this for everyone.

Quote:

Android Auto- Perhaps the most important app, i.e. Google Maps doesn't mirror on the screen. All I get is a black screen, with a exit button to come out of AA. The google maps does open on our mobile phones through AA, but somehow it does not replicate on the screen. Weirdly enough, the navigation works fine when I connect my dad's phone through AA and use the WAZE application.

This is a glitch I also have encountered on SYNC3. When I switch between the navigation apps, in my case between Gmaps and Waze, I would just get a black screen. This happens when you are using one app and switch to another while on the move. That is, if the currently used app is waze and you switch to Gmaps, you would get a black screen with the AA screen just hanging up.
The only work around I could find to get it to work was to change the default navigation app in the phone's android auto setting each time you switch. If you select Gmaps as the default app and reconnect your phone, then SYNC3 will start showing Gmaps on the screen. When you have to switch to waze, you would have to repeat these steps again. Try this once to check if it works for you.
Don't know if anybody else has faced it. It had been like this ever since I got the vehicle and even after some SYNC3 updates that the vehicle had recieved through the course of time.

Quote:

I hope I am missing something, as I least expected the issues in SYNC 3, considering it's supposed to be best touchscreens at this price point.[*]SYNC is in version 3. I had read on this thread that the latest version is SYNC 3.4.

The SYNC3 system is one among the best in terms of touch response and UI but it too has its share of bugs/glitches. I am also on version 3 and there hasn't been any official update to SYNC 3.4 in India for EcoSport.
Hope I helped.

Quote:

Originally Posted by 07CR (Post 4829193)

... I am facing certain issues with a few aspects of the SYNC 3 system. Please state if you know any remedies.please:

Mobile Apps- I don't know why the apps on my Android phone never open or even appear in the app list when connected via bluetooth. My father was able to save the GLYMPSE app when he paired his phone using bluetooth. However, we still aren't able to even see many of the apps that are supposed to be compatible with SYNC 3, such as, SPOTIFY, WAZE, HUNGAMA Drive, Inshorts and Pparke. All I get on clicking on the mobile apps button is "No Apps found". I have enabled running applications via bluetooth through the settings.
Android Auto- Perhaps the most important app, i.e. Google Maps doesn't mirror on the screen. All I get is a black screen, with a exit button to come out of AA. The google maps does open on our mobile phones through AA, but somehow it does not replicate on the screen. Weirdly enough, the navigation works fine when I connect my dad's phone through AA and use the WAZE application.

...

I've honestly not used the mobile apps as I always plug in the phone for Android Auto. On the facebook Ecosport owners group, I've seen people using Apps like the Alexa assistant that works with Sync 3.

Android Auto is sometimes buggy depending on the phone. Since both your phones are Redmi, suggest trying out another brand to see if it works. I've been using OnePlus and Samsung phones and both Google maps as well as Waze work well.

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Originally Posted by blueeyed (Post 4829887)

Quote:

Originally Posted by fiat_tarun (Post 4830433)

Android Auto is sometimes buggy depending on the phone. Since both your phones are Redmi, suggest trying out another brand to see if it works. I've been using OnePlus and Samsung phones and both Google maps as well as Waze work well.

Update - There are 6 apps listed on the FORD website that should be compatible with the Mobile Apps functionality of Applink.
These are- 1) GLYMPSE 2) Accuweather 3) Pparke 4) HungamaDrive 5) MapmyIndia Map 6) HearMeOut.

I have tried 1,3,4,5. Whenever I turn on the GLYMPSE app on my phone, and connect it using the bluetooth, this app is always visible in the mobile apps section.

For other apps, I observed there is some issue with the apps, rather than the SYNC, as these apps are really buggy and take a lot of time to load on our phones too. Apart from this, even spotify works through the bluetooth, but not through the applink of ford. In essence I just miss out on the SPOTIFY User Interface, and see the usual song/artist name and options to move/pause the song, as when I play music through a USB cable/ Google Play music/ any other music app on the SYNC 3. Not really a huge issue (not even a issue actually!)

On the AA and Google maps, the G Maps have started working fine as usual. Yet to identify the culprit, I believe its got to do with my phone as Fiat_Arun suggested.

I am not sure if someone has posted this, but I faced this issue today while using Android Auto. I was listening to music on Spotify, and I used steering mounted button to change track, but nothing happened. I switched to my phone's music app, and still it did not change track. I used voice commands to change track, and it changed it when I was on Spotify.

Then I turned off Android Auto and just connected my phone on bluetooth and played music on the same music player of my phone. This time I used change track button and it changed.

Is it an issue with AA or some issue with my SYNC 3.0?

Quote:

Originally Posted by 07CR (Post 4905188)

Is it an issue with AA or some issue with my SYNC 3.0?

Never faced any issue with my OnePlus 6 on the sync3. But I have read about this kind of issue on google support. You might need to manually update the Android Auto app on your phone and that might fix it. If the problem started only recently it might be an issue with the recent update of the app. Try reinstalling the app.

If the above solution doesn’t work, go to Android Auto app on your phone and forget all the previously connected devices. Connect the phone once again to the car and allow all access to everything it asks for. I hope this works.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ibanez_70 (Post 4905431)

Thanks for the suggestion. Reinstalled the app. It now works perfectly for Spotify and Amazon Music. But doesn't work for my default music app of my realme X3. I believe that's because the app is not visible on the Android Auto interface. Nevertheless I was planning to switch to Amazon Music permanently, so I am good with it.

Thanks again for the suggestion!:)

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Originally Posted by bwildrd#1 (Post 4929384)

Ford Ecosport's new YouTube Advertisement released after recent Crash Test results for other cars.. How one can take this Ad? Well planned Or Coincidence? Fact Or Misleading?

Although the cinematography is good, I am not convinced. Also calling other cars as tin-cans in a official Ad is not cool. They even showed a clip of the crash with the truck which according to me would've had the same result with any other decent car since the collision was not head-on and it collided with the least rigid portion of the truck, if it had collided with the chassis then the outcome would've been different. Ford's legal team has subtly added the disclaimer towards the end of the video which says that it's an owner's opinion. But the Ad makes it look like it's Ford's opinion. I would've been more convinced if the new India-spec EcoSport was crash tested and the results actually showed that it's better than competition. This Ad seems like a PR stunt planned right after the recent NCAP crash test report of the competition but I doubt it would make any significant impact to the sales.
P.S. I am a 2018 EcoSport owner.