# Rant: MyLink Needs Serious Improvement



## PanJet (Jun 18, 2013)

Perhaps a lot of this stuff has been said on here before (I know I've said some in bits and pieces in other threads), but having had both the basic radio system in a 2011 Cruze and now having the MyLink in my new 2014 CTD, I have to say, as much as I love the new CTD, the MyLink system leaves a lot to be desired, and it seems the more I use it the more I become frustrated with it. I would highly suggest GM look into making this system much more efficient. It's not as if there is any one thing about it that is bad, it is just a conglomerate of issues and small annoyances that make it frustrating. Here's my list of complaints about MyLink so far:

1) Does not play nice with some phones - On my 2011 with the base system, I had zero issues with the Bluetooth system working with any phone. I used at least three different kinds of phone on it (two different basic phones from two different companies, LG and Samsung) as well as an iPhone with no issues. All phone connected and worked as they should. The MyLink system in my car for some reason refused to play nice with my wife's basic phone. We were contemplating replacing her phone anyway, so rather than fuss with GM we just replaced her phone. The issue was that it would work fine with her phone except when trying to make or receive a call specifically from me. After making a call to me, it would completely lock up her phone. For an inbound call, she would get the call, but audio would never go through.

2) Bluetooth pass-through leaves a lot to be desired - Again, comparing to my former 2011 base system, the Bluetooth on the 2011 was much better. For example, it would pass through voice commands from Google Maps on my iPhone which was quite handy because I used my iPhone as my GPS. The MyLink system will not pass through those commands, which honestly wouldn't' be a big issue _except_ that because my phone is connected to the car's Bluetooth, the phone doesn't play them either. My only option is to watch the phone religiously when in an unknown area (not good in traffic) or plan ahead and disconnect the Bluetooth before using nav on my phone, which then of course disables hands-free phone until I reconnect the Bluetooth.

3) Voice activation through Bluetooth requires the radio to be on - Once again, on my basic 2011 system, I could activate the voice command system by pressing the button on the steering wheel at any time to make a call through my phone. If I try to do that on the MyLink system when the radio is turned off, I get a fun message from the system telling me voice activation is unavailable with the radio turned off and that I must turn on the radio first to use voice activation. To me this is just ridiculous. Rather than take the time to program in that message, couldn't they have simply made the system work without the radio on? It couldn't be that hard; after all, the Bluetooth works fine without the radio on, but not voice activation? Why?

4) iPod indexing sucks - Every time I try to use my iPod it goes through about a 5-10 minute indexing process where it automatically starts playing the first song on the iPod while it is indexing, and I have no option to select my music until the indexing is finished. It does this _every_ time I restart the system, even just shutting off the car for a while with the iPod still plugged in. Essentially my iPod is useless in the car except for longer trips. I've read others have had the same issue in the past, and the only solution I've found is to put my music on a flash drive and use that instead. Again, this is ridiculous. My 2011 base system did not have this issue at all. It worked nearly flawlessly with the iPod except for the occasional random disconnect.

5) Random freeze-up issues - While minor, occasionally the MyLink system will freeze for a few seconds even for doing something as simple as changing the volume. The music will continue to play, but the display won't change (e.g. time progression on songs is static for a few seconds) and nothing happens for a few seconds when you push buttons/turn nobs for a few seconds. This hasn't happened a lot, but it shouldn't really happen at all.

GM, please take note on these issues. MyLink _could_ be a very useful system, but it needs a lot of refinement and improvement. It seems a bit ridiculous that the base system functions better than your signature media system with some of these simple features.

Okay, rant off (for now).


----------



## BowtieGuy (Jan 4, 2013)

+1 on google maps directions not passing through bluetooth. That part is really annoying. It can do it with the onstar turn by turn, but not my phone through bluetooth? Wut??


----------



## Schnurd (Nov 2, 2013)

I'm also very annoyed with the indexing...especially since I have thousands of songs and it's already difficult enough to try and find a specific artist without using the voice command

Sent from AutoGuide.com Free App


----------



## McNeo (Dec 17, 2013)

When I plugged my Android phone in to the USB the first time it indexed all the Google Maps GPS sounds, all I heard was non-stop "the next left" "turn left" "the next right" "turn right" "in 1/4 mile" "in 1/2 mile" "in 3/4 mile"... Once I loaded up a music app on the phone it worked, for a while, before reverting back to the indexed GPS sounds.

I've also been having weird issues with the Pandora app on the car not talking to the Pandora pap on my phone. Getting network errors, disconnects, and things like that on the car app, even though the phone app works perfectly. I'm working with Pandora support and if I get a working resolution I can post the results of that.


----------



## zerogravity (Jul 21, 2013)

I think the MyLink should duplicate the phone screen.
But if it did...... we would not have to poor money into a factory Navigation system. Could you imagine Google maps ( free constsnt updates ) displayed on your screen? 

Where are all our software guru's? ????? Someone out there can figure it out. .... All we need is an app that we could load our current phone's drivers onto to duplicate the image.


----------



## McNeo (Dec 17, 2013)

zerogravity said:


> I think the MyLink should duplicate the phone screen.
> But if it did...... we would not have to poor money into a factory Navigation system. Could you imagine Google maps ( free constsnt updates ) displayed on your screen?
> 
> Where are all our software guru's? ????? Someone out there can figure it out. .... All we need is an app that we could load our current phone's drivers onto to duplicate the image.


Exactly. I almost passed on the MyLink screen to simply mount a 7" Android tablet on the base dash.


----------



## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

On the Pioneer App radio it ran like MyLink 2.0 where it used your phones navigation so you just paid for the app and car integration feature.

Pandora didn't work for me till i started it from my phone.


----------



## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

why would they want you to use google maps for free when they want to sell you OnStar?


----------



## boraz (Aug 29, 2013)

but yeah, if i choose to play something off my iphone, when it gets to the end of that folder (last song on that album) it freezes, you gotta scroll thru radio, xm and back to usb then i can choose new folder, ive learned to leave REPEAT on to solve that for music, but if listening to podcast from iphone, freezes at the end as well

my iphone will index for 2 mins tops, probably more like 40 secs....my usb stick is way quick, wish it had 2 usbs so i could leave it plugged in


----------



## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

My issue was some songs didn't register to MyLink so they get skipped.


Sent from AutoGuide.com App


----------



## McNeo (Dec 17, 2013)

How often (if at all) does Chevy update this software? Is it something we're made aware of? Do they do it OTA or is it a stealership visit?


----------



## Sunline Fan (Jul 29, 2012)

And y'all thought I was crazy for sticking with 2012 instead of ordering a new 2013...


----------



## PanJet (Jun 18, 2013)

McNeo said:


> How often (if at all) does Chevy update this software? Is it something we're made aware of? Do they do it OTA or is it a stealership visit?


I'm not sure how often, but they have the ability to do it via OnStar. On my '11, they issued an update for the basic system and even for those of us not subscribing to OnStar they gave us a free month of it just to make sure the update got downloaded. It only happened once though.

I think if we pushed enough we might get some fixes.

I for one would _love_ a pass-through where I could see my Google Maps or other apps from my phone on my dash monitor. Now _that_ would be progressive technology for a auto manufacturer. 

Better yet, auto manufacturers should quit trying to make computers and focus on making the cars work better. Let Google, Apple, Microsoft (okay, maybe not that last one) take care of the computers.


----------



## BowtieGuy (Jan 4, 2013)

Sunline Fan said:


> And y'all thought I was crazy for sticking with 2012 instead of ordering a new 2013...


Don't get me wrong, I like the color touch screen a lot better than the ancient looking blue-green pixelated one that does almost nothing. My only complaint about 2013 vs 2012s are that Autumn Metallic was discontinued for 2013.


----------



## zerogravity (Jul 21, 2013)

BowtieGuy said:


> Don't get me wrong, I like the color touch screen a lot better than the ancient looking blue-green pixelated one that does almost nothing. My only complaint about 2013 vs 2012s are that Autumn Metallic was discontinued for 2013.


Autumn Red Metallic was discontinued after the 13 model year. I almost bought one a few months ago. Love thst color. Unfortunately it was not available in '14 when I ordered mine.

When I had the Sonic I loved the BrinGo Navi app. I assumed that was going to be the future of navigation for auto's. The best 50 dollar app out there. Yes a bit pricy but cheaper than Onstar turn by turn and 650 bucks cheaper than a current factory nav system. 
The app or OnStar were your only choices for navi in the Sonic and the Spark. I would give up the current MyLink for the Sonics or Sparks any day.
Cheaper cars but better MyLink in my opinion.


----------



## zerogravity (Jul 21, 2013)

Further more I would like to see GM bring back SOM.... Sunset Orange Metallic. 
Totally off topic....


----------



## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

PanJet said:


> Perhaps a lot of this stuff has been said on here before (I know I've said some in bits and pieces in other threads), but having had both the basic radio system in a 2011 Cruze and now having the MyLink in my new 2014 CTD, I have to say, as much as I love the new CTD, the MyLink system leaves a lot to be desired, and it seems the more I use it the more I become frustrated with it. I would highly suggest GM look into making this system much more efficient. It's not as if there is any one thing about it that is bad, it is just a conglomerate of issues and small annoyances that make it frustrating. Here's my list of complaints about MyLink so far:
> 
> 1) Does not play nice with some phones - On my 2011 with the base system, I had zero issues with the Bluetooth system working with any phone. I used at least three different kinds of phone on it (two different basic phones from two different companies, LG and Samsung) as well as an iPhone with no issues. All phone connected and worked as they should. The MyLink system in my car for some reason refused to play nice with my wife's basic phone. We were contemplating replacing her phone anyway, so rather than fuss with GM we just replaced her phone. The issue was that it would work fine with her phone except when trying to make or receive a call specifically from me. After making a call to me, it would completely lock up her phone. For an inbound call, she would get the call, but audio would never go through.
> 
> ...


As for #3 in my 2013 ECO MyLink non navi non upgraded I have my radio off at work because the sound deadening is crap a outside the car after you reach 12 volume at night. I forgot to turn the radio on in the am but still got incoming calls. I will have to try again for making outgoing calls from the steering wheel. From the phone, they originate from the phone but car will take over by the time the person picks up. 


Sent from AutoGuide.com App


----------



## PanJet (Jun 18, 2013)

Merc6 said:


> As for #3 in my 2013 ECO MyLink non navi non upgraded I have my radio off at work because the sound deadening is crap a outside the car after you reach 12 volume at night. I forgot to turn the radio on in the am but still got incoming calls. I will have to try again for making outgoing calls from the steering wheel. From the phone, they originate from the phone but car will take over by the time the person picks up.


Incoming calls and calls initiated on the phone itself work just fine over the Bluetooth for me regardless if the radio is on or not; the problem is using the voice activation (e.g. pressing the steering wheel button) to make a call when the radio is off. Every time I have tried I get a voice message telling me I must turn on the radio before using voice activation. Clearly it is not a malfunction, rather, it was programmed that way.


----------



## TheDog (Mar 27, 2014)

Hi PanJet

This is a very old thread but I wanted to give you one workaround. While your iPhone is indexing (or at any time) you can open the music app on the phone and start whatever song or album or whatever playing and it should play through your Cruze. Obviously while driving this is not a good idea but it is easy to do it right after starting the car while in parking spot.


----------



## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

Guess I'll try that later. Kill apps in the background and if pandora opens on the phone but not radio yank the lightning out then stick it back in. This should get it to work usually in my case. With 7hr drives cross country I like as many music options as I can get. 

I couldn't tell you about stitcher as I had the app less than 2 minutes. Still get emails about new channels all the time tho. 

Sent from my iFail 5s


----------



## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

Yep, she told me to turn the radio on for this to work. I'm also convinced the voice is different for non MyLink radios. 


Sent from my iFail 5s


----------



## Expat1983 (Jun 8, 2013)

I am getting my 2013 Cruze reflashed as we speak at my dealership. It is not an over-the-air update, and will be in the shop for 2 hours. I'll report back on what updates (if any) I can find. I don't know if I've been lucky, but aside from the radio randomly restarting twice, I haven't had a single issue. Hoping this update will give me the SMS feature on the 2014 MyLink's.


----------



## Merc6 (Jun 8, 2013)

Expat1983 said:


> I am getting my 2013 Cruze reflashed as we speak at my dealership. It is not an over-the-air update, and will be in the shop for 2 hours. I'll report back on what updates (if any) I can find. I don't know if I've been lucky, but aside from the radio randomly restarting twice, I haven't had a single issue. Hoping this update will give me the SMS feature on the 2014 MyLink's.


Can you take pic if the software version screen when completed?

This is what I have now


----------



## Expat1983 (Jun 8, 2013)

Just got it finished, looks like it's the same version as yours!


----------



## Expat1983 (Jun 8, 2013)

Only difference I can tell at this point is that the XM radio station logos are updated. No text messaging functionality though.


----------

