[JD6]

I use the app every couple of weeks to send a new destination to my car. I don’t find the ability to flash the lights etc. particularly useful...

However, I noticed last night that despite not being used over this period, the app had consumed 8% of my battery life over the last week and 9% over the last 24 hours. It appears to be very actively tracking my location while in the background, which serves no purpose at all for me.

For those with iPhones: Settings / Battery brings up this info. I imagine that Android can do something similar.

I have now turned off its location tracking - others might want to do the same.

[ByTheSea]

How useful is this app? To enable Remote Services BMW want a one-off £60 charge from me. Worth it?

[teaston]

Bimmerpost app is responsible for most of my battery drain

[JD6]

Originally Posted by ByTheSea

How useful is this app? To enable Remote Services BMW want a one-off £60 charge from me. Worth it?

I just use it for sending a precise destination to the car, which is useful for very rural locations where a postcode may cover a square mile. The other app features seem fairly pointless to me. Perhaps if I get early-onset Alzheimer's, the find my car bit could be useful but I should probably just give up driving

[ByTheSea]

Yes, downloaded this morning and I quickly found the free "send a destination to the car" feature. Works fine although in my testing there was a delay of about 10 to 15 mins. Seems to be the only free feature there is. Anything else costs a £60 one-time payment and the "find my car" feature looks to be the only might-be-useful feature if you park in one of the massive mall car-parks and make a run for cover in the winter weather. Then emerge later and think now where did I park that. Otherwise £60 to BMW is stretching it.

[DaveA]

The flipping app seems to gave gone screwy again today... I suspect the problem is with the app connecting to the (un)connected drive servers... Given some if the error messages I have.. so not able to send commands or retrieve latest data upload from car...

On the plus side, I found an unexpected bonus use when I had a rental BMW... I could use the app to get addresses etc from calendar items on my phone and then start the rental BMW's navigation from the phone... and if I was connected through usb, I was getting some info relevant to the rental car...

On the whole, I find the app/system far more flaky now than it used to be... also, Apple update the OS more often than BMW updates the app and I sometimes wonder if this is not the root of many issues we experience....

[DaveA]

Plus - I confused the heck out of my dealer by booking my service through the app which was monitoring the car's service messages... Got a pretty good price and lots of choice of dates/times...

[rosstin]

Don't forget to remove from background app refresh!

[hudson012003]

Originally Posted by teaston

Bimmerpost app is responsible for most of my battery drain

Hmmh, that's a shocker..

[hudson012003]

Originally Posted by ByTheSea

How useful is this app? To enable Remote Services BMW want a one-off £60 charge from me. Worth it?

The Connecteddrive is free if within the 3-year time-frame. It's fantastic when you have joined BMWConnecteddrive - the app always gives me up to date info on my car, where it is, if locked, window down sightly (advised the other night). Sending map locations to it for the next day It's a great tool so why some individuals whinge that it's draining phone battery or taking up too much usage, who give's a sh@t, charge yr phone?!

Realise some have had issues & mine has had sporadic problems but they've not lasted long..

[ByTheSea]

Originally Posted by hudson012003

The Connecteddrive is free if within the 3-year time-frame...

True, but the full functions of the App cost a charge of £60 even if within the warranty period. Something called Remote Services.

[hudson012003]

Originally Posted by ByTheSea

True, but the full functions of the App cost a charge of £60 even if within the warranty period. Something called Remote Services.

No, yr remote services are free if car is within it's first 3-year warranty. Once outside the 3-years then they start charging

Maybe better you contact (e-mail) Connecteddrive services & ask them as usually they are very good if the query isn't to technical...

[DaveA]

Originally Posted by rosstin

Don't forget to remove from background app refresh!

That does not bother me so much, to be honest.... What does annoy me are the random connectivity issues we are continuing to suffer... my app has not been able to communicate with the connected servers for the best part of a day now.. and this seems part of an ongoing thing...

[ByTheSea]

Originally Posted by hudson012003

No, yr remote services are free if car is within it's first 3-year warranty. Once outside the 3-years then they start charging...

My ConnectedDrive a/c says that Remote Services (RS) costs £60. I have 1 yr of warranty left. All the other offerings within warranty are shown correctly.
The App at present allows me to send destinations to the car, that's it. It asks me to activate RS then tells me that is not valid, presumably cos I have not paid the £60.

[ByTheSea]

Shortly after posting #14 I checked the BMW t/c's for warranty and it confirmed what I said. Remote Services is not a standard warranty offering on every car. However, while online BMW reduced the price for RS to a special offer of £48. So I bought it. Doesn't actually provide a great deal but what the hell, if someone takes my car at least I know where it is. Example...if I check it in to the body-shop for some paint damage and locate it 10 miles away at the engineers home around 12:30 I know he's gone for lunch.