[jaffab]

All,

Fairly new to this, and struggling to get my head around how complex BMW seems to have made all of this - so bear with me.

I am confused about the connection between the ConnectedDrive web site and my car in terms of email...

On the connected drive Web site Portal, under connected services, under email I have set up GMAIL with my details. As the connected drive web portal says...

"BMW ConnectedDrive lets you access external mailboxes in order to receive and answer e-mails while in your car. And with the minimum of distraction too, as the BMW e-mail service can read out the content of e-mails, while pre-prepared short texts allow you to reply fast.

In the following, you can set up the mailboxes to be accessed and create text blocks for fast replies."

So now its set up, now what? On my main menu, I have contacts (no office) .. the manual talks about office, and I see from other peoples screen shots they seem to have office on the main menu.

Anyway, I see that if I go through the menu structure of ConnectedDRive > BMW Online > Office (it appears here) there are various email options listed, but none of the accounts seem to be configured, none are the emails I have set up.

I have played around with having my android Samsung S4 connected via BT (I get my address book, music and calls) and also via USB connected via the android connectdrive app (I can get my diary up - woop-de-doo).

So questions....

1) Is office now hidden under 4 layers, or should it be on the top level menu? If so, how do I get it there?
2) Is my configured email in the ConnectedDrive web site supposed to appear in my car somehow/somewhere?
3) DO I need my phone connected via BT or USB for any of this to work.

Specs are its a March 2014 4 series, with PRO NAV which comes with :
609 (nav systems pro),
6AK (online services),
6AM (realtime info),
6AN (information plus),
6AP (Remote services)
6WA (black panel 'almost full' display)

Any help would be appreciated.

[jaffab]

Adding to this - do I need to log into connected drive or anything with my car for 'the magic to happen? If so, where do I do this?

I thought becuase I had put my car reg number and VIN into the web portal, the system would connect and all would be good. Yes? No?

The reason I ask is that the portal shows my car, but the guide says "The ‘Status’ list shows your vehicle and a list of all purchased services of BMW ConnectedDrive. "

I dont get any status details - just the "find out more" boxes at the bottom of the page for media, navigation etc, which then take me to fairly useless videos?

[Ozolz]

Had the pro navi with ConnectedDriveon on both my 2012 and 2014 F20. None of those had any e-mail functionality.

Only sms/text message would be passed thru to iDrive from iPhone 4, 5 and 5s. So I doubt e-mail on iDrive is possible.

[jaffab]

I found last night that, if my s4 was plugged in via cable, I had the option for "BMW EMAIL" (no such option if my phone is connected via BT) - for random giggles I tried logging logging in using my connected drive user id and password - and there were my accounts.

I could read my historical emails - great. SO to get to my emails, I have to go through about 6 levels of menus...

MENU > Connected Drive > BMW Online > Office > BMW Email > GMAIL > Inbox

SO then, I went to my wifes phone, and sent myself an SMS and an email to GMAIL and then started driving, to see if the email came in and my car started telling me I had an SMS or email.

I heard my phone buzzing with new alerts, but nothing from the car - I left it 20 minutes, and no messages appeared.

[Ozolz]

Originally Posted by jaffab

I found last night that, if my s4 was plugged in via cable, I had the option for "BMW EMAIL" (no such option if my phone is connected via BT) - for random giggles I tried logging logging in using my connected drive user id and password - and there were my accounts.

I could read my historical emails - great. SO to get to my emails, I have to go through about 6 levels of menus...

MENU > Connected Drive > BMW Online > Office > BMW Email > GMAIL > Inbox

SO then, I went to my wifes phone, and sent myself an SMS and an email to GMAIL and then started driving, to see if the email came in and my car started telling me I had an SMS or email.

I heard my phone buzzing with new alerts, but nothing from the car - I left it 20 minutes, and no messages appeared.

Ye most things you want to access with 1 button are made overly complicated. Luckely you can use the 1-9 buttons to create own shortcuts.