MMI not working

[Clarksta]

My MMI has gone down. My screen is black and won’t turn on. On the cockpit it just says initialising on the nav and phone etc. i have no Bluetooth , sat nav, parking sensors, USB ports don’t work. I called my local garage and they told me that the 5g masks have crashed the system and they are waiting for an update. But it only seems to be my garage that knows of this problem. Is anyone else having the problem? 

[Steve Q]

When you say local garage do you mean Audi? 

[Clarksta]

Yes my local Audi garage. Now been told I have to wait until the end of December for them to even have a look at my car 😩

[Cent]

Even holding the top of the button by the shifter for 20 secs not work?

Ive had a weird bug where it didn't work doing it but after I left the car and came back all was well again

[Clarksta]

In my A3 I don’t have any buttons as I don’t have a stick, more just a little switch to flick between gears. Even the volume control is touch sensitive for the volume. 😕

[Cent]

That's what I mean. Push the top so it clicks and hold for 20 seconds to reboot mmi

[Clarksta]

7 minutes ago, Cent said:

That's what I mean. Push the top so it clicks and hold for 20 seconds to reboot mmi

This is what my car looks like inside. U can click down the touch sensitive volume button and I have tried that but nothing happens. Do I need the car on or off?

[Cent]

That's it, the top icon on it is standby, push and hold it for 20 seconds to initialise/reboot mmi

[Clarksta]

Thank you for your help but I’m still having trouble. So I have just turned the battery on and held down the volume button for 20 seconds and then also tried with the ignition on but still no joy. Am I missing something or doing something wrong or is there another button I should be holding down on the steering wheel at the same time or something?

[bealine]

I have been experiencing exactly the same problem since the car was new last December.   Periodically, the system goes down and simply will not reboot.   When you park up, walk away and return to the car a few hours later, it returns to life.   When you go to sign in as the User though, a message appears "This User Has Not Logged In Recently, Please Run Set Up Again".   Last Saturday afternoon, I lost the MM! for the rest of the day and my poor wife had to sit with her phone in her hand calling out the directions to me!   It is really frustrating but Audi say there is no fault.   Funnily enough, when the system started up again next day, the music came back to the position on the playlist I had been listening to on Friday!

There is also a bit of a pattern developing.   Occasionally, I have to commute from Oxfordshire to London Paddington station on a Saturday or Sunday (when there are no trains at night to get me home).   The MMI system always goes down in the same place between Gerrards Cross and Uxbridge.   Similarly, my daughter lives in Hampton Court and somewhere between Langley (M4) and the Staines/Datchet junction (M25) it will always go into this reset mode for approximately two minutes - long enough for someone to go wrong with the Sat Nav if you're unsure where you're going.   A pilot friend with an A1 says  it happens to him by the "ILS Outer Markers" on the way to Heathrow Airport so it suggests radio wave interference may be the culprit.

Like Clarksta, I have the same touch sensitive control by the gear stick (I have a manual gearbox) and cannot get that thing to reset the MMI.   Any ideas please?

Edited November 8, 2021 by bealine

[Dan Hotly]

On 11/8/2021 at 8:17 AM, bealine said:

I have been experiencing exactly the same problem since the car was new last December.   Periodically, the system goes down and simply will not reboot.   When you park up, walk away and return to the car a few hours later, it returns to life.   When you go to sign in as the User though, a message appears "This User Has Not Logged In Recently, Please Run Set Up Again".   Last Saturday afternoon, I lost the MM! for the rest of the day and my poor wife had to sit with her phone in her hand calling out the directions to me!   It is really frustrating but Audi say there is no fault.   Funnily enough, when the system started up again next day, the music came back to the position on the playlist I had been listening to on Friday!

There is also a bit of a pattern developing.   Occasionally, I have to commute from Oxfordshire to London Paddington station on a Saturday or Sunday (when there are no trains at night to get me home).   The MMI system always goes down in the same place between Gerrards Cross and Uxbridge.   Similarly, my daughter lives in Hampton Court and somewhere between Langley (M4) and the Staines/Datchet junction (M25) it will always go into this reset mode for approximately two minutes - long enough for someone to go wrong with the Sat Nav if you're unsure where you're going.   A pilot friend with an A1 says  it happens to him by the "ILS Outer Markers" on the way to Heathrow Airport so it suggests radio wave interference may be the culprit.

Like Clarksta, I have the same touch sensitive control by the gear stick (I have a manual gearbox) and cannot get that thing to reset the MMI.   Any ideas please?

I have had an almost identical experience. I have a 2021 A3 Saloon and have had the MMI reboot several times on journeys as well as the screen going (and staying) black - which means the loss of a fair few critical functions.

The first time the black screen happened I took it back to west London Audi who reset the car’s software. This worked fine for a few days and then the emergency function dropped out - this ALWAYS seems to happen when driving in built up area - and then the regular crash/restart of the MMI again.

The next time the MMI screen stayed black was coming back from Cornwall - it then mysteriously came back up after a stop in some services - but a few weeks later stopped working again.

This is completely unacceptable on Audi’s part. The mechanic told me that the problem was known about and that Audi were ‘working on a fix’ that ‘hopefully’ is available in November.

When I emailed the garage requesting some sort of compensation/replacement I was directed to VAG Finance. 
 

I’d be interested to know how many others are experiencing similar issues and like you am convinced the issue is caused by some kind of interference - it’s more reliable in more remote places. 

Either way this is wholly unacceptable. I was sold a car that I can’t ‘enjoy’ in that it is not of merchantable quality in the legal sense when the issue is clearly widespread and known about by both Audi and the dealer when I ordered the car. VAG have clear form in avoiding responsibility- look at the class action over the ‘dieselgate’ emissions issue…

[bealine]

2 hours ago, Dan Hotly said:

I have had an almost identical experience. I have a 2021 A3 Saloon and have had the MMI reboot several times on journeys as well as the screen going (and staying) black - which means the loss of a fair few critical functions.

The first time the black screen happened I took it back to west London Audi who reset the car’s software. This worked fine for a few days and then the emergency function dropped out - this ALWAYS seems to happen when driving in built up area - and then the regular crash/restart of the MMI again.

The next time the MMI screen stayed black was coming back from Cornwall - it then mysteriously came back up after a stop in some services - but a few weeks later stopped working again.

This is completely unacceptable on Audi’s part. The mechanic told me that the problem was known about and that Audi were ‘working on a fix’ that ‘hopefully’ is available in November.

When I emailed the garage requesting some sort of compensation/replacement I was directed to VAG Finance. 
 

I’d be interested to know how many others are experiencing similar issues and like you am convinced the issue is caused by some kind of interference - it’s more reliable in more remote places. 

Either way this is wholly unacceptable. I was sold a car that I can’t ‘enjoy’ in that it is not of merchantable quality in the legal sense when the issue is clearly widespread and known about by both Audi and the dealer when I ordered the car. VAG have clear form in avoiding responsibility- look at the class action over the ‘dieselgate’ emissions issue…

When the car was new last December, I came very close to rejecting the car.   It seemed such a stupid reason for rejection when everything else with the car is great, and she is so beautifully finished, but it is really frustrating.   The reset happened again yesterday on a very short run (3 miles) and I lost the MMI for the rest of the day.   This morning, it started up fine but music has reset to the beginning of the USB stick.   All this resetting is not good for Flash Drives either. 

[Clarksta]

I have had no mmi and black screen for a month now and my local garage can’t fit me in untill late December so I have now had to drive at another Audi garage 35 miles away for an hours appointment. I went there and they said they don’t know what’s wrong and need the car longer. I said fine give me a courtesy car and I’ll be on my way. But no I have to wait till 6th December. 
i have this car on a HP contract and it’s only 4/5 months old. Does anyone know my options and rights here about what I can do or get done etc?

[Biltub]

I have recently had the same problem with the added sos call malfunction message. Audi are releasing a software update supposedly in January and February and all affected owners should be receiving an email (according to my local dealership). It is related to phone masts causing problems with the control systems and may be related to 5G work which explains why the more urban areas have greater problems. Fingers crossed!

[BLP422]

I have a 2019 Q7 and having the same problem. MMI keeps crashing. Keep going back to the dealer. No fixes. I even have a crash on video. Totally unacceptable. 

[Steve Q]

On 1/28/2022 at 10:48 AM, BLP422 said:

I have a 2019 Q7 and having the same problem. MMI keeps crashing. Keep going back to the dealer. No fixes. I even have a crash on video. Totally unacceptable. 

Do t think the fix is available yet which is ridiculous. 

[Dan Hotly]

On 1/29/2022 at 4:56 PM, Steve Q said:

Do t think the fix is available yet which is ridiculous. 

I have a 2021 A3 and have had the MMI black screen on several occasions, and the garage only responds by resetting it - which they say can only be done by them. 

But…I have managed to reset it myself by holding down the small power button on circular dial that is in the centre console for a few seconds - it turns the MMI system on and off. It usually then reconnects and reinitialises the navigation system and the whole thing works again. Obviously different models may be different but it has worked for me. It’s still not 100% reliable but now for 95% of the time it is working! Worth a try if you have this set up in your vehicle - it also seems to update the MMI as part of the process.

[BLP422]

So my 2019 Q7 goes back again for the 4th time next week. On one trip I had it reset 13 times recently....and my wife cuaght it on video. Its very very poor.

Edited February 27, 2022 by BLP422

[Dan Hotly]

It is intensely irritating not least because no one seems to be prepared to accept responsibility.

There must be some lawyers in this group - what about the potential for a class action, after all VAG has form with those ?!

[bealine]

Just an update.   Those nice folks at Marshalls Audi in Oxford, who all seem to be genuine Audi enthusiasts, contacted me a month ago to say there was a software update which should solve my MMI woes and restore the SOS function which was reporting a failure.   Yesterday, my car went in for the day and was hooked up to whatever system they use to rewrite the MMI software.

When I picked the car up and drove out of the dealership, I got that grey box which says "Audi MMI User Details have changed.   Apply new settings?"

Usually when that box appears, I "Ignore" it because you wait about 10-15 minutes with no MMI output while it seems to do Sweet FA, but yesterday I thought I'd give it  go.   The "Apply User Details Update" took about 10 seconds to do and then we were in business.   As I passed the speed camera at Nuneham Courtenay, which usually coincides with an MMI reset, everything was fine.   The dealer seems to agree that the issues with the MMI and SOS functions are caused by something to do with radio waves - whether it's 5G, aviation frequencies or something used by the RAF (we have a few RAF bases around and about these parts) no one can reliably say, but drivers have been reporting the concidence of MMI resets at the same spots over and over again.

Hopefully, this update will do the trick - I'll keep fingers crossed and report back.

[JimB]

 

 

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Like others on this thread I have ongoing issues with the MMI in an 2020 A3. The system gets stuck on the initializing screen(s) [initializing across the phone, media and navigation tabs; with a black back-lit MMI screen] maybe once or twice a week. It might be that the MMI goes into a 'deep sleep' and it has problems coming out of that when there is interference from a 5G signal. The only way to get out of this hang is to press and hold the power off button on the volume control disc on the gear stick console for about 20 - 30 seconds.

More frequently, I also get a large parking sensor fault graphic in the cockpit with a beep when I turn the ignition on that goes away after a couple of seconds. I don't know if this is linked to the MMI issue or not. The parking sensor fault appears irrespective of where I park the vehicle

The car has already been back to the dealership for a software update this month but the above issues remain.

Can somebody who's had the software update applied to their A3 do me a favour and post the version information that can be found on the Settings>General>Version screen on the MMI?

I have:

Software version
3620

MMI software version
release-35.12-2126-SNAPSHOT-28.06.2021-13:58:42

Navigation database
V03959808JK_P0421_EU_2020.06

Media driver
CL35_MIB3H_AU_ER_G4x_2102500PROD-1

Gracenote database
Region=EUROPE-Version=7

Hardware
H8Y0035043

Software version
MHI3_ER_AU_P3620

It would be nice to check if these are all correct and current.

The car is booked in for another session at the dealership. This is pain given that these errors are intermittent. I suspect the dealership will just report back 'no fault found' unless they can interrogate any boot logs in the MMI. Do MMI initialization errors get recorded in the OBD2 diagnostics system?

Thanks!

[Biltub]

 I believe the update is also model specific as the one for the tfsie has still not been rolled out

Edited May 31, 2022 by Biltub

[Biltub]

Just had the 27J9 campaign recall completed and have taken the car to areas where in the past the MMI would crash repeatedly, so far all seems good now. In addition they have also replaced the battery control unit which was to stop a message indicating insufficient battery charge on the normal battery to start the engine. I had this happen twice when on holiday and hadn’t had any ev charge for several days

[Cent]

I had a recall for fire matt around the battery. 45 tfsi e.

while there, some mmi updates dropped. Took a day or 2 due to issues installing to the different modules. Said the nav one was troublesome.

 

so far tho, no black screen/reverse camera glitch or reboots

[Paulydee]

On 5/31/2022 at 8:18 PM, JimB said:

 

 

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.....
Can somebody who's had the software update applied to their A3 do me a favour and post the version information that can be found on the Settings>General>Version screen on the MMI?

I have:

Software version
3620

MMI software version
release-35.12-2126-SNAPSHOT-28.06.2021-13:58:42

Navigation database
V03959808JK_P0421_EU_2020.06

Media driver
CL35_MIB3H_AU_ER_G4x_2102500PROD-1

Gracenote database
Region=EUROPE-Version=7

Hardware
H8Y0035043

Software version
MHI3_ER_AU_P3620

It would be nice to check if these are all correct and current.

The car is booked in for another session at the dealership. This is pain given that these errors are intermittent. I suspect the dealership will just report back 'no fault found' unless they can interrogate any boot logs in the MMI. Do MMI initialization errors get recorded in the OBD2 diagnostics system?

Thanks!

Hi Jim,

My S3 is just back from a month-long residence at the dealer for a couple of faults, including the MMI initialisation problems that seem widespread. Checked my version details and they align with what you've shown above (except I don't even have a navigation database, even though it has nav installed).