Connected app on my iPad I

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With no help from BMW, I now have the Connected app running on my large screen iPad Pro and have successfully logged into my BMW Connected account. All my rides are on display, along with details of my bike. Why it refused to do this before, it demanding that I connect the iPad to my bike (which it can’t do) I have no idea.

I am now just waiting for the full set of European maps to install. When it’s finished I’ll try creating a bespoke route on the iPad. I am guessing but I think if I create a route within my Connected account on my iPad it should (I hope) appear on my phone automatically. If it does, that is great news as it means I’ll be able to leave my MacBook at home. We shall see, as they say.

Depending on how it all goes, it might well look like my 30 plus years of love affair with Garmin might well be coming to an end. This separation will be sped up as I have ordered a new 1600 with its big TFT screen, which will have no housing for my BMW Navigator device. Though I’ll still be able to use the device on my 850 GSA, so we are not quite divorced entirely.
 
First go with the Motorrad Connected app…..

So far, so good.

Whist my iPad is busy downloading the maps, I noticed that Belgium was already downloaded and installed. So I created a trial run route, just to see if it worked. It did:

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It has also appeared just fine on my Connected app in my phone, simultaneously without me having to do anything at all.

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But, be still my beating heart….. I am now getting a message that this might still be a 14 day trial period. We shall see. It would be really disappointing if it is, though I guess I could, as a work around, just delete the app on my iPad and reload it for each jaunt, though that would be tedious.

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In the meantime I have contacted the BMW monkeys via email and the App Store, saying how disappointed I am not to have received a reply.
 
I have just done the same thing in reverse. I created a trial run route on my iPhone within the Connected app and saved it in my Connected account. It has appeared automatically in the Connected app on my iPad and on a second iPhone.
 
I also, after a bit of trial and error, managed to Airdrop a bespoke trial route from my iPad onto my iPhone, into a dedicated folder and out into the Connected app.
 
Connected app on my iPad

It is definitely limited to the 14 day trial period. Two days in and the app displays:

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I’ll leave the app active on my iPad, just to see:

A. What happens on day 15.

B. Depending on the outcome, whether you can simply reset the clock by deleting and then reinstalling the app.

It’s a tad annoying that it might well expire, as the ability to create a route on an iPad is very useful.
 
Due to the Beta testing I do I'm constantly reinstalling the Beta and the App Store version of the app and it always seems to reset back to 14 days so I'd "expect" it to just stop working, but a reinstall would likely bring back the 14 day trial.

You could just connect it to the bike once to remove the trial period and save yourself the pain of reinstalling it.
 
Hi peejay, thanks for your comment.

I agree, there is a pretty good chance I will be able to just delete the app on my iPad on day 15 and reinstall it again. It’s the only way I can see to use as a workaround.

I tried to link my iPad to my 850, it being the only way to get the 14 day trial period removed that I can think off. The iPad and bike do see each other initially, no problem. But then, before the two can link fully, the connection breaks. I tried several times, always with the same result.

Clearly and understandably, the Connected app is designed to work on a phone. I can see that when the app opens on my iPad, stuck in portrait format. That is not a problem, as the portrait aspect size is big enough to use on my large iPad. If BMW would allow users, with a legitimate Connected account linked to a BMW motorcycle, to access their account on an iPad or home computer and use the larger screen to create bespoke routes, it would be near enough perfect.

I am in correspondence with the BMW Connected app people, trying to explain to them what I mean. At the moment, they seem convinced I am am trying to use my iPad in place of my phone, which of course I am not. I am only using it to create routes, nothing more.

Richard
 
Following on from my mail to the bods at BMW, explaining the value I’d place on being able to use my iPad / home computer to create routes linked to and within my Connected account and app, they have now replied:

Jörg Baderschneider (BMW Motorrad Connected)
07.12.2021, 11:06 OEZ

Dear Richard,

Thank you for your e-mail. We appreciate your efforts to direct your request to us.

We much appreciate your critical scrutiny of the Connected App. The comments we receive from the users are particularly important to us since they provide us with valuable reference points for the continuous improvement and development of our app.

We have now passed on your comments to the appropriate product marketing department, where every suggestion and criticism is studied carefully. We hope you will appreciate that, due to the large number of suggestions we receive, we are not able to give you any feedback regarding the possibility of realizing your suggestions.

Please accept our thanks once more.

Kind Regards,
Jörg Baderschneider
--
BMW Motorrad Connectivity
D - 80788 München

Mail: connectedride@bmw.com
Web: http://www.bmw-motorrad.c

Which is good enough for me.
 
My thanks to peejay1977 for pointing me in the direction of the Testbirds ‘testing’ organisation, who are contracted to BMW to assist in the testing of the Connected app on BMW bikes and cars. I have enrolled myself onto it. My hope is that I’ll be able to learn something from other bods’ experiences and / or contribute a few of my own, all with the aim of making the Connected app better for everyone. I can assure everyone that I won’t be dabbling around with coding or anything like that, not least as I do not know one thing about it. I’ll be strictly a hands-on, does it work, where doesn’t it work, this is good, that is not so good, contributor. Similarly, I don’t plan on getting to involved in the phone, music, texting bits, as they just do not interest me at all.

Of course I could just stick with my Garmin or embrace any one of the myriad of phone / home computer app’s that aid GPS based route creation or navigation (or I could just use my paper maps) but I want to give the Connected app a go by way of an alternative. I can always change my mind later.

As to Garmin’s and TomTom’s future direction? Of course I have no insider’s view or information. Clearly, besides making some pretty good GPS devices and their associated softwares, they act as consultants to third parties on many aspects of GPS based navigation, far beyond basic motorcycling. I guess that a part of their company stands at a crossroads, due to the more integrated direction that motorcycle and car companies are taking. It’s rather like the crossroads that the car radio people found themselves at, when the automotive industry started to integrate the radios (which then became infotainment systems) into the bodies and dashboards of their vehicles. I might guess that Garmin and / or TomTom will just sit behind the likes of BMW, providing the software to go behind the integrated hardware. Or they might start to create standalone GPS enabled hardware (a sort of phone, without the phone bit) that will connect to the integrated systems on the bike or car. Or they might just go bust, overtaken by other developers and competitors. We shall see.
 
Using an IPen thing to drop pins onto the map when creating a bespoke route, is a lot better than using a finger.
 
Not really sure why you guys are making life complicated. You cam make any route in any web based app, I use Calimoto.com, expert the .gpx into the Connected app on your phone and ride it.
I was a Testbirds tested for quite a long time and carried out a beta test ride nearly every weekend. You can report on the version of the app that they have given you to test, but there is no way to ask them questions about what you want. Trying to do what you are doing with a separate ipad is something very few people would bother with in my opinion anyway.
Do Apple now tell you that you are okay attaching your iphone to a motorcycle? Not so long ago they were saying that you should not do that.
 
This thread is about the Connected app and using the Connected app software on an iPad to create routes, without recourse to other third party software. I don’t give two hoots whether you think anyone else will use an iPad in conjunction with the Connected app or not.

Indeed, anyone can use any software they like to create a GPX route and drop it into the Connected app; it’s one of the Connected app’s apparent strengths. You favour using Calimoto; I like using BaseCamp on my Mac but I might start to just using my iPad in conjunction with the Connected app, if it works reliably, which it seems to do. This will save me lugging my MacBook Air around, as BaseCamp will not run on an iPad. Others might like using MyRoute, some will like using inRoute, whilst others might use a sheet of paper and wax crayons for all I know or get their mate to do it for them. I’ll start you a separate section entitled Calimoto into Connected, where you can tell people all about it. One tip, if you do, use pictures, as bods like pictures.

There are lots of other threads and posts on the perils or otherwise of using a phone as a navigation device (or just as a map screen) on a motorcycle. Join in those, as it has feck all to do with Connected on an iPad. I have started you one…
 
This thread is about the Connected app and using the Connected app software on an iPad to create routes, without recourse to other third party software. I don’t give two hoots whether you think anyone else will use an iPad in conjunction with the Connected app or not.

Indeed, anyone can use any software they like to create a GPX route and drop it into the Connected app; it’s one of the Connected app’s apparent strengths. You favour using Calimoto; I like using BaseCamp on my Mac but I might start to just using my iPad in conjunction with the Connected app, if it works reliably, which it seems to do. This will save me lugging my MacBook Air around, as BaseCamp will not run on an iPad. Others might like using MyRoute, some will like using inRoute, whilst others might use a sheet of paper and wax crayons for all I know or get their mate to do it for them. I’ll start you a separate section entitled Calimoto into Connected, where you can tell people all about it. One tip, if you do, use pictures, as bods like pictures.

There are lots of other threads and posts on the perils or otherwise of using a phone as a navigation device (or just as a map screen) on a motorcycle. Join in those, as it has feck all to do with Connected on an iPad. I have started you one…

Wow, what an unfriendly load of drivel you have written. You must have loads of mates with an attitude like that.
Did you not realise that you were writing on an internet forum where anyone can post?
 
Which is why I yesterday created you two separate sub-posts on both your separate topics. The one on Calimoto, your preferred route creation package, has some chat in it already, as does the one about Apple devices on motorcycles. Await your words on running the Connected app on an iPad (if you decide to give it a go) and / or on any aspect of the Connected app and, indeed, any other GPS related topic(s).

:beerjug:
 
Not really sure why you guys are making life complicated. You cam make any route in any web based app, I use Calimoto.com, expert the .gpx into the Connected app on your phone and ride it.
I was a Testbirds tested for quite a long time and carried out a beta test ride nearly every weekend. You can report on the version of the app that they have given you to test, but there is no way to ask them questions about what you want. Trying to do what you are doing with a separate ipad is something very few people would bother with in my opinion anyway.
Do Apple now tell you that you are okay attaching your iphone to a motorcycle? Not so long ago they were saying that you should not do that.

I disagree that this is either complicated or something very few people would do.

Using a web based app like Calimoto, Google Maps, MyRouteApp is arguably more work than using the Connected app on an iPad.

I use my iPad to create routes on various websites, and like you download the GPX, then load it into the Connected app.

But I also have used the Connected app on my iPad itself to create a route which is then sync’d to the cloud and appears on my phone the next time I open the app. I’d argue that’s quite slick. But it’s whatever people prefer at the end of the day.
 
Thank you, peejay.

Using the Connected app on an iPad, with its simultaneous linking to the Connected app on my phone, seems to be the easiest way of doing things, as it cuts out two possible delays or snags:

1. That of having to email or airdrop a route from my iPad into my phone, though I’ll agree that is not too torturous a task.

2. That of mixing two different softwares together, something that often causes problems on these pages.

For now at least I can accept that the Connected app isn’t perfect on a iPad. Do I think that BMW have probably missed a trick in not making the app (or at least a registered Connected account, linked to a specific BMW motorbike) fully useable over a home PC, laptop or iPad? Yes, I do.
 
Do I think that BMW have probably missed a trick in not making the app (or at least a registered Connected account, linked to a specific BMW motorbike) fully useable over a home PC, laptop or iPad? Yes, I do.

Definitely agree, I've fed this back to BMW so many times and been told that for now the app is only phone focused and that there are no current plans to introduce a web based portal. What I have noticed is that for the beta testing they actively encourage you to plan routes on other systems and tell them which one you did it on. This could mean they are looking for what seems most popular so they can perhaps replicate it.

I suspect the most common answer for route creation is "MyRouteApp" so it would be interesting to see if they could maybe partner and have an Export option direct to the Connected Ride cloud for you like it seems to now have for TomTom MyDrive. Although I would add that MyRouteApp on an iPad (without a mouse) doesn't work too well with swipe/zoom gestures unfortunately.
 
Well the latest Beta app is failing to allow log in despite the public app doing so.
Can’t report it as the beta app has no “debug” option in the “more” section which is a requirement to submit a report.
FFS
 
You were right, peejay. The Connected app, if it is not connected to a motorcycle (in my example it is on an iPad) dies after 14 days. If that happens, as yiu suggested, delete the app from the iPad and download it afresh. This restarts the 14 day window. It’s good enough if you want to go away on a jaunt and want to use the app’s ability to create a route.

One tedious consequence is that, by deleting the app, you also lose any downloaded maps you might have. The upside is that by logging back into your account, you retain any routes that you might have ridden or created. It’s this latter quality that highlights how silly BMW were / are not to make the app solid over various platforms, allowing bods to simply dive into their legitimate account and use the app in a way that work best for them, whether that’s a phone, a smart pad or a pc.
 


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