Phone book not downloaded in car

[joemontana]

Hi, I don't know if this is a phone issue, or a car issue .
I have a 2013 VW Jetta Sportwagon and a Galaxy S4

Periodically I get a pop up on my touchscreen and/or my MFI that says something like "incomplete phonebook or contacts download" or "Phone Book not downloaded"

Anyone know what might be up with that?
I was told in a VW forum that I had to approve my phone downloading the contacts. The thing is, it doesn't ask. (At least when I am looking a minute or so after I start the car)

I might get that popup after I've been driving for 20 minutes, I can't fiddle with the phone then!

Joe

 

[B. Diddy]

With some cars, when you first pair your phone, you'll get a prompt on your phone asking you if it's ok to download contacts to the car. If you don't see this, try unpairing the phone, then pairing it again while you're just parked somewhere and have plenty of time to set things up. After the phone is paired, watch the phone for a notification asking you if it is ok to download contacts. This is what I noticed when I recently rented out a Hyundai Sonata and paired my phone in order to use BT streaming audio. I certainly didn't want my contacts downloaded into a rental car's memory, so I declined the download when prompted.

 

[joemontana]

I did what you suggested (unpaired, re-paired), I got a few popups on my phone, I gave permission to import my contacts to the car.
I
A minute later I got "incomplete phonebook download" on my car's touchscreen.

With some cars, when you first pair your phone, you'll get a prompt on your phone asking you if it's ok to download contacts to the car. If you don't see this, try unpairing the phone, then pairing it again while you're just parked somewhere and have plenty of time to set things up. After the phone is paired, watch the phone for a notification asking you if it is ok to download contacts. This is what I noticed when I recently rented out a Hyundai Sonata and paired my phone in order to use BT streaming audio. I certainly didn't want my contacts downloaded into a rental car's memory, so I declined the download when prompted.

 

[B. Diddy]

Searching on Google, I found a number of other posts describing the same problem. I probably won't be able to help much more, but a couple more questions:

1. When the touchscreen says "Incomplete Phonebook Download," does it ask you to do anything, or just accept the message? Are you able to retry?

2. Even though the screen says "Incomplete Phonebook Download," have you checked the contact list in your car to see if maybe everything did download, and the system is just mistaken?

 

[B. Diddy]

Found this thread where one of the posters says this:

"With our Android Samsung Galaxy S phones, we have the option of storing contacts in the phone's memory, on the SD card or with Gmail. I use Gmail because it seamlessly syncs with the computer. Turns out the contacts need to be stored in the phone's memory if you want to download them to the car."

If this is still the case, someone needs to give the tech guys at VW a kick in the behind. Most people I know will have their contacts as Google Contacts rather than Phone Contacts. You could try an experiment, and enter in a bunch of contacts as Phone Contacts, then see if it's only those that download to your car.

 

[calsax]

I have no problems with the phone book in my 2013 Elantra, but it cannot read through USB. It couldn't read my GS2 either. No biggie, I usually listen to XM, but it is annoying...

Posted via Android Central App

 

[hillbilly655]

It does this in mine but the info is there I think they have used the wrong word and mean Complete instead of incomplete

 

[TCOGdad]

I have been incurring similar problems where the error message pops up every time I start the car. "Phone book download Incomplete". The second problem that has been occurring is calls will drop periodically when using hands-free. If I switch to the bluetooth ear piece, calls do not drop.

I just stopped by the local VW dealer (2013 Passatt SEL) to speak with service. They are unaware of any specific issues but will take a look at the system for me.

Any thoughts?