My Ismart app sometimes does not connect to the gps

Picked up my mg4 yesterday and downloaded the mg ismart app to my phone and also wife’s phone. On both, when trying to register we kept getting “the service is not available, please try again later” heaps of attempts both yesterday and today.
can anyone shed any light on this?

lena curtis said:

Thanks. Still no joy. Not sure if it’s the app or the car

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Hi....question....what country are you in?

Converted said:

Picked up my mg4 yesterday and downloaded the mg ismart app to my phone and also wife’s phone. On both, when trying to register we kept getting “the service is not available, please try again later” heaps of attempts both yesterday and today.
can anyone shed any light on this?

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Hi, the MG server was offline last night GMT but should be fine now. Since the update there has been a few issues, hope this helps, Tom

My phone is not connecting to car last few hours today Saturday 2023-11-18. Guess I'll have to go out and set charging manually.

mrg9999 said:

My phone is not connecting to car last few hours today Saturday 2023-11-18. Guess I'll have to go out and set charging manually.

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It came back at around 11pm.
Why does it do this?
Is it localised?
Is there some sort of global status page?
I'm always anxious when it can't find my car

mrg9999 said:

Is there some sort of global status page?

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I'd be keen to know too.... It's now Sunday evening here and still cannot register to log in (since Friday afternoon)

Converted said:

Picked up my mg4 yesterday and downloaded the mg ismart app to my phone and also wife’s phone. On both, when trying to register we kept getting “the service is not available, please try again later” heaps of attempts both yesterday and today.
can anyone shed any light on this?

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I am having the same problem in January 2024.

When I try to register for an account with MG on my Samsung Galaxy S10 phone, you have to select a "country code" from a list of countries, except that on my phone the list isn't displayed, just the words "select country" and the "this service is not available, please try later".

I have been able to register on my old Galaxy S8 phone with a cracked screen hence not using it any more , but still not with my current phone . Maybe it's a problem between the MG iSmart v2.0.1 and Android 12? Galaxy S8 is Android 9.

Any suggestions?

CrochetQueen said:

That worked for me last time but this time it’s still not updating. According to find my car, it’s in Brussels, not surrey!

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Mine's also in Brussels. I'm in Southampton!

Maltese John said:

Mine's also in Brussels. I'm in Southampton!

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when you look at the ZS location map on MG iSmart app, what does it say at the top of the screen, when was it last updated?

I owned a ZS EV for 4 months in 2022 (Car was totalled)

I now own a 2025 ZS EV

Back in 2022, the app was very intermittent, would sometimes not connect at all, but one thing that was certain if it did, it was......Painfully slow.

Now in 2025 i can report that......It's absolutely the same.

If they did not do anything about this from 2022, until 2025 there are 2 possible explanations.

1. They don't care.
2. There is some architectural reason and they can not do it. (I'm betting this is the reason)

The wait is even worse now, because next to the ZS EV, is a Tesla...Their app connects to the car, even if it is deep sleep, in about 10 seconds, the ZS EV seems to do it in 30...When it works.

I think the thing to get out of this is....You'll just have to live with it...Sadly.

One source of difficulty connecting is if the vehicle is garaged somewhere where the internet/GPS connection to the car isn't very strong (I have this issue, it works fine as soon as the car leaves the basement garage).

hmadsen said:

I owned a ZS EV for 4 months in 2022 (Car was totalled)

I now own a 2025 ZS EV

Back in 2022, the app was very intermittent, would sometimes not connect at all, but one thing that was certain if it did, it was......Painfully slow.

Now in 2025 i can report that......It's absolutely the same.

If they did not do anything about this from 2022, until 2025 there are 2 possible explanations.

1. They don't care.
2. There is some architectural reason and they can not do it. (I'm betting this is the reason)

The wait is even worse now, because next to the ZS EV, is a Tesla...Their app connects to the car, even if it is deep sleep, in about 10 seconds, the ZS EV seems to do it in 30...When it works.

I think the thing to get out of this is....You'll just have to live with it...Sadly.

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They do respond to email, though it does feel a bit like a bot sometimes.
Dear Customer,

We apologize for the issues you've experienced.

Since the app communicates with the vehicle, its functionality depends on the vehicle’s network status. When the network is poor, communication between the two may fail.

Additionally, if the vehicle is not started for several consecutive days, it will enter sleep mode, and the app will become unusable. However, once the vehicle is started again, the app can be used as normal. If the car is parked in an area without a GPS signal, you will not be able to locate it.

When the vehicle status on the homepage is updating, remote control and access to other pages are unavailable. Please wait a few seconds for the update to complete before proceeding with other actions.

Please download the latest version of the app and try again. If the issue persists, do not hesitate to contact us.

Thank you!

Best regards,

iSMART Service Team

mrg9999 said:

Additionally, if the vehicle is not started for several consecutive days, it will enter sleep mode, and the app will become unusable. However, once the vehicle is started again, the app can be used as normal. If the car is parked in an area without a GPS signal, you will not be able to locate it.

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This must be to prevent the LV battery being drained, but damn that's a strange decision to not just let the car monitor the 12V battery and top it up if it gets low, but instead just completely shut the car off after a few days.

I've gone abroad a few times with work in the cold season, it would be super annoying if i was not able to get the car to preheat while waiting for my baggage at the airport, because the car decided to go to sleep and thus have to get into a very cold car that would take minutes to heat up and clear the windows.