I smart app not connecting to car

[siteguru]

Mine's back working

 

[meandi]

yep mine back on. Unsure for the reason, i went outside to plug in charger, but door frozen, tried warm water on door but problem must be with internal locking mech. Came back in and app now working. At least 1 problem solved. Going to have a celebratory drink to celebrate. As if i need a reason. Roll on summer and budgie smugglers.

 

[Kithmo]

Mine's not come back on yet.

 

[Spaniard]

Would anybody be surprised if this is caused by their servers (or 4G contract) not supporting enough concurrent connections for the UK at peak time in the morning when all of us do really need it?

 

[rjhfandclf]

I think the simple answer is that the thing is fundamentally unreliable - and thus not fit for purpose.

After months and months of continual annoyance, I charged up four days ago to 80% for a medium journey as getting lowish. I had used the car the previous day, but still had to physically press the button to open the car before it would do anything for me. After much fiddling and failures and timeouts, I got it to accept the charge schedule - which worked - over two days' sessions too ... success!

The following morning at -4°C, I tried to talk nicely to it through the front window (5 yards from the car) to set the HVAC and battery heating, but no ... no reply! Opened the car manually, got frozen, but did eventually get an app response to set the HVAC (albeit by then only five minutes left before leaving), but the battery wasn't interested, so I gave up ... stay frozen, if that's what you want!

After the trip, I decided to leave it for a couple of days to catch it out, so as to then try one or two other tweaks to see if I could resolve anything. Tried it again this evening, when it should have been firmly comatose, and what does it do but perk up straight away smiling innocently and smugly, at -4°C again, asking what I would like it to do ... urgh!

I am quite sure another opportunity will arise before long.

 

[salty]

Never have any trouble with ismart, whatsoever. Never use it.

 

[Kithmo]

Mine's only just started working again, wouldn't work this morning.

 

[NewMG4me]

Mine is still not working

 

[NewMG4me]

Mine is still not working

Cleared cache, logged off, deleted and reinstalled app. Now working !

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

Cleared cache, logged off, deleted and reinstalled app. Now working !

While you were doing all that, the cleaner finished and remembered (for once!) to plug the server back in.

 

[rjhfandclf]

After the trip, I decided to leave it for a couple of days to catch it out, so as to then try one or two other tweaks to see if I could resolve anything. Tried it again this evening, when it should have been firmly comatose, and what does it do but perk up straight away smiling innocently and smugly, at -4°C again, asking what I would like it to do ... urgh!

I am quite sure another opportunity will arise before long.

So, deliberately not used the car for several days to see what might happen again, and lo and behold - fast asleep once more. So, followed the advice of @Ian Key to the tee once more - signing out, closing down app, clearing cache and storage this time, full log-in as warned - and ... nothing, zilch, except churninng away, then 'Request timed out, please try later'. Have been trying now all morning - nothing. All these 'work-arounds', whist they may or may not work occasionally for some and not others, merely endorse the fact that the app is unreliable and effectively useless for purpose when required. It needs to respond instantly, every time, to the commands called for (as designed and built-in by MG). I doesn't. And from this thread alone, it seems to affect at least most models of MG and from all around the world.

While you were doing all that, the cleaner finished and remembered (for once!) to plug the server back in.

Anyone got her/his phone number ???

 

[Kithmo]

Once the car is asleep you can't wake it with the app, the only way to wake it is with the remote key fob, unlock and relock it.

 

[rjhfandclf]

Once the car is asleep you can't wake it with the app, the only way to wake it is with the remote key fob, unlock and relock it.

From this thread alone - as well as numerous others on these forums, I think the whole world knows this by now ... with the sad exception of MG, it seems, who remain either oblivious to it, or simply don't care.

As I (and many others) have pointed out, the key option is totally useless to check systems from a distance or on holiday.

 

[Yorkshire Hillbilly]

My guess is that SAIC only have one server and if more than a few people try to use the app at the same time it can't cope.

Having done some packet sniffing, I'm pretty sure the iSmart app uses AWS Europe (Amazon Cloud) for both DNS (address book) and cloud servers (computers) before going out to soimt.com and here.com.

soimt.com
"SAIC MOTOR Overseas Intelligent Mobility Technology Co., Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC Motor, responsible for SAIC's overseas internet of vehicles business"
I think it provides the connected car stuffs.

here.com is the provider of traffic data, mapping, directions and weather. (HERE powers SAIC Motor Overseas Intelligent Mobility Technology’s connected vehicle services)

I think the app is asking the car (directly via Amazon then somit.com) for its status. Other manufacturers have a dada caching system where the servers ask the car for updates periodically and the app asks the servers for the last update. If the user manually refreshes the data, then the server will ask for a fresh set of data from the car.

to combat this, I use a 3rd party service that periodically asks the car for its data and caches it. I then view it on there instead of opening the phone app and waiting for it to refresh the live data. If I do open the app I have to log back in as the 3rd party service logs me out. Once logged in and waited for the initial refresh to happen, I can manually do things like climate control etc. Doing this of course logs out the 3rd party service so it suspends its activity for 20 minutes.

 

[rjhfandclf]

Having done some packet sniffing, I'm pretty sure the iSmart app uses AWS Europe (Amazon Cloud) for both DNS (address book) and cloud servers (computers) before going out to soimt.com and here.com.

soimt.com
"SAIC MOTOR Overseas Intelligent Mobility Technology Co., Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC Motor, responsible for SAIC's overseas internet of vehicles business"
I think it provides the connected car stuffs.

here.com is the provider of traffic data, mapping, directions and weather. (HERE powers SAIC Motor Overseas Intelligent Mobility Technology’s connected vehicle services)

I think the app is asking the car (directly via Amazon then somit.com) for its status. Other manufacturers have a dada caching system where the servers ask the car for updates periodically and the app asks the servers for the last update. If the user manually refreshes the data, then the server will ask for a fresh set of data from the car.

to combat this, I use a 3rd party service that periodically asks the car for its data and caches it. I then view it on there instead of opening the phone app and waiting for it to refresh the live data. If I do open the app I have to log back in as the 3rd party service logs me out. Once logged in and waited for the initial refresh to happen, I can manually do things like climate control etc. Doing this of course logs out the 3rd party service so it suspends its activity for 20 minutes.

I'm very impressed. Perhaps you could fine-tune it and market it. I should think there would be several thousand takers out there ... even MG perhaps?! BTW does your system allow you to schedule charging (I use the app rather than the Zappi for setting)?

EDIT: ... Apologies; I misread your final paragraph, as having re-read, I think I now understand that you would be able to do all the 'normal' actions if you re-logged back into the app after using the 3rd party service. However, presumably this would equally still mean that the same old problems of failed access would reignite - particularly from a distance (such as switching on HVAC whilst away from the car?)

 

[AbleArcher]

Having done some packet sniffing, I'm pretty sure the iSmart app uses AWS Europe (Amazon Cloud) for both DNS (address book) and cloud servers (computers) before going out to soimt.com and here.com.

soimt.com
"SAIC MOTOR Overseas Intelligent Mobility Technology Co., Ltd. is a wholly owned subsidiary of SAIC Motor, responsible for SAIC's overseas internet of vehicles business"
I think it provides the connected car stuffs.

here.com is the provider of traffic data, mapping, directions and weather. (HERE powers SAIC Motor Overseas Intelligent Mobility Technology’s connected vehicle services)

I think the app is asking the car (directly via Amazon then somit.com) for its status. Other manufacturers have a dada caching system where the servers ask the car for updates periodically and the app asks the servers for the last update. If the user manually refreshes the data, then the server will ask for a fresh set of data from the car.

to combat this, I use a 3rd party service that periodically asks the car for its data and caches it. I then view it on there instead of opening the phone app and waiting for it to refresh the live data. If I do open the app I have to log back in as the 3rd party service logs me out. Once logged in and waited for the initial refresh to happen, I can manually do things like climate control etc. Doing this of course logs out the 3rd party service so it suspends its activity for 20 minutes.

I'd be interested to hear more about your observations of the app traffic and your 3rd party service

 

[dave99]

I think the app is asking the car (directly via Amazon then somit.com) for its status. Other manufacturers have a dada caching system where the servers ask the car for updates periodically and the app asks the servers for the last update. If the user manually refreshes the data, then the server will ask for a fresh set of data from the car.

to combat this, I use a 3rd party service that periodically asks the car for its data and caches it. I then view it on there instead of opening the phone app and waiting for it to refresh the live data. If I do open the app I have to log back in as the 3rd party service logs me out. Once logged in and waited for the initial refresh to happen, I can manually do things like climate control etc. Doing this of course logs out the 3rd party service so it suspends its activity for 20 minutes.

Are you using the SAIC_iSmart_API? I tried it a while ago and that also seems to read cached data from the server most of the time unless the car is started, but there is a full refresh which defaults to once a day. It would be interesting to know if it keeps the car communication alive for a long period though as I've been on holiday and refreshed in the iSmart app once a day and it still goes to sleep after a few days.