[cjoshi1123]

First of all I love this forum. Thanks for sharing all the good guys!

I am writing this post because I am so frustrated with my CIC unit. I have a 2013 328i xDrive sport line with BMW Apps, Tech Pckg, Enhanced Bluetooth and everything else. But as you all know that some early 2013 model supplied with CIC and not NBT(Thanks to BMW for ripping people off and giving them something old which is not that old because it came with latest F30)

I accepted that fact and I am now okay with that because I am not going to get the new car just because of this and spend another 50 grand just to get the new NBT. But common BMW you can't just stop supporting or stop improving CIC and abandon me in the middle of nowhere.

Here are the problems with CIC which work just perfectly fine on NBT. (These are supposed to work on my car because I paid for them. I did not pay for nothing)

1) When I play music from iphone using USB, album artwork or track info is not updated on idrive screen and just stuck at the first artwork and track info.

2) If I start the music after I connect to USB nothing is displayed on the screen. Basically "unknown, unknown and unknown". No artwork either.

3) Next and previous button does not work at all. Nothing changes. Have to use next/pre on phone only to skip or go back.

4) I usually use external apps. Don't have stored music on my iPhone.

5) This all works flawlessly on NBT. Just perfect. No issues at all. Art work, track info, Next/previous everything just work fine. Doesn't matter where your music is. USB drive, Stored on the iPhone, Playing through an external app like Pandora/spotify/Saavn or anything else.

6) Messages don't work at all. Have tried reading all the thread which talks about get it working.

7) Sending destinations to car works from google maps but by the time it reaches to my car I am reached at the destination already. I know I am being funny here but it is true. I am so frustrated. It takes so long that, I have tried sending it a day before my trip is planned but next day it is still not received and eventually it come which I don't care because I am using google maps on my phone.

8) The thing that I loved about my car initially when I got it was the snap in adapter which made "Plugin" feature possible. Awesome. An iPod like interface. Which is gone because I upgraded my phone to 5S and they they don't have an adapter for my car which supports that feature again. I am sure that they are not even trying to fix this for CIC units.

"BMW have just abandoned us (BMW owners with CIC head unit)"

I am throwing this here because love tech stuff in automobiles. It's fun if it works. I am surprised that I don't see this kinda threads a lot in forums like this. Looks like people don't care at all.

Sometimes I just think, iot might be working for all others even for BMW owners with CIC unit and only my car has these kinda problems because of the lack of the threads like this on the forums.

10) Many other frustrating problems which I can't recall at this time.

Can you guys confirm this if you all also have the same kind of problem with your CIC unit and with 2012/13 F30s with all the goodies in it because it's there but don't work....

[Shazsta]

You should be able to get messages to work with an iPhone if you make the notification alert style "Alerts"

otherwise yea I experience the same thing. I thought about retrofitting NBT but still on the fence. CIC is like 80% of an NBT imo.

[roxxor]

Originally Posted by Shazsta

You should be able to get messages to work with an iPhone if you make the notification alert style "Alerts"

otherwise yea I experience the same thing. I thought about retrofitting NBT but still on the fence. CIC is like 80% of an NBT imo.

What Shazsta said. I get the same stuff, the only thing is I have music on my phone(connected via Bluetooth) and I don't have any problems using the Next and Previous buttons.

I keep going back and forth about wanting to do the retrofit, but when I think about the cost of the retrofit and what little extra it would gain versus the effort, I always decide it isn't worth it. And this is coming from someone who loves to do retrofits lol.

[cjoshi1123]

Originally Posted by roxxor

What Shazsta said. I get the same stuff, the only thing is I have music on my phone(connected via Bluetooth) and I don't have any problems using the Next and Previous buttons.

I keep going back and forth about wanting to do the retrofit, but when I think about the cost of the retrofit and what little extra it would gain versus the effort, I always decide it isn't worth it. And this is coming from someone who loves to do retrofits lol.

Trust me, I have a 2016 328i xDrive as a loaner right now. Man if you see this CIC is nothing against it. Everything just works perfectly. I think it is worth the retrofit. So beautiful/Fast/Works a s expected. Even radio has album arts. Bluetooth has album arts. USB and Bluetooth works simultaneously. Doesn't matter if you have a music on phone/USB or an external app. Syncs smoothly with the album info and arts.

It also has an ability to play videos thru USB and and high definition videos. 3-D navigation is amazingly fast.

Many of these feature should work in our car as well which BMW advertised they will. But they do not.

I think couple thousand and a some few hours in a garage or a drive(if nice and sunny ) to upgrade to NBT worth it.

I am not sure when you guys saw/experienced the NBT last time but I am using it right now and it is the best car infotainment system I have seen so far. It has been improved tremendously since the birth...

I am afraid of doing the retrofit just because warranty and all. But I will wait sometime and will pull the trigger anyways...

[CntryClub007]

You enable the audio streaming coding in VO?

[cjoshi1123]

Originally Posted by CntryClub007

You enable the audio streaming coding in VO?

No, I did not? What does it do?

[AGONXF30]

Originally Posted by cjoshi1123

Trust me, I have a 2016 328i xDrive as a loaner right now. Man if you see this CIC is nothing against it. Everything just works perfectly. I think it is worth the retrofit. So beautiful/Fast/Works a s expected. Even radio has album arts. Bluetooth has album arts. USB and Bluetooth works simultaneously. Doesn't matter if you have a music on phone/USB or an external app. Syncs smoothly with the album info and arts.

It also has an ability to play videos thru USB and and high definition videos. 3-D navigation is amazingly fast.

Many of these feature should work in our car as well which BMW advertised they will. But they do not.

I think couple thousand and a some few hours in a garage or a drive(if nice and sunny ) to upgrade to NBT worth it.

I am not sure when you guys saw/experienced the NBT last time but I am using it right now and it is the best car infotainment system I have seen so far. It has been improved tremendously since the birth...

I am afraid of doing the retrofit just because warranty and all. But I will wait sometime and will pull the trigger anyways...

I have a CIC and it all works just fine for me. I get album art when I use any of my iPods or even USB storage. I like the iPods because I can play FLAC on it and it sounds great (NBT Can do this through USB storage, CIC cannot). so the iPod acts as a DAC in this case.

I have used NBT plenty and the upgrades are nice, but not worth the headache in my opinion. The NAV does have a couple of options that I enjoy better than CIC, but I like the topo on CIC and city buildings that NBT does not have.

Thing I like better in NBT.

The traffic options, traffic display, and allowance to select detours.
The BT album art for any application.
The Radio album art and information.
The internet speed for the apps.

Other than that the CIC does just fine and for me it is not worth the 3000+ USD and headaches in craftsmanship.

[cjoshi1123]

Originally Posted by AGONXF30

I have a CIC and it all works just fine for me. I get album art when I use any of my iPods or even USB storage. I like the iPods because I can play FLAC on it and it sounds great (NBT Can do this through USB storage, CIC cannot). so the iPod acts as a DAC in this case.

I have used NBT plenty and the upgrades are nice, but not worth the headache in my opinion. The NAV does have a couple of options that I enjoy better than CIC, but I like the topo on CIC and city buildings that NBT does not have.

Thing I like better in NBT.

The traffic options, traffic display, and allowance to select detours.
The BT album art for any application.
The Radio album art and information.
The internet speed for the apps.

Other than that the CIC does just fine and for me it is not worth the 3000+ USD and headaches in craftsmanship.

Try this. Play Spotify and connect thru USB. You might have album art of the first track and the info as well if you are lucky. Hit next I am sure it will stuck on the first art and info. Sometimes next doesn't even change the song. If it all works for you, did you do any coding, or is it all factory settings?

I don't store music on my phone or USB as I stream music online. I wouldn't bother retrofit at all if all the features works without an issue. The most I am concern about are smartphone integration.

[AGONXF30]

Originally Posted by cjoshi1123

Try this. Play Spotify and connect thru USB. You might have album art of the first track and the info as well if you are lucky. Hit next I am sure it will stuck on the first art and info. Sometimes next doesn't even change the song. If it all works for you, did you do any coding, or is it all factory settings?

I don't store music on my phone or USB as I stream music online. I wouldn't bother retrofit at all if all the features works without an issue. The most I am concern about are smartphone integration.

I do not use Spotify (Their paid subscription does do descent bitrate), but I do Pandora via BT (No album art work, if I recall). Most of my music files are CD quality FLAC so I play them on my iPods. Funny thing is the new iPod Touch has HD quality album cover, while the older iPod does not. I do not like streaming music as they quality is poor, for a song or two it is fine, but HD radio sound better than streaming.