The Good, the Bad, . . . and Microsoft Sync

The Good, the Bad, . . .and Microsoft Sync.

Well folks, here's the update on installing the free upgrade to Sync offering turn-by-turn directions, and other goodies.
This follows up on the postcard I got yesterday which offered a no cost trial of Sync including turn-by-turn directions.
The good news: it's free. For three years. The bad news: you will have to be a network engineer or IT specialist to install it. I am neither.

Here is the upgrade path so far. . .and I still don't have it working:

1. Go to syncmyride.com and follow step by step instructions to download the sync upgrade

2. You will have to input the VIN number of your vehicle in order to register for the sync upgrade.

3. Input VIN.

4. Attempted to register but it rejected VIN. Checked VIN. Everything looks good, clear form and try again. Rejected. Try again. Rejected. Go to vehicle and
recheck VIN. It's correct. Try again. Rejected. Sigh.

5. Call Synch technical support. Wait 8 minutes in line.

6. Sync tech asks me if the VIN has an "O's" or "I's". Yes, I reply. Tech states that they look like letters but they are numbers. An "O" is a zero and an "I" is a one.
OK, I say, why isn't this up on the Sync site, right next to where you input the numbers, so a person doesn't have to call tech support. The tech says, "We've been telling them they should do that."

7. OK, now the VIN goes through. This leads to detailed step-by-step directions for downloading the software to a flash or usb storage device. Sometimes called a thumb drive. There are 14 steps. It works and is appears to be successful. I check the usb drive and there is software now on it.

8. Now we have to take the usb drive, plug it into the port on the Fusion and go through another series of directions.

9. These instructions are lengthy, 26 steps in total. They look well explained with photos of the screen above the radio for each step. Problem is, how am I going to refer to these and be in the car at the same time. They are on my desktop system. I saved these to a PDF, loaded them on a laptop and took this out to the Fusion.

10. Put usb drive in, start car, start radio. Got to step 5 then a funny thing happens. Music comes on. Looking at the radio I can see the artist displayed, these are songs stored on the usb drive being used. OK. Try a few work arounds. No luck. Music keeps playing. I turn off car, pull out usb drive. Then another curious thing happens, my iPhone (which has been synced already) starts playing music the second I pull out the usb drive. Music won't shut down. Can't stop it. Exit car. Finally, I reboot the iPhone to shut down the music stream. All sorts of fun.

11. So back to sync tech support. No wait this time. The tech says that yes, the usb is going to play music and that's why they say to use an empty usb. Only problem is, they don't say to use an empty usb. It's kind of like the zeros and ones thing that I ran into earlier.

12. Tech support puts me on hold, comes back with a workaround. I take notes on a different 12 step process.

13. Back to the process. It works. The software download takes about 8 minutes. Sync says figure on 10 -18 minutes, so it was quicker. Which is cool because I didn't feel like sitting in the car for 18 minutes waiting for the download.

14. Now to test. The sync lady now has new commands. A good sign.

15. But. . .now the iPhone is no longer synced. It said this would probably happen.

16. Can't get the iPhone to sync, although it's probably my fault as I can't exactly recall the process.

17. Tech support again, they explain how to do it. Also how to clear out previous sync info which may or may not be important but we'll do it anyway.

18. Back to car, phone is synced. Now to start using turn-by-turn. Can't figure out what the prompts are. Explore some of the obvious ones, "Directions", "Turn-by-turn", No go on those. OK more research needed.

Stay tuned. I think we are almost there. The $40 charge from the dealer now seems like it would have been a pretty good deal.