iSmart 2.0 app woes [merged - all discussion in here please]

[Ekips]

I am also now facing an issue with the i(not)Smart app.

I've had the car since the beginning of November and had no issues logging into the app. Now all of a sudden for the last 5 days I get the error in the image below 'the service is not available, please try again later'. I know it's not my login, as I can log into the account in user settings in the car. The car has also been driven many times this week so it's not a sitting idle issue. I'm guessing it's something on the MG server side of things, but no idea how to fix it.

I did have my new charge point installed on Monday and charged the car on a pre-timed charge overnight to coincide with my tariff rate. Ever since then iSmart has not worked, but I'm hoping that's just a coincidence. Who knows..

I had the same issue, contacted MG got told to get dealer to open tech case, spent 3 weeks phoning the dealer and getting passed between departments as no one had any clue but all refused to open a tech case (or perhapse had no clue what that was)

Eventualy tried my luck with MG again, got told to email: [email protected]
Requesting a full iSmart reset, including a description of the issue, name/address, VIN and a photo of the front page of the V5

A day later I got a message on my phone saying the car had been unbound, I could then login to the app again and was able to easily rebind the car, been working fine since.

 

[dspencer12345]

Anyone else getting "The service is not available. Please try again later" message from the app tonight?

 

[mattyc491]

Morning, yeah I've been struggling for the last 4 days with the app being a bastard.

Normally, it was as easy as unlock then re-lock the car to get it work again but even that hasn't been working properly.

No idea what's going on but considering it's now winter and we're all going to want to be preheating our cars, it's bad that we can't!

 

[DBedford]

iSmart is and was working fine here, so I think its not a global issue.

 

[Daver]

My iSmart stopped working about 4 days ago having been fine, apart from one similar episode shortly after I got the car. Not only did it prevent de-icing the screen remotely it also stopped me from programming the overnight charge. The solution on both occasions was the 10mm spanner and the 12v battery disconnect and I'm very relieved to have it back and working again.

 

[mattyc491]

God I hope it doesn't come to that with mine, I'm hoping if I leave it alone for 24 - 48 hours and give it a rest it'll suddenly decide to work again!

 

[Daver]

Yes, I tried the leave it alone for a while approach but after 4 days decided it wasn't going to come back without more input from me. I had already tried the lock/unlock, drive round the block, switch smartphone off and on again, reload the App. - none worked so the battery disconnect was the last resort before seeking input from the dealer. Very glad that this worked and hoping for no further problems but keeping the 10mm spanner in the boot just in case! Give it a go, it's not difficult and doesn't seem to have any negative consequences.

 

[mattyc491]

"Doesn't seem to have any negative consequences" This phrase has been the bane of my life!

Every time I've done something that doesn't 'seem' to have any negative consequences I've quickly found them!

 

[mGizmo]

... and after five weeks of it not working it's suddenly sprung back into life!

 

[securespark]

Does anyone else find the app only works intermittently, and is there an easy fix for this? It sometimes says it can't find the car or just fails to perform any remote functions. It's fine most of the time, but feels like it always fails to work when you need it most, like wanting to remotely defrost the windscreen etc. on a cold morning. I'm fairly tech savvy, and am inclined to think it's weak software or server issues by MG, not anything I can really do - but I don't know

I'm with you on this one.

Had so much trouble lately. Wanted to do a few remote defrosts recently, no can do, it has failed more times than it has worked in the last week.

The latest weird thing was when I charged it the other night. I knew it was on 50-something percent, but after plugging in, giving the go-ahead to the Ohme to charge, the MG app was showing 23%, which was the level of charge the car had the time before when I charged it. Very strange. When I got up the next morning, it had reached 100%, which it wouldn't have done if it was genuinely on 23%>

I dunno. I just wish it would be reliable.

The three things that put me off the car the most are the unreliable app, the flipping LKA and the fact that it does emergency stops after misinterpreting situations.

The first is just annoying.

The other two are potentially extremely dangerous.

 

[Grriff]

It's a longshot and I'd be grateful for any advice from those with more knowledge than me. If you haven't done it, try deleting the iSmart cache. Go into the menu, choose 'My profile' and 'Clear cache' (near the bottom.) This doesn't remove data, only what the app stores to speed up operations.

 

[Tone68]

I'm with you on this one.

Had so much trouble lately. Wanted to do a few remote defrosts recently, no can do, it has failed more times than it has worked in the last week.

The latest weird thing was when I charged it the other night. I knew it was on 50-something percent, but after plugging in, giving the go-ahead to the Ohme to charge, the MG app was showing 23%, which was the level of charge the car had the time before when I charged it. Very strange. When I got up the next morning, it had reached 100%, which it wouldn't have done if it was genuinely on 23%>

I dunno. I just wish it would be reliable.

The three things that put me off the car the most are the unreliable app, the flipping LKA and the fact that it does emergency stops after misinterpreting situations.

The first is just annoying.

The other two are potentially extremely dangerous.

Yeah, I hear you. The LKA is a bit irritating at times when it over compensates - makes it seem like I'm drifting when I'm not My car has also tried to stop me twice and I had to quickly override it. I was, perhaps, approaching traffic faster than it liked, (but still safely) so am adjusting my driving in response, which isn't a terrible thing. I find the adaptive cruise control pretty useful on the motorway, but it doesn't accelerate after slowing quickly enough sometimes, so, again, I find myself overriding it at times. What's worse, for me though, is when it's also tried to accelerate when I've gone around a stopped vehicle but it hasn't registered yet that there's still slow moving traffic ahead and I've had to hit the break pretty damn sharpish. I could turn these features off I guess. It's certainly become pertinent to me that they are in no way 'self drive' features, and must only be used to merely assist. I keep my wits about me now, like I did in my old car which had none of these driver assist features, and certainly don't rely on them.

 

[Gomev]

Yeah, I hear you. The LKA is a bit irritating at times when it over compensates - makes it seem like I'm drifting when I'm not My car has also tried to stop me twice and I had to quickly override it. I was, perhaps, approaching traffic faster than it liked, (but still safely) so am adjusting my driving in response, which isn't a terrible thing. I find the adaptive cruise control pretty useful on the motorway, but it doesn't accelerate after slowing quickly enough sometimes, so, again, I find myself overriding it at times. What's worse, for me though, is when it's also tried to accelerate when I've gone around a stopped vehicle but it hasn't registered yet that there's still slow moving traffic ahead and I've had to hit the break pretty damn sharpish. I could turn these features off I guess. It's certainly become pertinent to me that they are in no way 'self drive' features, and must only be used to merely assist. I keep my wits about me now, like I did in my old car which had none of these driver assist features, and certainly don't rely on them.

You have to remember that these features are not human, merely computer programs and are dumb not intuitive. They cannot see what you see and they don't know what you plan to do. My biggest annoyance is cars turning left ahead of me. I know they will be out of the way when I get there but the car only sees a stationary block ahead, i.e. not going forwards away and me closing in on it.
If you are on cruise going round a stopped vehicle, it can only see ahead, not where you are planning to pull into. Just like overtaking on the motorway it sees the lane ahead and brings you to speed.

 

[Tone68]

You have to remember that these features are not human, merely computer programs and are dumb not intuitive. They cannot see what you see and they don't know what you plan to do. My biggest annoyance is cars turning left ahead of me. I know they will be out of the way when I get there but the car only sees a stationary block ahead, i.e. not going forwards away and me closing in on it.
If you are on cruise going round a stopped vehicle, it can only see ahead, not where you are planning to pull into. Just like overtaking on the motorway it sees the lane ahead and brings you to speed.

Exactly - well put

It's a longshot and I'd be grateful for any advice from those with more knowledge than me. If you haven't done it, try deleting the iSmart cache. Go into the menu, choose 'My profile' and 'Clear cache' (near the bottom.) This doesn't remove data, only what the app stores to speed up operations.

Yeah, this is always one of the first things I try with any app issues. It didn't work for this app issue, though. Since I began this thread, I've found the only thing that works is turning the car on, or if that fails, plugging my phone in o android auto is connected too, then the app usually wakes up and is able to function fully again. It's just one of those slightly irritating app issues (certainly not unique to this one) for which there is no simple fix.

 

[crispyjay]

My FL5 iSMART has been intermittent this week. Currently not in non-working mode.

 

[ChrisDunsheath]

Anyone else getting "The service is not available. Please try again later" message from the app tonight?

mine not worked for weeks now. bloody useless app

 

[Airbag888]

MG needs to seriously consider letting people choose their own SIM provider

 

[Waterstoney]

I parked my ZS at airport. I used "find my car" function to make sure that I could get off shuttle bus at right stop when I was back.

iSmart app partially worked when I was abroad. It shows correct location but the last updated date and time was the date I parked the car.

iSmart worked well only after I came back and started the car. So restart car may get iSmart working again.

I think MG need to do better on iSmart. I noticed infortainment screen restart every time iSmart is connect to car. Frequent access may disrupt its sleeping cycle or restart cycle. It looks to me that timeout and re-try needs to be tuned for better responsiveness. It would be better to introduce slow clocking on application processor instead of complete power down or sleeping.

Edit - my comment was posted the day before update. New version works well for me.

 

[mGizmo]

mine not worked for weeks now. bloody useless app

Couldn't agree more. Mine sprang back into life after five weeks of nothing, but is now letting me log in but then saying "status checking failed". If the software I wrote for Ford were this bad I'd have been sacked years ago...

 

[Grumpy]

I have just been forced to update the ismart app to v2. Not given any option to ignore. The new app just crashes when I try to open it now. Ironic as the update was to fix bugs. Now it doesn't work at all. Very frustrating and typical of MG.
MG ZS EV 2022, samsung s23 phone.