The Complete DIY Guide to Updating Your Mach-E with FDRS

[hack-e]

...IPMA will take 3 hours.

Oh, now I saw this after 2 hours into it.

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[Snakebitten]

Yeah, an IPMA update coincides with streaming a college football game on the tablet. Cold drink in the drink holder. Seat reclined and way back. ?

I got admit that the F150 with the work surface option, along with the Multicontour front seat option, is a nicer place to spend those 3 hours.

 

[TheSeg]

I'm currently manually updating my MY2021 for the first time! Will do a full report soon… or at least as soon as the IPMA update lets me… But let me share a tip.

My main computer is an M1 Mac Book Pro. As Mongoose doesn't have ARM drivers, VMWare is a no-go. So I got a cheap Windows 11 Home laptop.

On the Windows 11 laptop, I installed the free TightVNC server. Make sure there's a password on it, even a simple one, just to be safe.

On macOS, there is a free VNC viewer. Verify this all works via WiFi on your network before you start your FDRS process.

1. Get the IP address of the Windows laptop.
   1. If you're able, make that IP a fixed IP on your network so it's consistent.
2. With a Finder window active, hit Command-K.
3. Type in the following: vnc:// then the IP address.
   1. Example: vnc://199.199.1.99
4. If you made this IP fixed on your network, hit the + button to save for later.
5. Click "Connect"
6. If you did set a TightVNC server password, it will ask for this. You can even safe it if you like.

Now I'm able to view what the Windows laptop is doing while I'm inside and writing this post.

 

[Snakebitten]

Congrats for taking matters into your own hands and bringing your 21 up to date.

It could be a little anticlimactic after you finish, especially if you have been gnashing your teeth for years. But it will be a more refined Mach-E, from a software point of view. A lot of code has been massaged over the last four years on almost every Ford.

 

[TheSeg]

Congrats for taking matters into your own hands and bringing your 21 up to date.

I've been up to date from what OTAs were available (June 2024), but with Ford hitting the pause button on OTAs and out of the warrantee, now's a good time as any to do this manually.

 

[hack-e]

Oh, now I saw this after 2 hours into it.

How long does the USB thumb drive part of the IPMA update take? Been on that part for 1+ hours and still going.

Edit: Just realized I'm doing the APIM, not the IPMA. Seems to be taking a crazy length of time.

 

[Snakebitten]

Does Sync screen say "updating"?

You can touch the screen at that spot and get a progress bar. Although it is often a laggy worthless bar.

 

[hack-e]

Does Sync screen say "updating"?

You can touch the screen at that spot and get a progress bar. Although it is often a laggy worthless bar.

It's been on this for about 2 hours now:

 

[Snakebitten]

I admit that's a little long for an APIM update.

It's not my car, but I think at two hours I might risk just shutting the car down with the USB stick still in.
Then restarting the car and see if the update starts over, or quickly reports that the update is done and time to restart the car.

Basically pretending as though you received the "restart" the car command already.

 

[hack-e]

I admit that's a little long for an APIM update.

It's not my car, but I think at two hours I might risk just shutting the car down with the USB stick still in.
Then restarting the car and see if the update starts over, or quickly reports that the update is done and time to restart the car.

Basically pretending as though you received the "restart" the car command already.

I appreciate the help. I powered the vehicle down and let it sit for 10 minutes. Powered back up and it complained about the USB device is for charging only, which it clearly didn't state when it started the update, so I don't understand how it got in that state.

So I went to prepare a completely different MBR USB thumb drive with the 6GB of update files and I noticed the car started the updating notice without the USB thumb drive inserted at all. So I turned the vehicle off again until the new thumb drive was finished then started it all over again with the new one. I'm hoping for better results this time.

 

[Snakebitten]

That would indicate that the first procedure of a USB update had actually succeeded. From what I understand, the files on the USB stick are first copied to onboard storage. It's rumored to be in the GWM, but I'm not sure that's been proven.

So when you started the vehicle without the stick in, and yet Sync reported an update in progress, it very well might have been updating.

 

[hack-e]

That would indicate that the first procedure of a USB update had actually succeeded. From what I understand, the files on the USB stick are first copied to onboard storage. It's rumored to be in the GWM, but I'm not sure that's been proven.

So when you started the vehicle without the stick in, and yet Sync reported an update in progress, it very well might have been updating.

It all worked!

It finished the USB and asked me to turn the car off for 10 minutes and keep the door open. Then I finished everything on FDRS (it crashed on me once, but picked back up when I restarted).

I seem to have the BC 1.3 menu items but I can't keep "In-lane Repositioning" turned on (turns on briefly then back off) and "Lane change assist" just won't turn on. But the other items seem good.

After this update, I now have a TCU update that wasn't there before. I assume I should do that next since there is no GWM and APIM update now.

 

[DeusEx]

Yup, TCU should be next, which maybe the same update that's from OTA 10.1.1. For the toggles that won't stay on, I think our resident BC expert @rugedraw might be able to help. You'll likely need to get Forscan for that...

 

[rugedraw]

Yup, TCU should be next, which maybe the same update that's from OTA 10.1.1. For the toggles that won't stay on, I think our resident BC expert @rugedraw might be able to help. You'll likely need to get Forscan for that...

I wouldn't say I'm an expert, but I can help with that. Lol @hack-e I'll message you tomorrow. I doubt I'll be getting on the laptop tonight.

 

[hack-e]

Last weekend I updated: GWM. That didn't stimulate OTA over the week.
This weekend I updated: APIM, TCU, RFA, and DSP.
Features enabled: BC 1.3 (2 sub-features not working yet), karaoke app, public charging app while driving, Google Maps EV integration.

Thanks for all the helpful information and people around here.

I'm not sure if I should update the remaining ones: HVAC, DSM, and a few others.

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