Unable to connect Mach-E to Wifi - what my issue was

[drwhipps]

Just got the car today and like some others wanted to connect the Mach-E to my home wifi network. Of course - it failed - multiple times. My Wifi is vanilla and I've never had connection issues - so I was surprised. During one of the attempts, I noticed a small globe as one of the options on the sync keyboard that pops so you can enter the wifi password and pressed it. It brought up a keyboard layout option menu - and English UK was active. I changed the option to English US and low and behold I was able to log on all my wifi networks. I didn't see a difference between UK and US on the layout - but that solved the problem.

So if anyone encounters wifi issues you may want to verify English US is chosen (that is unless its not applicable for you.)

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[agoldman]

Interesting. I wonder how many got that default. Good tip.

 

[Badger_Prof]

Just got the car today and like some others wanted to connect the Mach-E to my home wifi network. Of course - it failed - multiple times. My Wifi is vanilla and I've never had connection issues - so I was surprised. During one of the attempts, I noticed a small globe as one of the options on the sync keyboard that pops so you can enter the wifi password and pressed it. It brought up a keyboard layout option menu - and English UK was active. I changed the option to English US and low and behold I was able to log on all my wifi networks. I didn't see a difference between UK and US on the layout - but that solved the problem.

So if anyone encounters wifi issues you may want to verify English US is chosen (that is unless its not applicable for you.)

Thanks for the tip. I had the same problem. Here was the complete process I followed for a fix:

The solution:

• Choose the WiFi network
• When the virtual keyboard comes up, click on the globe icon and change the keyboard from English (UK) to English (US)
• Turn the car off
• Turn the car back on
• Choose the WiFi network
• Enter the password

Love the forums! Thanks.

 

[Panzer948]

I know this is an old thread but it came up when googling my question. I just got my Mach E and was curious what the advantage of adding your home wifi network to the car has since I know the car also has a built in modem. Is our external wifi the only way it can receive OTA updates? Are there other advantages too? Just curious about this before I attempt to add.

 

[RickMachE]

I know this is an old thread but it came up when googling my question. I just got my Mach E and was curious what the advantage of adding your home wifi network to the car has since I know the car also has a built in modem. Is our external wifi the only way it can receive OTA updates? Are there other advantages too? Just curious about this before I attempt to add.

The updates come via modem today. WiFi is used to upload and download data, not update, at least today.

 

[TheSeg]

The updates come via modem today. WiFi is used to upload and download data, not update, at least today.

If that was true, then why are my network logs showing the car pulling [depending on the update] gigabytes of data just before an update happens? Does it actually download the data only to ignore and wait for the cell modem to also download it all?

To be clear: You don't *need* to have WiFi for updates. It doesn't hurt to connect to your home WiFi in case the car happens to download an update.

 

[Mach-Lee]

If that was true, then why are my network logs showing the car pulling [depending on the update] gigabytes of data just before an update happens? Does it actually download the data only to ignore and wait for the cell modem to also download it all?

To be clear: You don't *need* to have WiFi for updates. It doesn't hurt to connect to your home WiFi in case the car happens to download an update.

Lol, maybe it works now. I think previously people connected them to WiFi and didn't really see any sizable network activity before OTA updates occurred, leading to the conclusion that OTAs all come over cellular. But maybe the current software actually fixes that and takes advantage of WiFi now for bulk OTA downloads?

Maybe others can take a look at their network logs and see what they see...

 

[macchiaz-o]

Lol, maybe it works now. I think previously people connected them to WiFi and didn't really see any sizable network activity before OTA updates occurred, leading to the conclusion that OTAs all come over cellular. But maybe the current software actually fixes that and takes advantage of WiFi now for bulk OTA downloads?

Maybe others can take a look at their network logs and see what they see...

My recollection from the very first updates is that some forum members noted significant WiFi network downloads to the vehicle while others didn't. And as we know, vehicles get OTA updates regardless of whether owners join them to WiFi networks.

So the evidence to date suggests that WiFi is optional (thus far), and it might be used for some portions of some OTA updates when available. But since we mere mortals don't deeply inspect the traffic flowing to or from that connection, we can't say for certain what they contain.

If you send feedback via SYNC, the UI states that the feedback will be uploaded the next time the vehicle's connected to WiFi. If that's accurate, then there are at least some functions that require WiFi. But so far, OTA doesn't.

 

[TheSeg]

I will say that it's inconsistent. I can confirm the LARGE updates going on WiFi as the blip on the logs make it very obvious.

My assumption is the method is picked when the car first receives the word of an update. If it happens to be when a WiFI network is available, WiFi it is. Otherwise it's the cell radio. While the technology exist for a while now (HTTP Range headers) to flip between the two, I don't know if these features are implemented. Again, a lot of speculation on my part.

Regardless, the conclusion is that it doesn't hurt to have a WiFI network paired where you park your car. Worse case the network is ignored. Best case it works and you get your downloads quicker, which means installs start sooner (when opted-in).

 

[Lucky luke]

I am still wondering how it's works. Where my car is parked, next to my house, the cellular signal is not working well (strange but...). However, my home-wifi signal is available. When my car is "on", remote start,... I see the car connects to my wifi, but normally my car is "off" or "in sleep" when I am parked, so there is no active wifi connection (I see it on my wifi analyser). How can the car receives updates when he is parked? Is this the reason I did not get any OTA updates in the 6 months I own my MME?

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