2017 Escape Upgrade to 3.4

Hello,

I’ve got a 2017 escape with Sync 3, version 3 build 19205 (latest official update from ford) with maps version NA 1 15. Am I ok to update to 3.4 with 1.19 maps? Will I lose any fordpass functionality (remote start from iPhone, vehicle health, gps, etc?)

Thanks!

Hi,

No you won’t lose forrdpass etc, you will have to remove the vehicle from the app and re-add it after though

Thanks! Upgrade ran just fine. Took just under 40 minutes. minor flicker issue when ambient light changes

Fields,

I have the same vehicle and same build of 19205. I have created my installer. Did you update your APIM or no? If not, what problems has it caused you?

I can’t seem to locate a true step by step on the APIM, so I am apprehensive on buying the ODB and ForScan. If there were a video guide, I’d dive in.

Just curious how things run for you in your Escape, before I do mine.

Thank you in advance. I appreciate any thoughts you can offer.

I haven’t updated the apim firmware yet. Forscan 2.4.1 was just released at the beginning of the month and looking through the forums it sounds like there might be issues with this still so I’ll hold off for now. As for the Sync update, the installer ran fine in just over 30 minutes. I did a master reset. For me, I got the climate controls on the display now and the new color scheme. The only real “bug” is that when ambient light conditions change, the screen is a little sluggish to recallibrate, giving the appearance of a flicker. I was told this is a limitation of the older hardware communicating illumination data. I really only use FM, Bluetooth and Carplay, but all that still works. I was advised to remove and readd the car on my fordpass app, but remote start etc still works.

I know on my 2017 panel, I disabled the changing because it went crazy at dusk and got bright, then light over an over. I finally set it to dark and turned the brightness all the way up.

I disabled something that I can’t remember now to stop it from doing the gradients to change light to dark. That drove me crazy when it went back and forth.

Is that the kind of screen adjustment you mean or is this something else. I haven’t noticed it in the 2020 I’m borrowing.

Yeah, there’s an auto dim feature in earlier versions that was removed in 3.4. I haven’t really tested just leaving it on night mode all the time, even though I prefer the dark blue to the light blue. It just takes it a few seconds and is kind of jerky when it transitions, instead of a smooth transition.

This behavior is due to the newer vehicles using a different illumination strategy now, integrated into the vehicle illumination rather than just Sync. All of the brightness controls are now disabled in Sync 3.4 newer versions unless the vehicle has transitioned to nighttime illumination. (Some vehicles may behave slightly different, however.)

Can confirm that the brightness controls have moved to full vehicle illumination rather than just within SYNC. I have manual brightness controls (buttons) for my entire vehicle in my 2018 Fusion which not only controls the brightness of the SYNC unit but also the dash cluster and ambient lighting.

You can go to 3.4 version 19101 and you can turn off the autodim. It’s not possible on any later versions.

1 Like

Thanks, good information.