Hey guys, I updated to Sync 3.4.20021 a couple years ago and it has been relatively trouble free up untill about 2-3 months ago.
I started having issues where sync would ask me every time I start the car whether I want to turn on automatic updates, turn on error reporting etc etc. No matter what I chose, it would do it again after a restart. As of this week, the issue seems to have gotten worse where it now won’t even remember my connected bluetooth phone, so I need to re-pair every time.
I tried disconnecting the battery for an extended period which did nothing and I tried a master reset but that will just freeze up the unit and do nothing.
So I’m now wanting to just do a fresh reinstall. I downloaded Syn3 updater but have some questions.
Since it’s been so long, I don’t remember my original version, not sure how relevant that is, but which install method would you guys suggest? My first instinct was the reformat method, but I don’t know if maybe leaving it on auto would be safer? My unit has Nav but I’m actually located in a part of the world where maps are not available for sync (as far as i know) so I don’t really need maps.
You can update to the latest sync3 version 3.4.23188 through Cyanlabs using 3.4.20021 as your current version if you wish but the first thing to do is disable wifi on sync unless you need it for apps or whatever.
You are probably getting continuous turn on auto update requests because Ford is trying to send you their latest sync updates by wifi but if you used Cyanlabs in the past to download 3.4.20021 you are now out of the Ford ‘fold’.
On the other hand if you got your last update from Ford you may have turned off auto updates at some stage so you can just go ahead with the Syn3Updater anyway leaving Ford auto updates off.
My previous update was not using cyan labs if im not mistaken. I think it was another method that was posted over on f150 forums. But its been so long that I dont really remember
So I checked your link, and those symptoms sound VERY similar to what I am experiencing.
I ran the APIM interrogator and it looks like my RWDATA partition is out of memory like that article predicted. So I’m now going to run the RWdate cleaner tool to see if that helps.
That article also mentions that I can do a reformat by downgrading first and then upgrading to the latest version. May also try that
Well, that is odd… I mean, the RWDATA partition being full bug/issue was attributed to mainly 2 builds 2-3 years newer than yours…
Are you a heavy Car Play user?.
Once you solve the issue, the unit should be back to normal.
I’m not completely sure the RWDATA tool will run though, since that tool was designed by Ford to address the issue and it may not run on your current build (it checks for the build)… but you can always try, I may be misremembering. And if it does not work, you can try the other methods…
I went ahead and tried the RWdata clearing tool, it did it’s thing, but it didnt seem to fix the problem. At this point I’m just leaning towards doing a format and starting fresh.
The RWdata tool seemed to run, but it didn’t make a difference, so maybe it didn’t do anything.
One thing I CAN add to this is that ever since I updated to sync 3.4 even since the beginning, I always had one weird issue where when I turn off my ignition, or if I just turn on the radio without turning on the truck, I always noticed that my clock was way off. Even if I set the time correctly, it did not seem to save it, but as soon as I turn the ignition on, the sync will reload and it will show the right time.
I always had the impression that somehow, I seemed to have 2 instances of sync running on top of each other, one of which works fine, but the other was buggy. And it now seems that the buggy version has taken over.
All these years I always thought it was strange but I ignored it since the issues it caused were minor, but I somehow think the issues may be related.
Try performing a master reset, that will erase everything and should revert the unit back to stock. This includes cleaning the RWDATA partition, of course.
If Master Reset does not complete or freezes, you need to continue trying the other methods in the guide to eventually reformat the unit.
Reformatting it will wipe everything out and reinstall all packages again.
If the issue is software driven, master reset and/or reformatting the unit should fix that.
