Failed 1.7.1 OTA attempts to get to BlueCruise via FDRS Log

[Slappy McGee]

I figured I'd chronicle my attempt to get my '21 Platinum Powerboost working with the long-promised, often delayed BlueCruise feature.

I picked up a lot of nuggets from the massive FDRS thread, but wanted to provide a narrative/experience specific to trying to recover from a failed 1.7.1 OTA.

Like many others, my truck failed the 1.7.1 OTA update in Dec/Feb and gave up trying to update. I visited the dealer on 3/18 and they told me something to the effect that "Ford says not to do anything 'yet.'"

I'm a bit bummed to not have BC, and have little faith in Ford fixing this without a dealer visit or long delay, so decided to go the FDRS route.

DAY ONE:
Ordered my Mongoose from Amazon, which had clearly been used before and when prompted by the software to register was told that I was "already registered." Didn't seem to create any problems.

Paid my $50 for a 2-day FDRS license and got the software installed on a ~2 year old laptop running Windows 11.

Hooked the truck up and kept the battery around 12.5V with a NOCO Genius 10. Not the recommended solution but don't want to spend more on fixing Ford's problems.

Went through the updates. My basic flow was to pick the first module on the list, and hit update. Then let it install all the dependencies, reboot, and then leave the truck alone for a bit before doing the next one.

Several of the updates are SUPER frustrating in that there's no indication how long it will take or how many steps are involved. Lots of stages will say something like "Step 3/4" and then 10 minutes later you're somehow at "Step 1/6" so there are steps within steps.

Probably took me about 5-6 hours to get to the APIM update, some of the updates are huge (I'm looking at your IPMA and friends). The APIM USB preparation took FOREVER as well. My laptop is fairly modern, and I'm using what is supposed to be a USB 3 stick (unless it's an Amazon counterfeit) but it took a good 30+ minutes to copy 3.7GB to the stick.

I did NOT have a gateway module update in the list, but assume that's because I need to get everything else more current and then will get a batch of new goodies.

I put the stick in, the screen acknowledged it was there and did some "indexing" and then.... nothing. This seems to be common from reading the other thread.

I did the remaining updates (dash module, towing) and the consensus seems to be that the APIM USB update is like the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, who will arrive in his own good time.

I drove about 5 miles and didn't notice much difference on shifting, etc. other than the engine running more than usual on this route, presumably to charge up the hybrid battery after so many on/off cycles? I didn't clear the shift tables since FDRS said this was only if new hardware was installed. I may try that later if the consensus is that it's not going to break anything.

I did notice that the parking sensors, and reverse "lines" didn't work as I pulled out of the driveway, but they seem to calibrate after some driving and start working again automagically.

I also lost the power running boards functionality, which seems to be a problem others are encountering as well. Seems like Forscan will fix this although I'm hoping there's an FDRS solution so I don't have to buy/install/learn more software.

So at the end of Day One, I've spent ~5 hours giggling my mouse, watching painfully slow and inconsistent progress bars, and don't have much to show for it. I'll be away for a few days for work so hoping the drive to the airport triggers the USB update and there's some forward progress on getting the APIM updated.

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[rpeterslll]

I had the same experience as you. I will say, the first APIM update wasn't immediate. Other forum users said to just leave the USB in the slot and drive it and wait until it prompts to not remove the USB. Some said it took days or even weeks to start. I left the truck running in the driveway for hours to see if it would get triggered. At some point, hours after I inserted the USB as instructed by FDRS, I was pulling out of the driveway and the prompt came up. This was about 18 hours after Inserted the USB stick. Truck was off overnight, but powered on at about 10am and just kept it running until about 3 PM. Its a Powerboost so it would cycle on from batter to engine which I didn't mind. After this APIM update completed, there was much more to come, but updates went quicker after that, and any of the Updates that took a USB to complete, started within a few minutes of inserting it. I believe that the existing Sync version the truck was shipped with doesn't read the USB drives for updates properly.

Please remember to not remove the USB stick after restarting the truck when prompted, even though it appears it not doing anything at all, leave the stick in until prompted to remove it from SYNC. If your concerned its been too long, maybe over 30 minutes with no prompt, shut down the truck for 5 minutes and restart it again and let it complete. This is Especially true for the TCU update. It took a long time to complete with no indication its running. But all USB updates will always prompt to remove the USB when completed.

After one update runs, more usually pops up. Just keep going. It was over several hours of updating for me. I cant imagine how long it will take to get all these done with OTA on 2021 Job 1 truck that haven't seen an update since new.

Good Luck!!

 

[JaHoova]

currently sitting in progress bar hell wishing I would have started this on a weekend... I also didn't have a GWM update available as I assume that will be later. The PCM update appeared to keep the ICE on longer than usual and has repeatedly done so. I wonder if Ford changed the strategy on that to reduce wear or something. It now seems the engine has to fully come up to temperature before it starts doing electric-only driving.

 

[Slappy McGee]

I took a longer drive (about 40 minutes) to the airport, and while my magical USB stick has yet to trigger any "magic" on the APIM update, the truck does seem to be running a bit better. Shifting seemed a bit gentler, especially on downshifts, and the hybrid was kicking in more often as I would expect.

Call me crazy, but the massage seats also seemed a bit "different."

My dash settings seemed to have been reset (I had the boost gauge and eco coach active and it changed both those back to the defaults). The lane keeping assist in active cruise is also very different.

Before it kept the truck quite centered in the lane, maybe biased a little bit to the left lane marker, and you'd be "fighting" the wheel and feel strong resistance if you had active lane assist on with cruise. Now it seems to "drift and bounce" off the lane markers. I haven't fully fleshed this out since there was traffic, but it was a noticeable change. I like that you don't have to fight the wheel as much, but lane keeping seemed a bit less effective than before.

It will be interesting to see if this improves with another batch of updates, or figure out if I need to do some calibration procedure.

I have a longer (~2 hour) drive this weekend and some towing. Hopefully the USB magic will happen and I can figure out how to fix the running boards with Forscan.

 

[imnuts]

currently sitting in progress bar hell wishing I would have started this on a weekend... I also didn't have a GWM update available as I assume that will be later. The PCM update appeared to keep the ICE on longer than usual and has repeatedly done so. I wonder if Ford changed the strategy on that to reduce wear or something. It now seems the engine has to fully come up to temperature before it starts doing electric-only driving.

My first drive after both PCM updates, the system didn't want to kick in to electric only until after it got up to full operating temperature. Subsequent drives after that first one didn't exhibit the same issue, so I'm not sure why it did that, but it should be a short term thing.

 

[rpeterslll]

I took a longer drive (about 40 minutes) to the airport, and while my magical USB stick has yet to trigger any "magic" on the APIM update, the truck does seem to be running a bit better. Shifting seemed a bit gentler, especially on downshifts, and the hybrid was kicking in more often as I would expect.

Call me crazy, but the massage seats also seemed a bit "different."

My dash settings seemed to have been reset (I had the boost gauge and eco coach active and it changed both those back to the defaults). The lane keeping assist in active cruise is also very different.

Before it kept the truck quite centered in the lane, maybe biased a little bit to the left lane marker, and you'd be "fighting" the wheel and feel strong resistance if you had active lane assist on with cruise. Now it seems to "drift and bounce" off the lane markers. I haven't fully fleshed this out since there was traffic, but it was a noticeable change. I like that you don't have to fight the wheel as much, but lane keeping seemed a bit less effective than before.

It will be interesting to see if this improves with another batch of updates, or figure out if I need to do some calibration procedure.

I have a longer (~2 hour) drive this weekend and some towing. Hopefully the USB magic will happen and I can figure out how to fix the running boards with Forscan.

This might help you trigger the update faster.

 

[JaHoova]

Saw that and will be trying it out Friday night when the adapters come in. Also, my hybrid waited for operating temperature on the first few drive cycles (because one was just a short test drive it never got there). Today it seems more normal so that must just be a software thing.

 

[Slappy McGee]

I saw that update as well. I'm going to play the USB "waiting game" and if the magic doesn't happen, I'm waiting for replacement dash plastic since mine came from the factory scratched up on the inside and will have the dealer do the fix when in the shop.

The worst part of the USB "waiting game" is that i have no idea what to look for, when it will magically appear, or whether I might miss it if my wife drives the truck, or I'm in a hurry and put the trunk into reverse or something and "dismiss" the mythical magical button.

 

[Slappy McGee]

So I decided to try the TSB procedure and it ultimately did what it was supposed to do. Some minor things I found:

1) Removing the lower panels is pretty easy, although the shiny top one seems really solidly afixed and needed a good yank at the side closest to the rear of the vehicle to get it started. Once all the clips are removed you should be able to gently guide it to the rear and remove.

2) FDRS did a good job walking me through the procedure and I required the USB cable and Ethernet, and installing a good half dozen drivers. I also realized towards the end of the process that my laptop didn't have an ethernet port . I had another USB 3 hub/ethernet port that surprisingly worked, so my franken-cable was USB Hub/Ethernet dongle, CAT 5 cable, USB Ethernet Dongle, USB M to Mini USB M adapter. I still can't beleive that mess actually worked.

I also started the process with my APIM stick in the truck and this caused the initial portion of the TSB to fail with a USB error. Removing the stick cleared the error and then I was able to successfully complete the following steps.

3) The TSB basically just "clears the bowels" of the APIM and allowed the USB stick-based update to work. I initially had a failure and had to reformat and rewrite my stick and then the update kicks off about 30 seconds after you put it in.

4) Again super slow writing speeds to the USB, but surprisingly fast reads from USB in the truck. Not sure if this is my laptop or FDRS.

I got up to SYNC 244 and the CarPlay nav prompts in the dash are really nice. However I got a "InitializeCommsHardware" error when trying to do a subsequent GWM update. This appeared in the FDRS mega thread as a case of "let it sleep overnight" which I will do. I did get an IPC update in via USB after this failed message which seems to have installed just fine, and did some additional installation over CANBUS, but then failed and put several modules (from memory APIM, CCM, GWM, IPC) into Orange in FDRS.

I'll let the truck sleep and at hope it does the necessary magic overnight to allow further updates to proceed, but at least I'm moving forward.

Having gone through part of the process to get to BC, I can't imagine dealers having the patience to sit there and turn trucks on and off and stick in USB drives all day long.

 

[speedracercjr]

4) Again super slow writing speeds to the USB, but surprisingly fast reads from USB in the truck. Not sure if this is my laptop or FDRS.

It's not your laptop. I have a brand new top of the line HP and it wrote just as slow as my old laptop I replaced. I'm not sure what FDRS uses to write to a USB but apparently its still in the stone ages.

 

[Slappy McGee]

It's not your laptop. I have a brand new top of the line HP and it wrote just as slow as my old laptop I replaced. I'm not sure what FDRS uses to write to a USB but apparently its still in the stone ages.

That solves the mystery I guess. I was wondering if it was my antivirus or I got a counterfeit stick from Amazon but I guess it's FDRS. It took a good 30 minutes to do the APIM copy, and then like 2 minutes for the actual truck to suck the data off the stick so clearly the APIM itself has a fast data connection.

 

[Slappy McGee]

So I'm finally bluecruising! After about 8 days of driving around with a USB stick to no avail, I did the TSB procedure to clear out the "stuck" OTA updates. (here's my experience doing the TSB: Fixing the 2021 Ford F-150 Broken Over-the-air (OTA) Updates for BlueCruise - YouTube )

Once that was done, I had a good half-dozen additional updates. After an overnight "rest" I took the truck out, and was going to test the lane keeping and was surprised that BlueCruise kicked in! I didn't get any emails or any notices on the SYNC screen, but ultimately I'm now 'crusin!

 

[Jimmy Young]

So I'm finally bluecruising! After about 8 days of driving around with a USB stick to no avail, I did the TSB procedure to clear out the "stuck" OTA updates. (here's my experience doing the TSB: Fixing the 2021 Ford F-150 Broken Over-the-air (OTA) Updates for BlueCruise - YouTube )

Once that was done, I had a good half-dozen additional updates. After an overnight "rest" I took the truck out, and was going to test the lane keeping and was surprised that BlueCruise kicked in! I didn't get any emails or any notices on the SYNC screen, but ultimately I'm now 'crusin!

Thats awesome. My dealer where my truck is at for one month now.....(long story I have it on other post) called me this morning and think they have fixed all my issues with intelligent cruise control and they are in the process of the 7 hour update for blue cruise. Hope they can get in all loaded properly. What can you tell us your experience is using it? And do you get a trial on it or have to pay I believe $500 for it to activate? Thanks

 

[Slappy McGee]

Thats awesome. My dealer where my truck is at for one month now.....(long story I have it on other post) called me this morning and think they have fixed all my issues with intelligent cruise control and they are in the process of the 7 hour update for blue cruise. Hope they can get in all loaded properly. What can you tell us your experience is using it? And do you get a trial on it or have to pay I believe $500 for it to activate? Thanks

I'm in the "early adopter" program, and I'm not sure if that allowed me to put in the updates or if it essentially provides zero benefit, but in any case I've finally got it, theoretically for 1 year, although sync has a generic October date.

I've only used it a little bit but frankly have been pretty impressed. I have some longer drives coming up and will report back but it seems to work reasonably well thus far and will be nice on long drives.

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