Hondalink wont work

You can also contact HondaLink support, if it's just a matter of account activation they can handle that. Also if they say everything looks okay with your account on their end but you still can't connect they can help with troubleshooting. They don't always solve it on the first call and like most phone support the people who you first talk to are the entry level people and if it's not something simple they usually have to to escalate it to their senior techs, but in the end HondaLink support will usually get it working. If they do wind up escalating don't be alarmed if they ask for your account ID and password, that's normal as their techs use that to test your account. You can refuse to give it to them of course but then they can't test it themselves and you have to spend more time on the phone as they walk you through trying different things, so it's a lot easier to just give them your password. I can't think of anything nefarious they could do with your password (assuming it's not the same as your online banking password!) but of course you can always change the password after they get your HondaLink working.

Also HondaLink is confusing at first because it connects different ways depending on which function you are using. Bluetooth connection is only used for odometer reading and for sending destinations to the NAV. Both of those functions are pretty useless as implemented in the app so no real loss if the app has trouble connecting via Bluetooth (again that's separate from the Bluetooth connection for phone and media which are usually rock solid).

The most useful functions are remote climate, remote charge control, and find my car, but those don't use Bluetooth, instead the app on your phone communicates via standard Internet to the Honda server, which in turn communicates to the car via the AT&T cellular network. Which means a failure to communicate can either be due to your phone not having Internet connection (which of course you would be able to determine pretty easily) or the Honda server is down (happens occasionally but rare) or the most common reason, the car is not in range of an AT&T cellular tower. That's pretty easy to determine also, when you turn off the car the main display will briefly show TCU (Honda telematics control unit) and the number of bars. If 0 or 1 bar then that could be the problem. But if it shows several bars then usually it's an account problem which again the HondaLink people can take care of.

Although I remember one person said that the HondaLink people had them change some setting on their phone to get it working, I don't remember what, but if they go down that route I would play along with them, but just write down whatever they have you change so that if it doesn't solve the problem you can put it back the way it was.

Thank you all for your replies.

Suddenly App started working. I still get "connecting....." screen, but if i press "<" button, it shows everything.
Odometer reading , find my car, charge schedule....


In fact , I set up charge schedule and it worked as expected.
Don't know how it started.... but happy as long as it works...


Now hunt for Level 2 charger...
Thanks.

mike said:

What is odd is it can see where I am when I open the Maps, but if I then select find my car it can't connect.

Click to expand...

When you say "open the Maps" are you talking about the Maps function in HondaLink or the NAV system on the infotainment screen? Although in this case it doesn't matter because each of them are completely separate functions than Find My Car.

The Maps function in HondaLink uses map data from Google. The location on the Maps screen comes from the GPS built into your phone. It's not really the car's location it's the phone's location.

The NAV system uses map data from Garmin. The location comes from the GPS in the car.

Both of the above are "live", meaning that the GPS in either your phone or your car is providing real time location data which is then plotted onto whichever map you are looking at.

Find My Car is different because it is not live. Whenever your car is turned off, it communicates to the Honda server the current charge status, and it also reports the car's current location as reported by the car's GPS. The Honda server stores this location, and when you later open the HondaLink app and click Find My Car, all it is doing is showing the car's last reported location. The fact that it sometimes says "updating" gives people the impression that it is actively looking for your car, but it's not, the Honda server already knows where your car is located based on the last time your car reported its location when it was shut off.

Normally if there is a communication problem between the car and the Honda server then Find My Car will show the previous location. For example if you leave home and drive somewhere and park in an enclosed parking garage, when you turn off the car it may not have a cell signal and thus cannot report its location and charge status to the Honda server. So in the app it will show your charge status as full or whatever it was at home, and Find My Car will still show your car as being at home, because it has no way to know that the car has driven somewhere.

The recent problem is a little different as the app apparently has some type of glitch during communication with the car that causes it to send data to the car but not receive data, and so when you attempt Find My Car the app says that it is not able to locate the car. Again giving the impression that it is actively looking for the car, when it actually is just looking at the Honda server which is telling the app that there was a problem getting data from the car the last time there was a connection. But meanwhile you can go into Maps in the HondaLink app and it will show your current location (again that is really your phone's location). And the NAV system on the infotainment screen will still work and show your car's current location using the car's GPS.

You mentioned a problem with the NAV system in your car showing you as being in the wrong location. That would be a completely separate problem with the car's GPS which has nothing to do with the HondaLink app. I realize when multiple problems are happening at the same time it's understandable to think that somehow there is one underlying problem causing all of it, but that is not always the case.

EV Nerd said:

It apparently can't communicate with the car. Right now, I open the app, and it states that it was last updated on 10/13/2021. I hit refresh, it says "Retrieving Status", and it goes through all the motions, but the date doesn't change, and the data is old. "Find My Car" gives the location, dated 10/13/2021. I've refreshed at least ten times, and restarted the app twice. I'm going for the "nuclear option", deleting the app and re-installing....same thing.

Click to expand...

I should have been more clear, I was referring to whatever problems that you had during your first months of ownership, when you said that it only worked a small percentage of the time. As far as I know the current problem only started a few weeks ago, and it has specific symptoms, what you are describing is exactly the symptoms that I experience and others have for the past few weeks, although for me and most people it seems to be intermittent and works most days. Normal connection problems do not have the thirty seconds of "Retrieving Status" like this problem does. Also if you watch for it, after thirty seconds it very briefly says "Data Not Available" for less than a second, then it goes back to showing the previous data.

And I don't know if you have tested it, but in my case it is very definitely communicating with the car, as I can start remote climate, and set a charge schedule. Now the app tells you it failed, so like others I didn't think to go check it at the car, but sure enough it is communicating with the car and performing the requested functions, it just isn't reflecting this in the app.