Screen Freezes / Blue Screen / Favorite Artists Not Working

[NerdIncognito21]

Hello everyone, I recently started experiencing these issues within the past couple of weeks. I have a brand new 2018 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited, only 3K miles since mid March, with the Alpine 8.4" screen system. Everything had been working exactly as it should until the past couple of weeks.

Seemingly every time I start up the car the UConnect system starts up, shows the Jeep logo and disclaimer prompts, then typically freezes either after the audio kicks in or when I put the shift in reverse and the rear camera turns on. If the screen freezes, the only way to get out of it is to turn the car off, wait for it to fully power down, open the door, then start the engine again to hopefully get it to reboot. Sometimes the screen will just go straight to a blue screen on startup.

The missing Favorite Artists / Tracks issue has also been driving me nuts. Whether the notifications are set to visual only or visual plus audio, the notification box at the top of the screen pops up for maybe a second or two and quickly disappears. Pulling up the Browse > Favorites list shows nothing on air, even when a favorite artist is currently on air.

I've tried Sirius customer service and the best they could do is a signal refresh (which solved nothing). I've called UConnect directly and the reps can only attempt a soft reset over the phone but that also doesn't seem to fix anything. I took it to a local dealer (not the one I purchased from) this past Saturday morning and they couldn't figure it out either, stating the car was still too new and nothing had been reported yet. They used a USB flash drive to soft re-install the UConnect software, and that seemed to work for a couple of days, but the issues came right back last night.

I'm at my wit's end with this stuff. It's making me feel like I bought a lemon, but seeing a few other similar posts here make me think its a UConnect specific issue, but one they either have no awareness of, or are staying quiet about while they attempt to find a fix and roll out a patch. In either scenario its highly infuriating to not have any straightforward communication / answers from them other than "take it to the dealer." I did that and the dealer was no help. So now what?

Sorry for the long rant. Just needed an outlet. Hopefully others can chime in and share their frustrations and maybe we can all problem solve together.

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[lonz]

I'm having the exact same issues and I'm very frustrated, too :-( Completely sucks...

@JeepCares Hi JeepCares, are you aware of anyone else experiencing the issues mentioned above?

Thanks!

 

[lonz]

I think the freezing issue might be related to the "Favorite Artists" feature that's part of SiriusXM. I went ahead and deleted all of my favorite artists, and the freezing seems to have stopped... Just a theory, but I think that if you have favorite artists stored, and that artists just happens to be on-air when you start the Jeep, the UConnect system completely freezes. Just a hunch... I'm going to keep my eye on it... But it's definitely a bummer, b/c I really like the favorite artist feature...

 

[NerdIncognito21]

I think the freezing issue might be related to the "Favorite Artists" feature that's part of SiriusXM. I went ahead and deleted all of my favorite artists, and the freezing seems to have stopped... Just a theory, but I think that if you have favorite artists stored, and that artists just happens to be on-air when you start the Jeep, the UConnect system completely freezes. Just a hunch... I'm going to keep my eye on it... But it's definitely a bummer, b/c I really like the favorite artist feature...

Not sure if that has anything to do with it, but honestly who knows anymore. I have some updates to share:

Took my JL to the dealer Saturday but needed an appointment so they couldn't look at it that day. Instead taking it this Saturday morning where they'll do a full inspection with the UConnect Star engineers. If its a software issue they'll likely wipe / reinstall the entire UConnect system fresh (which means I'll lose my presets, favorites, etc.) If its a hardware issue they'll likely have to replace the entire audio system.

Since Saturday I've only had the screen freezing issues once, on Monday. Usual engine off solution to fix it. But then come Tuesday afternoon the Favorite Artists / Tracks feature started working again! Absolutely nothing new done on my part. I just randomly decided to try the list while commuting home and sure enough there were artists on the air in the list. So I turned the Audio + Visual notification back on and I started getting them as other favorites appeared on air. Was able to tap the notification and select artists like normal. It's been working since and no freezing issues yet!

I'm still taking the JL to the dealer this Saturday morning, but hopefully the issue resolved itself (or UConnect silently pushed out an OTA update). Either way, I'll report back here soon.

 

[lonz]

Quick update from my side... I completely reset my Uconnect system, which completely cleared my Favorite Artist list. I left the list empty for roughly two weeks before adding any favorite artists. During the two week time period, my Uconnect system did not freeze at all. Not even once! Sweet! I then started to slowly add Favorite Artists. I added one new artist every other day. After adding the 5th artist, my Uconnect system was back to freezing again. Doh! I think maybe if there's a lot of artists that the system needs to scan for once you turn on the Jeep, it somehow screws up the system... Strange... I'm now back to an empty list, and now low and behold, no freezing... What a pain! Oh well, I'm sure they'll come out with a fix soon. Not worried about it

 

[NerdIncognito21]

So its been a couple of weeks for me now, but I also have experienced zero freezing issues and the favorites feature is working normally again. Mind you I've done nothing to it, and did not manage to take it to the dealer for a fix as the issue somehow resolved itself. I don't think an OTA update was issued, as you're supposed to get a prompt to install it when it appears, but honestly who knows. They only thing I had done to mine was update the Cruise Control due to the recall and whatever update was needed for the temperature zone control on the heat/ac system.

I say if you're still encountering issues take it to the dealer and have them either re-install the software or replace the system outright. Its clearly a factory defect that you're not responsible for.

 

[Christophercarl1983]

Hello everyone, I recently started experiencing these issues within the past couple of weeks. I have a brand new 2018 Jeep Wrangler Sahara Unlimited, only 3K miles since mid March, with the Alpine 8.4" screen system. Everything had been working exactly as it should until the past couple of weeks.

Seemingly every time I start up the car the UConnect system starts up, shows the Jeep logo and disclaimer prompts, then typically freezes either after the audio kicks in or when I put the shift in reverse and the rear camera turns on. If the screen freezes, the only way to get out of it is to turn the car off, wait for it to fully power down, open the door, then start the engine again to hopefully get it to reboot. Sometimes the screen will just go straight to a blue screen on startup.

The missing Favorite Artists / Tracks issue has also been driving me nuts. Whether the notifications are set to visual only or visual plus audio, the notification box at the top of the screen pops up for maybe a second or two and quickly disappears. Pulling up the Browse > Favorites list shows nothing on air, even when a favorite artist is currently on air.

I've tried Sirius customer service and the best they could do is a signal refresh (which solved nothing). I've called UConnect directly and the reps can only attempt a soft reset over the phone but that also doesn't seem to fix anything. I took it to a local dealer (not the one I purchased from) this past Saturday morning and they couldn't figure it out either, stating the car was still too new and nothing had been reported yet. They used a USB flash drive to soft re-install the UConnect software, and that seemed to work for a couple of days, but the issues came right back last night.

I'm at my wit's end with this stuff. It's making me feel like I bought a lemon, but seeing a few other similar posts here make me think its a UConnect specific issue, but one they either have no awareness of, or are staying quiet about while they attempt to find a fix and roll out a patch. In either scenario its highly infuriating to not have any straightforward communication / answers from them other than "take it to the dealer." I did that and the dealer was no help. So now what?

Sorry for the long rant. Just needed an outlet. Hopefully others can chime in and share their frustrations and maybe we can all problem solve together.

totallyt understand ur issues but in all honesty its a radio !! not the motor not the tranny a radio !! Give it time a stupid radio problem is jeeps last priority and rightfully so. If they were looking into stupid radio issues over the steering shaft and transmission issues a lot more people would be upset so keep that in mind plus this is what happens when y ou by a first year production vehicle just be a little patient

 

[MCOJEEP]

It's more than just a radio. The backup camera uses the same screen and since the back up camera is required by the feds then it actually is a big deal.

 

[timn1984]

I had an issue last night happen with my new 2018 JLU Sahara(with Uconnect 8.4in screen + Nav). When I parked the car, and turned off the ignition, of course the radio keeps playing, when I opened the door (with the car off mind you) the radio kept going. I shut the door immediately and opened it again, still the same, the radio would not go off. Then I turned the car back on again, the repeated the same procedure, and of course the same happened, radio did not go off, still on. I left the door opened and waited till the power went off, then the radio went off. I called Uconnect this am, and they sent me instructions for a soft reset, and were very nice. I have not tried this yet, but she wasn't for sure it would work. My questions is has anyone else had this problem? AND what would be the best route to go on this? I don't want to change anything yet.

 

[jtink]

I'm having the exact same issues and I'm very frustrated, too :-( Completely sucks...

@JeepCares Hi JeepCares, are you aware of anyone else experiencing the issues mentioned above?

Thanks!

I’ve had me wrangler job for a few months and I keep having these same issues, very annoying. I never plug my phone into the system since I use the Bluetooth, and I don’t have any “favorite artist” saved, just my radio stations. Is there any fix or update I need?

 

[JeepCares]

I’ve had me wrangler job for a few months and I keep having these same issues, very annoying. I never plug my phone into the system since I use the Bluetooth, and I don’t have any “favorite artist” saved, just my radio stations. Is there any fix or update I need?

Hey jtink,

Have you visited your dealer to have this looked into? They can check for any new software versions that are available for your radio, and can investigate for possible hardware concerns as well. If you need further assistance, please PM us any time.

Jennifer
Jeep Social Care Specialist

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