Milbas

Hi everyone,

I was wondering if anyone had any advice on the text message dictation system. I have a FL 2019 C43 with COMAND. It has previously been working well but in the last few weeks it always comes up with the message that "you were not understood." The voice recognition works fine for navigation making calls etc...

I did have the starter battery replaced under warranty but am not sure if that would be contributing. I tried resetting MB apps but no change.

Any advice from the swarm on how I can fix it?

Thanks

superswiss

I've only tried it ones and the result left much to be desired. It's not very good at understanding freely spoken text and the whole thing is kinda cumbersome. I always do the voice button long press and use Siri to send text messages. Works much better. I just have to say something like "Tell John I'm running late". I use the COMAND's text message function to view incoming text messages, though. That works pretty well, but I never respond from there or use it to try to send a new message.

Greg B.

I have the same issue 20 S560 Cab. Car is at dealer now, they found error in Comand, asking Germany for a fix. Remote start also stopped working, and Comand screen has mysteriously powered off a few times. Maybe my S has Corona Virus? Will post what dealer does.

Milbas

Hi Greg,

Sounds like the same issue. Should have put the car in lockdown! 🤣

superswiss

Quick follow up. I tried this yesterday just for kicks, and I'm getting the same error as OP. I'm guessing the voice recognition part relies on an online service that is having an issue. I had to accept a user agreement before I could start the dictation, but then got the "not understood" error message. I have no real intention of using this feature, but you might wanna press the "Me" button in the car and talk to their support to see if they are aware of the issue and get it resolved. It would be nice if it worked, because the reason I was trying to use it, was because I was having issues with Siri Eyes Free on my phone and I wanted to send a text message to my wife. I eventually resolved the Siri Eyes Free issue by restarting my phone.

Milbas

Thanks for checking. I'm taking it to the dealership next week. Don't have proper Mercedes me in my car (Australia is always a bit behind!). I've usually found the dictation system to be accurate and reliable.

Will see what they say.

Milbas

Not much advice from dealership. Anyone else had any updates?

DannyMBinNJ

I have a 2019 e450 sedan. First noticed this problem a month ago. I can receive text, just cant reply back. The first error message was page can't be loaded (first few weeks) , now i get the option to dictate but when i do, it says Sorry, you were not understood. Mb customer service says go to dealer, dealer say call Mercedes connect support, mb connect says contact customer service...urgh. If anyone finds a fix please let me know. Fyi, car and phone are both updated.

Milbas

It seems to have randomly started working again, at least yesterday.

Guessing there was some issue at the MB central end where the server for the apps is?

Rob Woo

I have been using the same system from my old E400 since 2017. With Germany head office shout down everything including their website that support the system April 5 2020. On the display screen on the phone icon with a red X on. I was checking in with the foreman. The C class got upgraded to E class system since 2018. That means the whole car is running on computer cheapest that control the whole car including the door locks . Usually touch one time, it will locked itself. When you finding you have to touch it few times before actually lock the car . That means the whole control system needs update from the dealership master computer that connect to Germany. It also means that you may have left the car in the dealership for few days. I also found the iPhone is not working as well. Mercedes already informed Apple that system is not working at all
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superswiss

Yes, it's working again. It seems to be at least somewhat connected to having the latest voice recognition updates installed. Whenever MB releases new map updates, they also release new voice recognition updates. The latter need to be manually installed by going to the Mercedes Me Portal and downloading them. I was chatting with somebody over in the S Class forum who had the same issue and it started working for them after installing the latest voice recognition updates or maybe the system just needed to be restarted which happens at the end of the installation. I was already mostly up to date, but decided to install the updated maps for Mexico and Canada which I previously hadn't updated and after that it was working for me again as well. Used it today to reply to a text message and it all worked fine. I'm probably still gonna mostly use Siri to send text messages, though, as it's still much faster and works better.