crockerdt

There are a lot of aging threads on this topic, but I just spent an hour on this issue and finally got it to work. And it is so non-intuitive, I feel compelled to share. I just got a new iPhone XR, and the phone itself wasn't discovering the MB handsfree on my 2011 E350 wagon. So here's what finally worked:

• Use the car's external authorization to find the iPhone. What is weird here is that whenever I just used the normal "search for devices" it would find my phone - but my phone didn't find it. ONLY when I did an external authorization would the MB handsfree pop up on my phone bluetooth list.
• Ok, here's where I kept failing as well. On other devices I've paired, e.g a Kenwood head unit in another car I own, I would get simultaneous pop up notices to pair. Not with MB Comand. No - I had to say "authorize" on the car screen, and then was presented with the pairing number to put in.
• At this point I finally tried "0000" - and hit ok. It was only THEN that I got a pairing request on my phone. Said yes, and then connection was successful.

How much more obscure could this process be? At any rate, I hope this helps other users who are upgrading their phones. I have not had this problem in the past, so suspect that it is the latest iOS running on the iPhone that the aging Comand system is struggling to communicate with.