I have read a few posts on here concerning the iPhone and the GLK's phone system, but my issue hasn't been resolved.

I am able to make and receive calls via the Bluetooth, but the address book / contacts will not sync. Is there a manner in which I can sync my contacts? Now, all that appears on caller ID is a phone number. In order for me to place a call, I have to go to Calls Dialed and click on a number (no names are available) that I have called previously.

If there is not a way in which I can sync my contacts, is there a way in which I can manually enter names and numbers into my MB system?

All responses are appreciated.

 

Hi! Unfortunately, you cannot sync. This is actually not a MB problem. The iPhone does not support vcard exports.

However, you can manually store information in your command system. Your manual can assist with directions. There are also several posts on here about using your Mac or pc to export your address book into vcards to import via a sd card. This really sucks!!!

 

I find it hard to believe that we haven't been able to fix this problem yet. The new version of the iPhone software supports the PBAP protocol. PBAP allows the phone book to be accessed by the car.

According to www.mercedes-benz-mobile.com we are not able to pull the contact list because the iPhone is not compatible.....why is MB pointing the finger at Apple?

My 3G works fine on my friends A4....using PBAP.

I am guessing there is a problem with the COMAND system for the C-class and GLK. I've also heard that you can pull the contacts from your phone on the new E-Class. Can anyone confirm this?

 

The GLK350 is made by Mercedes Benz. The iPhone is made by Apple.

That is all.

 

Can you export vcards also to Audio 20 system?

 

Finally I did it! Forget about iPhone and vcards issue - I used my old Motorola Razor phone: synced it with my iMac contacts via bluetooth. Paired it with my GLK and send contacts to MB phone system one-by-one. It works! The only question: why such a technologically advanced firm like MB could not at-least come up with a clear workaround solution for thousands of frustrated customers?

 

There is now a solution! The Mercedes Benz Media Interface Plus has just been introduced! It is a little expensive, but it is a box you plug into your current media interface jack in the glove box. Note.... You must have the media interface already in vehicle for this to work! If you did not get it, you are out of luck on this one. Also, there is talk of a firmware update coming soon for the Command system. No details, but the new Media Interface Plus will off even more options after a firmware upgrade when it does come. Rumors.....

I have added the Mercedes Benz Media Interface Plus manual and FAQ for viewing. (attachments)

 

$298 to make my car do something it should be able to do in the first place?

Now why does that set my teeth on edge..?

 

I totally agree! I would think MB could truly fix this with a firmware update or something. Unfortunately, the had a small lead on others with some of the voice command features. However, the also lacked in others. I do not believe MB is as advanced as other brands when it comes to electronics and the modern features and new inventions for their users. They are more of the late adopters and copy others rather than get out in front of everyone else with leading technology. If you could take the new My Ford Touch system and put it in an MB, live would be sweet!

 

I struggled with the transfer of iphone 4 contacts to my new GLK350. Ignore the manual. Nothing in the Command Manual seems to work, nor does anything in the Voice Command Manual work. I think the only way to transfer contacts from an Iphone 4 to the MB address book is to use the import from and SD Card using the PCMCIA adapter. I am going to upload a procedure that worked for me. Good luck.


Procedure for uploading IPhone 4 contacts to Mercedes GLK 350 Using an SD card and the PCMCIA adapter.

This protocol is based on my experience and seems to work reasonably well.
I share it to make things easier for those who are trying to save themselves the work of entering each contact individually. There are two cases set out. The first case is for the situation where the Iphone has previously been synced with ITunes on a Mac and all contacts are in the Mac address book, and the second where it has not been synced.

Equipment needed:

Iphone 4
Mac with Itunes
PCMCIA adapter for an SD card. While most should work, I read on the MB forum that some don’t work. I bought an MB adapter to eliminate that uncertainty.
An SD card. I used an 8gb card. I suppose any size might work.
For Case two, where the Iphone hasn’t been synced, the app called V Card Mailer is very helpful. It isn’t required but I found it makes it easier. It imports the contacts on your Iphone and when you open the app you can tap each contact in turn and export it in an email to yourself to be opened on your Mac in .vcf form. The iPhone 4 itself will also export vcards when you do a “share contact” transfer. Open the contact, click share contact and send yourself an email with the contact attached and open it on your Mac. I found it quicker to use the app but either approach works.

Case One, where the contacts already exist on your Mac because they have been synced previously from your IPhone:

1. Make a file on your desktop called iphone contacts .csv.
2. Open your Mac Address Book.
3. Click on the contact list or group you wish to export.
4. Click on File, and then on export.
5. Export the contacts to the file on your desktop.
6. Transfer the contacts file from your desktop to the SD Card.
7. Eject the SD card.

This will put a .csv list in the folder on the SD card which can be read by the MB system.
Insert the SD card into the PCMCIA adapter and place it in the GLK memory card slot, and then open the address book on the car’s command system. A window will open that says import external data. Click and it will import the files in a few seconds.

If you wish you can edit the files in your Mac’s address book before your export them to be sure they have all of the information you want in them. If you designate numbers as cell or landline in the contact list on the Mac and also enter addresses the MB system will pick all that up. You can also edit them after they are imported to the GLK using the change entry option in the address book.

Case Two, where the contacts on your IPhone haven’t been synced to your Mac address book.

You can either export the contacts one by one in an email to yourself to be opened on your Mac directly from your Iphone as above, or you can use the V Card Mailer App to email to yourself individual emails containing the data. Open all of the emails ( when I did it, mail opened all the emails at once and it was easy to just plow through and transfer the vcards from each email to a folder on your desktop. Then use the procedure that follows to import them to the Mac address book.

Open your Mac Address Book. Create a new group in the address book. I named mine IPhone 4 Contacts. Transfer all of the cards that you have in the folder on your desktop to the new group in the Mac Address Book using the import function under the file menu of the address book.

You can then edit those entries if you wish in the Mac Address Book. When your list is complete, export the group using the export function to the SD card. This will transfer the contacts as .vcf files to your SD card.

Insert the SD card into the PCMCIA adapter and then open the MB address book. The window will open that says import external data. Click it and it is done.

It may be that you could transfer the .vcf cards generated by either the iphone or the V Card Mailer directly to the SD card. I think the MB system would import those, but you won’t have a backup unless you put all the information in your Mac’s address book.


One peculiarity of this process is that the MB system will read the Cards Last name, First Name and announce them that way if you say Find Name as the command.

Good luck. I hope this works for you.
Toxdoc

 

I'm not a Mac owner but I've read that if you have a Macbook, you can blutooth the vcf cards over from the Macbook to the GLK MMI.

 

I tried that. The MacBook pro connected perfectly with the MB Command. But I couldn't get the cards to transfer over. The SD card is convenient and worked. I'd be curious to see if someone success in porting .vcf cards through Bluetooth from a MacBook.

 

This nearly drove me crazy but finally I got it done by thanks to my old Blackberry & AT&T. My BlackBerry battery was dead, so I went to the AT&T store and told them of my dilemma. They were nice enough to charge my BlackBerry battery, then they copied all my contacts from my iPhone to my BlackBerry. All within maybe 30 minutes. Then I drove to my dealership & my sales person, synced my BlackBerry to car & copied my contacts from the BlackBerry phone into my car. I do not use the BlackBerry, I'm using my iPhone 4G and now I can see who is calling me and when I call out it shows who I'm calling. Yes, it was aggravating but in the end, it's done and it's all good. But I still cannot believe it would not work. Hope this helps, it was that easy, I promise.

 

BlackBerrys Rock! If you added addresses to your contacts the Navigation system will direct you to them. With the Voice Commands. Awesome feature.

Wayne

 

This is so true...it took me about 2 weeks to get a chance to go to AT&T and then over to the dealer to take care of it, but it was so worth. When my phone rings, it tells me who is calling, the whole nine yards. Even if you don't have a BB, maybe a friend of yours has an old one they will let you use. I'm so glad I saved mine, I started to sell it but changed my mind. LOL

 

Ahem...So does Android do this too Wayne...for us 'tech_edgy' folks

 

BlackBerrys get no respect. I have to wave the flag when I can.
My latest gripe with M-B/mbrace app folks: We bought a really nice Toshiba Tablet Christmas day. It's running Honeycomb. M-B won't let me download the Android send2benz app. The tablet isn't a phone. Go figure.
No worries. If I need to use send2benz on the road we just pull into McDonalds or Starbucks. Grab some free WiFi. send2benz from Al gore's internet.

Wayne

 

Spent 5 hours so far trying to to get the stupid contacts from my iphone to the car. I put the Vcard files on an SD card, and when I click Address Book - Import - it gives me an error. The card is fine...it plays the music I have on it, as soon as I put it in the dash. Any suggestions?

 

I would suggest that if you have a mac you import the vcards into your macs address bookk and then export them to the sd card. I know not why but that worked best There should be nothing else on the card. Put the sd card with the vcards exported from your Mac address book into the adapter and it should open the import window. That worked for me. Ideally the format of the phone numbers should be numbers only. No hyphens or parentheses.
Toxdoc

 

If you have a mac, you can bluetooth the address book over. Simple.

 

I
I tried that and it was awkward. The MacBook pro did connect with the MB Bluetooth and show up as a device but managing the laptop the command module in the garage wasn't very comfortable. Working with an sd card was much less complicated.

 

This is half of the problem. When searching on here and google, everyone assumes the use of a mac. Most people have pc's instead of mac, so the "easy" workaround is out the door.

After 5+ hours, I finally got it. Completely going against common sense, you apparently can not load all of your contacts' individual Vcards on the memory card and import them that way. Instead, all of the contacts' info has to be within ONE Vcard file. Seems backwards to me. Anyway, the iPhone app I got was a waste of $0.99 since it copies them out as individual Vcards. Instead, Google -> GMail -> Address Book -> Export (as Vcard) worked to get the single file.

The annoying thing there is, I hadn't sync'd my contacts to Google from iTunes because I have a ton of people I write to in Gmail that I have no desire to have in my phone contacts. So, I had to spend an hour or so cleaning up a custom address book in google to be what I really wanted to come over to the car via the Vcard file.

One last note for now...apparently the car does not like the way Google stores Vcard info for contacts with just a "first name" (like most restaurants, I just type in the name of the place in the First Name slot, and the Last Name slot is blank). For any of these entries, the car didn't pick up the phone number when I scrolled through the entries on COMAND.

 

Clearly many owners have struggled with this. Mercedes surely can fix this problem with a bit of programmer time. My Lexus downloaded the apple address book in a flash. It really is a foolish problem.

 

Agreed. It's ridiculous. As with your Lexus, my BMW took zero effort. Pair the phone and you're done. All contacts are in there flawlessly.

 

Maybe things have changed but I used to download iphone address book to windows address book. Then made a new directory in address book called GLK. Copied the contacts I wanted to the new directory. Exported those using the export as Vcard command under file to a memory card. Put the memory card into the adapter into the slot and downloaded them. Each vsd was individual and it took them.