I tried updating my onstar plan and my vehicle status stopped updating. I can still start the car remotely but when I go into vehicle status, it says last update 4 days ago. The same exact day I tried adjusting my plan. I think something happened on the onstar side because there were some issues when I tried adjusting my plan and it may have caused some sort sync issues.
I've tried the standard troubleshooting steps. Clear all app data for the app on my phone (Galaxy s24 Ultra), reinstall, resign in. The car has been driven since then and since I can still start the car from the all, the app seems to be connecting with the car just fine. But the car is not able to send updated information back to the app.
I believe the cause of this issue stems from my interaction with the onstar agents when I tried switching my plans.
Background: I had the remote access plan and wanted to try the connected vehicle plan. I noticed the connected vehicle plan included in vehicle apps like Spotify and Google Assistant. I thought that would be great to try. I could have apps in my car instead of relying on my phone. Little did I know that my vehicle was not even capable with in vehicle apps ( no apps icon in the infotainment screen). I have a 2020 Buick Encore GX
Frustrations with onstar:
I call onstar by pressing the blue button and tell them that I'm interested in the connected vehicle plan. I tell them that I saw it included in vehicle apps and wanted to try that. I mention that I didn't have an app icon on my infotainment screen however but assumed once I got the plan the apps icon would show up through an over the air update. The operator tells me after we upgrade my plan, everything will show up in about 10 to 15 minutes. I tell them to go ahead and switch the plan to connected vehicle and hang up.
An hour passes and nothing is updating on my car. I still don't see any way to download apps in the car (no apps icon on my home screen). I call onstar back and tell them this. The person then says to power cycle the car by turning the car off and opening the drivers door for at least two minutes. Same issue, no way to download apps still. They ask me to then check if the wifi in the car is working by connecting my phone to the car and and turning off mobile data and just connecting to my car wifi and trying to use the internet. I confirmed the wifi was working. Then they tell me that there was something wrong with my car and that I now needed to take it the dealer since the troubleshooting we tried didn't work. I had just had an oil change in the car and there was absolutely nothing wrong with the car.
Frustrated, I hang up and call onstar back and explain my situation about having the connected vehicle plan but still no way to download apps on my vehicle. This time, the person looks up my vehicle information and advises me that the infotainment system in my car is not compatible with in vehicle apps. This seemed more plausible than what the previous agent told me. I look online for directions on installing in vehicle apps and it says "if equipped" and it turns out vehicle doesn't support it. I wrongly assumed that if I just updated to the connected vehicle plan that the ability to download apps would be added through an over the air update.
Once I realized my vehicle is not compatible with in vehicle apps, I switched back to remote access meanwhile my vehicle status on the app hasn't updated since.
It's frustrating because the first onstar agent should of advised me that in vehicle apps are only compatible with certain models and that I would need to confirm my model would be compatible instead of just saying everything would update in 10 to 15 minutes. Especially since I emphasised that was switching to the connected vehicle plan solely for the in vehicle apps.
I believe whatever troubleshooting steps were done by the second onstar agent may have caused the issue, since they kept saying I've already pushed on over the air update.
Now I'm worried the vehicle status will never update since I see so many similar posts on here. It's a big bummer. You call onstar to switch to a more expensive plan to not only not have it work like you expect it to but then the vehicle status stops updating on the app. I regret ever trying to switch my plan.
To anyone considering the connected vehicle plan with in vehicle apps, confirm your car is compatible first so you don't run into my issue.
Now I'm not sure what to do. Having vehicle status update on the app is very useful and it bums me out that I lost that just because I was trying to switch my onstar plan. It also bums me out it took three onstar agents to tell me the apps are not even compatible with my car and that switching to the connected vehicle plan would mean paying for something I couldn't use. Seems shady.
