Problems with my hands-free connection...

[bhelms]

Hi all - hoping someone in the brain trust here can give me some direction with a perplexing problem.

I have an LG-E980 phone that connects via Bluetooth to the "IntelliLink" system in my '14 GMC Sierra. Some weeks back the two won't play nice with each other anymore...I've lost the ability to speak a person's name to initiate a call. When I push the phone button to start I get a message through the speakers "A device is initializing. Content through that device won't be available until initialization is complete..." Then when I say "Call (name)" from my contacts list in the phone I get a reply "Speech command not understood..." This always worked before without the "error" messages. If I speak an actual phone number, it makes the call. I have no issues using the rest of the hands-free phone features once I'm connected, and no issues connecting to an incoming call. All other IntelliLink hands-free features seem to be normal, like operating the sound system. I have tried disconnecting and reconnecting the Bluetooth handshake several times to no avail. I haven't found anything about this in any internet searching. I have yet to contact my GMC dealer or AT&T store. I suspect either will tell me I'll have to do a factory reset on one or both devices but those will wipe-out all my settings and downloads. I'd really like to avoid that if possible! One thing I haven't tried yet is to pair a different phone to the truck.

Any other ideas?

Thanks for your time...!

 

[TheKrell]

I have to think that Intellilink has gone bad in some obscure way. Does the radio still contain the contact list from your phone? On my Chrysler Uconnect system, when I first pair my phone, I have to agree to let it download my contact list. I can imagine that, if your IntelliLink dropped your contact list for some reason, you might see such a symptom. <-- this is my WAG

 

[bhelms]

Thanks for responding. In fact I have no idea! I wasn't aware that the IntelliLink does (or did) that...D/L my contacts, that is. The salesman took care of the first initialization when I bought the truck and frankly I don't recall what all that required. Now when I try to re-pair the 2, it doesn't ask me anything about contacts.

I'll power it up without the phone nearby to see if I can learn anything, then un-pair/re-pair the devices again and pay more attention to what's going on...

 

[TheKrell]

I'll power it up without the phone nearby to see if I can learn anything, then un-pair/re-pair the devices again and pay more attention to what's going on...

This is a good plan. The contact list download is slow enough on my radio that it puts up a message to that effect, even after I authorize it. So maybe you can spot that on your IntelliLink too.

 

[bhelms]

SOLVED! Thanks TheKrell! You nailed it...the phone wanted permission to D/L the missing contact list. I missed this because there was a delay before that screen appears on the phone but IntelliLink already says it's paired, and I had already set the phone aside. Once I pressed "OK", the list seemed to appear almost immediately. There is also a "Don't show this again" box in the permission dialog box that might have been checked before...not sure what that does as far as the D/L is concerned? Also, apparently IntelliLink has a "local" contact list capability that I can load manually, not sure what value that provides...I'd still need a connected phone to make any calls?

Thanks again...!