Uconnect 8.4/Radio issues

So.. I had a notification popup last night that I had an update available for my 2017 RAM Uconnect 8.4 right as I was turning off my vehicle... I powered the truck off, and then re-started it... and had a popup that said "update failed - see dealer", but when I cleared that message, the previous "update available" message was still there, so I chose "update now" and waited with the car in ACC mode for like 15 min, but nothing happened...

Anyway.. wen't about my business, came home, turned off the truck, and the Uconnect screen/radio stayed powered on for like 60 sec, even after opening the door and leaving the vehicle... so that was odd..

I followed the instructions I found to re-boot the Uconnect system, and that solved the problem with Unconnect staying on after the door opens... but now I have the opposite problem..

When I park and turn the vehicle off, the Uconnect/radio immediately powers off, even before I open my door. It's supposed to stay on in delayed accessory mode until I open the door.

I didn't get the update, so I was planning on downloading and installing it manually once I find a big enough USB drive that's over 4gb as stated in the instructions online... I have a 16gb USB drive but it was corrupted, and don't want to chance it..

Thoughts on doing the update manually? It is available for download, and the instructions are pretty clear...

Lots of people have been doing the update manually, see here: https://www.ramforum.com/threads/ro...sw-update-13-17-ra3-vp3-na-ra4-vp4-na.150150/

It seems pretty safe, I dont think Ive seen one brick from the manual update.

I manually updated mine with zero issues.

chrisbh17 said:

Lots of people have been doing the update manually, see here: https://www.ramforum.com/threads/ro...sw-update-13-17-ra3-vp3-na-ra4-vp4-na.150150/

It seems pretty safe, I dont think Ive seen one brick from the manual update.

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Thanks for that! I read the TSB, and obviously my experience wasnt how the OTA upgrade was supposed to go lol..

I will have to give the manual update a go and see if it fixes things.

I have a 2016 crew cab 6.4 bed Laramie Was at the dealer today to have the radio changed for the forth time in my truck. This last radio could not connect to uconnect so they had to yank it out only after four months of being installed. The problem is they keep putting in refurbished radios, that are not repaired correctly at all .Taken from one truck and put in my truck with their problem. WHY the hell is Ram installing used parts in my 56,000 truck. This is why I had 4 radios in my Ram with countless hours of dealing with all their bull at the dealer. Also my Ram truck only has 15,000 miles on it. They are doing something wrong here.

madtrucker2016 said:

I have a 2016 crew cab 6.4 bed Laramie Was at the dealer today to have the radio changed for the forth time in my truck. This last radio could not connect to uconect so they had to yank it out only after four months of being installed. The problem is they keep putting in refurbished radios, that are not repaired correctly at all .Taken from one truck and put in my truck with their problem. WHY the hell is Ram installing used parts in my 56,000 truck. This is why I had 4 radios in my Ram with countless hours of dealing with all their bull at the dealer. Also my Ram truck only has 15,000 miles on it. They are doing something wrong here.

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My guess is the issue isnt the radio(s) at all. Something about Einstein's theory of insanity....

If you are PAYING for Uconnect and it wont connect, thats one thing. But honestly being completely off UConnects radar is NOT A BAD THING.

What features are you missing, or are you OCD like me and just cant sleep at night if it doesnt work like it should?

chrisbh17 said:

My guess is the issue isnt the radio(s) at all. Something about Einstein's theory of insanity....

If you are PAYING for Uconnect and it wont connect, thats one thing. But honestly being completely off UConnects radar is NOT A BAD THING.

What features are you missing, or are you OCD like me and just cant sleep at night if it doesnt work like it should?

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Well first off Uconnect could not communicate at all with my truck .Had a Tec for one hour and forty five mins. on the phone trying all his bag of tricks to talk to my Radio system and it would not happen. He told me the radio is NFG so you think I got nothing better to do then chase down a stupid radio for fun . My dealer looked at it and said the same thing. my point is that they keep putting in **** radios that had problems in someones Ram truck into my truck. For the money it cost for the truck they should install a new in the box radio. Then maybe I wouldn't have to spend hours and hours dealing with assholes

Suggest they try one of your "broken" radios in another vehicle and see if it works.

Or vice versa...pull a known good out of another truck and try it in yours.

Could be something stupid simple like a broken or not connected antenna in which case no matter what radio they use wont work.

IIRC 2016 and earlier have one more connection than 2017 radios, they need to make sure they are using the correct year and connections.

chrisbh17 said:

Suggest they try one of your "broken" radios in another vehicle and see if it works.

Or vice versa...pull a known good out of another truck and try it in yours.

Could be something stupid simple like a broken or not connected antenna in which case no matter what radio they use wont work.

IIRC 2016 and earlier have one more connection than 2017 radios, they need to make sure they are using the correct year and connections.

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Do you know what your talking about its apart not a lets see if it works in another guys truck. That is not how a repair shop at a Ram dealer works. Its called change the part and if it does not work we will order you another one.

chrisbh17 said:

Suggest they try one of your "broken" radios in another vehicle and see if it works.

Or vice versa...pull a known good out of another truck and try it in yours.

Could be something stupid simple like a broken or not connected antenna in which case no matter what radio they use wont work.

IIRC 2016 and earlier have one more connection than 2017 radios, they need to make sure they are using the correct year and connections.

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Or how about they are putting used radios in my truck you think that has nothing to do with it . are you for real

madtrucker2016 said:

Or how about they are putting used radios in my truck you think that has nothing to do with it . are you for real

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Heh Im on your side.

I honestly dont think they could find 4 used radios in a row that dont work just because they dont work.

Thats why have them try it the radio they are calling bad a truck that has everything else verified as working, so if the radio they gave you goes in and doesnt work, sure, its a bad radio. But if it goes in and magically starts working, there is something else on your truck that they need to fix, NOT the radio. Ive swapped out the radio in my truck in about 10 minutes, so they really shouldn't have a problem with the "work" involved of at least trying to troubleshoot if its a non-radio issue.

I agree they should be ordering a brand new one, but obviously they arent going to. Any other dealers you can try? Maybe try getting RAMCares involved?

First Let me explain the radio is a Nav 8.4 radio . when the radio is ordered from the dealer for the replacement all the parameters are taken from my radio and put into the replacement at their repair supplier. My XM radio info my uconnect info, Map updates and so on so each radio is custom to match the specific Ram truck its going into. It is unique to the vehicle. So you cant just put any radio in any Ram truck to answer your question as to why they don't put it in another persons Ram truck to check it. would you let them do that to your property? I don't think so I know for one I wouldn't let them take my truck apart to check another customers radio. But that wouldn't work anyway .My whole thing is Ram is doing it wrong by installing used parts in my truck. this is the only part I know that Ram uses that is not new. WHY is that? Also what about my time hours and hours dealing with their failures with the 4 radios and the money it has cost the company. But they don't care because they just will make the next year Rams a higher cost to the Truck buyers ,because of this.

madtrucker2016 said:

First Let me explain the radio is a nav 8.4 radio . when the radio is ordered from the dealer for the replacement all the parameters are taken from my radio and put into the replacement at their repair supplier. My XM radio info my uconnect info, Map updates and so on so each radio is custom to match the specific Ram truck its going into. It is unigue to the vehicle

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Do the XM and nav functions still work?

The interesting thing is that your radio functions like a radio that has been swapped from its original vehicle to different one. I put an RA4 into my truck (which originally had an RA3) and now UConnect no longer updates the mileage on my Mopar dashboard, health report email, no OTA notifications, etc. I have not tried but I would guess that my radio, just like the ones they are swapping into your truck, will no longer connect to the UConnect service(s) either.

Which supports your theory they are using "used" radios. But if they cant figure out how to somehow get the used radio "encoded" with your info so that it works correctly, Im not sure a brand new one would work either. 4 tries and they still dont have it, I would wonder if there is some other configuration the dealer needs to do once the radio is actually in the truck.

tonybrown32 said:

Thanks for that! I read the TSB, and obviously my experience wasnt how the OTA upgrade was supposed to go lol..

I will have to give the manual update a go and see if it fixes things.

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Just an update to my original post... I performed the 18.45.01 update manually last night on my 2017 RAM 1500. Took about 25-30 min, and a couple of the pop up screens didn't look exactly like what was described in the instructions/documentation but it all went just fine. No issues so far, and my radio now stays on again when I turn off the vehicle, and stays on until I open the door, just like it used to... so appears the update got things back to normal.

chrisbh17 said:

Do the XM and nav functions still work?

The interesting thing is that your radio functions like a radio that has been swapped from its original vehicle to different one. I put an RA4 into my truck (which originally had an RA3) and now UConnect no longer updates the mileage on my Mopar dashboard, health report email, no OTA notifications, etc. I have not tried but I would guess that my radio, just like the ones they are swapping into your truck, will no longer connect to the UConnect service(s) either.

Which supports your theory they are using "used" radios. But if they cant figure out how to somehow get the used radio "encoded" with your info so that it works correctly, Im not sure a brand new one would work either. 4 tries and they still dont have it, I would wonder if there is some other configuration the dealer needs to do once the radio is actually in the truck.

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Your synopses does not work here simply because have been at two different Ram truck dealerships. So again your just talking out of your hat. Dealing with this problem I think I know a lot more then you about the radio . And as for your problem with uconnect you have to get them on the phone with your Vin: number and they will register your truck to you that's how that goes a simple phone call by you and your done.

madtrucker2016 said:

Your synopses does not work here simply because have been at two different Ram truck dealerships. So again your just talking out of your hat. Dealing with this problem I think I know a lot more then you about the radio . And as for your problem with uconnect you have to get them on the phone with your Vin: number and they will register your truck to you that's how that goes a simple phone call by you and your done.

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OK.

Good luck, keep us posted with the fix (if they ever fix it).

tonybrown32 said:

Just an update to my original post... I performed the 18.45.01 update manually last night on my 2017 RAM 1500. Took about 25-30 min, and a couple of the pop up screens didn't look exactly like what was described in the instructions/documentation but it all went just fine. No issues so far, and my radio now stays on again when I turn off the vehicle, and stays on until I open the door, just like it used to... so appears the update got things back to normal.

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My new radio came from Ram with the new update already installed it was 18:43:01 I think you have a RA3 8.4 radio that's why your update is different on the numbers or your truck has no bumper sensor,s on it

Ra3 manual upgrade failed


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Sorry, i thought my last post was just the topic...haha...
Curious if anyone has tried the upgrade manually, only to have it fail. I’ve tried 20+ times to do the manual upgrade with different variations...truck on, truck off, different USBs, called Uconnect, did a soft reset, done hard resets, disconnected the batteries, etc...I always get the same message after it freezes around the 72% mark...took it to the dealer, they worked on it for a day and said my radio was “toast”. They said I needed a new one at @$1900...I asked the service writer why I have to pay for a new radio when mine was working fine until o tried the upgrade. He agreed but said it wasn’t his call and said I have to contact Chrysler myself. Anyone have any ideas? Any info would be great? I’m gonna at least pull the radio and make sure all the wires are connected. I’ll attach the pictures of the screen I get. It’s a total bummer. I can’t control my AC, or use my backup camera, not to mention Bluetooth and just the regular radio...thanks for your time!


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cmtaillon said:

Sorry, i thought my last post was just the topic...haha...
Curious if anyone has tried the upgrade manually, only to have it fail. I’ve tried 20+ times to do the manual upgrade with different variations...truck on, truck off, different USBs, called Uconnect, did a soft reset, done hard resets, disconnected the batteries, etc...I always get the same message after it freezes around the 72% mark...took it to the dealer, they worked on it for a day and said my radio was “toast”. They said I needed a new one at @$1900...I asked the service writer why I have to pay for a new radio when mine was working fine until o tried the upgrade. He agreed but said it wasn’t his call and said I have to contact Chrysler myself. Anyone have any ideas? Any info would be great? I’m gonna at least pull the radio and make sure all the wires are connected. I’ll attach the pictures of the screen I get. It’s a total bummer. I can’t control my AC, or use my backup camera, not to mention Bluetooth and just the regular radio...thanks for your time!


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Click to expand...

Call uConnect customer service and explain what happened. They should be able to give you a reference/case number to take to the dealer so that's it's covered by uConnect.
Also reach out to the @RamCares forum rep and get them involved.

M² Mods.