I see your OTA's have been coming through consistently recently.....that's obviously good. I also see 2.8.3 has failed numerous times due to low battery conditions. Yes, maintenance free would be the right setting. You just gotta keep trying. It's taken some folks over 20 tires before it sticks. PITA, I know, but at least you're getting updates.

 

The very LEAST they can do is give people updating their owns trucks a free FDRS license.

 

Thank you for saying this Rugedraw. As near as i can tell after my own (fruitless) adventures with this "official" Ford account, it is a mere paper tiger with no ability to accomplish anything. It is apparently run by the marketing group for the purpose of placating the restless masses (us) on social media.
I too received one of these invitations to "send my VIN" (totally different issue) which after much offline back and forth eventually produced a commitment to "escalate the issue to our technical escalation team" (something like that) and a promise that I would "hear from them in a few days", which predictably never happened.
Eventually, I reached back out to "Michael" (I think that was the name), who after more back and forth told me that "my local SM had been alerted" and I should contact him. But no response when I asked what happened to the promised response from the "technical escalation team".
All I needed was someone to interpret a mysterious message on my Sync4 screen about an "active SVS Service" and how to find out how to "stop the task using either the FordPass app or my Ford.com account" as directed by the mystery Sync4 message. Given that my local SM never returned my calls on other issues, as promised, I didn't bother spending any more time with this one (which mysteriously disappeared after the 3.5.2 update (2022 XLT).
in reading through several other similarly detailed threads as this one ("shuddering at 50 mph in 7th gear") and others, I saw this same behavior by @Ford over and over again - but never ever saw anything ever come of it. And you KNOW that the folks on these threads would have said so in a NY minute if something had come out of it. Near as I can tell, all these requested VINs went into a black hole. Based case, near as I can tell is that they are building a database to spot trends with these trucks. But even that seems unlikely.
As I said, a paper tiger intended as an opiate for the masses. Hopefully they're not just collecting VINs of us problem children.
As you and others noted, its amazing how much a determined community of internet strangers has been able to accomplish with the help of dedicated technonerds like @Jesse_Infotainment, @Livinitup and others.

 

I just posted last week that it took me 9 tries to get that OTA to go thru. Just keep at it.

 

Until the "CoolWalk" update rolls out for Android Auto from Google, the sidebar can't be resized to go full screen map (or other app). They said it would be here by summer, but....

 

I don't have a question... just passing along this info for another data point for those trying to see where other updates are landing:

I received 3.5.2 on Oct 9. Previous update was 2.8.3 on July 7.

FWIW, I didn't get notified via my FordPass app of the 2.8.3 update. Last update notification in FordPass was 2.8.1 on July 2.

 

i asked the same thing to the person on the phone a couple months back when i had an open ticket for all this. im not looking for reimbursement for the mongoose....but gimme that fdrs license and you wont have to hear from me again on any of these related matters. they didn't seem interested.

 

I gotta agree with Ford on this one. People can *REALLY* mess up their trucks with FDRS (or Forscan) if they don't know what they're doing. I think a better approach would be a consumer focused software update application specifically focus on USB updates as a backup/alternative for OTA updates. It could include some other basic consumer oriented stuff like viewing trouble codes, service history, etc...

 

Yes, I agree that you can mess things up with FDRS. However, let's be honest: Ford's phone number is not going to be ringing off the with thousands of people calling in asking for FDRS licenses. It's going to be maybe 100-200 of us here in the forums that got impatient, educated ourselves on the process, got help from Jesse or whomever and did the deed.

I've never been able to find out just how many Job 1 trucks Ford built, but I always wonder how many people are out there that aren't on the forums and/or aren't aware of the OTA issues they have. I talk to my former sales colleagues in the Ford store I used to work at and they say most people that bought these trucks never cared about BC and never complain that they don't have it when they see them again during the ownership experience. They tell me one random guy will walk in there a month asking about the BC they were promised, and they send them to service to get updated and never hear from them again. That's why once or twice a month following this thread, you'll see one random new member pop up asking about OTA's. I think the reason Ford doesn't care is because most people are not complaining about it. Sometimes, ignorance is bliss, I guess.

 

Dealer technicians that are supposedly trained to use FDRS are having more issues with applying updates than DIY owners though. And since FDRS logs prompt responses now, you can see why. I feel like they'd have fewer calls overall if owners could do it on their own as it would reduce calls from dealerships.