Smartphone apps may conflict with an in-vehicle technology system, such as Ford Sync. This conflict may affect your ability to access your phone’s contacts when using voice commands. In this “tech workshop” we will cover some solutions.

Sometimes when you try to use the Ford Sync system to make a hands-free call and the hands-free system may reply: “Calling point on cell…”, the Bluetooth system will go to the first alphabetical contact on the phone and start . making the phone call. This can be frustrating, but it seems that the problem is not caused by the synchronization system, but by your phone and the apps you are using.

With the increasing number of smartphone users, there seems to be more and more “issues” when it comes to using Bluetooth-accessible systems like the Ford Sync System.

With the increasing number of smartphone users, there seems to be a problem that a user cannot access their phone book contacts. Even though the phone has been successfully paired and the phone book has been “downloaded” to the system, you still cannot make the call.

For example, in the Ford Sync system, when you press the voice button on the steering wheel and say “Phone”. The system responds: “Phone, enter your command.” Then you say, “Call John Smith on his cell.” The synchronization system can respond with “Cell Point on Cellular”. He then calls the first name listed in his phone book. What’s happening?

One thing you should do is open your contact list and check that all names are entered on the Name line only. Also, be sure to put the person’s last name on the Last Name line. Then enter your phone number in the box that matches the phone source, such as Home, Mobile, or Work. Automated systems like the Ford Sync System cannot “find” a last name if it does not appear in the box to the right. So please enter your information in the correct data fields.

This new problem is related to software applications. At least one smartphone app allows you to add emoticons (like smiley faces, etc.) to your text messages or to your smartphone contacts. The problem is that even a smiley (or, for that matter, punctuation marks and weird symbols used in phonebook data fields) will corrupt your phonebook to the point that the Sync system can’t interpret any of the names. of your contacts.

Solution: Do not use this application with the contacts in your phone book. If it does, then you cannot rely on any Bluetooth hands-free system to “find” the name of the contact. You would have to manually dial your contact on your phone while driving, and this defeats the whole purpose of Bluetooth hands-free systems. Or, you can delete the app from your phone and go back and edit the smileys, logos, illustrations, symbols, punctuation, etc. that you put in your phone book.

Once you have removed the superfluous data from your phone’s contact list, you may need to reset your phone. This is usually done by completely powering off the phone for about a minute and then restarting it. For a phone, like the iPhone, you may want to do what’s called a “soft reset.” Here is a quick video link on a soft reset for the iPhone.