Hi, Folks!

I'm a newbie here, but have participated extensively in other similar forums and thought you would appreciate the information I just discovered.

Have you recently seen an error message pop up on your Volvo infotainment screen that looks like this?


2015-1/2 S60 3g Sunset Error Message

If so, I have discovered an easy fix that seems to work to eliminate the error message repeatedly coming up due to the permanent ending of the 3g wireless system... Neither my local dealer, nor Volvo Corporate knew about this seemingly obvious solution to the problem... Keep in mind that you CAN'T solve it through the error message choices - you MUST exit the message and go into the proper menu area to correct the problem.

I spent a lot of time on the phone with my local dealer, Volvo Corporate (who were no help), and AT&T (referred by Volvo even though I knew they would be unable to help), before I stumbled upon this "fix."

Long story short, You may or may not be aware that the 3G wireless connectivity network that supports remote functions for most auto companies was permanently shut down a few months ago, and most manufacturers spent the last few years developing replacement technology to offer to their customers when this happened, so that their wireless services (like emergency crash notifications, remote-start, remote lock/unlock, etc.) would still function. Volvo apparently "dropped the ball," and was not ready with either the hardware or software when this happened. Unlike some other manufacturers, who offered complementary upgrades, Volvo also has decided to charge their customers close to $1000 when the permanent fix actually is ready. Now, many of their affected customers (if not all of them) are beginning to see error messages, like the one above, come up on their screens repeatedly. I wanted to remove/disable the error message, but my dealer didn't know how to do this. They suggested I call the Corporate help center (knowing that I was likely going to get the run-around from them).

Volvo Corporate (predictably) couldn't help, and suggested that I call AT&T and ask them to remove my VIN number from their system, which they falsely believed would eliminate the problem. I kept trying to explain to them (Volvo) that this would accomplish nothing, as the car would continue to try to connect to a system that has already been permanently shut down. That means (as many of you reading this already know) that the car would never receive any return signal telling it to stop trying to connect. Volvo then suggested that perhaps AT&T could give me an APN code (and sign in credentials) that I could plug into the menu system and deactivate it. Again, I doubted that AT&T could provide me any special code that would be helpful (and I was correct - they had no such "magic code").

While I was on the phone with AT&T, I sat in my 2015-1/2 S60 and navigated through the menus to the area that allows us to input our provider (in this case AT&T) and login info (which I never had, as this used to be my mother-in-law's car). I noticed when I first entered this menu area that the car showed "automatic" detection of the provider and that AT&T was listed as that provider. At some point, I inadvertently caused the menu to change to "Provider = NONE" and, after I exited the menu (and hung up the phone with AT&T because they couldn't help), I noticed that the error message had stopped displaying - it hasn't come back since!!!

THE FIX!
So... the temporary "fix" to stop the error message seems to be to change the listed service provider to "NONE" which causes the car to stop trying to connect to the 3G service. I'm not going to walk you through the steps because there are many different years and models that are affected and they all have different menu systems - there's no guarantee that this will work in every situation, but it seems to be a promising solution to stop the car from repeatedly trying to connect to a now-defunct wireless network.

Obviously, this won't bring back your lost services - Volvo still has to provide a new piece of hardware (and the software to control it) before those services (such as "remote-start" and "remote unlock/lock") will work again. I think it is shameful that they plan to charge a mint for this once it's available - it should be FREE for customers of a luxury brand (and features) that people have already paid a premium to own...

In any case, I hope that this info is helpful to those of you who are just as frustrated as I was when the repeated error message kept coming up! I also hope that the admin will PIN this post, as I suspect that many Volvo owners are going to come here looking for help when Volvo fails to provide them a simple answer.

Regards,
Steve