Out of the blue all paid feature of the infotainment system of my Skoka Superb stopped working and required activation key.
SmartLink (called VW Connect or Seat Full Link) showed me:
You can activate the function by means of an activation key. Please contact your dealer.
Mobile telephone pairing didn't work, Bluetooth was out (Unable to switch on Bluethooth), voice control was not active, and navigation gave me:
The navigation data in the infotainment system is not valid. Please check data.
In the System menu, all Installed Codes were showing as Invalid
Fixing broken Smart Link activation
Rebooting infotainment system didn't help, official dealer said to come in one month and will change 185 euros only to diagnose the problem and most probably I would need to replace infotainment unit.
So I started to fix it myself:
Update Infotainment Enit Software
- Press and hold menu button for 3 seconds to get to the system menu
- Go to Software Updates section
- Remember your Installed SW train version, in my case it was MHI2_ER_SKG11_P2104_1
- Go to https://mib-helper.com/
- Search for MHI2_ER_SKG11_P2104_1
- Go to 2. Latest available firmware updates: section and look for Latest official firmware update, for me it was MHI2_ER_SKG11_K3343
- Go to https://mibsolution.one/ (login: guest, password: guest)
- Go to MQB_Solution folder and search for MHI2_ER_SKG11_K3343
- Download 7zip archive MHI2_ER_SKG11_K3343.7z and extract all files to SD card formatted in FAT32
- Insert SD card in the the infotainment system (SD slot in a glovebox)
- Press menu for 3 seconds -> Software Update -> Update -> SD card
- Press Update and wait (it will take around 30 minutes to install updates)
First, try if CarPlay/Android Auto is working, if not, it's time to hack your infotainment unit (at your own risk)
Installing MIB and Patching Infotainment Unit
M.I.B. is a third party toolbox that let you customize and patch your infotainment unit. Depending on your unit, you might need to use some other toolbox (for example MIB2 High toolbox)
- Go to Mr-MIBonk/M.I.B._More-Incredible-Bash: M.I.B. - More Incredible Bash - The Army knife for Harman MIB 2.x aka MHI2(Q) units
- Download the whole repo (press green Code button -> Download zip)
- Extract content of zip file to a formatted (FAT32) SD card.
- Insert SD card in the the infotainment system (SD slot in a glovebox)
- Press menu for 3 seconds -> Software Update -> Update -> SD card
- Press Update and wait (it will take around 10 minutes to install toolbox)
Now you can explore the toolbox by accessing it via system menu (hold menu button for 3 seconds)
Time to install patch to activate SmartLink:
- Go to https://mibsolution.one/ -> M.I.B. folder
- Download 20230926_M.I.B_Patches
.7z and extract it - Now, look for folder that matched your installed train version with _PATCH suffix, in my case it was MHI2_ER_SKG11_K3343_PATCH
- Copy content of that folder on the SD card inside /patches folder (without formatting the card)
- Insert SD card in the the infotainment system (SD slot in a glovebox)
- Open M.I.B. toolbox (via the system menu) and go to Patch IFS-Root-AIO
- Press Flash patched image and wait
- Then do add_feccontainer.dec
- And after carplay_activation
After few reboots everything should work as before. Good luck!