I don't what i did but on my 2018 Panamera i now can't use my Car Connect App on my phone because the message says that i activation the Privacy Mode on the instrument cluster on my car!!! What the heck is that and how in the world do u deactivate this? What are the steps? Thank in advance for the help ...I really would like to correct this.

 

In dashboard settings (using wheel commands) you find Car Connect enter and then turn off Privacy Mode.

 

Thank you very much,

 

 

I just cannot find it. My 2018 had gone to Privacy Mode last night by itself, and have been clicking through the PCM for a while now and cannot find any privacy controls.

EDIT: it's the Porsche Car Connect App checkbox you must UNCHECK to allow connection to the car. It is just misleading that the My Porsche app talks about Privacy Mode.

 

Mine just randomly reports being in privacy mode (on my phone) when it is not. The next day it connects fine. One of many dozens of bugs I would report if Porsche had any sort of software quality control. Even after the latest update some of my screens report e-range in miles but with the units "km" - says 5mi on one page and 5km on another. Lots of stuff like that.

 

Mine goes into privacy mode all the time. Makes the app kind of useless -- if you park in a lot and the car is in privacy mode, you can't find it. Also getting out of a building and hoping your car is preheated doesn't work either, as if you try to preheat before you leave the car is in privacy mode.

It's a horrible bug. From what I can tell the dealers dont' know how to fix it. Mine just said "seems normal" and didn't want to do anything about it.

Even if you have it turned off completely, the car just randomly decides to go into privacy mode by itself.

 

I haven't noticed the car in privacy mode, just that the app thinks it is, but yeah. Random and annoying. As a data point, for me, it's like once a week.

 

I have also encountered the random "Privacy Mode" issue on my 2022 eHybrid Sport Tourismo. Since my dealer is an hour away, I contacted CUSTOMERSUPPORT@PORSCHE.COM and explained the problem in December, 2023. After 6 weeks, I received a response telling me they had "referred my problem to Germany", eventually instructing me to change settings related to "Services with Tracking".

When I implemented the recommended change, the navigation system ended up being disabled. After a second rather testy inquiry (response about 1 week), Porsche apologetically acknowledged that their actual solution was the opposite of what needed to be done to resolve the problem. Ultimately, I went into the privacy settings on the PCM and made sure that all functions mentioning "Services with Tracking" are turned ON. I also deleted and reinstalled the "My Porsche" app on my android device; The newly installed (1/2024) app software is significantly more refined than the previous version (10/2022). After making these two "updates", I have not encountered the random privacy mode error since making these two changes. I am finding that if you complain enough, especially for those who post their complaints to social media where there is greater marketing impact, eventually you can get these issues resolved.

I think the bottom line here is that while the cars are wonderful, the software sucks. Software is not the forte of the Volkswagen Group products. When reading reviews of the VW ID.4 before our purchase, I found are innumerable reports of buggy software and inept customer support for every VW family product, including Bentley (Google search = "volkswagen software problems"). Among my complaints now is that I was never notified by the app that a newer version My Porsche had been made available. Recently a friend sent me an article outlining misspelled words throughout the PCM warning screens on the newest Porsche products. This is elementary stuff. Those of us from the IT world expect software to have been fully exercised during User Acceptance Test, issues resolved, and interfaces perfected prior to release - especially when it is associated with a $100K+ automobile.

 

Thing is, they are engineers, so you would imagine they could at least get the units correct. Apparently I am getting 300+ miles per kWh, so I should be able to make it to the West Coast on a single charge.