If the signal is weak, it probably won't find it. I can get mine when the car is in the garage, but not once I pull it out of the garage. Handheld devices can get a signal outside the garage though.

 

WiFi is normally irrelevant. The updates are sent by GM over a cellular network. So if you are in some cellular dead zone, you can try the internet, but most places are not.

GM appears to stagger it's downloads, as you can see from this thread. So patience is required. Unless of course you car is fairly recent, in which case it might already be up to date.

 

Since your car is inside a garage, chances are that the OnStar signal is blocked, but if you are in a strong cellular signal area, you maybe able to get the car to be connected to cellular if you just open the garage door, and manually trigger the update by going into Settings on the screen. If you can't get any connection, then try to connect to a WiFi host spot. I did mine while the car was parked inside a garage with the garage door open and also connected to my home WiFi. Not sure if the program used cellular or WiFi, since both were available to the car, and the GM manual says it can use both.

If you can't get either cellular or WiFi while the car is parked in the winter storage, you would then have to dive the car out to an open area to at least let it connect to OnStar signal. If you do drive it out to do it, download it first, and then when you are ready to install it, make sure you park the car and not driving it, as in the end of the installation the software needs to shutdown the entire system. Unable to do that due to the car is in the middle of driving, may cause the update to fail - or I should say it most likely will fail, based on a few folks comments here.


To connect to WiFi, just select Settings on the display screen, and then select WiFi, pick the hotspot you wanna to connect, and enter the password. After the WiFi is connected, it actually doesn't show it's connected (not very intuitive, a deficiency in the GM software design), you will need to touch the WiFi hotspot name, and it will have an option for "Disconnect", and with that you know you are connected, and you can start the update download process by going back out from WiFi and select Update inside the Settings.

 

Good point. We're in a weak cellular area. But although my home WiFi is connected it still did not update. I'll try when I have a strong cellular signal on my phone.

Looks like a trivial update anyway so not in a rush!

 

Not to be pedantic, but when you twice talk about the OnStar signal, the implication is that an OnStar account is required. It is not. The signal is sent to all owners regardless via "connected services" that uses cell signals. I think in this case the correct terminology is needed.

 

Agree, it's the terminology confusion. What I meant was not OnStar subscription is required, but using the OnStar satellite signal just like using the cellular, could be one of the options for GM to push down the updates when cellular is not available, because as I said before, in the owner's manual the software update was covered in the OnStar section, saying that once you agreed to OnStar, GM will or can send software updates without telling the car owner. So it's possible (although I could be wrong) that the update service could use any one of the signals from either satellite, WiFi, or cellular - without any subscription from the user, of course.

 

Delivered 09/23/2020 VIN#...08917 - The software update downloaded successfully but then failed to install properly and my screen said to contact the dealer. Got it taken care of today at my dealer. Took an hour and a half. The reason for this fix, Service Bulletin # N202316880, was stated as a Transmission Control Module (TCM) software error / mismatch issue.
Does anyone know what problem(s) / issue(s) the TCM had that required a software repair?

 

Can you look back and see recent OTA updates?..I'm pretty sure the DCT was downloaded but I'd like to make sure.

 

Got the message last week. Left car sitting in driveway as instructed. Went back out half hour later message said “unable to install update - see dealer”. My car was delivered in Sept. 2020. There’s been at least three updates since then. Never had a software update install successfully without seeing dealer. What the %#@$ am I doing wrong.