[gieso]

When my free OnStar account expired a couple of years ago, I let it lapse even though I really liked VoltStats. GM did not offer the free "Basic" OnStar at the time.

Recently, my dealer provided me with free Basic OnStar for another three years. I was hoping that VoltStats would again begin gathering my data, but it appears that it doesn't. I did re-authorize the VoltStats account a few days ago, but no data is being collected from my Volt.

Is VoltStats working for anyone else that reinstated an expired OnStar account?

 

[LANMAN]

VoltStats worked again for my 2012 after about a 9 month lapse, before I heard about the free basic OnStar. It was about a year ago, but I don't remember having any problem getting it running again after reauthorizing.

 

[Ziv]

I was on Voltstats for nearly 3 years then lost my membership when my lease ended. I was offered a free basic onstar membership and it took two tries but I got re-entered into Voltstats and it seems to work pretty well.
775 mpg, plus $15 of electricity every month, gets me where I need to go!

http://www.voltstats.net/Stats/Details/3381

 

[2VoltFamily]

I did not think that the new version of free basic service comes with stats. I thought is was only the Remote Keyfob funtions that would work. I stopped caring about the stats when OnStar mixed up my 2 Volts and they never were right again. However, if others are getting stats with the Basic service perhaps you should persist.

 

[wordptom]

I did not think that the new version of free basic service comes with stats. I thought is was only the Remote Keyfob funtions that would work. I stopped caring about the stats when OnStar mixed up my 2 Volts and they never were right again. However, if others are getting stats with the Basic service perhaps you should persist.

I suspect that any valid OnStar account, including the Free Basic Plan, will provide the data to those user websites such as myvolt.com, mychevrolet.com, and voltstats.net. The free Basic Plan allows access only to the key fob portions of the app, but when I obtained it just over a year ago, it included a 3-month free trial of an upgraded plan that allowed access to the Vehicle Status portion of the app.

My original OnStar service on my 2012 Volt expired in April 2015. When I heard about the free Basic plan in the late Fall, I called and set it up in December 2015. Once I reauthorized my Volt, my Voltstats stats have been updating since then, including lifetime numbers (e.g., total miles, total ev miles, ev%, MPGcs).

I note that the voltdailydata download from voltstats includes data from the date I first registered my Volt to the current date, with an 8-9 month gap between the date my original service ended and the date of renewal.

 

[freshcut]

Voltstats does work fine with the free basic plan. When I purchased mine used, I called onstar about a week after I got the car. They set me up with 3 free months of everything with the balance of the remaining 3 years as "free basic". I still retained the onstar app fob function, as well as the ability to send directions to in dash nav. On the web portion of myvolt, I have access to energy/mileage stats as well as regular daily updates to my voltstats account and still get the monthly status emails. Aside from not being able to get the actual range, tire pressures, etc on the app, everything else seems to work with the free basic. If I recall, it took a couple days for voltstats to actually start acquiring data, but definitely by the 3rd day I was showing newly reported information.

 

[gieso]

It looks like it is just me. VoltStats is still not working. I have re-authorized again. I will wait a few cycles to see if I start to get new data.

I do get the data report emails from OnStar again including the data as well as the mobile app data sections, just no VoltStats.

 

[hellsop]

VoltStats for me updates (on average, not consistently) one day in three. I get (again, on average, not consistently) 4 or 5 "monthly" reports from OnStar per year. There doesn't seem to be any fixing this, but overall it's enough to keep looking occasionally, but nothing to RELY on.

 

[TSquare]

VoltStats for me updates (on average, not consistently) one day in three. I get (again, on average, not consistently) 4 or 5 "monthly" reports from OnStar per year. There doesn't seem to be any fixing this, but overall it's enough to keep looking occasionally, but nothing to RELY on.

How is your cell signal where your car is parked? My Voltstats updates twice a day everyday. The only missing data is when Onstar is down at the head end.

 

[hellsop]

How is your cell signal where your car is parked? My Voltstats updates twice a day everyday. The only missing data is when Onstar is down at the head end.

Heh. That is indeed a likely factor. It's potentially terrible: the car lives in a heated underground parking space with at least a foot of reinforced concrete around everything, and while I get t-Mobile coverage down there, I've got no idea what the CDMA signal looks like. I do end up driving around for at least two and often as many as four short (10-30 minute) trips a day (you can see why a Volt and a Level 2 charger are an excellent combination for me), they don't seem to be LONG enough for OnStart to notice most of the time. For example, last long trip out was a grocery run to the warehouse store I like on Monday night. It's 10 miles each way, and I was parked outside for at least 40 minutes while shopping, but the last update is still from the 18th until this morning I peeked and now the last update is 21st at 1:30 PM. Which was totally NOT when the car was out. Did it just happen to catch a signal to poll the car in the basement? Maybe. Does that time have anything to do with when the car was actually polled? Who knows? Does it matter? Not to me, since I consider it only reliable in aggregate and/or over longer terms than "daily".

And there's still the matter of the "monthly" diagnostics showing up about one month in three. The last one I got was for December, and the one before that was October, then July. (Those I keep; they don't take up much folder room.)

 

[msujdog]

Recently my OnStar service expired. I'm now on the "limited" 3 year plan where I can only remote start and unlock with the app.

Soon after, I got an email from VoltStats that I needed to reauthorize. When I log into Onstar to do so, I consistently get this error when I enter my credentials:

Internal Server Error

The authorization server encountered an unexpected condition that prevented it from fulfilling the request. Subsequent requests may succeed.

 

[TSquare]

Heh. That is indeed a likely factor. It's potentially terrible: the car lives in a heated underground parking space with at least a foot of reinforced concrete around everything, and while I get t-Mobile coverage down there, I've got no idea what the CDMA signal looks like. I do end up driving around for at least two and often as many as four short (10-30 minute) trips a day (you can see why a Volt and a Level 2 charger are an excellent combination for me), they don't seem to be LONG enough for OnStart to notice most of the time. For example, last long trip out was a grocery run to the warehouse store I like on Monday night. It's 10 miles each way, and I was parked outside for at least 40 minutes while shopping, but the last update is still from the 18th until this morning I peeked and now the last update is 21st at 1:30 PM. Which was totally NOT when the car was out. Did it just happen to catch a signal to poll the car in the basement? Maybe. Does that time have anything to do with when the car was actually polled? Who knows? Does it matter? Not to me, since I consider it only reliable in aggregate and/or over longer terms than "daily".

And there's still the matter of the "monthly" diagnostics showing up about one month in three. The last one I got was for December, and the one before that was October, then July. (Those I keep; they don't take up much folder room.)

Apparently VoltStats only gets to gather data twice a day. Mine happens between 2 & 3AM and again between 2 & 3PM. If VoltStats thru Onstar can't connect during those windows it doesn't try again until the next window. When I had my Gen 1, the cell service was thru Verizon, but now my Gen 2 uses AT&T.
The monthly diagnostics report should be coming in every month. Onstar only polls the car once a month (only when the car is on), but it seems to still get it even if the car has been off for several days during the polling window. I think, in the four years that I have had a Volt, I may have missed only one report.
(Maybe you are just too close to Canada and their Onstar issues).

 

[hellsop]

Apparently VoltStats only gets to gather data twice a day. Mine happens between 2 & 3AM and again between 2 & 3PM. If VoltStats thru Onstar can't connect during those windows it doesn't try again until the next window. When I had my Gen 1, the cell service was thru Verizon, but now my Gen 2 uses AT&T.

Yup. VoltStats polls OnStar twice a day, AND doesn't update the run date in the stats for that car if there's no new information from OnStar. I doubt that OnStar is pulling data on-demand from the cars for that information live, so it's probably more like "Car calls OnStar after it's been idle for some period of time to report in" and I haven't been leaving the car out where the CDMA signal is available long enough. During most of those short trips, the car isn't off or isn't off terribly long, so if it waits for 30 minutes of power-off time to report unprompted, then there might not be a long enough time parked outside that basement to get more than 2-3 status reports filed by the car to OnStar per week.

The monthly diagnostics report should be coming in every month. Onstar only polls the car once a month (only when the car is on), but it seems to still get it even if the car has been off for several days during the polling window. I think, in the four years that I have had a Volt, I may have missed only one report.
(Maybe you are just too close to Canada and their Onstar issues).

I'm certainly a little further than cell signal -- And GM's headquarters is probably closer to Canadian soil than I am.