More info...dealer service manager says they have no idea what I am talking about. Give up with them. Later found from Uconnect that It's actually related to the anti-theft system. Uconnect sends out a signal through sattellite transmission that shuts down the radio until an update can be performed. Uconnect and their staff have no idea what the update does. You as a customer are just supposed to go forward and blindly run the update, not knowing what it does at all. And if your radio is locked like mine is, you cannot as a customer get it fixed yourself. You have to go to a dealer.

Orwellian stuff. Absolutely nuts.

 

There are threads on other ram forums (RAMFORUM) that discuss getting out of the lock. I believe you need to pull the fuse near the master cylinder.
The update is for the GPS week rollover bug that renders the GPS and clock inaccurate.
The thing is with the update that if you are not up to date with 17.x.x firmware already the new 18.45.01 update becomes hit or miss. If you can get out of the lock you need to look into how to locate your current firmware level. If you are not in the 17’s you will need to locate a download specifically for your year and radio model (Check out RAMFORUM).
18.45.01 is a universal update so if you get to the point where you are close to updated (17.x.x firmware) you can download 18.45.01 extract it to a 32 gig USB formatted to FAT32 and do the update yourself. It took my truck about 20 minutes to manually update while driving.
I had to manually update mine because it is a transplanted RA3 from a different truck.

 

If you go to the Uconnect site all the updates are explained what they are for. I have always done the updates with no problems. This last update I was sent a thumb drive in the mail. It explained it was for the GPS location. I updated it with no problem. The update before that was an over the air update. Scheduled it for 3 minutes later and it updated without incident. The updates have added many new features I like and use since my 13 was new.

 

I did all my own updates on my 2013 Ram. Just downloaded the updates from the Uconnect website, and installed them in my truck in less than 30 min..........most of the time anyway.

 

They are probably still here somehow but the board had many threads on problems after running updates. Lots of media play issues that were caused by the updates. Just in my case I've had major problems with bluetooth phone connections after updates, the problem with the transmission lock mentioned in another recent thread, and I remain convinced that the recent TP warning system problems I've had--which I didn't have for 6 years before--are due to a change in an update. They don't tell you what's being updated. They don't even tell Uconnect staff what is being updated.

And IMO it actually makes it worse when Ram points to Uconnect and says that's not us, blame them. Which I've heard from them and dealers.

 

I was sent a one time use usb

 

Me too.

Along with more RAM drama.

So with my truck, here's the new running story.

October/November, get a notice on the radio that I need an update. Cannot find any info on what the update does and don't have time to mess with if for weeks so put if off.

Late november, Ram LOCKS my radio down. Nonfunctional radio, non functional phone bluetooth, and so on.

Calling RAM, that was because I did not perform the update!

What does the update do? It covers Rams A$$ because they had problems with GPS coordinates going wacky.

I do NOT have GPS on my Ram Uconnect system.

Does not matter. Ram forced this update on all trucks of that vintage whether they have GPS or not. Other than fix the GPS issue (that again does NOT affect my truck) Ram dealers and RAM Uconnect staff cannot tell me what the update does despite multiple requests, escalating to supervisors, etc.

I am told the only way to restore my radio function is take it into a dealer. And then perform the update. If I don't, I am told by Uconnect that my radio might be locked again.

So I take it in to a dealer. While waiting to get in we have some bad weather with horrible roads. I have a several hour drive, can't get radio weather updates and can't use bluetooth to call home--white knuckle driving weather, sure would have been nice to use bluetooth!

At the dealers I have to explain to them what Uconnect said. They initially have no idea what I am talking about--no knowledge of a radio being locked, why it happens, what to do about it. I have to tell them what I was told they needed to do.

So they set to work and unlocked the radio. They told me they are not allowed to do that unless they also perform the update, so they did that too.

Just for emphasis--a dealer unlocked my radio and told me they performed the radio update.

Yesterday I get and urgent mailing from RAM.

Open it up and its a warning that trucks with GPS (again, my truck does NOT HAVE GPS!) need to run the update immediately. They enclose a memory stick with which to do so.

I call Uconnect. I ask is this a new update, becasue as you can see (in the past they can always see this remotely) I just had the new update installed a few weeks ago, I say.

No the update was released in October they say, it's important you do it because there are GPS problems it fixes.

My truck does not have GPS I say. And I just was in to a dealer who ran that update--Can you see that I just had that update performed I ask?

No we can't see that, they say.

So how do I get you to note in your system that I have the correct update? Will you lock my truck radio down again I ask? Answer is no.

But you did before I say--that confuses them. RAM doesn't do that I was told at first, and then the answer changes to one I can't make sense of.

Bottom line I had to escalate this, someone is going to contact the dealer I had the service performed at and hopefully call me back to verify that Uconnect has corrected it's records.
That seems to be the only way to insure my radio is not locked via remote signal sent to my truck by RAM Uconnect again.

RAM frequently has tried to separate themselves from Uconnect --i/e "thats them, not us, don't blame us" in calls to them in the past. Maybe it's time they sever that partnership entirely, this is getting ridiculous. By far the most problems I have had with my truck are Uconnect issues.