Sync 4 active SVS service error message

[LarryIT]

I had this same issue. Called the Ford support line and she had me hold down a couple of buttons on the front of the entertainment system to reset the Sync 4 system (I think it was the power button and next button). This did not clear the SVS problem. She said she would escalate the case and someone would call back within 5 business days. In the mean time, I set up scheduled updates after reading some other posts that said that some of the updates will need this on in order for them to download and install (I have not gotten any indication that anything has updated since setting this up). I also noticed that while my truck was sitting in the garage that one fog lamp was on and the other was off. I could turn them both on, but when I shut them off, the one would stay on until the lights timed out. At this point I decided to pull the negative cable off of the battery (and also the one that extends from the negative wire and bolts to the metal in front of the battery). I let it sit for an hour and hooked everything back up. This didn't solve my fog lamp issue. The only thing I can think of is that it turns on because I get very close to stuff sitting in front of that side of the truck and its alerting me to it and turns the light on to show it in dark garage. I unfortunately didn't check the SVS error after connecting the battery back up (I got distracted with other things). Yesterday Ford rep contacted me and said to take it to the service department at the dealer. He would not speculated on the problem and would give no clues to what it was. At that point I decided to check and make sure that the SVS error was still there before scheduling an appointment. The error is gone. Sorry that I don't know what cleared it, but there maybe some clues in things that I did that may help. It may be something like the truck needs to be powered up and back down a few times after resetting the Sync 4 to clear it or maybe removing power for a while did it.

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[PaulGrun]

@LarryIT, scrolling up on this thread, I have this same problem. Still do, its maddening.
For awhile, the guy from @Ford Motor Company seemed interested in helping to resolve it, and offered to "escalate" it to a technical team, aying I should hear from them in a few days. That never happened, and when I asked him about it, he said something about contacting my local service advisor, from whom I have also never heard a thing.
Really, all I wanted to know was:
a) What is an "SVS Service"? and,
b) How do I find it on FordPass / Ford.com in order to terminate it, which is what the message directs me to do.
The guy from @Ford Motor Company hasn't been able to answer either question yet. No surprise, he's apparently nothing more than a social media presence.
I still have the issue, but as of last night my truck ('22 XLT 302A) received its first OTA update, so whatever the issue is, it doesn't seem to be impacting updates.
It's frustrating that Ford doesn't seem to know how to fix its own product, or how to support its customers.
I'm really not too surprised ... Ford is a car company and is pretty much clueless in how to develop a software product, much less update and maintain that product. Someone told me the other day that software now accounts for something like 40% of the cost of a new car, which I can easily believe. One of these days, the car companies are going to have to learn how to do software development, how to do debug and validation, and how to do configuration and revision control. They aren't there yet ... not even close. It might be awhile though ... Microsoft has been in the software business for decades and still doesn't have it right.

 

[LarryIT]

@LarryIT, scrolling up on this thread, I have this same problem. Still do, its maddening.
For awhile, the guy from @Ford Motor Company seemed interested in helping to resolve it, and offered to "escalate" it to a technical team, aying I should hear from them in a few days. That never happened, and when I asked him about it, he said something about contacting my local service advisor, from whom I have also never heard a thing.
Really, all I wanted to know was:
a) What is an "SVS Service"? and,
b) How do I find it on FordPass / Ford.com in order to terminate it, which is what the message directs me to do.
The guy from @Ford Motor Company hasn't been able to answer either question yet. No surprise, he's apparently nothing more than a social media presence.
I still have the issue, but as of last night my truck ('22 XLT 302A) received its first OTA update, so whatever the issue is, it doesn't seem to be impacting updates.
It's frustrating that Ford doesn't seem to know how to fix its own product, or how to support its customers.
I'm really not too surprised ... Ford is a car company and is pretty much clueless in how to develop a software product, much less update and maintain that product. Someone told me the other day that software now accounts for something like 40% of the cost of a new car, which I can easily believe. One of these days, the car companies are going to have to learn how to do software development, how to do debug and validation, and how to do configuration and revision control. They aren't there yet ... not even close. It might be awhile though ... Microsoft has been in the software business for decades and still doesn't have it right.

If you're a daring person you might want to try disconnecting the battery cable for an hour. Nothing bad happened when I did it, but I may have been just lucky. It may go away after the engine is cycled a few times after that.

 

[PaulGrun]

If you're a daring person you might want to try disconnecting the battery cable for an hour. Nothing bad happened when I did it, but I may have been just lucky. It may go away after the engine is cycled a few times after that.

I may try that. What’s so maddening is that Ford customer service is so poor that they can’t be bothered to answer the simple question, “what in god’s name is an SVS Service?”
After reading the plethora of stories related to the F-150’s electronic systems, I’m disinclined to mess around with it. From what I can glean, the systems are pretty fragile.

 

[John Heller]

I had this same issue. Called the Ford support line and she had me hold down a couple of buttons on the front of the entertainment system to reset the Sync 4 system (I think it was the power button and next button). This did not clear the SVS problem. She said she would escalate the case and someone would call back within 5 business days. In the mean time, I set up scheduled updates after reading some other posts that said that some of the updates will need this on in order for them to download and install (I have not gotten any indication that anything has updated since setting this up). I also noticed that while my truck was sitting in the garage that one fog lamp was on and the other was off. I could turn them both on, but when I shut them off, the one would stay on until the lights timed out. At this point I decided to pull the negative cable off of the battery (and also the one that extends from the negative wire and bolts to the metal in front of the battery). I let it sit for an hour and hooked everything back up. This didn't solve my fog lamp issue. The only thing I can think of is that it turns on because I get very close to stuff sitting in front of that side of the truck and its alerting me to it and turns the light on to show it in dark garage. I unfortunately didn't check the SVS error after connecting the battery back up (I got distracted with other things). Yesterday Ford rep contacted me and said to take it to the service department at the dealer. He would not speculated on the problem and would give no clues to what it was. At that point I decided to check and make sure that the SVS error was still there before scheduling an appointment. The error is gone. Sorry that I don't know what cleared it, but there maybe some clues in things that I did that may help. It may be something like the truck needs to be powered up and back down a few times after resetting the Sync 4 to clear it or maybe removing power for a while did it.

I got 2023 f-150 powerboost same problem. It’s been to two different dealers and I have the svs error, connectivity settings are locked and if you try to set up Alexa you get another error message. I tried disconnecting battery under the hood. The powerboost has 2 or 3 batteries. I discovered that disconnecting battery under the hood does not disconnect power on the hybrids. In fact the truck even started with under hood battery disconnect. Dealer contacted ford yesterday. We will see if they have suggestion. Also disconnecting tcu plugs overnight didn’t help.

 

[MLH142]

I bought a 2023 Limited Powerboost a few months ago. I had three episodes of failure to start with the SVS message. I left the truck at the dealer and they gave me a loaner 2023 F150 with power boost and I had one episode of failure to start with that vehicle. Dealership was unable to find any problem with my truck. I have a possible solution that may seem silly but so far it is working. I had several F150s over the years prior to this last one and to start the truck, I would always just quickly punch the starter button. Now I am holding the starter button down for a few seconds and so far so good. I would be interested to know if anyone having the same problem can resolve it by holding the starter button down for a few seconds.

 

[Micho523]

Brining up this old thread to see if anyone has had a confirmed fix for this, and to add some info myself.

I've been helping to troubleshoot someone with this issue currently, and found that this is directly tied to the Ford Secure subscription offered in European countries. The message and lock icon on the top option of the connectivity screen is intended behavior and meant to show that the Ford Secure service is active. For vehicles that are actually meant to have this, the only way to turn it off is on the Ford Owner site or through FordPass. Obviously that won't work for US vehicles because that service is not available and should not come on to begin with.

Digging through the forscan spreadsheets, I found an entry under the TCU that may have the potential to fix this:

TCU
SVS_Capability
754-02-01 *xxx xxxx xx--
1 = Enabled
0 = Disabled

I was thinking to first confirm what the current setting is, then set it to 0 if it is not already. What does the community think about this? @Jesse-Infotainment do you mind weighing in?

 

[Jesse-Infotainment]

you can try that. If it doesnt work you will have to send me the vin and Ill have to look to give you another change to make.

Sometimes this popped up even on trucks that didnt have it enabled.

 

[powerboatr]

Piggy back on what Jessie wrote
And add
Who ever purchased my 21 f250
Has never reset truck in ford pass..
I get email alerts often that truck needs service or asleep. I found out it's in Dallas .
Maybe ford pass or ford owner website needs a deep restore
Go in remove vehicle
In both, wait 24 hrs for mother ship to update. Remove ford pass from your phone completely...then reload app fresh.
Remove ford owner website from your phone and computers. Completely..
Reload truck in both places
Secure alert was disabled last year in ford pass
In truck. Dump all wifi, phones etc
Then reload all
Stray bits and data. Create havoc.

 

[Micho523]

Piggy back on what Jessie wrote
And add
Who ever purchased my 21 f250
Has never reset truck in ford pass..
I get email alerts often that truck needs service or asleep. I found out it's in Dallas .
Maybe ford pass or ford owner website needs a deep restore
Go in remove vehicle
In both, wait 24 hrs for mother ship to update. Remove ford pass from your phone completely...then reload app fresh.
Remove ford owner website from your phone and computers. Completely..
Reload truck in both places
Secure alert was disabled last year in ford pass
In truck. Dump all wifi, phones etc
Then reload all
Stray bits and data. Create havoc.

I did find that SecuriAlert and Ford Secure are not the same, but your advice is still solid.

 

[powerboatr]

Also
Last year Jessie helped me resolve an obstacle detection issue passenger side front
A dtc was hung up and took several resets to clear.
It was caused my removing my active air dam actuators.
Hence truck got confused
Have you run dtcs?? With forscan or similar
Hope it helps

 

[Micho523]

Also
Last year Jessie helped me resolve an obstacle detection issue passenger side front
A dtc was hung up and took several resets to clear.
It was caused my removing my active air dam actuators.
Hence truck got confused
Have you run dtcs?? With forscan or similar
Hope it helps

I am helping remote. The owner has taken it to 3 dealers that all have said they have no clue and would need to have an FSE look at it. He's ordering the adapter to run forscan today.

 

[powerboatr]

Random thought
Did selling dealer install a tracker thing for use in repossession? Many have been putting them in as a way to protect lender and often without buyers knowledge?
Could be nothing...but truck seems to be seeing an alert for a security issue??

 

[PaulGrun]

Brining up this old thread to see if anyone has had a confirmed fix for this, and to add some info myself.

I've been helping to troubleshoot someone with this issue currently, and found that this is directly tied to the Ford Secure subscription offered in European countries. The message and lock icon on the top option of the connectivity screen is intended behavior and meant to show that the Ford Secure service is active. For vehicles that are actually meant to have this, the only way to turn it off is on the Ford Owner site or through FordPass. Obviously that won't work for US vehicles because that service is not available and should not come on to begin with.

In my case, the issue disappeared as quietly and mysteriously as it first appeared, no thanks whatsoever to @Ford Motor Company
Purely out of curiosity, how did you come to the conclusion that it’s tied to the Ford secure subscription and that it’s European only? I never even got ad far as discovering what an “SVS Service” is, much less how to stop it on either FordPass or Ford.com.
Sure sounds like you’re on the right track though.

 

[Micho523]

In my case, the issue disappeared as quietly and mysteriously as it first appeared, no thanks whatsoever to @Ford Motor Company
Purely out of curiosity, how did you come to the conclusion that it’s tied to the Ford secure subscription and that it’s European only? I never even got ad far as discovering what an “SVS Service” is, much less how to stop it on either FordPass or Ford.com.
Sure sounds like you’re on the right track though.

it was discussed in the FordPass forums that were opened to USA early access members recently. Previously that forum was Europe only. A Ford Europe rep was discussing the Ford Secure service.

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