For the past few weeks my Skoda Scala Infotainment unit has been prompting me to do updates. Almost everyday I get the prompt to do an update. I only get the one prompt in a day.

I believe the procedure is to park, accept the update, turn off the ignition, exit the car and lock it. I think some updates only apply when you next start the car. Searching the web suggested several different ways to get the updates to "Action"

A couple of days ago I discovered that notifications may show what is going on. Yesterday I had a notification that updates had been made and today notification that different updates were made.

I rung my Skoda dealer service dept last week and after asking someone else "downstairs" suggested they would only update if you left the ignition on and parked the car. I asked how do I do that securly and they said have you got a garage........

As yesterdays and todays updates are for different things is this correct? am I following the correct procedure? Should I take my car back for them to look at. Not sure the dealer knows much about this sort of thing.

Is Skoda really sending out this many updates?

Any Advice?

Thanks

Two days of small updates which according to notifications updated and then yesterday a big one of 7 items which meant I had the message Unable to start Background System Services so drove home without satnav, parked car and checked notifications and it said Application updating, didn't complete for hours, checked this morning and after starting the car everything was updated - till the next time.

Has no one else had these over the air updates pushed to their car?

Hi
I've been having the same messages to update, but didn't know how to do it. What is the correct procedure?
My Scala is a used 2022 car without any subscriptions - will it still update using the method you describe, do you know?
Thanks

I have a subscription but don't think that makes a difference with OTA system updates.

Difficult for me to say if the procedure will work for you, has your car got the built in satnav? If I get the update message and am on my way home, I leave it on the screen until I get home, park with auto in "P" and with the engine running click update now, then turn the car off exit and lock. Some of these updates look like they would update when you are driving and some only when you are parked up. When you get the update message you can also pull down notifications to see about the update. If you get a prompt for more info you can only look at the extra information about the update when you are parked.

The next time you start the car, wait a couple of minutes and look at notifications to see if the update has worked.

Yesteday it wanted to do another 7 updates, the biggest seemed to take several hours when I was parked and then today with another 2! I also got a message yesterday saying "Unable to start background system services" and the infotainment screen stayed blank while the big update was running!!

Just come off the phone to Skoda Chester who were not much help but if it carries on after the weekend send them some photos of what is happening.

Good Luck.

Thanks
So far I've tried the 'More Info' option when moving (no go) and also when stationary, but when I press the button the screen goes away and nothing seems to happen. Also tried the Update button when moving and stationary, without obvious result. But I haven't seen the message for a few days, so perhaps something has happened!

M

It has to be in "P" if it is an automatic, no idea if manual. Maybe try with engine off and ignition on. I find when I stop the engine and touch somthing quickly on the screen ignition stays on. When getting in the car just press the start button without your foot on the brake.

My Scala car is still prompting " application updates available " almost every day, I have been in contact with Skoda Chester and sent a description of what is happening and photographs of the displays, I have heard nothing... I did try ringing Skoda UK which was a waste of time.

On 25/06/2026 at 15:40, NigelR99 said:

My Scala car is still prompting " application updates available " almost every day, I have been in contact with Skoda Chester and sent a description of what is happening and photographs of the displays, I have heard nothing... I did try ringing Skoda UK which was a waste of time.

I have the same thing. It did a bunch of different updates one month ago, now it's stuck on this one. You can actually see in the notification that it stops at 75%

I have been to my Skoda dealer today, the update came up on the way so we had something to discuss, they didn't find anything specifically wrong but checked all software, forced the update and reset things. I won't know if it is fixed until tomorrow or the next day.

If you still have warranty I would suggest you contact your dealer, if not report it to Skoda UK customer services who are monitoring this case. From the Scala Facebook page I know others are having similar problems.

There was a pretty big update for all VAG cars in early June. I think different brands deployed it in different ways.

My visit to the Škoda dealership didn't fix things, Škoda UK are now interested. I did a lot of research on the web over the weekend and discovered that some owners of the Škoda IC cars with Mib3 infotainment unit have reported the same problem in the last three months. To me it feels like a problem with the OTA updates for the infotainment unit. Time will tell.

OTA updates, as written on the Skoda website, have some restrictions, which I see you're already aware of, and in my opinion the most important is the battery charge level, which must be above 50% and therefore in excellent condition. Charging/maintenance of the battery is not permitted during OTA updates, and the system must be online via Wi-Fi (2.4GHz) or a Hotspot. Thank you, and feedback is welcome.

The car connects to the internet for these type of updates by the built in eSim which is normal in the UK, this is how the Skoda Dealership tested the car during their diagnostics. If you live in a strong 4G mobile phone signal area there should be no need to connect via wifi unless you live in a poor signal area or park in a garage or an enclosed car park.

22 hours ago, NigelR99 said:

The car connects to the internet for these type of updates by the built in eSim which is normal in the UK, this is how the Skoda Dealership tested the car during their diagnostics. If you live in a strong 4G mobile phone signal area there should be no need to connect via wifi unless you live in a poor signal area or park in a garage or an enclosed car park.

Only traffic purchased with Cubic Telecom allows OTA downloading of updates, the 2 GB loaded into the eSim are exclusive to SOS and Proattivo for 10 years

I can assure you that the in the UK OTA updates for the Infotainment unit are downloaded via the eSim for free, you do not need a data subscription to Cubic Telecom or a connection to a phones WIFI hotspot for these update services. You do pay a subscription for map updates, traffic and the connection to the app services which works via the eSim. It may well be different in other parts of the world. I do believe that if you want to use the cars eSim as an internet wifi hotspot for your passengers you can then buy a data subscription.

Edited Thursday at 07:191 day by NigelR99