BUICK ENCORE 2021 Owner's Manual

Buick Encore Owner Manual (GMNA-Localizing-U.S./Canada-14607636) -
2021 - CRC - 8/18/20
100 Lighting
Interior Lighting
Instrument Panel Illumination
Control
This feature adjusts the brightness of all
illuminated controls. The instrument panel
illumination control is next to the exterior
lamp control.
Push the knob in all the way until it extends
out and then turn the knob clockwise or
counterclockwise to brighten or dim the
lights. Push the knob back in when finished.
The knob is functional at night, or when
headlamps or the parking lamps are ON.
Courtesy Lamps
The courtesy lamps come on automatically
when any door is opened and the dome
lamp is in the door position.
Dome Lamps
Front and Rear Dome Lamps
The front dome lamp controls are in the
overhead console.
(:Press to turn the lamps off, even when
a door is open.
H: When the button is returned to the
middle position, the lamps turn on
automatically when a door is opened.
': Press to turn on the dome lamps.
The rear dome lamp controls are in the
headliner above the rear seats.
9:Press to turn the lamps off, even when
a door is open.
H: When the button is returned to the
middle position, the lamps turn on
automatically when a door is opened.
R: Press to turn on the dome lamps.

Buick Encore Owner Manual (GMNA-Localizing-U.S./Canada-14607636) -
2021 - CRC - 8/18/20
Lighting 101
Reading Lamps
The front reading lamps are in the overhead
console.
#or$:Press to turn each lamp on
or off.
Lighting Features
Entry Lighting
Some exterior lamps and interior lamps turn
on briefly at night, or in areas with limited
lighting, when
Kis pressed on the Remote
Keyless Entry (RKE) transmitter. When a
door is opened, the interior lamps come on.
They stay on for about 20 seconds. When all of the doors have been closed or the
ignition is turned on, they gradually
fade out.
This feature can be changed. See
“Vehicle
Locator Lights” underVehicle Personalization
(8 Inch Screen) 089 or
Vehicle Personalization (7 Inch Screen) 094.
Exit Lighting
Some exterior lamps and interior lights
come on at night, or in areas with limited
lighting, when the driver door is opened
after the ignition is turned off. The interior
lamps come on after the ignition is turned
off. The exterior lamps and interior lamps
remain on for a set amount of time, then
automatically turn off.
The exterior lamps turn off immediately by
turning the exterior lamp control off.
This feature can be changed. See Vehicle
Personalization (8 Inch Screen) 089 or
Vehicle Personalization (7 Inch Screen) 094.
Battery Load Management
The vehicle has Electric Power Management
(EPM) that estimates the battery's
temperature and state of charge. It then
adjusts the voltage for best performance
and extended life of the battery.
When the battery's state of charge is low,
the voltage is raised slightly to quickly bring
the charge back up. When the state of
charge is high, the voltage is lowered
slightly to prevent overcharging. If the
vehicle has a voltmeter gauge or a voltage
display on the Driver Information Center
(DIC), you may see the voltage move up or
down. This is normal. If there is a problem,
an alert will be displayed.
The battery can be discharged at idle if the
electrical loads are very high. This is true for
all vehicles. This is because the generator
(alternator) may not be spinning fast
enough at idle to produce all the power
needed for very high electrical loads.
A high electrical load occurs when several of
the following are on, such as: headlamps,
high beams, fog lamps, rear window
defogger, climate control fan at high speed,

Buick Encore Owner Manual (GMNA-Localizing-U.S./Canada-14607636) -
2021 - CRC - 8/18/20
102 Lighting
heated seats, engine cooling fans, trailer
loads, and loads plugged into accessory
power outlets.
EPM works to prevent excessive discharge of
the battery. It does this by balancing the
generator's output and the vehicle's
electrical needs. It can increase engine idle
speed to generate more power, whenever
needed. It can temporarily reduce the power
demands of some accessories.
Normally, these actions occur in steps or
levels, without being noticeable. In rare
cases at the highest levels of corrective
action, this action may be noticeable to the
driver.Battery Power Protection
The battery saver feature protects against
draining the vehicle's battery.
If some interior lamps or the manual
parking lamps or headlamps are left on and
the ignition is turned off, the battery
rundown protection system automatically
turns the lamp off after some time.
To restart the 10-minute timer, turn the
exterior lamp control to the
Oposition and
then back to the
;or5position. To
keep the lamps on for more than
10 minutes, the ignition must be on or in
ACC/ACCESSORY.
Exterior Lighting Battery Saver
The exterior lamps turn off about 10 minutes
after the ignition is turned off, if the parking
lamps or headlamps have been manually
left on. This protects against draining the
battery. To restart the 10-minute timer, turn
the exterior lamp control to the
Oposition
and then back to the
;or2position.
To keep the lamps on for more than
10 minutes, the ignition must be on or in
ACC/ACCESSORY.

Buick Encore Owner Manual (GMNA-Localizing-U.S./Canada-14607636) -
2021 - CRC - 8/18/20
Infotainment System 103
Infotainment System
Introduction
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 104
Overview (8 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Steering Wheel Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Using the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
Software Updates . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109
Radio
AM-FM Radio (8 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . 109
HD Radio Technology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Satellite Radio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 112
Radio Reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Multi-Band Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Audio Players
Avoiding Untrusted Media Devices . . . . . 113
USB Port (8 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Auxiliary Jack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Bluetooth Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
OnStar System
OnStar System (8 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . 118
Voice Recognition
Voice Recognition (8 Inch Screen) . . . . . . 118
Phone
Bluetooth (Overview for 8 InchScreen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Bluetooth (Pairing and Using the Phone
for 8 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123
Bluetooth (Voice Recognition for 8 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 126
Text Messaging (8 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . 127
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto (8 Inch
Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
Settings
Settings (8 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
Trademarks and License Agreements
Trademarks and License Agreements . . . 132
Introduction
Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136
Overview (7 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Steering Wheel Controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Using the System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
Radio
AM-FM Radio (7 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . 141
Radio Data System (RDS) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Satellite Radio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Radio Reception . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143
Multi-Band Antenna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Audio Players
Avoiding Untrusted Media Devices . . . . 144
USB Port (7 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 144
Auxiliary Jack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
Bluetooth Audio . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 147
OnStar System
OnStar System (7 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . 148
Phone
Bluetooth (Overview for 7 InchScreen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Bluetooth (Pairing and Using a Phone for 7 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 149
Apple CarPlay and Android Auto . . . . . . . 153
Settings
Settings (7 Inch Screen) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154

Buick Encore Owner Manual (GMNA-Localizing-U.S./Canada-14607636) -
2021 - CRC - 8/18/20
104 Infotainment System
Introduction
Read the following pages to become familiar
with the features.
{Warning
Taking your eyes off the road for too
long or too often while using any
infotainment feature can cause a crash.
You or others could be injured or killed.
Do not give extended attention to
infotainment tasks while driving. Limit
your glances at the vehicle displays and
focus your attention on driving. Use voice
commands whenever possible.
The infotainment system has built-in
features intended to help avoid distraction
by disabling some features when driving.
These features may gray out when they are
unavailable. Many infotainment features are
also available through the instrument cluster
and steering wheel controls. Before driving:
.Become familiar with the operation,
center stack controls, steering wheel
controls, and infotainment display.
.Set up the audio by presetting favorite
stations, setting the tone, and adjusting
the speakers.
.Set up phone numbers in advance so they
can be called easily by pressing a single
control or by using a single voice
command.
See Distracted Driving 0164.

Buick Encore Owner Manual (GMNA-Localizing-U.S./Canada-14607636) -
2021 - CRC - 8/18/20
Infotainment System 105
Overview (8 Inch Screen)
Infotainment System
The infotainment system is controlled by using the infotainment display, controls on the
center stack, steering wheel controls, and voice recognition. Below is the 8 inch screen controls
image and overview. For 7 inch screen controls, seeOverview (7 Inch Screen)0138.
1.{(Home Page)
.Press to go to the Home Page. See
“Home Page” later in this section.
2.7
.Radio: Press and release to go to
the previous station or channel.
Press and hold to fast seek the
next strongest previous station or
channel. SeeAM-FM Radio (8 Inch
Screen) 0109.
.USB/Bluetooth: Press to seek to
the beginning of the current or
previous track. Press and hold to
quickly reverse through a track.
Release to return to playing speed.
See USB Port (8 Inch Screen) 0113
or
Bluetooth Audio 0117.
3.O(Power)
.Press to turn the power on.
.Press and hold to turn the
power off.
.Press to mute/unmute the system
when on.
When the power is on and the
system is not muted, a quick
status pane will display when
Ois
pressed. Pressing
Owill mute the
system and trigger this pane to
show a long press is required to
actually power down the system.
.Turn to decrease or increase the
volume.
4.6
.Radio: Press and release to go to
the next station or channel. Press
and hold to fast seek the next
track or strongest station or
channel.
.USB/Bluetooth: Press to seek the
next track. Press and hold to fast
forward through a track. Release to
return to playing speed. See USB
Port (8 Inch Screen) 0113 or
Bluetooth Audio 0117.
5.SBACK
.Press to return to the previous
display in a menu.

Buick Encore Owner Manual (GMNA-Localizing-U.S./Canada-14607636) -
2021 - CRC - 8/18/20
106 Infotainment System
Home Page
The Home Page is where vehicle application
icons are accessed. Some applications are
disabled when the vehicle is moving.
The Home Page can be set up to have up to
five pages with eight icons per page.
Touch
hto go left orkto go right or slide a
finger left/right across the display to access
the pages of icons.
k: Touch to go to the next Home Page.
h:Touch to go to the previous Home Page.
l:Touch this interaction selector to
display the favorites list.
Touch and hold a preset to begin the
process of saving a favorite application. Touch the application icon to store as a
favorite, and the name of the application
will show in the favorites.
Managing Home Page Icons
1. Touch and hold any of the Home Page icons to edit that icon.
2. Drag the icon to a new location on the Home Page or to save it to the
applications tray.
3. Press
{to exit edit mode.
Steering Wheel Controls
If equipped, some audio controls can be
adjusted at the steering wheel.
b/g: For vehicles with Bluetooth, press
to interact with those systems.
$/i: Press to decline an incoming call,
to end speech recognition, or to end a
current call. Press to silence the vehicle
speakers while using the infotainment
system. Press again to turn the sound on.
For vehicles with Bluetooth systems, press
to reject an incoming call or end a
current call.
_SRC^: Press to select an audio source.
Toggle up or down to select the next or
previous favorite radio station, MP3 track,
USB file, iPod/iPhone song, or Bluetooth
music.
Toggle and hold up or down to fast forward
or reverse the radio stations, MP3 tracks,
USB files, iPod/iPhone songs, or Bluetooth
music.
+
x− :Press + or −to increase or decrease
the volume.
Using the System
Home Page Features
Touch the icons on the Home Page to
launch an application.

Buick Encore Owner Manual (GMNA-Localizing-U.S./Canada-14607636) -
2021 - CRC - 8/18/20
Infotainment System 107
Audio
Touch the Audio icon to display the active
audio source page. Available sources are AM,
FM, SXM (if equipped), MyMedia, USB,
Bluetooth, and AUX Input.
Phone
Touch the Phone icon to display the Phone
main page. SeeBluetooth (Overview for 8
Inch Screen) 0123 or
Bluetooth (Pairing and Using the Phone for 8
Inch Screen) 0123 or
Bluetooth (Voice Recognition for 8 Inch
Screen) 0126.
Projection
Touch the Projection icon to activate Android
Auto or Apple CarPlay (if equipped) after a
supported device is connected. See Apple
CarPlay and Android Auto (8 Inch Screen)
0 128.
Apps
If equipped, in-vehicle apps are available for
download. Touch the Apps icon on the
Home Page to begin.
Downloading and using apps requires
Internet connectivity which can be accessed
with a data plan through the vehicle’s
built-in 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot, if equipped, or a compatible mobile device hotspot. On
most mobile devices, activation of the Wi-Fi
hotspot is in the vehicle’s Settings menu
under Mobile Network Sharing, Personal
Hotspot, Mobile Hotspot, or similar.
To purchase data for the in-vehicle Wi-Fi
hotspot, if equipped, touch the myBuick icon
on the Home Page or contact an OnStar
Advisor. The vehicle must have active OnStar
or connected service and a payment method
on file.
Availability of apps and connectivity varies
by vehicle, conditions, and location. Data
plan rates apply. Features are subject to
change. For more information, see
my.buick.com/learn.
Settings
Touch the Settings icon to display the
Settings menu. See
Settings (8 Inch Screen)
0 129.Applications Tray
The applications tray is at the top center of
the display. The applications tray can have
three to five applications.
To add an application from the Home Page
to the applications tray:
1. Touch and hold any icon on the Home Page to enter edit mode.
2. Drag the icon to the applications tray. To remove an item from the applications
tray, drag the icon from the applications
tray back to the Home Page.
Adding or removing applications from the
applications tray will not remove them from
the Home Page.

Buick Encore Owner Manual (GMNA-Localizing-U.S./Canada-14607636) -
2021 - CRC - 8/18/20
108 Infotainment System
Infotainment Display Features
Infotainment display features show on the
display when available. When a feature is
unavailable, the option for the feature may
gray out. When a feature is touched, the
option for the feature may highlight.
Infotainment Gestures
Use the following finger gestures to control
the infotainment system.
Touch/Tap
Touch/tap is used to select an icon or
option, activate an application, or change
the location inside a map.Touch and Hold
Touch and hold can be used to start another
gesture, move, or delete an application.
Drag
Drag is used to move applications on the
Home Page, or to pan the map. To drag the
item, it must be held and moved along the
display to the new location. This can be
done up, down, right, or left.Nudge
Nudge is used to move items a short
distance on a list or a map. To nudge, hold
and move the selected item up or down to
a new location.
Fling or Swipe

Buick Encore Owner Manual (GMNA-Localizing-U.S./Canada-14607636) -
2021 - CRC - 8/18/20
Infotainment System 109
Fling or swipe is used to scroll through a
list, pan the map, or change page views. Do
this by placing a finger on the display then
moving it rapidly up and down or right
and left.
Turn
Turn
Oon the center stack to increase or
decrease the volume.
Cleaning High Gloss Surfaces and Vehicle
Information and Radio Displays
For vehicles with high gloss surfaces or
vehicle displays, use a microfiber cloth to
wipe surfaces. Before wiping the surface
with the microfiber cloth, use a soft bristle
brush to remove dirt that could scratch the
surface. Then use the microfiber cloth by
gently rubbing to clean. Never use window
cleaners or solvents. Periodically hand wash
the microfiber cloth separately, using mild
soap. Do not use bleach or fabric softener.
Rinse thoroughly and air dry before
next use.
Software Updates
Over-the-Air Software Updates
See Settings (8 Inch Screen) 0129 for details
on software updates.
Radio
AM-FM Radio (8 Inch Screen)
Playing the Radio
While on the audio main page the available
sources are: AM, FM, SXM, if equipped,
MyMedia, USB, Bluetooth, and AUX Input.
.Touch Audio on the Home Page to access
Radio on the infotainment display to
scroll through AM, FM, and SXM (if
equipped).
.Touch the Audio icon on the Home Page
to access Media on the infotainment
display to scroll through MyMedia, USB,
Bluetooth, and AUX Input.
Infotainment System Settings
Touch the Radio icon on the infotainment
display to access broadcast sources.
Touch the Menu icon on the infotainment
display to display the following menus:
Tone Settings:
.Bass, Midrange, Treble, or Surround,
if equipped: Touch + or –to adjust.
.Balance: TouchSorTfor more sound
from the left or right speakers. The
middle position balances the sound
between the left and right speakers.
.Fade: Touchyorzfor more sound
from the front or rear speakers. The
middle position balances the sound
between the front and rear speakers.
DSP Modes (If Equipped):
.Bose Centerpoint surround sound system
has four DSP modes including:
‐ Normal: Adjusts the audio to provide
the best sound for all seating positions.
‐ Driver: Adjusts the audio to provide the
best sound for the driver.
‐ Rear: Adjusts the audio to provide the
best sound for the rear seat occupants.
‐ Centerpoint: Turns on Bose Centerpoint
surround technology. This setting
creates a surround sound from nearly
any audio source; existing stereo, and
MP3 players. For more information on
Bose Centerpoint surround technology,
see www.boseautomotive.com.
Categories : Touch Categories under the
Audio menu to access the categories list for
AM or FM. The list contains names
associated with the AM and FM stations.