TL;DR: if you have an Android phone that has a fairly new version of Android, turning off battery optimization for the Tesla App will very likely significantly improve your phone-as-key functionality. Credit to @insaneoctane for the tip.
Background
I have the original Google Pixel running Android v8.1. I've had my Model 3 for a little over a month now, and the phone-as-key feature has not been working very well. I found that I frequently had to toggle bluetooth or airplane mode to get the BLE connection with the car fixed. I'd say it failed between 25-50% of the time I got into the car. In addition, ever since I got the car, my battery life has suffered a bit. I'd frequently need to charge my phone in the evening, whereas before the car, I could comfortably make it through the day.
Previous workarounds
Whenever the car wouldn't detect my phone, I would pull the phone out of my pocket and toggle BT off/on. Most of the time, that would fix things, but every once in a while, I'd have to toggle Airplane mode to fix it. Alternatively, rebooting the screen would resolve things too, but that takes too much time.
The fix that worked
In this thread, @insaneoctane writes:
This was something I hadn't tried yet, and I was out of things to try, so I tried it. And phone-as-key has been flawless. Today, I probably got in my car around 8 times to drive, and each time, as soon as I pressed the brake, the car responded. I don't have walk-away-lock enabled, but that has had no impact on past success rate, whether enabled or not. This evening, at random intervals of at least 15 minutes, I went into the garage and stepped on the brake. Each time the car was in sleep, and each time, the car detected the phone. I've now gotten into the car probably a total of 20 times and gotten 20 successful detections. I'd say that given my old track record of only 50-75% chance of success, this single (and only) change is responsible for the improvement.
Step-by-step instructions
The following is the procedure for my Google Pixel running Android v8.1. If you are on a different version and/or have a different OEM, the procedure might be slightly different. And I would imagine that if you're on a very old version of Android, this procedure might be completely irrelevant.
Step 1: Find the Tesla app and long press on the icon. An "App info" option appears. Select that.
Step 2: Tap on "Battery". This now shows you a new page of battery info specific to the app.
Step 3: Scroll all the way down and tap on "Battery optimization." You're now on a page that shows apps and services that are not battery optimized. the goal is to add the Tesla app to this list.
Step 4: At the top of the screen, tap the "Not optimized" dropdown menu and choose "All apps"
Step 5: Scroll down and find the Tesla app. Tap it. You should now have a modal window with two radio button selections: "Optimize" and "Don't optimize."
Step 6: Tap the "Don't optimize" radio option and press DONE.
And that's it! To verify that you did the above correctly: tap on the dropdown at the top of the screen (it should still be on "All apps") and select "Not optimized." Scroll down the list and make sure the Tesla app is there. If it is, you're all set.
For good measure, toggle Airplane mode on and off.
Now your phone-as-key should be working much better, assuming you were having issues before. If you were also noticing battery degradation before, monitor your usage post-fix. Today, my battery lasted all day, which seems to indicate that this fix also resolved the excessive battery drain. 2 birds, 1 stone.
I recently read in another thread that the latest Tesla app solved all phone-as-key issues. But I checked the Play Store and I don't see any updates for the Tesla app. Anyway, if this fix works for you, respond to the poll.
This fix will not resolve weak signal issues, like a phone in jean pockets. For that, you have to pull your phone out. Keep that in mind as you tally success/failure counts. We're talking about a fix for completely broken BLE connections.
Background
I have the original Google Pixel running Android v8.1. I've had my Model 3 for a little over a month now, and the phone-as-key feature has not been working very well. I found that I frequently had to toggle bluetooth or airplane mode to get the BLE connection with the car fixed. I'd say it failed between 25-50% of the time I got into the car. In addition, ever since I got the car, my battery life has suffered a bit. I'd frequently need to charge my phone in the evening, whereas before the car, I could comfortably make it through the day.
Previous workarounds
Whenever the car wouldn't detect my phone, I would pull the phone out of my pocket and toggle BT off/on. Most of the time, that would fix things, but every once in a while, I'd have to toggle Airplane mode to fix it. Alternatively, rebooting the screen would resolve things too, but that takes too much time.
The fix that worked
In this thread, @insaneoctane writes:
I had some weird phone/key issues getting into the car in the Tesla parking lot. I wasn’t sure if that was the beginning of problems to come or not. I quickly set the Tesla app to “not optimize” in the Android settings, so that the app could run in the background.
This was something I hadn't tried yet, and I was out of things to try, so I tried it. And phone-as-key has been flawless. Today, I probably got in my car around 8 times to drive, and each time, as soon as I pressed the brake, the car responded. I don't have walk-away-lock enabled, but that has had no impact on past success rate, whether enabled or not. This evening, at random intervals of at least 15 minutes, I went into the garage and stepped on the brake. Each time the car was in sleep, and each time, the car detected the phone. I've now gotten into the car probably a total of 20 times and gotten 20 successful detections. I'd say that given my old track record of only 50-75% chance of success, this single (and only) change is responsible for the improvement.
Step-by-step instructions
The following is the procedure for my Google Pixel running Android v8.1. If you are on a different version and/or have a different OEM, the procedure might be slightly different. And I would imagine that if you're on a very old version of Android, this procedure might be completely irrelevant.
Step 1: Find the Tesla app and long press on the icon. An "App info" option appears. Select that.
Step 2: Tap on "Battery". This now shows you a new page of battery info specific to the app.
Step 3: Scroll all the way down and tap on "Battery optimization." You're now on a page that shows apps and services that are not battery optimized. the goal is to add the Tesla app to this list.
Step 4: At the top of the screen, tap the "Not optimized" dropdown menu and choose "All apps"
Step 5: Scroll down and find the Tesla app. Tap it. You should now have a modal window with two radio button selections: "Optimize" and "Don't optimize."
Step 6: Tap the "Don't optimize" radio option and press DONE.
And that's it! To verify that you did the above correctly: tap on the dropdown at the top of the screen (it should still be on "All apps") and select "Not optimized." Scroll down the list and make sure the Tesla app is there. If it is, you're all set.
For good measure, toggle Airplane mode on and off.
Now your phone-as-key should be working much better, assuming you were having issues before. If you were also noticing battery degradation before, monitor your usage post-fix. Today, my battery lasted all day, which seems to indicate that this fix also resolved the excessive battery drain. 2 birds, 1 stone.
I recently read in another thread that the latest Tesla app solved all phone-as-key issues. But I checked the Play Store and I don't see any updates for the Tesla app. Anyway, if this fix works for you, respond to the poll.
This fix will not resolve weak signal issues, like a phone in jean pockets. For that, you have to pull your phone out. Keep that in mind as you tally success/failure counts. We're talking about a fix for completely broken BLE connections.
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