App does not connect since update

[adayley]

The Tesla app in my iPhone no longer connects to the car. It sits and spins forever. This means I cannot remotely control the car. It seemed to be fixed after a reboot of the car (pressing the two buttons on the steering wheel). But the improvement didn’t stick

Edit: I can remotely control the car. Seems I can force the connection by honking the horn or locking the doors via the app. So, maybe the forever spinning connection is a problem without effect?

Edit Edit: Remotely controlling the card does not work, most of the time.

Any ideas on what to troubleshoot?

There is no problem using the phone as my key. I can open locked doors immediately and drive, etc.

Firmware 2022.20.17 FSD Beta in the car.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Check if there are any VPN services running on your phone or your network. That has been known to cause issues (given Tesla runs the app via its own VPN).

Also another trick you can try is turning off Wifi on your phone and using your mobile data connection to run the app (or vice versa). That seems to fix the problem for me quickly when there are connectivity issues with the app. Of course there is also the common thing of updating the app on the phone and rebooting it.

 

[DeltaOne]

The Tesla app in my iPhone no longer connects to the car. It sits and spins forever.

I would suggest deleting the Tesla app from your iPhone. This will remove the app and all of its data. Then you can easily reinstall the app, log in, and test its operation.

A long shot, reboot the iPhone. I often talk to friends and family that never reboot their smartphone. I once was helping a person trouble-shoot a problem and found they had 500 tabs open in Safari. I reboot my iPhone, and Apple Watch, at least twice a month.

 

[alphatom131]

I started seeing a similar thing about the same time you did. I set up a service appointment and the rep said this was a firmware issue that they are actively investigating. When the fix is ready, it'll be pushed out via an over-the-air update.

 

[PianoAl]

I can remotely control the car. Seems I can force the connection by honking the horn or locking the doors via the app. So, maybe the forever spinning connection is a problem without effect?

Edit Edit: Remotely controlling the card does not work, most of the time.

I went through this same process and finally concluded that it never works. It's just by chance that you, say, honk the horn and soon after it connects.

Mine acts this way pretty often, mostly in the mornings (and it's been like this for two years). If I really need to access the car via the app, I go to the garage and open/close a door.

Not clear on why it should be this way. If I can honk the horn or unlock the car, why can't that wake it up the way opening a door does?

It sits and spins forever.

Are you sure? Next time, wait longer and see if it connects.

 

[jjrandorin]

I went through this same process and finally concluded that it never works. It's just by chance that you, say, honk the horn and soon after it connects.

Mine acts this way pretty often, mostly in the mornings (and it's been like this for two years). If I really need to access the car via the app, I go to the garage and open/close a door.

Not clear on why it should be this way. If I can honk the horn or unlock the car, why can't that wake it up the way opening a door does?


Are you sure? Next time, wait longer and see if it connects.

Not sure why you quoted me in this thread, as I have never posted in it prior to this....

 

[adayley]

Are you sure? Next time, wait longer and see if it connects.

(Actually, @jjrandorin said the above. The quote thing doesn’t know it.)

I have my iPhone set to lock the screen after 15 minutes. It doesn’t connect for that long. I have not attempted longer. Two minutes is far to long, why test beyond 15?

I set a service appointment for the issue and got the same text message response as @alphatom131 . Service appointment was cancelled as there is nothing a tech can do for it.

 

[PianoAl]

Two minutes is far too long, why test beyond 15?

I understand. I suggest it as a test or diagnostic to see if it will never connect or if it just takes a very long time.

 

[kx2top]

After which update did the problem start happening?

 

[adayley]

After which update did the problem start happening?

This is hard to answer. I don't have the 3rd party apps or another way to see my vehicle software update history. I think it was FSB Beta 10.13, which I got rather late in the cycle, mid August, I think.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Force-closing the app has solved this for me in the past.

Also, you misspelled 4EVA.

 

[eleanor.moffat]

Same thing has happened to me with the latest update this week. Driving me insane!!! Sentry mode also doesn’t work anymore. Have tried deleting and reinstalling the app and turning phone on and off.

 

[PianoAl]

Independent of updates, mine sometimes takes a long time to connect.

 

[adayley]

A few days ago I made another service request for this issue. I chose an appointment a few days away. Tesla replied with an appointment 1.5 weeks away and with a list of troubleshooting stuff to try. The attached photos document the actions they requested.

I have completed all the actions below. It did not solve the problem. Their last reply was "Thank you we will continue to review." That means I have the appointment but no estimate that would document what action they will take. The appointment is for November 16th.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Perhaps your WiFi network isn't good. Try turning off your phone's WiFi to force it to use the cellular network. Mine sometimes misbehaves when my phone is on my work WiFi. You could also investigate things on the car's side as well, such as powering down your home WiFi to force the car onto cellular, or parking the car somewhere that it gets a good cell signal without WiFi.

Assuming that just force-closing the app didn't work.

 

[adayley]

Thanks for the tips, @Gauss Guzzler .

My home WiFi mesh router is in the room directly above the garage. The connection is good.

Force closing, removing the phone key connection, deleting the app, changing my tesla.com password on the website, and then resetting up the app and phone key did not solve the problem.

Phone key function still works fine. That uses the Bluetooth connection. In other words, Bluetooth can connect while WiFi or cellular will not.

My problem happens anywhere that the car goes to sleep, and even when Sentry Mode is enabled. In my experience, any time I am out of Bluetooth range for more than 30 minutes, I can no longer talk to the car via the Tesla app.

 

[stopcrazypp]

Thanks for the tips, @Gauss Guzzler .

My home WiFi mesh router is in the room directly above the garage. The connection is good.

Force closing, removing the phone key connection, deleting the app, changing my tesla.com password on the website, and then resetting up the app and phone key did not solve the problem.

Phone key function still works fine. That uses the Bluetooth connection. In other words, Bluetooth can connect while WiFi or cellular will not.

My problem happens anywhere that the car goes to sleep, and even when Sentry Mode is enabled. In my experience, any time I am out of Bluetooth range for more than 30 minutes, I can no longer talk to the car via the Tesla app.

When the car goes to sleep it relies on LTE to wake the car up (used to be a text message, so actually even 3G). Where you park does the car have good AT&T LTE connection? If there is no or poor reception it will not be able to connect to the car (other than with Bluetooth as you point out). Awake it probably is connected on your home wifi, which is probably why it works fine then.

In general also because the app operates a VPN, it sometimes has issues connecting. I find in my phone if the app keeps spinning, turning off wifi on my phone and using my phone's data connection usually gets it connected again.

 

[adayley]

When the car goes to sleep it relies on LTE to wake the car up (used to be a text message, so actually even 3G). Where you park does the car have good AT&T LTE connection? If there is no or poor reception it will not be able to connect to the car (other than with Bluetooth as you point out). Awake it probably is connected on your home wifi, which is probably why it works fine then.

In general also because the app operates a VPN, it sometimes has issues connecting. I find in my phone if the app keeps spinning, turning off wifi on my phone and using my phone's data connection usually gets it connected again.

Good tip to take the phone off wifi. I’m glad that works for you.

It’s hard to follow the details of these things, especially when I post photos of text instead of text. Once the car is asleep:

• WiFi connection does not wake it
• LTE connection does not wake it
• The above is true no matter where I park, at home, at church, at a shop

Tesla’s remote service team sent me another message that claims to solve things. I’ll update here how that goes.

 

[adayley]

Tesla’s remote service team sent me another message that claims to solve things. I’ll update here how that goes.

This is the response I mentioned above:

In my testing the above tweak of the file system improved the problem but did not solve it. The car will wake up if I force an action, like unlock, but only some of the time. I’m still pushing for a full fix.

 

[Gauss Guzzler]

Weird.