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Auto-launching Tesla app on Android

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I shut mine down ever night and this is bit annoying. I'm used to it just auto starting. Now I get in the car and get that swipe card key message when I shift in to reverse (or try to). Not the biggest problem in my life, but annoying. And yes it is getting worse. First the phone a month or two ago and now my tablet last week I think.
 
It may be a combination of your device's Android version and the API level targeted by the installed app version. If I recall correctly, there were changes regarding starting services for apps not running in the foreground when targeting Android 12 and above - but I haven't tracked this stuff closely in a long time.
 
Same. Pixel 3 and a new Pixel 6, both at A.12 do not auto-launch. The Pixel 3 has been at A.12 since November '21 and is orphaned by Google since then so obviously no update there. The Tesla app auto-launched on it reliably every single day (my devices are always turned entirely OFF every night) until sometime in April '22. So in my case the trigger was an update -- no, I don't know which one -- to the Telsa app.

So now it has become part of the morning routine. Turn on phone, make coffee, visit bathroom, start tesla-app. Life on the techy edge I guess.
 
According to the phone, my last update was a security fix on 10/5/21. Sometime in April, maybe as late as early May sounds about right for me. I keep the tesla app up to date. I usually load a new one from APKMirror as it usually has an update before the play store.

I also turn the phone off every night. I now have the app on the home screen. I still forget to start it many days. So I get in the car and get that swipe the card message. But it only takes maybe 15-30 seconds from launching until I can go. Still would be nice to have auto launch. I'd consider a new phone if that worked but the pixel 6 people are having trouble so why bother?
 
I just put the app on my home screen having given up hope previously. I still forget to start it. When I get in the car and try to shift I get the animated picture to swipe the card. Of course I fire up the app at that point. I'd say that it takes 15-20 (tops) seconds to start up.
 
This is almost certainly a change made by Tesla for some reason. I verified with an older phone (Pixel 2) the following:
Tesla app v3.10.9 - starts on boot in the background
Tesla app v4.10.1 - must be manually launched

All I did was update the app, so no changes in Android between my tests. So, somewhere between those two releases, Tesla stopped launching their service in the background.

I've also tried to have Tasker start the BLE service in the background but it just gives me an error.

I'm tempted to sideload one of the old APKs to restore this functionality ...

Has anyone found a workaround other than never turning your phone off? 😅
 
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This is almost certainly a change made by Tesla for some reason. I verified with an older phone (Pixel 2) the following:
Tesla app v3.10.9 - starts on boot in the background
Tesla app v4.10.1 - must be manually launched

All I did was update the app, so no changes in Android between my tests. So, somewhere between those two releases, Tesla stopped launching their service in the background.

I've also tried to have Tasker start the BLE service in the background but it just gives me an error.

I'm tempted to sideload one of the old APKs to restore this functionality ...

Has anyone found a workaround other than never turning your phone off? 😅

I did that. Loaded 3.10.9-433. I couldn't log in. Verified my password on the pc / website. Tried a couple more 3.x with the same result. I did a 'forgot password' and reset it and still couldn't log in with any 3.x version.

Finally installed 4.0.0-644 and was able to finally log in. Of course then I had to redo my tokens for teslafi, etc. and setup my phone as a key again.

But 4.0.0-644 wouldn't start the car at all. Kept getting the key card message. Might have been a bad pairing except it would remote start. Tried a double wheel reboot at this point with no luck.

4.1.0-663 does work. Turned the phone off. Sat in the car and had the key card message come up. Turned on the phone and 1-2 minutes later it connected and let me put it in drive. Appeared to be the same time as when the 'T' showed up in the notification bar.

That is where I stopped. I'm trying to decide whether to find the most recent version that works, leave it where it is, or just give in and put the current version back. Probably will slowly update and when it stops working decide whether I want to go back and redo it again.


- - - - -edit - - - - -

I didn't actually side load the apk. I used apkmirror's bundle installer. Probably doesn't make any difference but figured I should note that.
 
I did that. Loaded 3.10.9-433. I couldn't log in. Verified my password on the pc / website. Tried a couple more 3.x with the same result. I did a 'forgot password' and reset it and still couldn't log in with any 3.x version.

Finally installed 4.0.0-644 and was able to finally log in. Of course then I had to redo my tokens for teslafi, etc. and setup my phone as a key again.

But 4.0.0-644 wouldn't start the car at all. Kept getting the key card message. Might have been a bad pairing except it would remote start. Tried a double wheel reboot at this point with no luck.

4.1.0-663 does work. Turned the phone off. Sat in the car and had the key card message come up. Turned on the phone and 1-2 minutes later it connected and let me put it in drive. Appeared to be the same time as when the 'T' showed up in the notification bar.

That is where I stopped. I'm trying to decide whether to find the most recent version that works, leave it where it is, or just give in and put the current version back. Probably will slowly update and when it stops working decide whether I want to go back and redo it again.


- - - - -edit - - - - -

I didn't actually side load the apk. I used apkmirror's bundle installer. Probably doesn't make any difference but figured I should note that.
Hmm, interesting. My v3.10.9 worked on the first try, but it was installed a year ago on my old phone and still had my login information. Maybe Tesla is now preventing new logins from older releases.

In case it helps anyone, my current workaround is to set up Tasker after a phone reboot to launch the Tesla app, wait 100ms, and then press the Home button, which minimizes the app. This starts all the background services including the BLE key. I had tried to get Tasker to only start the Tesla BLE service, but Tesla made that service private.
 
I was on the current version and uninstalled. But perhaps some tidbits remained. Or the account or something (the car?) knew I was going way back. I'm now up to 4.3.0-766.

I also have a tablet on the current version. I'll have to compare the apps to see if there is really anything useful that would compel me to upgrade the phone. I do have the rearrange controls at this point. I'm not sure anything particularly exciting has been added since.
 
Has anybody in this thread updated to Android 13? My Pixel 4 XL on Android 13 now consistently has phone key issues requiring toggling BT off/on to get the key to work. There are a couple other threads here and Reddit posts reporting the same thing and there doesn't seem to be any solution.

I could live with the app not auto-launching, but this phone key issue is getting annoying.
 
Has anybody in this thread updated to Android 13? My Pixel 4 XL on Android 13 now consistently has phone key issues requiring toggling BT off/on to get the key to work. There are a couple other threads here and Reddit posts reporting the same thing and there doesn't seem to be any solution.

I could live with the app not auto-launching, but this phone key issue is getting annoying.
Just tested mine and it worked fine. Pixel 5 / Android 13.

In Settings->Apps->Tesla->Battery

Is the Tesla App set to "Unrestricted" Battery usage?
And is "Pause app activity if unused" unchecked?
 
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Just tested mine and it worked fine. Pixel 5 / Android 13.

In Settings->Apps->Tesla->Battery

Is the Tesla App set to "Unrestricted" Battery usage?
And is "Pause app activity if unused" unchecked?

I've always had it on optimized in the past, but I'll try with battery usage set to unrestricted and see how that goes. It's been 99.9% reliable in the past (almost 4 years), now it works maybe 50% of the time. I've uninstalled/reinstalled, deleted the key in the car & re-added it, deleted the BT connection & re-added, etc.
 
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