Bluetooth phone key inconsistent

[XPsionic]

Wondering if you guys also have issues with the Bluetooth phone key being inconsistent? I'd say 70% of the time it works great, then 30% of the time the door remains locked as I try to open it.

Got an android LG v50 and put the Tesla app on the list of apps that ignores battery optimization... is there anything else I could do to make it work better? Car's a 2021 SR

 

[VeryRealPerson]

S10 here. I had issues when I first got the car and did a bunch of research on it. Found a single comment that asked if the phone was in the back pocket and to try with the phone in your front pocket.

Tried that, and its been working perfectly for me since. I was surprised its that sensitive to distance. Had to change a habit of where I put my phone, but the freedom of not having a car key is totally worth it. I really felt how worth it it was when I was driving a rental. ICE sucks!

 

[Mark57]

You didn't say what software version your car is.

My 2021 Model 3 LR AWD was flaky in the beginning. I have a Galaxy S20+ 5G. It would always auto lock when walking away, but the opening was 70/30 like yours. I went into my phone power management settings and turned off the ability to put apps to sleep. That helped a little but the problem did not go away until the car software version went above version 2020.48.30. It's worked perfectly since then and I'm on 2021.4.6 now.

 

[duanra]

Mine was never 100%.
It is a MR 2018.

Sometimes also, i can't wake up the car when i am not close to it.

 

[XPsionic]

You didn't say what software version your car is.

It's worked perfectly since then and I'm on 2021.4.6 now.

Same version here, still having issues.

 

[UncertainTimes]

Milne only acts up when opening a rear door. Probably like 69.420% of the time

 

[Mark57]

Same version here, still having issues.

After excluding the app from being put to sleep, did you power cycle your phone?

 

[XPsionic]

After excluding the app from being put to sleep, did you power cycle your phone?

yep

 

[Mark57]

Also to be clear, I tried adding "just" the Tesla app as an exclusion to being put to sleep, but ultimately, I turned off the whole battery management "feature" of putting any apps to sleep. It's easy to turn off and back on if it doesn't help.

 

[GtiMart]

The pocket vs which door you open is critical. Seems the phone needs to be close to the B pillar for it to work. It's Bluetooth LE I think, and that doesn't have much range. When I want to open a rear door first, I rotate my hips (my phone is in my right pocket) so the phone gets close to that pillar. It seems to work, like 99.2% of the time. There will always be glitches. Yes, preventing the Tesla app from sleeping is critical.
Now for the person that talked about the car not waking up from the cell phone app, that is a completely different issue. When the car sleeps, the only way to wake it up remotely is via an SMS. Your cell phone app talks to the Tesla web server and that server arranges for an SMS to be sent to the car. The car needs good cerllular signal. Doesn't matter if it's in wifi range of your house, SMS only goes through cellular. Sometimes even that will fail, SMS are not a perfect system either. Just walk to the car and pull a handle, that'll wake it up

 

[f308gt4]

The pocket vs which door you open is critical. Seems the phone needs to be close to the B pillar for it to work. It's Bluetooth LE I think, and that doesn't have much range. When I want to open a rear door first, I rotate my hips (my phone is in my right pocket) so the phone gets close to that pillar. It seems to work, like 99.2% of the time. There will always be glitches. Yes, preventing the Tesla app from sleeping is critical.

I keep my phone in my left pocket, and ever since I’ve started approaching my car with my left pocket turned towards the car, my key has worked 100% of the time. I think the phone needs a direct path to the car.

 

[drtimhill]

Wondering if you guys also have issues with the Bluetooth phone key being inconsistent? I'd say 70% of the time it works great, then 30% of the time the door remains locked as I try to open it.

Got an android LG v50 and put the Tesla app on the list of apps that ignores battery optimization... is there anything else I could do to make it work better? Car's a 2021 SR

it's pretty much 100% correct for me, to the point where I would be baffled/surprised if I tugged the door handle and it didn't just open.

A couple of things: I have an iPhone, so can't comment on what special tweaks you might need on Android. Also, I keep my phone in a belt holster on front hip, so its likely that the car sees a clear signal as I approach (bluetooth has trouble getting through humans since it uses 2.4GHz which is the same frequency as a microwave oven, which use that frequency because water and fat absorb that radiation well, and human bodies are mostly .. water and fat!).

 

[stopcrazypp]

The pocket vs which door you open is critical. Seems the phone needs to be close to the B pillar for it to work. It's Bluetooth LE I think, and that doesn't have much range.

It's actually not the range of the Bluetooth. I think you can find that your phone can remain connected to the Bluetooth of the car from quite far away. It's more Tesla purposefully implementing limits to how far away from the car it would unlock (likely to prevent the issues of the car locking and unlocking constantly when near the car that people complained about). It's likely based on detecting the signal strength or some kind of time/signal based method and only unlock when it estimates you are a certain distance from the car.