Actually re reading your last post it shouldn't be anything to do with Apple because you've now said that your car can't get on the Internet from your home wifi either. So it's definitely a firewall or other setting on your home network that is blocking access.
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Can't connect to car using App when phone is on home Wifi
- Thread starter CTruck_BMW
- Start date
I'd have to do some digging on iPhone settings, but I'm wondering if when your phone is on your home wifi it is looking for your car as a trusted device on your wifi to communicate directly, and not doing it via internet back to Tesla server.
If you do the test as @Tdriver suggested, see if you can access the car using app on your phone when your phone is connected to wifi on some other network, whether coffee shop, McD's, or your work.
If it will work with your phone on wifi on a different network, then you might want to start checking some of the settings for your home wifi and your phones about 'trusted' devices and see if maybe there is something there.
Good luck and sorry I could offer more good ideas. I understand this is probably both frustrating and a bit baffling. If it we me, I'd make comment about ripping my hair out, but those who know me will tell you genetics took care of that for me about 40 years ago!
If you do the test as @Tdriver suggested, see if you can access the car using app on your phone when your phone is connected to wifi on some other network, whether coffee shop, McD's, or your work.
If it will work with your phone on wifi on a different network, then you might want to start checking some of the settings for your home wifi and your phones about 'trusted' devices and see if maybe there is something there.
Good luck and sorry I could offer more good ideas. I understand this is probably both frustrating and a bit baffling. If it we me, I'd make comment about ripping my hair out, but those who know me will tell you genetics took care of that for me about 40 years ago!
So I just tried to connect from a different WIFI source. It worked perfectly fine. Something with my own home WIFI is blocking the Tesla connection….. Any idea anyone?
The app must authorize the connection using a cell network connection (LTE) between the car and Tesla. Once authorized, perhaps a WiFi connection can be used. My understanding is your phone can connect to the car using either cell or WiFi connection, but the car must have a connection to the cellular network back to Tesla, or you will never connect. This part of the connection goes through Tesla servers. Sometimes the LTE connection to my car in the garage is iffy ( for some unknown reason), so it takes extended time to use the app to connect to my car. The WiFi is excellent in my garage, and that does not help me connect.
I already did and that fixed a 6 months mysterious TV issues but but not yet the Tesla
Good news! We just installed a better-situated and upgraded wifi repeater in the garage, and everything now works well.
I no longer need to find a properly-situated parking spot to use the library's public wifi. According to a Telsa service rep, the wifi-antenna location or something else in my 2023 MS was different from that of my 2015 MS which caused challenges in connecting to a weaker signal without direct line-of-sight.
I no longer need to find a properly-situated parking spot to use the library's public wifi. According to a Telsa service rep, the wifi-antenna location or something else in my 2023 MS was different from that of my 2015 MS which caused challenges in connecting to a weaker signal without direct line-of-sight.
Just 3 days ago my app stopped refreshing. I worked with service remotely and through many different tests and determined when the car is at home it will not refresh with WiFi. It seems to work fine when I’m away and under cellular connection. Some quirks are:
1. It will not refresh at home even if I turn WiFi off and try to connect with cellular
2. It will work at home using WiFi if I first use app to lock and unlock door.
They now want me to bring the car into the service center but won’t tell me what more they can do at a service center where they could end up keeping it for days. Im ready to just use the lock/unlock method unless someone can tell me what more can a service center do. Has anyone fixed this issue. Has anyone brought their car into service center for appp issue and what did they do?
1. It will not refresh at home even if I turn WiFi off and try to connect with cellular
2. It will work at home using WiFi if I first use app to lock and unlock door.
They now want me to bring the car into the service center but won’t tell me what more they can do at a service center where they could end up keeping it for days. Im ready to just use the lock/unlock method unless someone can tell me what more can a service center do. Has anyone fixed this issue. Has anyone brought their car into service center for appp issue and what did they do?
I have the same issue and have already reported it to Tesla, but I don't think they can/will do much about it. What I am hoping to get is a better understanding of how the communication between the app and the car works to help troubleshoot this.
So here are the basics:
HW: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra with Android 14, and a Model 3 on 2023.44.8 (though the issue is not tied to getting this update, is pre-existing).
Background: ever since I changed my internet service provider in mid-November I've been having this issue. No other hardware changes beside the modem of the ISP, so my Wi-Fi router (TP-Link Archer AX55 w. firmware 1.2.6), phone, firewall settings have not changed a bit. The new cable modem is actually not even a traditional modem, it is an optical network terminal Teletronik GE 2112 with no wifi, just a single fiber-optic port and a gigabit LAN port to the router. I can't find anything about this on the internet, but the German company/brand seems to be in the pro networking equipment business.
Issue: I am unable to wake up the car once it went to "deep sleep" i.e. several hours not used, if my phone is on Wi-Fi. The Tesla app (v4.28.2-2157) shows a "401 session expired" message and the controls do not work, can't pre-heat the car from my phone or open doors, etc. Also, the profile picture and the referral box icon on top of the app do not load either. HOWEVER, if I switch back to LTE on my phone, the car wakes up instantly, profile loads int he phone app, and after that I can now turn WiFi back on my phone and everything works absolutely fine until the car goes into deep sleep again.
Root causes excluded:
This is highly unlikely to be an issue with the car, the phone/Android, or the Tesla app as things work just fine when the phone uses the 4G LTE network, and also every other app works fine on Wi-fi. Also, once the car is awake, things work fine over Wi-Fi as well:
HOWEVER, if this was the case with Tesla as well, access to the car wouldn't just magically resume to work over Wi-Fi (i.e. this same ISP) once the car had been woken up.
For the same reason I have excluded issues with my Wi-Fi router's firewall as well.
Current hypothesis:
My only logical conclusion is that, yes, this is obviously related to my ISP change, as the issue started immediately the day I switched over. However it cannot be a general IP address-range blacklisting on Tesla's side, or some general setting on the ISP's side blocking access to Tesla's servers.
My thinking is, that there is something different about the way the Tesla mobile app re-establishes connection with Tesla's servers once the old session timed out vs. all the other communication it does later on. Maybe it uses another protocol, maybe it accesses another port, but it feels like that specific message, to log in to the server, is blocked by my ISP by either by a setting on their equipment in their server room, or the specific optical network terminal they give to their customers.
Any inputs, thoughts, especially from people with deep IT networking knowledge would be appreciated, so I could help my ISP troubleshoot this. Obviously i have already called them, but the technician had no idea where to start and sent me to Tesla.... I imagine Tesla will close my ticket and send me to the ISP...
So here are the basics:
HW: Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra with Android 14, and a Model 3 on 2023.44.8 (though the issue is not tied to getting this update, is pre-existing).
Background: ever since I changed my internet service provider in mid-November I've been having this issue. No other hardware changes beside the modem of the ISP, so my Wi-Fi router (TP-Link Archer AX55 w. firmware 1.2.6), phone, firewall settings have not changed a bit. The new cable modem is actually not even a traditional modem, it is an optical network terminal Teletronik GE 2112 with no wifi, just a single fiber-optic port and a gigabit LAN port to the router. I can't find anything about this on the internet, but the German company/brand seems to be in the pro networking equipment business.
Issue: I am unable to wake up the car once it went to "deep sleep" i.e. several hours not used, if my phone is on Wi-Fi. The Tesla app (v4.28.2-2157) shows a "401 session expired" message and the controls do not work, can't pre-heat the car from my phone or open doors, etc. Also, the profile picture and the referral box icon on top of the app do not load either. HOWEVER, if I switch back to LTE on my phone, the car wakes up instantly, profile loads int he phone app, and after that I can now turn WiFi back on my phone and everything works absolutely fine until the car goes into deep sleep again.
Root causes excluded:
This is highly unlikely to be an issue with the car, the phone/Android, or the Tesla app as things work just fine when the phone uses the 4G LTE network, and also every other app works fine on Wi-fi. Also, once the car is awake, things work fine over Wi-Fi as well:
- If this was an issue with the car's LTE or Wi-Fi connection, it wouldn't go away just because I switch my phone to LTE instead of Wi-Fi.
- Unlikely to be an issue with the Tesla app or Android itself for the same reason, plus that every other app works fine on Wi-Fi.
- We have also tried with another phone in the household and we found the same problem.
HOWEVER, if this was the case with Tesla as well, access to the car wouldn't just magically resume to work over Wi-Fi (i.e. this same ISP) once the car had been woken up.
For the same reason I have excluded issues with my Wi-Fi router's firewall as well.
Current hypothesis:
My only logical conclusion is that, yes, this is obviously related to my ISP change, as the issue started immediately the day I switched over. However it cannot be a general IP address-range blacklisting on Tesla's side, or some general setting on the ISP's side blocking access to Tesla's servers.
My thinking is, that there is something different about the way the Tesla mobile app re-establishes connection with Tesla's servers once the old session timed out vs. all the other communication it does later on. Maybe it uses another protocol, maybe it accesses another port, but it feels like that specific message, to log in to the server, is blocked by my ISP by either by a setting on their equipment in their server room, or the specific optical network terminal they give to their customers.
Any inputs, thoughts, especially from people with deep IT networking knowledge would be appreciated, so I could help my ISP troubleshoot this. Obviously i have already called them, but the technician had no idea where to start and sent me to Tesla.... I imagine Tesla will close my ticket and send me to the ISP...
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You may be having another issue, but I have always had long connection times of several minutes. Both the ATT LTE of the car in my garage, and the Verizon on my cell phone in parts of my home are poor signal strength. I read it helps to add phone to the Tesla app permissions, and that does seem to help. While you may have a blocking issue, your Internet connection sure seems solid. Equipment itself should not matter. I think LTE connection is required for complete authentication in the car, but others do not agree. My car and cell phone are always connected to great wifi at home, but yet I have always had this issue at home with routers and phones charging over the years.
BTW my fiber gig "cable" connection is also some weird company with no end customer support. I must go thru the cable company for any questions
BTW my fiber gig "cable" connection is also some weird company with no end customer support. I must go thru the cable company for any questions
Ostrichsak
Well-Known Member
It's their WiFi radio in my case.
I've got a very robust all-Ubiquiti home internet network (more robust that most small/medium businesses are willing to invest in, generally) that's not only rock solid but allows user-level access for tons of data and performance metrics. I've also owned 8 Teslas now spanning the model years 2013-2023 and have owned up to three multiple times. I've lived in the same home with a similar network solution for the duration as well. I feel these parameters allow for a unique ability to scientifically determine what the issue is. This is for MY use case, and YMMV of course as everyone's variables are different.
That said, in a client pool of dozens I can clearly see the Teslas connect and drop connectivity an alarmingly high number of times throughout the day once connected. After a while of drops, they simply give up. In my list of "problem clients" (yes, the user interface actually offers such performance metrics) it's basically a list of my Teslas over the years. My client log is just a slew of entries from our current (now 2) Teslas for 15-20 entries with an occasional entry for another client that's disconnected or reconnected (due to someone leaving/returning) before returning back to 15-20+ entries for our two Teslas.
Keep in mind that this has NOTHING to do with their connectivity as their signal strength is about as close to 100% as you can get and stays there w/o outside interference. It should as I've got a U6 Pro Access Point installed directly above them and have invested time turning for optimization well beyond what a typical SoHo network would be. This is something I attempted to remedy numerous times over the years (adjusting timeout settings, isolating via VLAN in an effort to remove DLNA conflicts which Tesla seems to struggle with, etc.) before finally giving up.
The reality is that Tesla's WiFi hardware/software stack is broken. It's just easy for them to blame the owner's internet/WiFi or their cell service or mobile service provider. There's a lot of "wireless" at play here which allows Tesla to easily pass the buck in a manner that's difficult to refute for most users given the variables any wireless connection can introduce. In my case, I can see clear as day that the issue is Tesla.
None of my other wireless clients have this sort of drop rate and that includes devices that are pennies on the dollar by comparison and also with for lower signal strength that I would expect to drop connectivity more frequently. It's also worth noting that not too many years ago similar vehicles stayed connected for much longer and I had far fewer instances of not being able to "reach" my car from my phone app when they were in the garage. Now, I can go get lunch on one day and less than 24hrs later I can attempt to access my car to warm it up when it's single digit temps outside and it's already inaccessible via the app. It all but makes using the app to heat up or warm a car every couple of days useless which isn't something I used to experience.
Tesla needs to fix this as it's one of the primary ways we interface with our cars and as such directly impacts our user experience. Tesla is looking past this as a secondary issue that doesn't need attention but it's negatively impacting how much we enjoy our cars and value them for the price tag. This is bad Tesla.
I've got a very robust all-Ubiquiti home internet network (more robust that most small/medium businesses are willing to invest in, generally) that's not only rock solid but allows user-level access for tons of data and performance metrics. I've also owned 8 Teslas now spanning the model years 2013-2023 and have owned up to three multiple times. I've lived in the same home with a similar network solution for the duration as well. I feel these parameters allow for a unique ability to scientifically determine what the issue is. This is for MY use case, and YMMV of course as everyone's variables are different.
That said, in a client pool of dozens I can clearly see the Teslas connect and drop connectivity an alarmingly high number of times throughout the day once connected. After a while of drops, they simply give up. In my list of "problem clients" (yes, the user interface actually offers such performance metrics) it's basically a list of my Teslas over the years. My client log is just a slew of entries from our current (now 2) Teslas for 15-20 entries with an occasional entry for another client that's disconnected or reconnected (due to someone leaving/returning) before returning back to 15-20+ entries for our two Teslas.
Keep in mind that this has NOTHING to do with their connectivity as their signal strength is about as close to 100% as you can get and stays there w/o outside interference. It should as I've got a U6 Pro Access Point installed directly above them and have invested time turning for optimization well beyond what a typical SoHo network would be. This is something I attempted to remedy numerous times over the years (adjusting timeout settings, isolating via VLAN in an effort to remove DLNA conflicts which Tesla seems to struggle with, etc.) before finally giving up.
The reality is that Tesla's WiFi hardware/software stack is broken. It's just easy for them to blame the owner's internet/WiFi or their cell service or mobile service provider. There's a lot of "wireless" at play here which allows Tesla to easily pass the buck in a manner that's difficult to refute for most users given the variables any wireless connection can introduce. In my case, I can see clear as day that the issue is Tesla.
None of my other wireless clients have this sort of drop rate and that includes devices that are pennies on the dollar by comparison and also with for lower signal strength that I would expect to drop connectivity more frequently. It's also worth noting that not too many years ago similar vehicles stayed connected for much longer and I had far fewer instances of not being able to "reach" my car from my phone app when they were in the garage. Now, I can go get lunch on one day and less than 24hrs later I can attempt to access my car to warm it up when it's single digit temps outside and it's already inaccessible via the app. It all but makes using the app to heat up or warm a car every couple of days useless which isn't something I used to experience.
Tesla needs to fix this as it's one of the primary ways we interface with our cars and as such directly impacts our user experience. Tesla is looking past this as a secondary issue that doesn't need attention but it's negatively impacting how much we enjoy our cars and value them for the price tag. This is bad Tesla.
Beavertail S
Member
I completely agree with Ostrichsak. Our house and garage in Maine have great wifi but little to no cell signal. Begninning in November (I think), the app began to have trouble see our cars at home. So we couldn’t pre-warm them without a trip to the garage. After having Teslas since the first Model S release, we have never had this problem before. I think its a Tesla problem. I have tried enabling Sentry mode and unticking the exclusions for every driver profile. I’ll check back in and let you know if that helped. I do hope Tesla is paying attention. There are other threads addressing this issue too.
Ostrichsak
Well-Known Member
I can't speak for everyone but my issue has nothing to do with the mobile data signal.
I remember your results, but I have marginal cell signal for both ATT (Tesla Cell) and Verizon (my phone). Both the car and my phone are connected to my very strong WiFi service, and calls are mostly made WiFi from my phone, yet the App won't work without a good cell signal. In fact, sometimes when I drive away, the Tesla cell service takes up to 3 minute to connect to the ATT network.
From my manual:
Note: If your vehicle was unlocked using the
mobile app, it automatically locks after a short
period of time with all doors closed. If parking
in an area without cellular service, such as an
indoor parking garage, ensure that you have a
functional key fob readily available.
To Use the Mobile App
Note: Your phone and vehicle must both be
actively connected to cellular service to allow
the mobile app to communicate with your
vehicle.
