Can't connect to car using App when phone is on home Wifi

[PCMc]

Here i the page from the Tesla Manual:

App doesn't require a cellular signal, only an internet connection which can be from wifi.

I used the app on my iPad for many years, connecting to my car without any issue. Reason I know that's all via wifi is that my iPad is a wifi only model and has no cellular connection.

Doesn't even need to be connected via the same wifi connection as the car. I've used it and my phone to connect to my car from overseas when both were only connected to internet without any active cellular signal.

 

[DerbyDave]

App doesn't require a cellular signal, only an internet connection which can be from wifi.

I used the app on my iPad for many years, connecting to my car without any issue. Reason I know that's all via wifi is that my iPad is a wifi only model and has no cellular connection.

Doesn't even need to be connected via the same wifi connection as the car. I've used it and my phone to connect to my car from overseas when both were only connected to internet without any active cellular signal.

My car doesn't do well without a Cell SIgnal. It just does not work, and the manual says a cell signal is required to use the App. Why would they put that in the Owner's Manual if it is just plain wrong? I do not think full car security access and proper authentication can be granted through the app on WiFi alone. Perhaps once the app authenticates to your device through a Cell connection, it trusts that device. I Just don't know. Maybe this works on iPhone with WiFI only -- who knows. My Android phones of different years have always had issues attaching with only my excellent WiFi connection to my phone and my car, which are on the same network.

Refer to this prior post in this thread, Can't connect to car using App when phone is on home Wifi

 

[PCMc]

My car doesn't do well without a Cell SIgnal. It just does not work, and the manual says a cell signal is required to use the App. Why would they put that in the Owner's Manual if it is just plain wrong? I do not think full car security access and proper authentication can be granted through the app on WiFi alone. Perhaps once the app authenticates to your device through a Cell connection, it trusts that device. I Just don't know. Maybe this works on iPhone with WiFI only -- who knows. My Android phones of different years have always had issues attaching with only my excellent WiFi connection to my phone and my car, which are on the same network.

Refer to this prior post in this thread, Can't connect to car using App when phone is on home Wifi

I can't speak to anything Android, or why Tesla words things they way the do in the manual, but I can tell you that my iPhone and my iPad are fully capable to connect with my car via just wifi. As I said before, my iPad is wifi only and has no cellular capability. I have used it to connect to 2016 MS90D for past 7.5 years and now with my new 2023 MS LR.

I'm currently overseas, have cellular turned off on my personal cellphone, but am still able to fully access my car. You'll notice in the photo the airplane icon showing my phone is in airplane mode with cellular turned off. I've spent most of the past 4 years based overseas, and used my phone regularly to controlling charing with it only having a wifi connection.

I understand some like yourself do not have good experience connecting via wifi. I can't explain the differences in why wifi works well for me an not for you. All I know is there seems to be no dependency for it to be a cellular connection to internet versus a wifi conection to internet.

 

[DerbyDave]

@PCMc, Like I say, must be something unique to Apple operating system products. I know if I took it into Tesla as a problem, I will be getting the manual quote back as Operating Normally.

 

[Beavertail S]

So far I have good news to report, at least for my particular problem. Once I went in and made sure Sentry Mode was on, with no location exclusions, for every driver profile, in each car, our app wakes both cars at home very quickly and reliably. At first I had a few profiles that still excluded ”home” in one car, and the app was not waking that car. Thanks for all of your input on this problem.

 

[DerbyDave]

I do not have Sentry on at home, and I cannot connect. @Beavertail S, good observation. Maybe that is a difference. I do not want to prevent my car from sleeping while at home.

 

[PCMc]

I do not have Sentry on at home, and I cannot connect. @Beavertail S, good observation. Maybe that is a difference. I do not want to prevent my car from sleeping while at home.

I do not have sentry on for my car and this does not have any influence on my ability to connect to it via the app. Like I said, I have no idea why some people seem to have some much difficulty yet others of us do not. All I know for me is it has nothing to do whether my device is managing the internet connection via cellular or wireless.

 

[mrdoubleb]

I have the solution!

The credit actually goes to my boss who advised, that in his experience many of the networking/connections issues he had in the past were related to IPv6, so he just ended up getting rid of that completely in his setup. Indeed a few years ago I was having issues uploading to our company FTP server and the solution was disabling IPv6 in Windows. But, obviously, that only applies to my laptop, not the Tesla app running on my phone.

So, I logged into the admin page of my router, completely disabled IPv6, and this has fully resolved the issue. I am able to connect to the car even after 10-12 hours of deep sleep state every single time.

IPv6 does have some benefits, which also pose some security risks, as it enables direct access from the outside to specific devices to the gadgets connected to your network. So depending on your smart home setup, you need to test if disabling messes up something else for you. Also, this wasn't an issue with my previous ISP, so the solution may or may not help you given the networking equipment and protocols your ISP may use.

But, for me, this has completely solved the issue with zero drawbacks, and I feel like it has also made my network a little more secure, so I wanted to share it, in case it helps others.

 

[TLH AP]

Home Wi-Fi works just fine on all my devices.

When my phone is on Wifi, the app keeps showing (last seen xx minutes ago) and the connections seems lost. As soon as I switch my phone from WiFi to LTE signal the app works again.

I tried to delete/uninstall the app and reinstall, reboot the car, but nothing works. Seems to be an App-Phone issue because everything works fine when my phone is not on Wifi for the Tesla app to work. I also tried to create a new Guest network and it's the same issue....


Any suggestions?

I have the same issue when both my iPhone 14 and Tesla 2023 MYLR are on WiFi at home. However, they will connect after 10 or 20 seconds, and will connect faster for a short period of time thereafter. This is something new for me, so I suspect it started with an update on the iPhone or the Tesla. I have AT&T for my carrier, and Xfinity Gigabit 1000 MBPS as my Internet provider. My iPhone 14 has IOS 17.3, my Tesla has 2024.2.2.1. Previously my iPhone would not stay connected to WiFi when asleep, so it would not automatically back up my data to the iCloud. This was a known problem with the iPhone 14, and was corrected with an update. But the Tesla issue did not start that far back. Have you also experienced that issue with your iPhone? Unfortunately I don't remember exactly when the iPhone/Tesla problem started. It has been a while, so I cannot attribute it to a particular update on either the iPhone or Tesla. It is annoying, so hopefully a future update will correct it. Is any part of my situation similar to yours?