Car not unlocking with phone? Try this.

[Dan203]

What I have seen is the phone not unlock the car, and then once I take it out of my pocket and wake the phone up, then the car will unlock without doing anything else. It's as if the background Bluetooth task that is supposed to unlock the car is asleep, but taking the phone out of my pocket (which on the Samsung Galaxy S8/S8+ will wake up the display) also wakes up the Bluetooth background task, allowing the car to unlock.

I wonder if this is some sort of power saving feature? Maybe a setting somewhere is causing this? I did a quick Google and it appears that Samsung phones have some sort of "battery saving" mode where it can disable things like background Bluetooth to preserve your battery. maybe this is enabled by default and is what is causing this issue? (I don't have a Samsung phone available to look at right now)

 

[SomeJoe7777]

I wonder if this is some sort of power saving feature? Maybe a setting somewhere is causing this? I did a quick Google and it appears that Samsung phones have some sort of "battery saving" mode where it can disable things like background Bluetooth to preserve your battery. maybe this is enabled by default and is what is causing this issue? (I don't have a Samsung phone available to look at right now)

This is what I thought too, but I already disabled the "Battery Optimization" setting for the Tesla app, and it still happens from time to time. I think the whole issue is probably very phone-dependent and dependent on the specific Android version.

I can't tell you anything about iThings, I don't mess with them.

 

[mmiketa]

This is what I thought too, but I already disabled the "Battery Optimization" setting for the Tesla app, and it still happens from time to time. I think the whole issue is probably very phone-dependent and dependent on the specific Android version.

I can't tell you anything about iThings, I don't mess with them.

A few minutes ago I added disabled Battery Optimization on Bluetooth as well and in my single attempt after doing that it worked without issue. Fingers crossed that this solves the problem.

 

[calidreamz808]

Anytime my iphone gets near the card reader in the center divider, my phone will pop up a warning says its not authorized to use wallet or whatever.. so something is talking to the phone.

 

[Dan203]

Anytime my iphone gets near the card reader in the center divider, my phone will pop up a warning says its not authorized to use wallet or whatever.. so something is talking to the phone.

Newer iPhones have active NFC tag detection. (since XR I believe) So they will pop up something any time they're placed near any NFC tag. You can set up shortcuts that will perform specific tasks when it detects a tag. Maybe yoh can set your phone to do something cool when it detect the tag.

 

[nvx1977]

A few minutes ago I added disabled Battery Optimization on Bluetooth as well and in my single attempt after doing that it worked without issue. Fingers crossed that this solves the problem.

I haven't needed to do this, but I just checked my apps on Android 10. There's "BLE Scanner" and "Bluetooth". If you have to disable battery optimization to improve phone key function, do it for the "BLE Scanner".

BLE stands for Bluetooth Low Energy which is the protocol the car is using to pair with the phone for the phone-as-key feature.

 

[Lanzer]

I've experienced something similar in the car. If my phone is in my left pocket, which it usually is, sometimes the car won't detect it initially, but it will detect it when I pull it out of my pocket.

I have a similar situation where I keep my phone in my rear pocket, and the bluetooth would be too far to unlock the car, so I needed to twist my hips to get the phone to get detected. To everybody else they see this guy who bump his butt against his car before opening its doors.

 

[Lanzer]

iPhone 6 Plus...same issue......app has to be opened or running in background....what an annoyance

I used to have an iPhone 6 and the phone key would fail once every few days. Had to turn off bluetooth and turn it back on for it to work. Upgraded to the iPhone XS last year and the problem is gone. So that's something to look forward to when you eventually upgrade. I've heard that starting with the iPhone X the problem is no there.

 

[mswlogo]

I used to have an iPhone 6 and the phone key would fail once every few days. Had to turn off bluetooth and turn it back on for it to work. Upgraded to the iPhone XS last year and the problem is gone. So that's something to look forward to when you eventually upgrade. I've heard that starting with the iPhone X the problem is no there.

iPhone 6s and iPhone X Never failed after a year of use. You didn't need a new phone.

BLE is the same on iPhones since the 4s.

You MUST Set the App's up correctly.

No Battery Saver, MUST Run in Background, MUST have Location Always. If you don't do that it will work erratically or require bringing the app to foreground.

Basically the way it works if the phone is not in energy saver mode, when it sees the BLE device (which it constantly scans for when not in energy save mode) it will wake all apps that are allowed to run in background with location always on. That wakes the Tesla app up so it can unlock the car.

For Android the rules are similar but the implementation is different for every freaken brand, but it's the same thing.

The App does not take much power for location (it's not GPS) or BLE, but it will take some.
If it drains the battery too much it's time for a new battery or a new phone.

The phone works really good, when setup properly.
If the phone was in my back pocket, which it was occasionally, I sometimes had to "moon it" a bit

 

[spon88]

I'm in the UK and have exactly the reverse problem i.e. the car sits unlocked unless my 'phone (OnePlus 6) is at least 7m away. I'd been happily sitting in my front room with the car on the drive not realising it was unlocked - although the app indicate it was actually locked. I've tried the various settings including lock on walk away but no joy. I only noticed when the wife opened the door just to check. Not good!

Now I'm using Google assistant to quickly enable/disable bluetooth on the 'phone - reconnection to the car is rapid and I'd rather go through this short procedure and be safe in the knowledge that the car is actually locked! I've seen a few other posts with the same issue so some work for Tesla to do as this is a bit of a security glitch. Cheers.

 

[mswlogo]

I'm in the UK and have exactly the reverse problem i.e. the car sits unlocked unless my 'phone (OnePlus 6) is at least 7m away. I'd been happily sitting in my front room with the car on the drive not realising it was unlocked - although the app indicate it was actually locked. I've tried the various settings including lock on walk away but no joy. I only noticed when the wife opened the door just to check. Not good!

Now I'm using Google assistant to quickly enable/disable bluetooth on the 'phone - reconnection to the car is rapid and I'd rather go through this short procedure and be safe in the knowledge that the car is actually locked! I've seen a few other posts with the same issue so some work for Tesla to do as this is a bit of a security glitch. Cheers.

Mine would lock just as I left my 2 car garage. It is about a 24 ft wide garage and would often lock at the door entry and the car was parked on the further side. So 15-20 ft which is close to 5-7m.

 

[spon88]

Mine would lock just as I left my 2 car garage. It is about a 24 ft wide garage and would often lock at the door entry and the car was parked on the further side. So 15-20 ft which is close to 5-7m.

Similar distance to me. I'm OK with the phone further into the house but our cars are close to the front room window, so no good in there. So it's bluetooth off for me until Tesla come up with something to fine tune this. Loving the car despite the quirks!

 

[mswlogo]

Similar distance to me. I'm OK with the phone further into the house but our cars are close to the front room window, so no good in there. So it's bluetooth off for me until Tesla come up with something to fine tune this. Loving the car despite the quirks!

Our rooms are above the car. But we have to get more than 7m to get into the house.
Don't assume because you see it's "connected" to the phone that it's unlocked, IT IS NOT.

Once you are 7m (or what ever) away, it locks (confirmed with a toot) and will not unlock until you are VERY close again.

There are several reasons why it might not lock.

Don't assume because your are so close it was the phone that never got far enough (because you don't have to be very far for it to lock) or it got close enough to unlock (because it does not do that).

You'd have to continuously stay with 7m for it to not work. Highly unlikely even in tiny UK flats.

 

[mmiketa]

Our rooms are above the car. But we have to get more than 7m to get into the house.
Don't assume because you see it's "connected" to the phone that it's unlocked, IT IS NOT.

Once you are 7m (or what ever) away, it locks (confirmed with a toot) and will not unlock until you are VERY close again.

There are several reasons why it might not lock.

Don't assume because your are so close it was the phone that never got far enough (because you don't have to be very far for it to lock) or it got close enough to unlock (because it does not do that).

You'd have to continuously stay with 7m for it to not work. Highly unlikely even in tiny UK flats.

Yeah, mine will lock even if I'm right by the frunk.

 

[mswlogo]

Yeah, mine will lock even if I'm right by the frunk.

Yeah part of it is time based, I was never sure how far for how long would trigger it. But it's not very far for not very long.

 

[spon88]

Our rooms are above the car. But we have to get more than 7m to get into the house.
Don't assume because you see it's "connected" to the phone that it's unlocked, IT IS NOT.

Once you are 7m (or what ever) away, it locks (confirmed with a toot) and will not unlock until you are VERY close again.

There are several reasons why it might not lock.

Don't assume because your are so close it was the phone that never got far enough (because you don't have to be very far for it to lock) or it got close enough to unlock (because it does not do that).

You'd have to continuously stay with 7m for it to not work. Highly unlikely even in tiny UK flats.

Thanks for your feedback. These are physical tests we are doing to confirm the status. So I can walk away and the car locks after about 7 or 8 seconds and maybe 4 or 5 yards. I head in to the back of the house > 10m and the car stays locked - physically checked. If I then move to the front room, close to the driveway (maybe 7 or 8m line of sight to the car) and leave the phone there, then I can unlock the car.

So for sure the car is locking and then allowing us to open the door when the phone is around 7m away indoors. If I disable bluetooth, the car stays locked. When bluetooth is on, the app says connected and indicates that the car is locked - it isn't. With bluetooth off, the app says switch it on to use the phone as a key. This appears to be a range related issue and the actual lock status is not correctly shown by the app.

 

[wasp]

yep, made the same experience with iphone 6 and both model s and 3.

 

[Davidss2]

A few minutes ago I added disabled Battery Optimization on Bluetooth as well and in my single attempt after doing that it worked without issue. Fingers crossed that this solves the problem.

Thanks for the tip. I did the same thing on my samsung s10 and it helped.

 

[freed0m]

iPhone 6 Plus...same issue......app has to be opened or running in background....what an annoyance

Yup, iPhone X same issue. Hella annoying!