Curious phone key failure

[SVMike]

My model 3 is just over a year old and at the beginning I followed some of the many discussions about the failures and different phones, etc. I never had a problem except a couple of times when I think my body was between the phone and the car. But no issues for the last ~10 months, until yesterday.

I drove the car in the morning with no issue. Without even using my phone later on I went to get into my car and it wouldn't open and the display told me to use to key card. I check my phone and BT was clearly on. I turned it off, then back on but no success. I used my key card and went to the first place I needed to go. I tried my phone again there, but no success. B

Back to the key card and on to another destination. I tried the phone again with no success. I did try using the phone app and I unlocked the car via cell service. While sitting in the car it would not start and instead of using the key card I tried turning BT off then on again. This time it worked and I drove home.

Here is the curious part (other than why this happened at all). About an hour later I looked at my phone and I had an alert from the Tesla app. I deleted it, but from memory it said something like, "If you are having trouble with your phone as a key, try toggling airplane mode on then off."

Anyone else seen this? Or know exactly how the car knows it might be phone issues and not someone trying to get into your car? (Note: sentry mode = off)

 

[davewill]

If the app is not running, the phone key function will not work. It may have been the act of launching the app (along with toggling BT) that fixed the problem. Could your phone be set to force the Tesla app to sleep trying to save battery?

 

[SVMike]

If the app is not running, the phone key function will not work. It may have been the act of launching the app (along with toggling BT) that fixed the problem. Could your phone be set to force the Tesla app to sleep trying to save battery?

I doubt it. Since it worked perfect for about a year before yesterday and I didn't even touch anything on my phone (Samsung S7) that could have changed a setting. I regularly do all sorts of things on my phone on other days, including use various power saving features and the car always works.

I do not believe that the app has to be running for the BT phone key to work. To test this I just closed all apps on my phone, I even ran the battery optimizer and put my phone in power saving mode. With BT on I walked right up to my car and it opened.

 

[towndrunk]

There were recent updates to the phone app. On Android after an update, you need to manually open the app to make sure it'll work when you need it.

 

[SVMike]

There were recent updates to the phone app. On Android after an update, you need to manually open the app to make sure it'll work when you need it.

I just got an update to 2019.28.31.f9e95acd a week ago or so.
As I said above, I closed all apps and put my phone into power saving and the BT phone key still works.
(feel free to try this and see)

But my main comment is the alert that got sent to my phone.
Has anyone else see this?
The car somehow reported back to Tesla's servers then to my phone that I was trying to get in and couldn't

 

[davewill]

...

I do not believe that the app has to be running for the BT phone key to work. To test this I just closed all apps on my phone, I even ran the battery optimizer and put my phone in power saving mode. With BT on I walked right up to my car and it opened.

Do a force quit on the Tesla app and the phone key will fail until you launch it again. I've tried it.

 

[KenC]

Did you check the new associated keycard/phone key settings?

 

[jjrandorin]

I just got an update to 2019.28.31.f9e95acd a week ago or so.
As I said above, I closed all apps and put my phone into power saving and the BT phone key still works.
(feel free to try this and see)

But my main comment is the alert that got sent to my phone.
Has anyone else see this?
The car somehow reported back to Tesla's servers then to my phone that I was trying to get in and couldn't

Yes, I have seen that message before. While i have both iPhone and android, my iPhone is the one synced with my car as phone. I mention that because you mentioned you use android, and I use iPhone for my tesla, but I have seen that message a couple of times before in the time I have owned the car (dec 4 2018).

 

[japhule]

It's been awhile since i've had a phone key issue with my S10+ but it happened over the weekend to me where the car did not open when I went up to it, asking to use the key card. I took out the phone and opened up the app and then it started working again. I think the app or a related service might've been killed by the phone for some reason but its been working fine every since.

 

[darth_vad3r]

Or know exactly how the car knows it might be phone issues and not someone trying to get into your car? (Note: sentry mode = off)

The car can be pretty smart:

Charge to over 90% 2-3 times in a row and it warns you not to do that for daily use.

Slam the console too hard and it warns you to just do it gently.

I’m guessing the logic here was door handle tried then door unlocked with key card once, then twice, then three times a notification ... especially after successfully using the phone before or during.