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Disappearing Bluetooth Door Locking Radios

Which door locking radios appear on your phone's Bluetooth control panel?

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  • ####P

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  • ####R

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  • Total voters
    16
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During most of our first 12 months with our Tesla Model 3, using an Authenticated Phone as a “key” worked as expected. Every once in a while, I’d pull on a door handle or trunk release and nothing would happen. Sometimes trying again would open the car, and using the Tesla app on my iPhone X to remotely issue an Unlock command was a fall-back for those handful of times when trying the handles again didn’t help. Tesla owners experience their fair share of mysterious non-repeating problems - its something those of us working with tech take in stride. This was infrequent enough - perhaps once every two months on average - that it didn’t seem like a persistent problem. My wife experienced the same symptoms somewhat more frequently, but we put that down to her aging iPhone 6. Toggling the Bluetooth radio on and off on the iPhone 6 seemed to help, but that may not have been any more useful than re-attempting to open a door, which often works.

Lately, though, the symptoms have begun to occur more frequently - sometimes 3-4 times a week.

Over a year ago, I discovered that after setting up our iPhones as Authenticated Phones to unlock the Model 3, that in those phones’ Bluetooth control panels, in addition to the “Tesla Model 3” device which was paired with the Media and Audio System (for phone calls and media playback), I could see four additional Bluetooth radios with 18-character alphanumeric names like “SS9313dec7ccab013D” ending in “D,” “P,” “C” and “R.” I took these to represent Driver, Passenger, Center and Rear, and assume that these are networked Bluetooth radios which can all recognize the Authenticated Phone as a paired device. Comparing signal strengths between the four radios would allow the vehicle system to geographically identify where an Authenticated Phone was relative to the car, especially so that the user can’t lock the phone inside the cabin or trunk of the vehicle.

In the last few weeks, when I encountered a failure to unlock, I looked at the Bluetooth radios connected to my phone while standing next to the Model 3. I discovered that only ONE of the four “locking” radios - the one ending in “C” - appeared in the list on my iPhone X. I checked my wife’s iPhone 6, and it too only displayed the single “C” radio and the “Tesla Model 3” radio. This pretty much eliminated whether the “missing” radios symptom was related to my phone.

When I looked up old screenshots I’d taken of the Bluetooth radios, I discovered that as long as a year ago one of the radios (“P” - Passenger?) was already missing, and I hadn’t noticed. This might explain my wife having occasional trouble unlocking the doors from the passenger side of the car.

Because I’ve only got these two old screenshots with which to compare current observations, and because I never realized radios had vanished from the polled list until now, I’ve never witnessed one of these radios re-appearing in the phone’s Bluetooth control panel. That doesn’t mean they don’t. It’s also conjecture on my part that all of the Bluetooth radios should always be visible - I deduced that from seeing them back in November 2018, and it made sense. I’m assuming that all of those radios stay running and are visible when a paired phone is in range under normal circumstances. I have found a single example of someone else’s screenshot showing four Bluetooth IDs from a Tesla Model 3, so that supports the hypothesis that is the normal state.

Because our Model 3 has become increasingly recalcitrant about unlocking with our phones, I’m also assuming that the disappearing radios *is* related to poor unlocking performance.

Here are the three screenshots showing the progressive attrition of the Model 3’s locking radios over the past 13 months:

APanfLJOvsSQSS_yjTLrBxTmrJbI9v_wU7R0b9KRuKv0DZa93pvZWTbL9HK0erzKHatkhYE8KYwe3MMYwyJbU45swUymwgI-pNiwsnM4hO-ptBXnbhH4Dm_qJWRcxiGlw5ELKrgC


Just to be thorough, I’ve tried restarting Bluetooth on my phone and restarting the phone. But since my wife’s iPhone 6 shows the same missing Bluetooth radios, I really wan’t expecting anything to change - and nothing did change. Despite the fact that it should have nothing to do with door locking but again for thoroughness, I tried Restarting the Touchscreen on the Model 3 (by holding down the two thumbwheels). This also had no effect upon restoring the Bluetooth radios, or on Authenticated Phone unlocking performance.

I had a Tesla Mobile Service appointment for an interior trim issue this past week, and when the tech witnessed my failure to open the door on first try, I showed him my phone’s Bluetooth control panel (which looked like the “Dec 2, 2019” screenshot above). He said that if were his car, he’d contact Tesla Service about it.

I was waiting to post this after I got results from a Tesla Service visit for this issue, but it’s been rescheduled for January 2020, so I’m getting this out there in case it’s helpful to anyone else. I'll report back after my service visit.

Ellsworth Oct 2018 RWD LR
 
My phone works fine as a key, but was not paired via Bluetooth at all. So there is a chance that seeing these radios is some side effect, rather than indication of what is actually wrong (if anything). Obviously, phone can work as a key without ANY of these devices listed in the iPhone's Bluetooth devices list.

And probably this disappearance is actually Tesla fixing some defect in their software, and eliminating these devices, which are not supposed to be shown. Basically, you may be seeing their progress in fixing their defects.
 
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I can confirm the disappearing BT connections. I now only see the one ending in “C”. I distinctly remember seeing three, if not four connections when I got the car in May, 2019. Now I only see one connection. On 2019.40.2.1. I can’t say exactly when they disappeared, but they’re gone now, visibly. Perhaps just tidying up on Tesla’s part.

I can’t say that anything has gotten worse in terms of phone unlock. I can say it’s always been perfect or it hasn’t been. Not much in between. The lack of consistency is frustrating, I’ll say that.
 
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Of late ( for the past couple of weeks ) I have been seeing this issue as well ( car not responding to presence of phone ) mine is an iphone 6 or older.. But once I wake up my phone, usually it will wake the car up.
 
During most of our first 12 months with our Tesla Model 3, using an Authenticated Phone as a “key” worked as expected. Every once in a while, I’d pull on a door handle or trunk release and nothing would happen. Sometimes trying again would open the car, and using the Tesla app on my iPhone X to remotely issue an Unlock command was a fall-back for those handful of times when trying the handles again didn’t help. Tesla owners experience their fair share of mysterious non-repeating problems - its something those of us working with tech take in stride. This was infrequent enough - perhaps once every two months on average - that it didn’t seem like a persistent problem. My wife experienced the same symptoms somewhat more frequently, but we put that down to her aging iPhone 6. Toggling the Bluetooth radio on and off on the iPhone 6 seemed to help, but that may not have been any more useful than re-attempting to open a door, which often works.

Lately, though, the symptoms have begun to occur more frequently - sometimes 3-4 times a week.

Over a year ago, I discovered that after setting up our iPhones as Authenticated Phones to unlock the Model 3, that in those phones’ Bluetooth control panels, in addition to the “Tesla Model 3” device which was paired with the Media and Audio System (for phone calls and media playback), I could see four additional Bluetooth radios with 18-character alphanumeric names like “SS9313dec7ccab013D” ending in “D,” “P,” “C” and “R.” I took these to represent Driver, Passenger, Center and Rear, and assume that these are networked Bluetooth radios which can all recognize the Authenticated Phone as a paired device. Comparing signal strengths between the four radios would allow the vehicle system to geographically identify where an Authenticated Phone was relative to the car, especially so that the user can’t lock the phone inside the cabin or trunk of the vehicle.

In the last few weeks, when I encountered a failure to unlock, I looked at the Bluetooth radios connected to my phone while standing next to the Model 3. I discovered that only ONE of the four “locking” radios - the one ending in “C” - appeared in the list on my iPhone X. I checked my wife’s iPhone 6, and it too only displayed the single “C” radio and the “Tesla Model 3” radio. This pretty much eliminated whether the “missing” radios symptom was related to my phone.

When I looked up old screenshots I’d taken of the Bluetooth radios, I discovered that as long as a year ago one of the radios (“P” - Passenger?) was already missing, and I hadn’t noticed. This might explain my wife having occasional trouble unlocking the doors from the passenger side of the car.

Because I’ve only got these two old screenshots with which to compare current observations, and because I never realized radios had vanished from the polled list until now, I’ve never witnessed one of these radios re-appearing in the phone’s Bluetooth control panel. That doesn’t mean they don’t. It’s also conjecture on my part that all of the Bluetooth radios should always be visible - I deduced that from seeing them back in November 2018, and it made sense. I’m assuming that all of those radios stay running and are visible when a paired phone is in range under normal circumstances. I have found a single example of someone else’s screenshot showing four Bluetooth IDs from a Tesla Model 3, so that supports the hypothesis that is the normal state.

Because our Model 3 has become increasingly recalcitrant about unlocking with our phones, I’m also assuming that the disappearing radios *is* related to poor unlocking performance.

Here are the three screenshots showing the progressive attrition of the Model 3’s locking radios over the past 13 months:

APanfLJOvsSQSS_yjTLrBxTmrJbI9v_wU7R0b9KRuKv0DZa93pvZWTbL9HK0erzKHatkhYE8KYwe3MMYwyJbU45swUymwgI-pNiwsnM4hO-ptBXnbhH4Dm_qJWRcxiGlw5ELKrgC


Just to be thorough, I’ve tried restarting Bluetooth on my phone and restarting the phone. But since my wife’s iPhone 6 shows the same missing Bluetooth radios, I really wan’t expecting anything to change - and nothing did change. Despite the fact that it should have nothing to do with door locking but again for thoroughness, I tried Restarting the Touchscreen on the Model 3 (by holding down the two thumbwheels). This also had no effect upon restoring the Bluetooth radios, or on Authenticated Phone unlocking performance.

I had a Tesla Mobile Service appointment for an interior trim issue this past week, and when the tech witnessed my failure to open the door on first try, I showed him my phone’s Bluetooth control panel (which looked like the “Dec 2, 2019” screenshot above). He said that if were his car, he’d contact Tesla Service about it.

I was waiting to post this after I got results from a Tesla Service visit for this issue, but it’s been rescheduled for January 2020, so I’m getting this out there in case it’s helpful to anyone else. I'll report back after my service visit.

Ellsworth Oct 2018 RWD LR
During most of our first 12 months with our Tesla Model 3, using an Authenticated Phone as a “key” worked as expected. Every once in a while, I’d pull on a door handle or trunk release and nothing would happen. Sometimes trying again would open the car, and using the Tesla app on my iPhone X to remotely issue an Unlock command was a fall-back for those handful of times when trying the handles again didn’t help. Tesla owners experience their fair share of mysterious non-repeating problems - its something those of us working with tech take in stride. This was infrequent enough - perhaps once every two months on average - that it didn’t seem like a persistent problem. My wife experienced the same symptoms somewhat more frequently, but we put that down to her aging iPhone 6. Toggling the Bluetooth radio on and off on the iPhone 6 seemed to help, but that may not have been any more useful than re-attempting to open a door, which often works.

Lately, though, the symptoms have begun to occur more frequently - sometimes 3-4 times a week.

Over a year ago, I discovered that after setting up our iPhones as Authenticated Phones to unlock the Model 3, that in those phones’ Bluetooth control panels, in addition to the “Tesla Model 3” device which was paired with the Media and Audio System (for phone calls and media playback), I could see four additional Bluetooth radios with 18-character alphanumeric names like “SS9313dec7ccab013D” ending in “D,” “P,” “C” and “R.” I took these to represent Driver, Passenger, Center and Rear, and assume that these are networked Bluetooth radios which can all recognize the Authenticated Phone as a paired device. Comparing signal strengths between the four radios would allow the vehicle system to geographically identify where an Authenticated Phone was relative to the car, especially so that the user can’t lock the phone inside the cabin or trunk of the vehicle.

In the last few weeks, when I encountered a failure to unlock, I looked at the Bluetooth radios connected to my phone while standing next to the Model 3. I discovered that only ONE of the four “locking” radios - the one ending in “C” - appeared in the list on my iPhone X. I checked my wife’s iPhone 6, and it too only displayed the single “C” radio and the “Tesla Model 3” radio. This pretty much eliminated whether the “missing” radios symptom was related to my phone.

When I looked up old screenshots I’d taken of the Bluetooth radios, I discovered that as long as a year ago one of the radios (“P” - Passenger?) was already missing, and I hadn’t noticed. This might explain my wife having occasional trouble unlocking the doors from the passenger side of the car.

Because I’ve only got these two old screenshots with which to compare current observations, and because I never realized radios had vanished from the polled list until now, I’ve never witnessed one of these radios re-appearing in the phone’s Bluetooth control panel. That doesn’t mean they don’t. It’s also conjecture on my part that all of the Bluetooth radios should always be visible - I deduced that from seeing them back in November 2018, and it made sense. I’m assuming that all of those radios stay running and are visible when a paired phone is in range under normal circumstances. I have found a single example of someone else’s screenshot showing four Bluetooth IDs from a Tesla Model 3, so that supports the hypothesis that is the normal state.

Because our Model 3 has become increasingly recalcitrant about unlocking with our phones, I’m also assuming that the disappearing radios *is* related to poor unlocking performance.

Here are the three screenshots showing the progressive attrition of the Model 3’s locking radios over the past 13 months:

APanfLJOvsSQSS_yjTLrBxTmrJbI9v_wU7R0b9KRuKv0DZa93pvZWTbL9HK0erzKHatkhYE8KYwe3MMYwyJbU45swUymwgI-pNiwsnM4hO-ptBXnbhH4Dm_qJWRcxiGlw5ELKrgC


Just to be thorough, I’ve tried restarting Bluetooth on my phone and restarting the phone. But since my wife’s iPhone 6 shows the same missing Bluetooth radios, I really wan’t expecting anything to change - and nothing did change. Despite the fact that it should have nothing to do with door locking but again for thoroughness, I tried Restarting the Touchscreen on the Model 3 (by holding down the two thumbwheels). This also had no effect upon restoring the Bluetooth radios, or on Authenticated Phone unlocking performance.

I had a Tesla Mobile Service appointment for an interior trim issue this past week, and when the tech witnessed my failure to open the door on first try, I showed him my phone’s Bluetooth control panel (which looked like the “Dec 2, 2019” screenshot above). He said that if were his car, he’d contact Tesla Service about it.

I was waiting to post this after I got results from a Tesla Service visit for this issue, but it’s been rescheduled for January 2020, so I’m getting this out there in case it’s helpful to anyone else. I'll report back after my service visit.

Ellsworth Oct 2018 RWD LR

Thanks for this helpful information. I've had the same issue recently and nothing I've tried has resolved it. I thought it might be related to Apple iPhone IOS 13. I checked my Bluetooth devices listed on my phone and I only have the one ending with C. I distinctly remember having 4 of these under My Devices when we took delivery of our M3 (Feb.2019). I asked what the devices were and the Tesla rep gave a vague response about "other devices". For now I have to keep the Tesla app open on my iPhone 8 to unlock the doors. Please let us know the results of your service.
 
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I’m thinking the fact that only the C device shows up now is a result of some software change on Tesla’s part. Can anyone see more than the C radio any more? I am wondering if it is intentional or a bug on Tesla’s part.
For what it’s worth my phone unlock still works pretty much all of the time with an IPhone 11. (It previously worked fine with iPhone X). Worst case is that I have to wait 5-10 seconds to unlock, but even that is pretty rare. 1 in 50 attempts maybe. I’ve never had to take the phone out of my pocket or unlock it.
 
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Thank you for posting about this. My M3 is less than a month old and my unlocking has been really inconsistent.

iPhone XS / latest OS all around.

I will check for radios when I get home but only recall seeing one. When I got the car I would say it worked pretty good, then for some reason I deleted the key and re paired. Since then it’s been more spotty.

what kills me is that the lock works great on walkway.
 
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I have never paid attention to the BT radios(I guess I better start) but my Android Nokia 6.1 on 9 is not automatically opening the car/waking it up nowadays. It works maybe once automatically for every 4 times I have to get my phone out of my FRONT pocket, unlock, open the app, and then click the Unlock button.
I even had the App open this morning on the coffee run and in my hand, yet multiple handle pushes did nothing.

I have already set the app to "Do not Optimize" and have not seen any other "Tips and Tricks" regarding ways to help it work perfectly every time.
 
I've noticed the number of BT radios change over time, pretty haphazardly. Sometimes I can not open the trunk if the car was locked, and when it has persisted I've seen that the "R" radio was missing. Stopping and restarting Bluetooth on the phone (iPhone X) has always resolved the behavior, but doesn't always cause the missing radios to reappear. My wife's iPhone SE flat out doesn't work to unlock, and doesn't see any of the radios, but that phone has all sorts of problems.
 
I visited Tesla Service a few weeks ago to address what I perceived as increasingly frequent failures of Keyless Unlocking, to establish whether it was a symptom of a degrading system (hardware or software) or not, and also to add this to my service history in case it does degrade.

This is what transpired:
  • The tech was interested in my screenshots of the no-longer appearing multiple Bluetooth radios. He didn't reveal whether he recognized that this had once been normal.
  • He said that he thought that Tesla had done something about "reducing the number of frequencies" used for door unlocking. But he wasn't certain of the change or the reason, and he said as much.
  • The tech configured his own iPhone with my account to test whether he could produce the same results. He did, only seeing the one radio ending in "C."
  • After spending 15-20 minutes testing phone key unlocking in the shop, he came to give me a report and we spoke for 20-25 minutes. He decided that the single visible Bluetooth radio was "the new normal" (my words, not his), and that there was NOT a problem.
  • During our debrief, I discovered something that I had never realized (many of you probably know this): that the Tesla app MUST be running (in the background or foreground) on a user's smartphone in order for Keyless Unlocking via Authenticated Phone to work. Importantly, this was NOT THE ORIGINAL BEHAVIOR. I'm pretty sure that when we first got our Model 3 in October 2018, that Keyless Unlocking worked even without having the Tesla app running. At the time, I presumed that they were using only the security of Bluetooth pairing as an authenticated key - and I think they were. But the Tesla tech said that they changed the behavior so that the Tesla app must now be running (in the background) for unlocking to take place. He said that when the user with an authenticated phone actuated a door handle, the car now interrogated the mobile app, and only if it found it running would the Model 3 unlock its doors. He thought this was intended as an additional layer of security. Perhaps this is a mechanism to inhibit a spoofing attack with Bluetooth repeaters (where the bad guys use one or more BT transceivers to make it seem as though a BT key fob is closer to the car than it is). He didn't think the phone contacted Tesla, but the incident last fall where Model 3 owners were locked out of their cars during a Tesla data outage suggests otherwise.
  • Because I had not been cognizant of Keyless Unlocking's reliance on the app running, I wasn't making the association between rare occasions when I quit all the phone apps and similarly infrequent failures of Keyless Unlocking. Maybe.
  • So perhaps there is no Tesla fault at play in my Keyless Unlocking failures, except that they should have more explicitly explained the nature of the system. That said, just a few hours ago, I experienced the first failure of Keyless Unlocking in the weeks since this Tesla Service appointment. I don't think I'd quit the Tesla app (dozens of apps are still running, and if I quit apps on my iPhone, it's usually because I'm quitting them all for some diagnostic reason), and I've been more conscientious about managing the app since learning of its requirement.
  • We'll have to wait and see if this improves.
 
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I’m thinking the fact that only the C device shows up now is a result of some software change on Tesla’s part. Can anyone see more than the C radio any more? I am wondering if it is intentional or a bug on Tesla’s part.
For what it’s worth my phone unlock still works pretty much all of the time with an IPhone 11. (It previously worked fine with iPhone X). Worst case is that I have to wait 5-10 seconds to unlock, but even that is pretty rare. 1 in 50 attempts maybe. I’ve never had to take the phone out of my pocket or unlock it.

I also only see the C radio (after seeing 4 some months back). My BTLE scanner doesn’t pick up any of the others either.
 
I have been unable to unlock my M3 using the bluetooth connection to the phone for the last few weeks. It has been working fine for the last 4 months. But now, after turning the phone on (I don't leave it on overnight) it works the first time you open the car but once you walk away and it locks it just remains disconnected until you stop and start bluetooth. It then opens the one time and you then have to repeat the process. It's not related to the recent 20.20.4.1 update.

The phone is a Huawei P20 Android (sorry) ;) a bluetooth scan shows the Saa.........C transmitter only. I've tried a two button car reset and reinstalling the app and repairing etc.

Running out of ideas now, can anybody help please ? Apart from this the car is fantastic :)
 
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Like the rest of you, I definitely remember that there used to be several Bluetooth devices that showed up, and now there's just the one "C" device. But for me, the phone key has been working flawlessly lately, I never have to manually wake up the phone anymore, as I used to need to do occasionally.

Regarding force-closing the app, keep in mind that Apple's official stance on that (and I assume Google's as well, for those with Android), is that you should never need to force close apps unless they are being buggy, and you should never need to force close all your apps, as that just slows your phone down when it reopens them. Your phone is good at managing its RAM, it will automatically close them as needed, but keeping those you've recently used in RAM, ready to go.
 
I have been unable to unlock my M3 using the bluetooth connection to the phone for the last few weeks. It has been working fine for the last 4 months. But now, after turning the phone on (I don't leave it on overnight) it works the first time you open the car but once you walk away and it locks it just remains disconnected until you stop and start bluetooth. It then opens the one time and you then have to repeat the process. It's not related to the recent 20.20.4.1 update.

The phone is a Huawei P20 Android (sorry) ;) a bluetooth scan shows the Saa.........C transmitter only. I've tried a two button car reset and reinstalling the app and repairing etc.

Running out of ideas now, can anybody help please ? Apart from this the car is fantastic :)

Can you try this with a different phone? I'm not clear fro your post if you and disabling/enabling BT on the phone or the car. If you are doing that on the phone, it may be the phones BT stack. Trying another phone (preferably iPhone to try a totally unrelated stack) would help to isolate the fault here.
 
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I was stopping and starting Bluetooth on the phone. I tried it with my wife's phone (also Android) with the same result ie no unlocking. Weird thing is, it's working OK now having not worked for about week. Do Tesla do minor bug fixes in the background without a full software update ?

Thanks for your help BTW :)
 
I was stopping and starting Bluetooth on the phone. I tried it with my wife's phone (also Android) with the same result ie no unlocking. Weird thing is, it's working OK now having not worked for about week. Do Tesla do minor bug fixes in the background without a full software update ?

Thanks for your help BTW :)

Bernard,

I believe that Tesla do push and install unannounced over-the-air software changes. I have twice experienced conditions during which camera-related features (Autopilot, Sentry Mode, DashCam) were non-functional. In both cases, I scheduled a Tesla service visit. In both cases, Tesla contacted me via text message a few days before my appointment and told me that I was encountering "a known problem" and that it would be fixed in a future software update. In both cases, they cancelled my appointment. In both cases, the symptoms resolved within 36 hours of their message, without any visible software updates. It's far from proof-positive, but impressive coincidence. When I've asked a Tesla service tech whether Tesla made software changes to single vehicles without announcement, he said yes. That doesn't mean he knew or was correct, but these pieces contribute to my speculation that "background software updates" do take place.

Not that it will necessarily help, but I would try removing your Authenticated Phone(s) from the list of Keys (in the Controls>Locks panel on your M3P) and re-add them. (See the "Keys" section of the owner's manual for details.) Tesla have asked me to do this for Authenticated Phone-related issues first.

Let us know if you resolve the issue.

Cheers,

Ellsworth