If your phone key doesnt work do this

[BigTonyTones]

Two months of model 3 ownership and the phone key never worked no matter what phone we tried.

It was taken in for service and they couldnt do anything about it stating we should just "Wait for a firmware update"

I saw that latest firmware being posted and gave Tesla fremont a call, hoping they would force it to my car. I thought this would fix it.

I got a great support rep who knew his stuff. He said "Firmware wont fix this issue. You need to take it in. They need need to update the bluetooth security certificate in order for it to pair properly with the car and allow you to use your phone as a key. This can only be done at the service center at this time."

Being the nerd I am, I thought this made complete sense. He scheduled me for an appointment and the car was taken in.

This ended up being the problem. Phone key now works!

 

[cpa]

So, for the rest of us, we just have to bite the bullet until we happen to be traveling in the vicinity of a service center, or the car is hauled off by the ranger for a more substantial repair.


What is this bluetooth security certificate? Am I correct in inferring that these security certificates are updated (per the original post) periodically, and each time this certificate gets updated we are going to have to take our cars to a service center to obtain the latest and greatest that bluetooth has to offer?

I want to thank Big Tony for posting this information. But I also wonder what Tesla was thinking with adopting this sort of method to secure and access our cars.

 

[roblab]

Rebooting the screen and the phone while sitting in car, and then pairing bluetooth (with phone a few inches from screen) made mine work. I live too far to take it in to "service", and I have a hard time believing they do anything more than reboot and re-pair.

I also found that if the car is paired with phone A, it has a hard time pairing with phone B. Disconnect A, and B works. At least this week. Things change.

 

[BigTonyTones]

So, for the rest of us, we just have to bite the bullet until we happen to be traveling in the vicinity of a service center, or the car is hauled off by the ranger for a more substantial repair.


What is this bluetooth security certificate? Am I correct in inferring that these security certificates are updated (per the original post) periodically, and each time this certificate gets updated we are going to have to take our cars to a service center to obtain the latest and greatest that bluetooth has to offer?

I want to thank Big Tony for posting this information. But I also wonder what Tesla was thinking with adopting this sort of method to secure and access our cars.

I suspect its a one time thing. My belief is the bluetooth module they installed for the key system was not properly married to the core of the car. The car thinks "Hey this is not the correct security key I was expecting so I wont allow key pairing". I dont see why a ranger cant do this on site if the Tesla software they have allows it.

 

[BigTonyTones]

Rebooting the screen and the phone while sitting in car, and then pairing bluetooth (with phone a few inches from screen) made mine work. I live too far to take it in to "service", and I have a hard time believing they do anything more than reboot and re-pair.

I also found that if the car is paired with phone A, it has a hard time pairing with phone B. Disconnect A, and B works. At least this week. Things change.

Tried that method a million times and it never worked for me. Some issues may be software related but I think mine was a hardware configuration problem. Apparently I was not the only one with this issue. Service center said they had a few complaints about it.

 

[roblab]

Agreed. There have been many complaints with the "phone as key". Eventually they'll figure it out. I'm glad I didn't have to take it in to make it work, but it took a couple weeks of playing to get it to function. The key card is still easier to use, as the bluetooth seems to have to think about it for a few seconds.

 

[UkrHog]

Two months of model 3 ownership and the phone key never worked no matter what phone we tried.

It was taken in for service and they couldnt do anything about it stating we should just "Wait for a firmware update"

I saw that latest firmware being posted and gave Tesla fremont a call, hoping they would force it to my car. I thought this would fix it.

I got a great support rep who knew his stuff. He said "Firmware wont fix this issue. You need to take it in. They need need to update the bluetooth security certificate in order for it to pair properly with the car and allow you to use your phone as a key. This can only be done at the service center at this time."

Being the nerd I am, I thought this made complete sense. He scheduled me for an appointment and the car was taken in.

This ended up being the problem. Phone key now works!

Thank you for the fix!

 

[Pinot.Noir]

A Bluetooth update is easily done via firmware. Not sure why they are inconvincing everybody by forcing a service center visit. Sounds like maybe there is more to this than they want to let on. The issue has really put a bad taste in our experience. Just issue a fob already!

 

[diamond.g]

A Bluetooth update is easily done via firmware. Not sure why they are inconvincing everybody by forcing a service center visit. Sounds like maybe there is more to this than they want to let on. The issue has really put a bad taste in our experience. Just issue a fob already!

I don’t know if tying certificates to a firmware update is a good idea either. Seems like something they should be able to update out of band in case they have to revoke them.

 

[FunkyJunk]

I was told by my service center that it was a bug in the Android version of the app. Since mine worked fine up until a couple of weeks ago, I'm inclined to believe that .

 

[BigTonyTones]

A Bluetooth update is easily done via firmware. Not sure why they are inconvincing everybody by forcing a service center visit. Sounds like maybe there is more to this than they want to let on. The issue has really put a bad taste in our experience. Just issue a fob already!

I think it might be a security issue.

I was told by my service center that it was a bug in the Android version of the app. Since mine worked fine up until a couple of weeks ago, I'm inclined to believe that .

Unfortunately I have found that no one knows anything about the car, especially the service centers.
I had the issue with both iphone and android phones

 

[tophermd]

I was having the same issue: multiple phones (both Android and iOS) but none of them could be set up as a phone key at delivery or at home after delivery. Tried all the standard troubleshooting steps: reboots to phones and the car, deleting the app and reinstalling etc.
On the advice of the OP of this thread, I contacted my local service center and asked about the Bluetooth Security Certificate. They got me in yesterday and applied the new Security Certificate and now everything works flawlessly with the my iPhone X as the key (knock on wood!).
My thanks to BigTonyTones for posting his solution (and to my service center for helping to resolve the issue).

 

[BigTonyTones]

I was having the same issue: multiple phones (both Android and iOS) but none of them could be set up as a phone key at delivery or at home after delivery. Tried all the standard troubleshooting steps: reboots to phones and the car, deleting the app and reinstalling etc.
On the advice of the OP of this thread, I contacted my local service center and asked about the Bluetooth Security Certificate. They got me in yesterday and applied the new Security Certificate and now everything works flawlessly with the my iPhone X as the key (knock on wood!).
My thanks to BigTonyTones for posting his solution (and to my service center for helping to resolve the issue).

Your very welcome. Im glad to hear it helped others

 

[Kipp]

Are others still seeing this issue?

Mine issue may be a little different. I tend to reboot my phone and it will work initially but after a drive it will stop working. Seems that if mine worked one time, it is likely not the bluetooth cert issue for me.

 

[Foxhound199]

Are others still seeing this issue?

Mine issue may be a little different. I tend to reboot my phone and it will work initially but after a drive it will stop working. Seems that if mine worked one time, it is likely not the bluetooth cert issue for me.

Yes, I'm also having a weird issue where it doesn't work only part of the time. The weird thing is I can have my phone connected to the media and calls via bluetooth, and it still fails to recognize it as a key. Sometimes my phone lets me unlock the car, but when I try to shift into drive, it asks for my keycard.

 

[jtri]

I have an android phone and the phone as a key was showing disconnected in the app. Picked up my 3 on the 31st this morning issues. I was told to put the phone into airplane mode wait 10 sec the shut off airplane mode. That worked for me.

 

[Pkmmte]

I just took delivery of my Model 3 last weekend and I've had exactly zero issues with the phone as key so far. It's still running on 2018.4.18 and it works perfectly fine. It unlocks about a meter before I get near the car and locks about 4 meters away from it.

 

[Napboy]

Yes, I'm also having a weird issue where it doesn't work only part of the time. The weird thing is I can have my phone connected to the media and calls via bluetooth, and it still fails to recognize it as a key. Sometimes my phone lets me unlock the car, but when I try to shift into drive, it asks for my keycard.

I'm having a similar problem about 10% of the time. The car always unlocks when i walk up to it, but usually if I don't put it in reverse right away, it asks for a key card. Taking my phone out of my pocket works sometimes. Sometimes, I just pull out my key card to get the car moving. Very inconsistent.

 

[voltage]

I’m having a consistent problem with the phone key. FW version is 2018.10.5.

When car is left for a few hours phone key doesn’t work. I hear a clunk when pulling on door handle but door won’t open and mirrors don’t move. When this happens I unlock from the app which always works.

When car is left for a few minutes then phone key always works.

Anybody else having this problem? Any idea how to fix?

 

[Joydeep Ghosh]

Yes, I'm also having a weird issue where it doesn't work only part of the time. The weird thing is I can have my phone connected to the media and calls via bluetooth, and it still fails to recognize it as a key. Sometimes my phone lets me unlock the car, but when I try to shift into drive, it asks for my keycard.

I am having similar issues (using Android Oreo on galaxy S9). The phone does not work as advertised about 20% of the time and I can see no pattern among the "failures". Sometimes, I can enter the car but not drive without the keycard. Sometimes the door opens right away, sometimes it takes several seconds to respond, if at all.