My first key issue

[daniel]

This morning I was doing some stuff in the garage without my phone. The car was quiet. I mention this for background.

I went out to the garage with the phone, and the car would not unlock. But it did start making a very soft humming noise, and the front louvers starting whirring back and forth. Maybe ten-second intervals, whirr... whirr... whirr... (Just as another member posted a video of on his car.) The car would not unlock. I tried the handles, nothing. The key card opens the car, and appears to start it, though I didn't try driving it.

I phoned Tesla Service. At the suggestion of the service guy I switched bluetooth on my phone off and then back on. No change. I tried powering the car down and then back up. No change. I removed the Tesla app from the phone, powered the phone all the way off, powered it back up, re-installed the Tesla app, signed in to the app and to my phone, no change.

As far as I know the car should be drivable, with the key card, but I cannot unlock it from the phone.

I managed to get the app to connect to the car for a change, but the Unlock button was greyed out. Or maybe in my frustration I just didn't notice it since I might have gone to the Controls page. Yeah, I think I was at the controls page. Right now it won't connect again, as usual. Crappy AT&T service!

I'm waiting for a call back from the service guy now.

 

[Zarwin]

Does the app show "Phone Key Connected"? Because there are two connections, the over the internet connection and the direct bluetooth connection.

 

[daniel]

I am an idiot!

The other day a service guy on the phone had me un-install and then re-install the Tesla app. He didn't tell me that I'd need to re-initialize the key. I just signed in to my account. I thought I had driven the car since then, but apparently not. So the phone was not initialized to be a key. Once I did that, all is well.

As for the louvers, apparently trying to work the door handle wakes the car up, even though it was locked and would not open, and that's why the louvers started going, though I still think they should open or close, and not opencloseopencloseopenclose ad infinitum.

Now all is well.

Thank you, Zarwin.

 

[ohmman]

mod note: title amended.

 

[daniel]

mod note: title amended.

Thanks.

 

[drawfour]

I am an idiot!

You're not an idiot. If the Tesla rep had you do something and didn't explain to you that doing that would reset something and require you to do steps again, then it's the Tesla rep's fault. Without trying to get him into trouble, perhaps you could tweet Elon about your experience so he makes sure that reps always inform customer "you'll need to repair the phone as the key once you do this".

 

[daniel]

You're not an idiot. If the Tesla rep had you do something and didn't explain to you that doing that would reset something and require you to do steps again, then it's the Tesla rep's fault. Without trying to get him into trouble, perhaps you could tweet Elon about your experience so he makes sure that reps always inform customer "you'll need to repair the phone as the key once you do this".

Thank you for your very kind words, but when the ranger looked at my phone he pointed out that the app was telling me to set up my phone as a key.

In the immortal words of Monty Python: "Pray that there's intelligent life somewhere out in space because there's bugger-all down her on Earth."

 

[drawfour]

Thank you for your very kind words, but when the ranger looked at my phone he pointed out that the app was telling me to set up my phone as a key.

I hereby take back everything I said.

 

[daniel]

I hereby take back everything I said.

Hey, wait a minute! You don't need to go that far.

 

[CarbonFree]

If it's any consolation, my iPhone key is properly initialized, and I still occasionally experience the same issue. Very annoying.

 

[Foxhound199]

The key issue I've been having lately is that my doors unlock on opening, indicating that the phone is connected, but when I sit down and shift to drive, occasionally an error requesting my key card pops up. What's more annoying is that this issue often rectifies itself within about 10 seconds, but this does not dismiss the error message. So you could be fumbling for your keycard not knowing your phone key connection has been restored.