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Phone as Key Issues
- Thread starter AllDigital
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- Model 3 User Interface
my phone was working fine and it would open and start the car almost always. Since i broke the phone, my new phone doesn't work at all. In the app it shows connected when i am close to the car, but of 4 BT connections, only 2 are established (C an D), the R and P are rearly connected, and i think P is unlocking the car and R is starting it. Does anyone have the same issue?
You are right. B pillar on driver side is D, on passenger is P, top right corner of the screen is C and charging port at the back is R. I still can't unlock the car with the phone
ratsbew
Active Member
Google Nexus 5 here....it is horrible!!! It works LESS than 10% of the time right away. It works about 50% of the time if I'm willing to just hold the door handle out for up to 30 seconds while the Bluetooth crap sorts itself out.
Phone key is an okay idea (at best), but it it HORRIBLE in execution.
We need a FOB and I expect it to be provided for free.
Phone key is an okay idea (at best), but it it HORRIBLE in execution.
We need a FOB and I expect it to be provided for free.
nmessina9
Member
Felt some comfort in seeing this is a 50+ page thread. The bluetooth key/connection has been an issue since i got the car in October
I am beginning to suspect that it may not (always?) be my phone at fault. I noticed when I went to unplug the car before work today that when I pushed the button on the cable to unplug it, the car seemed to take it's sweet time waking up and releasing it. I heard some relays click nearer to the front of the vehicle, and then the car started to wake up, and after about 5 seconds I heard/felt the cable get released I was able to unplug it.
Perhaps the problem is (sometimes) due to the car taking too long to start up, authenticate the phone (which might actually be doing it's half of the job just fine), and then proceed to unlock / etc.
Perhaps the problem is (sometimes) due to the car taking too long to start up, authenticate the phone (which might actually be doing it's half of the job just fine), and then proceed to unlock / etc.
My phone doesn't work for the first 10-20 seconds in the early morning after pulling the door handle. Then, it must connect and allows the door to be opened. I'm thinking SOMETHING is going to deep sleep, and that gets impacted.
I can always more quickly head into the app and hit the door unlock button and that works every time no problem.
It's likely the BLE radios are active, but they alone don't make any decisions, probably the same computer the runs the screen is what has to wake up and actually use the radios to perform authentication before unlocking. At least, this would explain my experience...
I'm going to try activating pre-cooling shortly before I go out to the car and see if that wakes it up to be more responsive on a regular basis.
I'm going to try activating pre-cooling shortly before I go out to the car and see if that wakes it up to be more responsive on a regular basis.
FalconFour
Member
I'll tell 'ya right now it has piss to do with anything in the car - radio, software, nothing in the car whatsoever is causing faults with the phone-key thing. It's all app/phone OS issues.
Folks with iPhone report with disturbing regularity that it actually works properly most of the time.
Me, Android with a Moto G5 Plus (Android 7.0), does not work even 1% of the time. However, what does always work 100% of the time is toggling airplane mode on/off (then ensure BT turns back on too - about 1/4 of the time, BT stays off after switching airplane mode off).
Then, it works without even having to open the Tesla app. Just works. So, two things are reliable here: that it NEVER works when I just walk up to the car (even if I just walk away for 30 seconds then come back), and that it ALWAYS works after toggling airplane mode. (also note: switching BT off/on does nothing, either - probably because airplane mode totally kills/restarts wireless services in Android)
So it's not a BT radio thing, not a car awake/sleep thing, not an app background thing. It's a phone OS/app coding issue. It can be fixed in software, but ... the very open question is... how difficult (or possible, within the confines of Android's architecture) would it be to fix it? It may not even be possible at all, as some functions are locked behind root access - like if Android's BT stack needs to be completely restarted each time for it to work, you can't do that, as an app, without root. So it could legitimately be a messy problem to solve...
(but by god, for the time being, I'd be very happy with just a "connect on-demand" setting in the app, that stops background polling for the car and has me tap a button to connect... one button would be a lot less hassle than the airplane mode crap _every single time_ I go out to the car!)
Folks with iPhone report with disturbing regularity that it actually works properly most of the time.
Me, Android with a Moto G5 Plus (Android 7.0), does not work even 1% of the time. However, what does always work 100% of the time is toggling airplane mode on/off (then ensure BT turns back on too - about 1/4 of the time, BT stays off after switching airplane mode off).
Then, it works without even having to open the Tesla app. Just works. So, two things are reliable here: that it NEVER works when I just walk up to the car (even if I just walk away for 30 seconds then come back), and that it ALWAYS works after toggling airplane mode. (also note: switching BT off/on does nothing, either - probably because airplane mode totally kills/restarts wireless services in Android)
So it's not a BT radio thing, not a car awake/sleep thing, not an app background thing. It's a phone OS/app coding issue. It can be fixed in software, but ... the very open question is... how difficult (or possible, within the confines of Android's architecture) would it be to fix it? It may not even be possible at all, as some functions are locked behind root access - like if Android's BT stack needs to be completely restarted each time for it to work, you can't do that, as an app, without root. So it could legitimately be a messy problem to solve...
(but by god, for the time being, I'd be very happy with just a "connect on-demand" setting in the app, that stops background polling for the car and has me tap a button to connect... one button would be a lot less hassle than the airplane mode crap _every single time_ I go out to the car!)
the phone key was better today on my oneplus 5 after adding the second profile via tasker (to turn bluetooth off and back on when disconnecting from the car's bluetooth), until i came out of the grocery store tonight and it didn't work. however, after i tapped the key card on the door, it recognized the phone enough to allow me to drive without tapping the console...so who knows?
does the phone key require you to only open the drivers door first, or can it be any door? i tried to open the rear drivers side door to put groceries in the car, i'm wondering if that is what caused it to not work...
does the phone key require you to only open the drivers door first, or can it be any door? i tried to open the rear drivers side door to put groceries in the car, i'm wondering if that is what caused it to not work...
Even manually cycling BT or airplane mode just prior to approaching the car (and of course waiting for that to finish) does not guarantee instant / walk up unlocks for me, so I don't think we can simply blame the phones. It is probably a little of column A, a little of column B... it's a complex system with too many variables to really test ahead of time before it impacts users.
dduffey
Member
Nexus 5x here. Works 99% of the time after turning off battery optimization for four apps/services: Tesla, Bluetooth, Google Connectivity Services, and Companion Device Manager.
Let me know if that improves the phone key.
RTPEV
Active Member
Thanks for the suggestion. FWIW, I don't have "Google Connectivity Services" on my phone, so that one may be not critical.
gleaning some advice from this thread....phone as key doesn't work for either of us in this household, one android, one iphone. have deleted and reinstalled the app, connected initially but not thereafter. the only thing that works for me is toggling airplane mode on/off to re-establish the connection. i'm assuming there is some bt setting i need to change. bt on all the time is also eating up my phone charge which is a nuisance. in the meanwhile, can't go anywhere without that keycard.
If it works like the Model S, the security module makes the decision whether or not to unlock. The MCU does not play a role.
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