Phone as Key Issues

[dumbass]

App as fob seems like a pain in the ass to me, but diff strokes for diff folks. Certainly thinking of getting a fob for tech phobic spouse. Get enough family support desk calls for the damn printer already.

Have had several times where car unlocks but need to turn bluetooth off and on to link to beacon "C" to put into gear.

Also had odd incident at airport the other day, where I turned on climate control from terminal. Got to car, it unlocked fine. But when I got in the car shut down fully. Turned bluetooth off and on, car fired up.

Could use some six sigma folk on this issue.

 

[Johnabis]

does there seem to be any difference for android for those who have Pie versus Oreo? wondering if the Pie phones reports less problems then Oreo

 

[ian stuart]

I just received my Tesla Model 3 fob. After registering it I found that at first if I pressed (hard) the middle of the fob the lights would flash once or twice and nothing would happen. Then the charging port would occasionally open. Then if I pressed hard twice rapidly the door would sometimes unlock. I get the feeling that the fob won't hold up to the level of pressure required and that the timing of the two presses will be problematical. We shall see. The phone app (VG 30 from T Mobile) has a mind of its own. Sometimes works flawlessly. Sometimes after a lag. Sometimes have to wake up app. Sometimes (in the midst of pouring rain) neither phone app nor card worked.

Oh, and the control of audio operations using the left scroll wheel is a disgrace. My old Passat from 2003 had a much better level of control from the steering wheel. The Model 3 has a superb audio but the interface for spoken control or steering wheel control of audio operations (especially when using USB to play my own music) is generally unreliable and yet Tesla doesn't seem interested in complaints and insists upon continuing with Slacker (a dreadful system with a severely limited choice of music)

 

[dumbass]

...not sure if this is a phone as key issue, but since one "solution" to some of the issues is to use the app as a fob; it would be much more palatable to do so (app as fob) if the app itself fully powered up instantly.

I realize some of that is in the car itself. Why can't car stay in an awake enough state that the app opens up ready to go automatically? It can't possibly draw that much power.

I am one of the people who get annoyed with things in my pockets, and appreciate the intent with phone as key. BUT...at this point the annoyance of something in my pocket would be less than the annoyance of this system being so glitchy.

once it gets going love it...I'm sure the response a lot of Italian sports car owners have.

 

[DanL3]

.

I am one of the people who get annoyed with things in my pockets, and appreciate the intent with phone as key. BUT....

I also am one of the people who get annoyed with things in my pockets. I took the protective cover off my phone and then put the key card on the back of the phone and put the cover back on. The extra thickness is minimal, the phone is still comfortable in my pocket.

I walk up to the car take the phone out of my pocket and put it to the door pillar. Works every time right through the protective cover. Then I get in, put the phone in its tray and step on the brake and shift into gear.

If I take too long before shifting it sometimes wants the key card again. I find that the easiest way to start at that point is to roll down the window and put the phone to the pillar again, This is because the keycard seams to not work on the console when it is on the back of the phone.

My long term plan is to switch from a LG Android to an iPhone 7. That will cost me $200+ and another $200+ for my wife.

 

[zhu-]

I just received my car yesterday and in the 15 or so attempts to unlock door with phone in pocket it has failed twice. I have iPhone X with latest iOS - thought I contribute some data.

 

[crackers8199]

i have had as many problems as anyone here with the phone key, and have documented a potential solution here:

potential phone key fix (or at least partial solution) for android

this has worked well for me in the few days i've been using it.

 

[DanL3]

i have had as many problems as anyone here with the phone key, and have documented a potential solution here:

potential phone key fix (or at least partial solution) for android

This solution did not work for me.... I then went out a bought an iPhone SE and set it up. It is working 100% for me.

My conclusion is that the LG xCharge is not compatible with Tesla. Tesla needs to publish a list of compatible phones rather than just telling us to do airplane mode or to shut it all down and reboot it. (They told me both)

So I suggest trying crackers solution and if that does not work be prepaired to change phones.

I am happy with the iPhone but now I need to learn that operating system. Never had an iPhone before.

 

[dumbass]

Well this seems kind of weird. Most of my problem is walk away lock. I cut the feature off and on again on the screen and the next two times the car locked as it is supposed to after about 10 fails. I'm no tech guy, but that seems too easy. Well I'll take it.

 

[DanL3]

Well this seems kind of weird. Most of my problem is walk away lock. I cut the feature off and on again on the screen and the next two times the car locked as it is supposed to after about 10 fails. I'm no tech guy, but that seems too easy. Well I'll take it.

I have found that walk away lock does not work if I unlock the car with the App or with the Keycard. That may be your problem with walk away lock. I got this occasionally when I had Android key problems.

What version of phone do you have?

 

[crackers8199]

I have found that walk away lock does not work if I unlock the car with the App or with the Keycard. That may be your problem with walk away lock. I got this occasionally when I had Android key problems.

What version of phone do you have?

that is by design - walk away lock only works if you're using the phone key. the app is not the phone key.

what i have noticed though is that sometimes i'll have to tap the key card to unlock the car, and then at some point during my drive the phone key connects and walk away lock will work.

 

[bedoig]

New owner but thought I'd go ahead and throw in my current data point. I've had the car for about three weeks and my Pixel 3 XL has unlocked the car 100% of the time, no issues yet.

 

[dumbass]

I have found that walk away lock does not work if I unlock the car with the App or with the Keycard. That may be your problem with walk away lock. I got this occasionally when I had Android key problems.

What version of phone do you have?

I have an iPhone 7, up to date iOS.

I am using phone to unlock and drive. But pretty much gotten in the habit of pulling out the phone and opening the app to get ready to lock the car, as by the time I've done that and walked 50-100ft away the car still hasn't locked. Maybe once every 20 times or so it works.

 

[DanL3]

I have an iPhone 7, up to date iOS.

I am using phone to unlock and drive. But pretty much gotten in the habit of pulling out the phone and opening the app to get ready to lock the car, as by the time I've done that and walked 50-100ft away the car still hasn't locked. Maybe once every 20 times or so it works.

Strange, iPhones have been reported to be reliable. My iPhone SE locks at least 95% of the time. Do you by chance have a tablet or spare phone that you are keeping in the car? The only time mine does not lock is if I leave a phone in the car.

 

[dumbass]

Strange, iPhones have been reported to be reliable. My iPhone SE locks at least 95% of the time. Do you by chance have a tablet or spare phone that you are keeping in the car? The only time mine does not lock is if I leave a phone in the car.

Nope, just that phone.

 

[crackers8199]

if you have a oneplus 5 (or perhaps any oneplus phone) and are having issues, try this:

potential phone key fix (or at least partial solution) for android

please ignore the one random guy here who seems to think this idea is garbage and it's your fault for installing apps on your phone. this fix has worked for me and may (or may not) work for you, but it's certainly not nonsense.

 

[Dan123]

Today I tried to open the car with the phone in my pocket, and it didn't work. Iphone 8 with a plastic case. I had to go into the app, and manually hit unlock. Then the car wouldn't shift from park with my phone inside. I had to get the key card in my wallet, and use it to drive. A bit annoying.

There are 58 pages in this thread, so I am sure someone has already had this issue. Any solutions (other than buying the key fob)?

 

[SDKoala]

i still maintain that anyone who insists they have never had any issues is full of sh*t.

at least three new "phone as key sucks" threads in the past 24 hours on this forum that i've seen so far. i wonder if tesla is listening...i'm guessing the answer is "no" considering they released a fob without passive entry.

I would have said the same thing and probably did in my post history somewhere. I've been on both sides of it with my Pixel 1 working about 75-90% of the time. Since getting my Pixel 3, I have had zero issues. None. Zero. Zilch. 100% working. Every. Single. Time. No matter where I walk around the car, skirting in and out of BLE range, the phone and car able to re-establish communication instantly. Without experiencing it myself, I wouldn't have thought it was possible. I didn't need a new phone and bought hoping it would work better as a key. Best $1000 I spent on anything related to the car.

 

[crackers8199]

I would have said the same thing and probably did in my post history somewhere. I've been on both sides of it with my Pixel 1 working about 75-90% of the time. Since getting my Pixel 3, I have had zero issues. None. Zero. Zilch. 100% working. Every. Single. Time. No matter where I walk around the car, skirting in and out of BLE range, the phone and car able to re-establish communication instantly. Without experiencing it myself, I wouldn't have thought it was possible. I didn't need a new phone and bought hoping it would work better as a key. Best $1000 I spent on anything related to the car.

i wonder if it's related to the phone itself or the software...some people have reported having better luck with pie. i'm in the process of trying to find a decent pie rom to use as a daily driver until OP releases it for the OP5...if a new phone really is necessary, i wonder if anyone has had similar experiences with the OP6T. i'm not interested in spending $1000 on a new phone right now, but if i knew for sure it would resolve these issues i would consider spending half that...

 

[SDKoala]

i wonder if it's related to the phone itself or the software...some people have reported having better luck with pie. i'm in the process of trying to find a decent pie rom to use as a daily driver until OP releases it for the OP5...if a new phone really is necessary, i wonder if anyone has had similar experiences with the OP6T. i'm not interested in spending $1000 on a new phone right now, but if i knew for sure it would resolve these issues i would consider spending half that...

My Pixel 1 was updated to Pie before I got the Pixel 3 and I don't recall it being any more reliable than when it was on Oreo. I don't know anything about the way Bluetooth stacks and hardware work, but as much as I wanted it to be a software problem with either the Pixel 1 or the car's firmware, the dramatic difference between the Pixel 1 and the Pixel 3 make me to believe it's a phone hardware problem more than anything else.