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

[crackers8199]

at the risk of jinxing myself, i have taken my probably 20% or 30% success rate with the phone key on my oneplus 5 to 100% over the past few days.

that's not a typo...it has worked every single time, both entry and walk away lock. it also has worked every time when walking up to the trunk (which almost never worked previously), and also when going from trunk to driver's door (which almost never worked on the rare occasion i got the trunk to work). it has taken the phone key from nearly unusable to almost perfect (i don't want to declare it 100% perfect yet because it has only been a few days...too small a sample size, in my mind).

download and install this app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bridou_n.beaconscanner

go into your battery management settings, and make sure the beacon scanner app is set to not optimize battery use. then, open it and run a scan (press the play button). leave the scan running and exit the app. that's it. it will keep scanning in the background...if you go back into the battery settings after a while, it'll show as active in background for however long you've had the phone running.

disclaimer: this will drain your battery a bit...my idle battery usage went from about 3% to a little under 4% per hour (according to ex kernel manager), but it does seem to work. at the very least, it has helped a ton in my case. to me, it's worth it if it means i can have the phone key work most of the time.

YMMV of course, but hopefully this will help someone.

tech details: oneplus 5, running android 8.1.0 (aosp extended rom), august 5, 2018 security patch level. tesla app is version 3.6.2-354, car version is 2018.42.2.1 e1784f9.

 

[DrDabbles]

I've found that when people complain built-in functions of their phones don't work as expected (BT beacons, face presence sensors, gyroscopes, etc.) that there's usually an app installed that's misbehaving and causing the problem in the first place. Uninstalling one app at a time to see which one is causing the problem has worked in nearly 100% of the cases I've looked at.

 

[crackers8199]

I've found that when people complain built-in functions of their phones don't work as expected (BT beacons, face presence sensors, gyroscopes, etc.) that there's usually an app installed that's misbehaving and causing the problem in the first place. Uninstalling one app at a time to see which one is causing the problem has worked in nearly 100% of the cases I've looked at.

doubtful that's the issue here, given the number of people having issues with many different phones (both iOS and Android). it's more that the BLE implementation (in Android especially) is particularly buggy...

 

[DanL3]

Installed on my LG xCharge. Had to go in and out of airplane mode for the first effort to turn the car on. We will see if it works later or not.

 

[iwannam3]

Moto G6 Android 8.0 works 100% of the time out of the box. Tile app also running, not loaded with a bunch of apps.

 

[crackers8199]

Moto G6 Android 8.0 works 100% of the time out of the box. Tile app also running, not loaded with a bunch of apps.

i'm curious if the tile app running is working as the same kind of fix. tile uses BLE beacon scanning as well, doesn't it?

 

[crackers8199]

this one is fun...passive entry and walk away lock both worked just now, but the phone key didn't work for driving. I had to tap the key card and the phone key never connected (never showed as active in the locks screen)...I also had no LTE the entire drive even though I was in an area with plenty of cell coverage. makes me wonder if those two things are somehow related...

 

[a.void]

Pixel 2 XL works 100% for me. No additional app management required

 

[DrDabbles]

Yeah, also Pixel 2XL that works 100% of the time. It's much more likely that people have a popular garbage app installed than the same BLE stack isn't working. The Pixel 2XL was supposed to be one of the "worst" phones for the Model 3, and I haven't had a single hiccup. The number of absolutely terrible quality apps out there that are installed on a crazy number of phones would honestly blow your mind.

 

[crackers8199]

Yeah, also Pixel 2XL that works 100% of the time. It's much more likely that people have a popular garbage app installed than the same BLE stack isn't working. The Pixel 2XL was supposed to be one of the "worst" phones for the Model 3, and I haven't had a single hiccup. The number of absolutely terrible quality apps out there that are installed on a crazy number of phones would honestly blow your mind.

that's the thing: Android is so fragmented that it's not "the same BLE stack that isn't working." that doesn't even mention that there are people having problems with iPhones as well.

also: I completely wiped my phone and went with a custom rom to try to fix this...and it still didn't work. right from the jump, no additional apps installed other than Tesla.

either way, can we please try to limit this thread to people trying to see if my fix resolves this for them? there are plenty of other threads for phone key issues if you want to chime in with a data point of "my phone always works."

 

[dumbass]

Crackers

I just put a similar app on my iPhone, will let you know if it helps me any.

I am a moderately savvy tech user, not a creator at all. But if this is even a partial solution, then this functionality should just get built into the Tesla app. Maybe that's naive, but it just shouldn't take this much fiddling around. I bought the car to be a driver, not a detective.

 

[crackers8199]

Crackers

I just put a similar app on my iPhone, will let you know if it helps me any.

I am a moderately savvy tech user, not a creator at all. But if this is even a partial solution, then this functionality should just get built into the Tesla app. Maybe that's naive, but it just shouldn't take this much fiddling around. I bought the car to be a driver, not a detective.

that's really my point. if enough people have success with it, we can let Tesla know and they can hopefully fix their app and make it work better for all of us...keep me posted.

 

[DanL3]

So this is not working for me on my LG xCharge. One thing I notice is that the App does not keep running in the background.

 

[Alketi]

I'm back to 100% on the Pixel 2 XL, once I realized that all my failures occurred when the phone was in my back pocket. The signal wasn't strong enough to trip whatever threshold level Tesla is looking for.

 

[Alketi]

I'm back to 100% on the Pixel 2 XL, once I realized that all my failures occurred when the phone was in my back pocket. The signal wasn't strong enough to trip whatever threshold level Tesla is looking for.

 

[crackers8199]

So this is not working for me on my LG xCharge. One thing I notice is that the App does not keep running in the background.

it won't show as running but if you go back to the app after closing it you should see it still says "scanning" and the play button should be a pause button. in the battery settings, the time as active "while in background" should be increasing.

if it's not working for you, maybe the software on your phone is killing the app for some reason...on my phone with the beacon scanner not optimized, it continues scanning in the background.

 

[lgkahn]

at the risk of jinxing myself, i have taken my probably 20% or 30% success rate with the phone key on my oneplus 5 to 100% over the past few days.

that's not a typo...it has worked every single time, both entry and walk away lock. it also has worked every time when walking up to the trunk (which almost never worked previously), and also when going from trunk to driver's door (which almost never worked on the rare occasion i got the trunk to work). it has taken the phone key from nearly unusable to almost perfect (i don't want to declare it 100% perfect yet because it has only been a few days...too small a sample size, in my mind).

download and install this app:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.bridou_n.beaconscanner

go into your battery management settings, and make sure the beacon scanner app is set to not optimize battery use. then, open it and run a scan (press the play button). leave the scan running and exit the app. that's it. it will keep scanning in the background...if you go back into the battery settings after a while, it'll show as active in background for however long you've had the phone running.

disclaimer: this will drain your battery a bit...my idle battery usage went from about 3% to a little under 4% per hour (according to ex kernel manager), but it does seem to work. at the very least, it has helped a ton in my case. to me, it's worth it if it means i can have the phone key work most of the time.

YMMV of course, but hopefully this will help someone.

tech details: oneplus 5, running android 8.1.0 (aosp extended rom), august 5, 2018 security patch level. tesla app is version 3.6.2-354, car version is 2018.42.2.1 e1784f9.

thanks android 7 lg v20, bluetooth wash crashing and /or i had to goto airplane and back like they recommended.. works great with the app, i have set it to 5 sec scans.. do you know how to tell which of the 4-5 ibeacons in the house is the tesla so i can blacklist the other crap.. not even sure what they are.

 

[crackers8199]

thanks android 7 lg v20, bluetooth wash crashing and /or i had to goto airplane and back like they recommended.. works great with the app, i have set it to 5 sec scans.. do you know how to tell which of the 4-5 ibeacons in the house is the tesla so i can blacklist the other crap.. not even sure what they are.

the 4 beacons for the car should all have the same UUID, at least on mine they do.

also, 5 seconds between scans should limit the battery drain a bit but i'm not sure if it will be as effective. i have mine set for no delay between scans.

 

[DanL3]

Sorry, This is not a solution for the LG xCharge. This morning I tried and Failed. I checked the Beacon App. It was running and seeing all 4 Beacons.

Last night it worked for several hours. This morning it would not work. It appears that the car doing a deep sleep allows some disconnect with the phone.

This morning at one point I did get the trunk to open but not the doors. Then when I tried the doors with the trunk lid up the doors work but not the shift into drive. If I opened the trunk and closed it, the doors would not work. This was all repeatable several times.

I then walked away and came back 15 minutes later and at that time nothing would work. Then in and out of Airplane mode and all worked fine.

The Beacon app appears to do little to nothing for me.

 

[crackers8199]

Sorry, This is not a solution for the LG xCharge. This morning I tried and Failed. I checked the Beacon App. It was running and seeing all 4 Beacons.

Last night it worked for several hours. This morning it would not work. It appears that the car doing a deep sleep allows some disconnect with the phone.

This morning at one point I did get the trunk to open but not the doors. Then when I tried the doors with the trunk lid up the doors work but not the shift into drive. If I opened the trunk and closed it, the doors would not work. This was all repeatable several times.

I then walked away and came back 15 minutes later and at that time nothing would work. Then in and out of Airplane mode and all worked fine.

The Beacon app appears to do little to nothing for me.

damn, sorry i couldn't help.

it must be something your phone is doing differently, not the car sleeping...if it were the car deep sleep causing disconnects it wouldn't be working for anyone. it still works pretty well for me a week later...i've been getting a few times the last day or so where i've had to hold the handle in for a few seconds, but it still eventually opens the door. prior to using the beacon app there were times where it would fail completely...that hasn't happened yet since i started this.

this just further highlights why blaming everyone who is having issues as being the problem, as if they're doing something wrong (as some people in this thread have attempted) is so ludicrous. it's not as simple as saying "the same BLE stack isn't working" for everyone, because with android especially it's not the same stack on everyone's phone.