Sentry mode not triggering

[fseir]

Not sure what’s going on, but sentry mode has stopped working for me on 24.4, despite saying that it’s active. I’ve toggled the setting off and on (using the icon, the main control in the settings, and the app), hard rebooted the car, and unmounted, removed, and reinserted my usb drive, all to no avail.

Used to work perfectly. Now I can wave my hands in front of the cameras and ultrasonic sensors, and it shows no sign of life (no headlight flash, no Hal display, and no alerts on screen when unlocking the doors). I checked, and Teslacam seems to be working normally, just no sentry mode.

The only thing I can think of that seemed to precede this, was using the toggle to exclude my work location one time. I’ve since turned that back off, though, and sentry doesn’t seem to work anywhere anymore.

Anyone else experience this?

 

[Slow_driver]

Try turning off your phone Bluetooth. I think the latest update made it both less sensitive, and also so that it isn’t triggered by you if it recognizes your phone nearby. That’s my theory anyway.

 

[fseir]

Try turning off your phone Bluetooth. I think the latest update made it both less sensitive, and also so that it isn’t triggered by you if it recognizes your phone nearby. That’s my theory anyway.

Interesting hypothesis. I’ll give it a shot.

 

[hydro 481]

Try turning off your phone Bluetooth. I think the latest update made it both less sensitive, and also so that it isn’t triggered by you if it recognizes your phone nearby. That’s my theory anyway.

Yup. You have to turn off bluetooth on your phone or else it won’t activate with you near. I’ve tested this. Which makes sense. But what if you’re eating at a restaurant and you’re sitting near car? You still want Sentry to activate in that situation.

 

[Slow_driver]

Perhaps they can use the Bluetooth signal to calculate how far away from the car you actually are, in order to determine whether or not to trigger. We can only speculate. It would make an interesting experiment. Leave the phone about 20 feet away and walk up to it and see what happens.

 

[dfjkl]

This is not the case. Something is wrong with Sentry mode currently. I'm on 28.2 and seeing this same behavior. Tested with BT on phone off, phone not near me as well. Also did a full power down. Sentry has just stopped working for me. Was going to try without the USB stick and reformatting, have not done those yet, and if still failing, was going to open a service call.

 

[PumaUK7]

Has anyone resolved this yet? Mines not working at all quite randomly.

 

[Simguy05]

I am having the same issue. I can’t get it to engage. Turned off Bluetooth and WiFi, waited 5 minutes, disabled and enabled SM... I’ve even tried a factory reset. I can’t get it to work for anything. I’ve also noticed that despite being on Advanced mode and on WiFi, I can’t get the damn thing to update beyond 28.3.1. I may end up taking it in for service. Sentry Mode isn’t a cute nice-to-have, it’s a requirement these days.

 

[fseir]

I am still having issues with sentry mode, which I think have to do with it excluding my work location, even when I turn off “exclude work.” I tested it with Bluetooth off, and at work, it still doesn’t detect me waving my hand or walking in front of the cameras or ultrasonics. The weirdest behavior is that if I toggle sentry mode off in the car settings, and then back on, the exclusion settings turn back on, even if I previously toggled them off, and when I reboot the car (hard or soft), a different combination of exclusion settings takes on this behavior.

I haven’t had a sentry trigger alert for weeks. TeslaCam is functioning normally, however, so I don’t think it’s a usb drive issue.

 

[fseir]

After multiple reboots and toggling, now sentry mode is active and triggering... at home, where it shouldn’t be! SMH, I have “exclude home” turned on, but the sentry icon is red, and walking by the car triggers it. Very frustrating.

Also confirmed that the car knows where “home” and “work” are by telling it to navigate to these locations.

While messing with it, I got an update notification. Downloading 36.2.3, but not too hopeful it will change anything...

 

[fseir]

Just in case someone finds this thread and is experiencing something similar, I posted a follow-up in another thread, where I found a “solution” to my problem:

Sentry Turning Off

 

[David M3P]

Hello everyone,

My name is David and I'm from Spain. From the 2020.8.1 update, my sentry mode stopped working although the screen shows that is enable but it does not work. Every time that I open the car, it is sleeping so with the HV contactors open. I've tried everything, even a hard reboot.

The SC told me that the issue is under engineering investigation because apparently all seems ok when they dive into my vehicle logs. I did not notice any other malfunction but the sentry. I have to mention that all the disable locations are not ticked.

The main problem here, is that the phone app shows that the sentry is active, the vehicle screen the same thing but is not. Even the sentry works for 3 or 4 minutes after closing the vehicle but in the 6th minute, sentry is not triggering and afterwards the vehicle open the HV contactors.

Under my opinion it should be something related to the MCU, I hope firmware / software related but nobody knows. Do you guys have any experience with the Tesla "engineering investigations" and how long does it takes? Have anyone experienced the same bug? Dou you think that is my MCU faulty?

Thank you very much.

 

[David M3P]

BTW, I just uploaded to the 2020.8.3 and the same issue still there.

 

[fseir]

Hello everyone,

My name is David and I'm from Spain. From the 2020.8.1 update, my sentry mode stopped working although the screen shows that is enable but it does not work. Every time that I open the car, it is sleeping so with the HV contactors open. I've tried everything, even a hard reboot.

The SC told me that the issue is under engineering investigation because apparently all seems ok when they dive into my vehicle logs. I did not notice any other malfunction but the sentry. I have to mention that all the disable locations are not ticked.

The main problem here, is that the phone app shows that the sentry is active, the vehicle screen the same thing but is not. Even the sentry works for 3 or 4 minutes after closing the vehicle but in the 6th minute, sentry is not triggering and afterwards the vehicle open the HV contactors.

Under my opinion it should be something related to the MCU, I hope firmware / software related but nobody knows. Do you guys have any experience with the Tesla "engineering investigations" and how long does it takes? Have anyone experienced the same bug? Dou you think that is my MCU faulty?

Thank you very much.

It sounds a lot like my issue, which I still have, even after having the FSD computer upgrade. Try this:

1. Go to safety and security in the settings.

2. Toggle sentry mode off and then back on, and see if the location exclusions change.

3. Try checking all three location exclusions on, then repeat step 2.

If the exclusions keep resetting to the same settings after toggling off an on, you have the same problem I do. No matter what exclusions you manually select, the computer is only doing what it shows after you toggle sentry mode off and on.

The only work around for this problem is to keep rebooting your car with the two steering wheel buttons, until you end up with the combination of exclusions you really want. It’s frustrating, because it’s like playing a slot machine. Sometimes I get it right away, other times I have to do it many times. Once you get the desired exclusions, test it by locking your car, and then turn off Bluetooth on your phone, and see if you can get sentry to trigger.

Unfortunately, every now and then, I have to reboot for some reason, and then I end up having to play the slot machine again to get my exclusions back to how I want them.

Good luck.

 

[David M3P]

It sounds a lot like my issue, which I still have, even after having the FSD computer upgrade. Try this:

1. Go to safety and security in the settings.

2. Toggle sentry mode off and then back on, and see if the location exclusions change.

3. Try checking all three location exclusions on, then repeat step 2.

If the exclusions keep resetting to the same settings after toggling off an on, you have the same problem I do. No matter what exclusions you manually select, the computer is only doing what it shows after you toggle sentry mode off and on.

The only work around for this problem is to keep rebooting your car with the two steering wheel buttons, until you end up with the combination of exclusions you really want. It’s frustrating, because it’s like playing a slot machine. Sometimes I get it right away, other times I have to do it many times. Once you get the desired exclusions, test it by locking your car, and then turn off Bluetooth on your phone, and see if you can get sentry to trigger.

Unfortunately, every now and then, I have to reboot for some reason, and then I end up having to play the slot machine again to get my exclusions back to how I want them.

Good luck.

Hi fseir,

Thank you for your response. Is a quite rare bug and it seems that almost nobody is experiencing this issue.

You are totally right, it seems that there is a problem regarding the geofence. I tried what you recommended to me and it still not working but I confirmed something. When I ticked my home in the excluded locations, the sentry red dot did not change in the main screen so it was shown as active (red dot). As far as I remember, when a location is excluded, the red dot turns black so is inactive. But still no change though, I mean, although the red dot is always there, the sentry mode stops working after 4 or 5 minutes after closing the vehicle and switching off the Bluetooth.

Following your advice, I tested many different random exclusions through the rebooting but it did not work. In fact, this is not a failure that only occurs in the possible "exclusion locations". Yesterday I went to the mall to get some groceries and it is 4 km away from home and it did not work either.

Is quite rare because it seems that the summon location exclusions do not make any effect at all either. So, I suppose that there is some problems regarding the geofence in the MCU.

Thank you for telling me that you are not experiencing any changes after the FSD upgrade. I was so concerned about my MCU hardware and I was thinking, shiiiieeeeet maybe is a hardware issue and I will have to wait years for an MCU replacement but it seems that is a software glitch. What do you think?

It is curious that, almost nobody is experiencing the same issue with the same software versions and similar VIN numbers, isn't?

Tesla told me that is an issue under engineering investigation. But my guess is that it will take forever until someone decides to re-code ro whatever the sentry soft. Although it seems that they will make changes regarding the sentry in the next updates.... will see. Anyway this situation bothers me a lot.

What are your thoughts? Thank you very much for your response.

 

[fseir]

Hi fseir,

Thank you for your response. Is a quite rare bug and it seems that almost nobody is experiencing this issue.

You are totally right, it seems that there is a problem regarding the geofence. I tried what you recommended to me and it still not working but I confirmed something. When I ticked my home in the excluded locations, the sentry red dot did not change in the main screen so it was shown as active (red dot). As far as I remember, when a location is excluded, the red dot turns black so is inactive. But still no change though, I mean, although the red dot is always there, the sentry mode stops working after 4 or 5 minutes after closing the vehicle and switching off the Bluetooth.

Following your advice, I tested many different random exclusions through the rebooting but it did not work. In fact, this is not a failure that only occurs in the possible "exclusion locations". Yesterday I went to the mall to get some groceries and it is 4 km away from home and it did not work either.

Is quite rare because it seems that the summon location exclusions do not make any effect at all either. So, I suppose that there is some problems regarding the geofence in the MCU.

Thank you for telling me that you are not experiencing any changes after the FSD upgrade. I was so concerned about my MCU hardware and I was thinking, shiiiieeeeet maybe is a hardware issue and I will have to wait years for an MCU replacement but it seems that is a software glitch. What do you think?

It is curious that, almost nobody is experiencing the same issue with the same software versions and similar VIN numbers, isn't?

Tesla told me that is an issue under engineering investigation. But my guess is that it will take forever until someone decides to re-code ro whatever the sentry soft. Although it seems that they will make changes regarding the sentry in the next updates.... will see. Anyway this situation bothers me a lot.

What are your thoughts? Thank you very much for your response.

Yes, agree, these are very odd problems. I suspect more people are affected, but just haven’t noticed. It took me awhile to realize sentry wasn’t working at my work, because it had previously worked perfectly, but then, probably after a reboot, it just stopped triggering, even when the red sentry icon was showing at the top of the screen. It was only after many days of zero triggers, that I started testing it, by turning Bluetooth off on my phone, and discovering that I could wave my hand in front of the cameras, push the door handles, etc, and not get sentry to trigger. So maybe more people have this and just don’t realize it?

Also odd how similar our problems are, but that you don’t get the random assignment of exclusions when you reboot, like I do. I have no idea where this bug resides, but I agree with you, it seems to be software based.

I’m guessing your car is newer, being in Spain? Mine is much older, VIN 94xx, delivered in March 2018.

As for the engineering investigation, it may help. I was having a separate sentry problem after my FSD upgrade in January, where sentry would trigger too easily, so on rainy days, I’d get over 300 events. They remoted in to my car, and then the software engineers said to keep an eye on this with future firmware updates. After 2020.12, the problem resolved! So I believe they fixed that, but it didn’t resolve the problem we’re talking about here. Maybe your inquiry to them will lead to an eventual firmware fix.

Take care and stay healthy!

 

[David M3P]

Yes, agree, these are very odd problems. I suspect more people are affected, but just haven’t noticed. It took me awhile to realize sentry wasn’t working at my work, because it had previously worked perfectly, but then, probably after a reboot, it just stopped triggering, even when the red sentry icon was showing at the top of the screen. It was only after many days of zero triggers, that I started testing it, by turning Bluetooth off on my phone, and discovering that I could wave my hand in front of the cameras, push the door handles, etc, and not get sentry to trigger. So maybe more people have this and just don’t realize it?

Also odd how similar our problems are, but that you don’t get the random assignment of exclusions when you reboot, like I do. I have no idea where this bug resides, but I agree with you, it seems to be software based.

I’m guessing your car is newer, being in Spain? Mine is much older, VIN 94xx, delivered in March 2018.

As for the engineering investigation, it may help. I was having a separate sentry problem after my FSD upgrade in January, where sentry would trigger too easily, so on rainy days, I’d get over 300 events. They remoted in to my car, and then the software engineers said to keep an eye on this with future firmware updates. After 2020.12, the problem resolved! So I believe they fixed that, but it didn’t resolve the problem we’re talking about here. Maybe your inquiry to them will lead to an eventual firmware fix.

Take care and stay healthy!

As always thank yout fseir for your response, I really appreciate it since there is no info about this bug anywhere. So today I have good news. I tried something that I've never tried before. I performed a "factory reset" and of course I lost all my stored info in the car but.... NOW IS WORKING!!!!!! I can't believe it since no one in the SC told me to do that, in fact I did all the possible resets from the soft till the hard one and they did not make any effect at all.

I don't know if will be a temporary solution and in the next hours it will stop working but it is working for 2 hours now when those days only worked during 3 or 4 minutes each time I closed the car.

So far so good, I will update you in the next days.

 

[fseir]

As always thank yout fseir for your response, I really appreciate it since there is no info about this bug anywhere. So today I have good news. I tried something that I've never tried before. I performed a "factory reset" and of course I lost all my stored info in the car but.... NOW IS WORKING!!!!!! I can't believe it since no one in the SC told me to do that, in fact I did all the possible resets from the soft till the hard one and they did not make any effect at all.

I don't know if will be a temporary solution and in the next hours it will stop working but it is working for 2 hours now when those days only worked during 3 or 4 minutes each time I closed the car.

So far so good, I will update you in the next days.

Glad to hear you found a potential solution!

 

[jeunetoujour]

I have 2 issues with Sentry mode. The first is it sometimes keeps Sentry mode on while i'm at home and park my car in the garage. It didnt used to do that until 2020.8.1 to .3. I usually just get my phone out and turn off sentry mode. Home is excluded in the settings but it seems to ignore sometimes.

Second issue thats been happening for a while is it will sometimes save the SentryClips while I'm driving randomly. Today I went to Lowes to pick a few things up and when I got to my car it said I had 7 events. I get home and nothing was recorded while at Lowes, but a few minutes of my trip to lowes was recorded... Pretty crazy stuff. I'm hoping the 2020.15 firmware series will fix.

 

[David M3P]

I have 2 issues with Sentry mode. The first is it sometimes keeps Sentry mode on while i'm at home and park my car in the garage. It didnt used to do that until 2020.8.1 to .3. I usually just get my phone out and turn off sentry mode. Home is excluded in the settings but it seems to ignore sometimes.

Second issue thats been happening for a while is it will sometimes save the SentryClips while I'm driving randomly. Today I went to Lowes to pick a few things up and when I got to my car it said I had 7 events. I get home and nothing was recorded while at Lowes, but a few minutes of my trip to lowes was recorded... Pretty crazy stuff. I'm hoping the 2020.15 firmware series will fix.

Yeah, there are some problems regarding the geofence in your case your vehicle is recording when it shouldn't, in my case was the other way around. Anyway it seems that your second problem is a bit different but what is clear is that someone messed up the sentry code.

I think that the best think we can do is let the Service know about this issues in order to trigger some alarm on the after sales engineering staff.