Two phone problems

[daniel]

My phone is an iPhone SE running iOS 10 because of all the bad reviews and bug reports I've read about iOS 11.

Problem 1, the serious problem:

The Tesla app connects to the car only once in a blue moon. In the morning it will have a message something like "Last update 2:15 a.m." I'll open the app and it will churn its little wheel and then report that connection to the car failed. Once it did connect and I was able to start the heat running. Once. Otherwise I've never managed to get it to connect. My phone is connected to the internet via my home wi-fi, which works fine for everything else. All other apps connect to the net without problems, I can download stuff, etc. Just the Tesla app won't connect to the car.

Walk-away lock and walk-up unlock work fine, and most times the phone connects to the car's bluetooth. Just the app won't connect.

I regard this as a serious issue because the app is supposed to give me functionality that I'd like to have access to.

Problem 2, not all that serious, but annoying:

When the phone connects to the car's bluetooth (which is most of the time, but not 100%) the car forgets that I was listening to music via the USB jump drive and instead starts playing music at random from my phone. I listen to classical music, so what the car thinks are "songs" are movements from longer pieces. And having them play at random, out of order, is really quite annoying. I really want a way to tell the car to default to the USB, or to default to the last-used source.

Any help would be appreciated.

 

[Zythryn]

My phone is an iPhone SE running iOS 10 because of all the bad reviews and bug reports I've read about iOS 11.

Problem 1, the serious problem:

The Tesla app connects to the car only once in a blue moon. In the morning it will have a message something like "Last update 2:15 a.m." I'll open the app and it will churn its little wheel and then report that connection to the car failed. Once it did connect and I was able to start the heat running. Once. Otherwise I've never managed to get it to connect. My phone is connected to the internet via my home wi-fi, which works fine for everything else. All other apps connect to the net without problems, I can download stuff, etc. Just the Tesla app won't connect to the car.

Walk-away lock and walk-up unlock work fine, and most times the phone connects to the car's bluetooth. Just the app won't connect.

I regard this as a serious issue because the app is supposed to give me functionality that I'd like to have access to.

Problem 2, not all that serious, but annoying:

When the phone connects to the car's bluetooth (which is most of the time, but not 100%) the car forgets that I was listening to music via the USB jump drive and instead starts playing music at random from my phone. I listen to classical music, so what the car thinks are "songs" are movements from longer pieces. And having them play at random, out of order, is really quite annoying. I really want a way to tell the car to default to the USB, or to default to the last-used source.

Any help would be appreciated.

I have only had a few momentary issues with iOS 11. My suggestion would be to upgrade, however, if others are having trouble with iOS 11, I am not sure.
I have noticed that when we are near the service center, network communications (streaming music, nav, etc, simply won’t work). My GUESS is that, at this time, if the car has had the wireless network plugged in, that takes priority. Because wireless isn’t working yet, nothing network related works.
Did you by chance try to plug in your home’s wireless network? If so, try removing it.

As for the second issue, afraid I can’t help as I haven’t yet used a usb drive.

 

[daniel]

Wi-Fi in the Model 3 has not yet been implemented, so, no, I've never connected the car to it. But I highly doubt that the problem is at the phone's end, since everything else on the phone works just fine. The Tesla App on the phone should be connecting with Tesla, and the car should be connecting to Tesla via its cell service. And FWIW, I'm 600 miles from the nearest Tesla service center.

But the problem is intermittent, as shown by the fact that sometimes it connects and other times it does not. (Mostly not.) And this may be entirely irrelevant/separate, but it just seems to me as though since installing the Tesla app on my phone, the phone's battery runs down a lot faster. Like, 2 or 3 times faster.

 

[daniel]

I talked to a guy at Tesla Service about these problems and then generally about other stuff. He had me reboot the car's screen, and then delete and re-install the phone app. We'll see if that fixes the connectivity issue. Apparently the car uses a crappy cell phone company because the car gets 2 to 3 bars and sometimes drops out entirely (which could itself be the problem, but what good is car connectivity if it uses a crappy cell company that cannot provide coverage?) and meanwhile my phone, on Verizon, has five bars. But he did say that wi-fi is coming. He also said (in reply to my comment about TACC) that they have come to realize that some functions on the screen should be on the wheel instead.

As for my request that the car remember my last-used audio source and default to that rather than always defaulting to the phone, he said he would pass that suggestion up the chain.

Weirdness:

I was using my bluetooth earbud on the phone with him, and when I went out to the car with the phone, the car grabbed the call away from the earbud. He had me re-boot the car's screen, so first I switched to the phone's speakerphone so I would not loose him when I re-booted the screen. So I was talking to him through the phone, but when the car's screen came back on, the car again grabbed the phone call away from the phone.

 

[animorph]

The switch from USB to phone happens with the X as well, ever since I got mine. I'm not sure my audio ever starts up the way I left it. I can probably just switch my Bluetooth off. Good luck with that on the 3 I guess!

Grabbing cellphone conversations is also common, and maybe normal.

Have you tried touching the update/sync arrow circle after the phone app gives up contacting the car? That will make the app try to contact the car again. I'm usually successful after a couple of tries. Given your success rate, it may take a few more...

 

[daniel]

The switch from USB to phone happens with the X as well, ever since I got mine. I'm not sure my audio ever starts up the way I left it. I can probably just switch my Bluetooth off. Good luck with that on the 3 I guess!

Grabbing cellphone conversations is also common, and maybe normal.

Have you tried touching the update/sync arrow circle after the phone app gives up contacting the car? That will make the app try to contact the car again. I'm usually successful after a couple of tries. Given your success rate, it may take a few more...

I don't mind that the car grabs phone calls. I kind of like that. If I switch bluetooth off, then no more unlock on approach.

Yes, I did try forcing the app to try again. And again. And again.

But the service guy (on the phone) had me check to see how many bars of cell service the car had. It had zero!!! And a diagonal line through the greyed-out bars. Later it had 2 bars, and when I tried again, the app connected. So I now believe the issue is poor cell service. The guy on the phone could not determine which carrier the car is using. He said different units use different carriers.

Which brings me to my next question:

Is it possible for Tesla to switch carriers on my car? I have Verizon on my phone, and I like them. I had 5 bars on my phone when there were zero, and later two, on the car. I believe if I could get the car switched to Verizon it would work fine. Note that I am in a medium-size city, a major population area, and there is no excuse for less than 4 bars anywhere in the city. And without cell service to the car, the app is useless except as a car key, which was a stupid idea to begin with.

 

[dhrivnak]

Is it possible the cell signal is weak in your garage? Home may be OK but a mostly below grade garage and/or metal doors with no windows could be an issue. If that is the case they sell cell phone repeaters to boost indoor signals

 

[daniel]

Yes, that's possible. But note that my Verizon phone had 5 bars while I was sitting with it in the car in the garage, while the car had from zero to two bars.

I wonder if I could get a cell phone repeater for the car, at a reasonable price?

 

[daniel]

I think I might have solved the phone-music problem. I deleted the Music app from my phone. I never listen to music on the phone anyway. I listen to music on my iPod at home, or on the USB stick in the car, or on the iPod Shuffle in the Roadster. Without the music app on the phone, the car won't be able to bring it up.

The other problem, connectivity, at least at home, should be solved once Tesla implements wi-fi, because I'll be able to connect it to my home wi-fi network.

 

[hill]

thanks for the thread, you jinxed our app.

Suddenly we have no summon, & can barely access the darn thing ½ the time.
the darn thing being the car for clarity
.