Walk away lock not working

[crackers8199]

I felt the need to start a new thread for this because it is a huge problem and it is not working for me at all. 3 times in the past 3 days when leaving the car and then checking via the app, it reported as still unlocked.

What can I do to try to fix this? I'm at the point where I may need to abandon the phone key and start using the card to lock/unlock every time. I can't keep walking away and leaving my car unlocked, and I can't trust that it will work at this point ..

 

[ronm2948]

I had a problem at the start where I would not quite close the trunk or one of the doors completely. If any door is open a crack, the auto lock will not work.

Of course, you can see if any door is not closed correctly in the app, so this is probably not what is happening to you, but I just thought I would throw it out there. I would like it if the car or app would let you know if you walk away from it with a door or trunk not completely closed.

 

[Big Dog]

What can I do to try to fix this?

When in doubt, reboot.

(sorry, I have not experienced that problem.)

 

[crackers8199]

the thing that confuses me most is the sheer unreliability of the phone key, and how my car in particular doesn't seem to work the way everyone else's does.

example: i've been told by multiple people in the phone key threads that walk away lock will not work if you open the car with the key card. this is 100% not how my car is operating...just now, again, i had to unlock with the card at the store because the phone didn't work...but the car locked itself when i parked in the garage and came inside the house.

another oddity: the phone key will not connect to open the door, but then all of a sudden when i sit down in the drivers seat and press the brake, it allows me to drive without asking for the key card. i've had the same thing happen in reverse, where the door unlocks via the phone but then it asks me to tap the key card to enable driving.

the entire thing has just been the absolute most frustrating experience i've ever had with a new car...which is extremely disappointing, considering this is by far the most money i've ever spent on a new car. i don't know what to do at this point other than just trash the phone key and use the key card exclusively...but at that point, it's a worse experience than my chevy volt that cost $20k less than the model 3 did. i can walk up to the volt with the key in my pocket, press the button on the door, and open it. get in the car, press start, and drive. no removing keys from my pocket, ever. walk away lock always works, every single time. i wish the model 3 experience were the same, but it's not. not even close.

 

[Gavyne]

Let me guess, you use an android phone yes? There are other threads with people complaining about the bluetooth not working properly especially when using android phones. It's less an issue with the car, as much as it's an issue with how the bluetooth is working on your phone. The phone key works via bluetooth.

Your car checks for the proximity of the phone via bluetooth. If it can connect, it knows you're there, and it allows you to unlock and start the car. It also locks the door once you walk away as long as it can connect to your phone via blueooth. If your car is unable to connect to your phone via bluetooth, then these things don't work properly.

Things to check...

-Make sure your phone's bluetooth is on and doesn't go into sleep or battery saving mode.

-Make sure you don't have a background app hogging the bluetooth, something we know about bluetooth is that it doesn't work well when multiple apps are trying to use the bluetooth connection at the same time.

-Make sure you don't have anything on you or near you that blocks the bluetooth connection. These things include:

Microwave, it uses 2.4Ghz, same as bluetooth.

Your body, since bluetooth's radio frequency is blocked by water, and your body is made up of mostly water, you could be blocking the bluetooth connection. If you have your phone in your backpocket, try placing it in your front pocket so your body isn't in the way between the car and the phone. Or simply have the phone in your hand would work as well.

Wifi, yes unfortunately most wifi routers use 2.4Ghz and wifi & bluetooth could cause interference with each other. If you have this issue at home, then changing your wifi router's channel and channel width would help. You can also try to improve the situation by disabling your phone's wifi so it doesn't try to use wifi and bluetooth at the same time (some phones have difficulties doing that).

Metal, if you are using a metal case, container, suite case, etc.. your car will have difficulties connecting via bluetooth to your phone.

==

All in all, key to fixing the phone key issue is to solve the bluetooth issues.

 

[Troy916]

the thing that confuses me most is the sheer unreliability of the phone key, and how my car in particular doesn't seem to work the way everyone else's does.

example: i've been told by multiple people in the phone key threads that walk away lock will not work if you open the car with the key card. this is 100% not how my car is operating...just now, again, i had to unlock with the card at the store because the phone didn't work...but the car locked itself when i parked in the garage and came inside the house.

That confusion from the manual. From page 7:
"
Note: Walk Away Lock operates only when using an authenticated phone. When you walk away from Model 3 carrying only your key card, Model 3 does not automatically unlock/ lock, even if this feature is turned on (see Walk Away Lock on page 10).

"
When I first read that I took it to mean the if the card was used to unlock, then walking away lock would not apply. Based on your experience it sounds like the car is sensing your authenticated phone.

 

[crackers8199]

That confusion from the manual. From page 7:
"
Note: Walk Away Lock operates only when using an authenticated phone. When you walk away from Model 3 carrying only your key card, Model 3 does not automatically unlock/ lock, even if this feature is turned on (see Walk Away Lock on page 10).

"
When I first read that I took it to mean the if the card was used to unlock, then walking away lock would not apply. Based on your experience it sounds like the car is sensing your authenticated phone.

it doesn't sense the phone to unlock the door, but does allow me to drive away with it. for example, i walk up and press the door handle...screen says "tap key card." i do that, the car unlocks. i sit down and press the brake thinking it'll tell me i have to tap the key card, since it didn't recognize my phone to let me unlock the car...but it doesn't. now it suddenly can see the phone and allows me to use that as authentication for driving.

it's just bizarre. even more so in that half the time it seems to accept this as a justification for allowing walk away lock to work. sometimes, it doesn't. it's not at all consistent and it's frustrating as hell.

 

[crackers8199]

also, i parked in the garage an hour ago and my phone is still connected to the bluetooth in the car.

 

[dsvick]

Have you contacted your nearest service center? There are multiple Bluetooth sensors in he car, perhaps one (the driver's side) isn't working. Can you approach from a different direction and have it unlock?

 

[dsvick]

also, i parked in the garage an hour ago and my phone is still connected to the bluetooth in the car.

As long as you're in range it will stay connected.

 

[diamond.g]

it doesn't sense the phone to unlock the door, but does allow me to drive away with it. for example, i walk up and press the door handle...screen says "tap key card." i do that, the car unlocks. i sit down and press the brake thinking it'll tell me i have to tap the key card, since it didn't recognize my phone to let me unlock the car...but it doesn't. now it suddenly can see the phone and allows me to use that as authentication for driving.

it's just bizarre. even more so in that half the time it seems to accept this as a justification for allowing walk away lock to work. sometimes, it doesn't. it's not at all consistent and it's frustrating as hell.

Page 7 of the manual says that you have 2 minutes to start the car after using the key card to unlock.

 

[lairdb]

it doesn't sense the phone to unlock the door, but does allow me to drive away with it. for example, i walk up and press the door handle...screen says "tap key card." i do that, the car unlocks. i sit down and press the brake thinking it'll tell me i have to tap the key card, since it didn't recognize my phone to let me unlock the car...but it doesn't. now it suddenly can see the phone and allows me to use that as authentication for driving.

Or, it's behaving as designed and documented and accepting the B-pillar tap for driving, since you pressed the brake pedal within 2 minutes.

 

[apacheguy]

Vehicle fails to lock

 

[crackers8199]

Page 7 of the manual says that you have 2 minutes to start the car after using the key card to unlock.

Or, it's behaving as designed and documented and accepting the B-pillar tap for driving, since you pressed the brake pedal within 2 minutes.

this is not what i had read (not in the manual, granted) - i had read somewhere you only had 15 seconds to press the brake pedal. either way though, this is not the experience i had the first few days i had the car (i picked it up a week ago today). in the first day or two, during my many fights with the phone key, whenever i tapped the door pillar to enter it always made me tap the console to drive immediately thereafter. i was pressing the brake pedal well within two minutes (within a few seconds, actually) of entering the car. hence, the confusion (me thinking you only have 15 seconds, and the car repeatedly asking for a console tap even when i would immediately press the brake while entering - and that behavior has now changed).

anyway, that point was more to highlight the oddities of what is going on...the main point of this thread is that walk away lock doesn't seem to be working as intended. there was another post in the software update thread that seemed to indicate they were having similar issues with the latest update.

 

[crackers8199]

As long as you're in range it will stay connected.

this is not the behavior i have experienced during the rest of the week i've had the car...which really is the issue. it's like i'm shooting at a moving target. the behavior has not been consistent, at all.

shouldn't the car go to sleep at some point and turn off bluetooth (not the bluetooth LE that is used for the key)? that would be more consistent with what i've seen the rest of the time. yesterday was an odd case where it stayed connected long after i had left the car parked in the garage...the rest of this past week it would disconnect within minutes, sometimes even what felt like just a few seconds.

 

[WileyTheMan]

It's worked flawlessly for me since I got the car. It only failed to do so if I forgot to take my phone with me (yes, I did that already) or if I didn't close a door/trunk lid correctly.

In addition to the honk alert when it locks, it would be nice if the car sent you a notification to your phone(s) if it detects you walked away and it cannot lock for some reason.

 

[SDKoala]

example: i've been told by multiple people in the phone key threads that walk away lock will not work if you open the car with the key card. this is 100% not how my car is operating...just now, again, i had to unlock with the card at the store because the phone didn't work...but the car locked itself when i parked in the garage and came inside the house.

You need to take your phone completely out of the equation before assuming something is wrong. Try an experiment where you put the phone in airplane mode or shut it off completely. If you have more than one phone configured as the key, do the same for it too. Use the key card to enter the car, then exit. The expected behavior is that the doors will never lock. If they do lock, you have a problem that needs to be serviced.

What is probably happening is that you're entering your car with the key card because the phone isn't recognized and somewhere farther along car and phone finally start communicating with each other and the phone is "taking over" as the key. When you leave, the car senses that a phone key has been disconnected, so the car locks.

another oddity: the phone key will not connect to open the door, but then all of a sudden when i sit down in the drivers seat and press the brake, it allows me to drive without asking for the key card.

This is the expected behavior. I thought it was a security glitch too, but it was designed this way.

i've had the same thing happen in reverse, where the door unlocks via the phone but then it asks me to tap the key card to enable driving.

This, on the other hand, is an annoying bug. It used to happen to me quite frequently, but writing this reply made me realize it's been at least a couple of months (1 or 2 firmware versions ago) where I last had the car ask to tap the card after getting in with the phone. Now that I've written that it will happen later today...

 

[SVMike]

Slightly different experiment.

My phone as the key seems to be working correctly (Samsung S7).
Walk away lock is always working.

However, when parked in my garage I don't want it to lock. So yesterday I put the car in park, then turned bluetooth off on the phone, then opened the door and went in the house. The car did not lock. I had also tried the same thing but had opened the driver door before turning bluetooth off. In this case the car did lock itself (turning bluetooth off when outside the car is just like walking out of range.

Now for the curious part. About 2 hours after the car was parked in my garage and still not locked I went to the garage. My phone was still far away with bluetooth off. I walked by the car but never touched it. After a few minutes the car headlights came on. Then a minute or two later turned off by themselves.
Why?

 

[crackers8199]

walk away lock definitely does not work 100% of the time. my phone as key has been flawless the past two days since wiping garbage oxygen os from my phone and installing a custom rom based on AOSP...so much so that I haven't even had to take my wallet out once to open or start the car with the key card.

however, just now after parking and going into Walgreens, when I came back out the mirrors were not folded. either the car didn't lock or it didn't fold the mirrors on lock, either way there's an issue there. it is 110 degrees today so I didn't feel like standing outside fiddling with the phone to see if it was actually locked or not, but again either way something went wrong...

 

[Qbenjamin]

We'll have to do some actual studies, but this, along with a host of other technical issues are really getting on our nerves.

We're going to try using the phone key only for about a week and then try using just the key card only.

We actually had a friend enter our car after we exited the vehicle, she was trying to turn the music off. That was the first time that we noticed that the auto lock wasn't working properly. Every since then, we've noticed that it hasn't worked over a dozen times. No notification or anything, just music playing and the screen stays on...

Very frustrating.