I have had numerous instances where my M3 thinks I’m a threat and sets off Sentry mode. My Bluetooth key is connected so I don’t know why this is happening. I’ve also come out to my car in a dark parking lot in the inner city after getting off work and my door won’t open until I reopen my Tesla app. It would be nice if the Bluetooth key worked consistently and accurately... Anybody else have any of these issues?
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Why Doesn’t My Car Know Me?
- Thread starter Jenlinking
- Start date
How do you carry your phone? I normally carry my phone in front shirt pocket and that seems to work pretty well. When have it a back pocket (so my body is between the car the phone) it doesn't recognize me frequently.
Make sure you don't have aggressive battery management enabled on the app.
Make sure you don't have aggressive battery management enabled on the app.
When you say Bluetooth key I'm assuming you mean your phone. In my experience there are two things this is tied to. The first one is a permissions issue where you have to give permission for the Tesla app to see your location even when not being used. The second one is sometimes an IOS updates breaks the functionality. Like I had a month or two of having to always open up the app to get my door to unlock. Thankfully an IOS update fixed it.
Now if you don't want to go through all that hassle then just order a FOB.
As to the behavior of Sentry mode it's because the phone key isn't working properly.
I had the same issue but here is how I fixed it..
In my Iphone settings, open Tesla
Under location, select ALWAYS.
I had WHILE USING THE APP selected and that is why it only works when you open the app, hope this helps...
I found that having “alway use location” causes a lot of drain on battery. Around 10% a day. 
I found that having “alway use location” causes a lot of drain on battery. Around 10% a day.
On the car or the phone?
Sorry all - got busy and no time for reading forums 
. Looked in my phone (iPhone 11) and my Tesla app doesn’t even show up under location services so I can’t choose to have it always use my location. Went into the Telsa app settings both through the app and in the iPhone settings - still no options to allow the app to always use my location. The phone key is Bluetooth though and “should” know when I’m close. However, I think the issue is the car goes to sleep and isn’t waking up when I come close. I haven’t had the problem near as much the past couple weeks so maybe addressed in the last car/app updates. Thanks for the thoughts on this.
. Looked in my phone (iPhone 11) and my Tesla app doesn’t even show up under location services so I can’t choose to have it always use my location. Went into the Telsa app settings both through the app and in the iPhone settings - still no options to allow the app to always use my location. The phone key is Bluetooth though and “should” know when I’m close. However, I think the issue is the car goes to sleep and isn’t waking up when I come close. I haven’t had the problem near as much the past couple weeks so maybe addressed in the last car/app updates. Thanks for the thoughts on this.Sorry all - got busy and no time for reading forums
Just go to the top level under the settings app and scroll down until you see Tesla App.
Turn on location Always AND background App Refresh.
If you still have problems uninstall the app and reinstall and it will (eventually) ask permission for both those things. It probably did at one time and you said no, not always or you ignored it.
And no, it will not kill your car battery or your phone battery.
FYI - reinstalling worked. The app didn’t allow me to choose “always” for location sharing during set up, but I was able to go to the app from the top level settings on phone and select always there.
