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Wifi question

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I've connected my model 3 to my Apple Airport network and can see the car as a wireless client in Airport Utility. If I look an hour later, I no longer see the car as a client. If I wake the car using the Tesla iPhone app the client reappears, but disappears again after a while when the car goes back to sleep.

Is this normal behavior or should the car show as connected all the time even when asleep?
 
I've connected my model 3 to my Apple Airport network and can see the car as a wireless client in Airport Utility. If I look an hour later, I no longer see the car as a client. If I wake the car using the Tesla iPhone app the client reappears, but disappears again after a while when the car goes back to sleep.

Is this normal behavior or should the car show as connected all the time even when asleep?

Yes, the car disconnects when it goes to sleep.
 
If the wifi does disconnect when the car sleeps, then I suspect that Tesla pings the car over cellular to notify of an update and then the car turns on wifi if it is configured to download the package. If you don't have cell signal, you might have trouble.
 
Unfortunately I don’t have any cellular access in my apartment building garage. So I rely on Wifi. Any idea how to keep it connected without cellular and only WiFi.

J

I noticed the last two updates I received woke the car up around 2:00 am to download (but I do get LTE in my garage).

If you have TeslaFi, you can set it up to keep the car awake but wouldn't recommend as you will have high vampire drain.

My guess is once Tesla pings the car, if you have no cellular service it will not wake the car until you wake it up (although, if you have a very weak signal, it may be enough to wake the car). Once you wake the car, it will start downloading the update (or will start next time you are on WiFi). Once the car starts downloading the update, it will not go to sleep until it finishes downloading.
 
I noticed the last two updates I received woke the car up around 2:00 am to download (but I do get LTE in my garage).

If you have TeslaFi, you can set it up to keep the car awake but wouldn't recommend as you will have high vampire drain.

My guess is once Tesla pings the car, if you have no cellular service it will not wake the car until you wake it up (although, if you have a very weak signal, it may be enough to wake the car). Once you wake the car, it will start downloading the update (or will start next time you are on WiFi). Once the car starts downloading the update, it will not go to sleep until it finishes downloading.
I wonder if I set up TeslaFi on my Model 3 but only use it when I leave for the winter, I will be able to connect to my car remotely. The drain will not really be an issue if I am plugged in. May cost a few pennies more, but worth the reassurance that the car is fine and up to date.
 
Updates are downloaded through the built-in LTE connection that comes with every car. WiFi is only a convenience that allows the updates to download faster but its not necessary.
This is not true anymore. Anyone ordering Juky 1 or after gets Premium LTE for a limited time, and they have to pay $100/yr in order to keep Premium LTE. If you don't have Premium LTE, then only safety critical updates will come over LTE - WiFi is required for regular updates.

Granted, all Model 3s currently in use either have lifetime Premium LTE or the Premium LTE is still in its first phase of being free before having to pay, but this will change over time.
 
I wonder if I set up TeslaFi on my Model 3 but only use it when I leave for the winter, I will be able to connect to my car remotely. The drain will not really be an issue if I am plugged in. May cost a few pennies more, but worth the reassurance that the car is fine and up to date.

I have never tried but assuming having TeslaFi constantly polling will keep the car awake. I'm not sure if the car could fall asleep at some point even with constant polling. Also, if the system is down, TeslaFi will not be able to poll and the car could fall asleep (system seems to go down every few weeks).

If the car is plugged in with scheduled charging, the car will wake up each day at that time to check if it needs to charge - at that point, it should connect to WiFi - that may be enough to keep the car up-to-date .