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Phone key doesn't always connect

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G

GrayGhost6

Member
Dec 20, 2022
46
20
Shenandoah Valley, Virginia
#1
2-3 times a week I'll walk up to my car with my phone and it will fail to unlock for some reason.

Things I've tried without consistent success:

- Turning Bluetooth on my phone off/on
- Removing from my pocket to ensure nothing is interfering with the signal
- Force closing the Tesla app and reopening
- Removing and repairing my phone as a key

When this happens I can still unlock the car from my Tesla app, but the car won't even start until it connects a couple minutes later.

I have a Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra if that's helpful.

Thank you in advance for any potential help!
 
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#3
Same here, bought the car in september and it was flawless until a few weeks ago, since then it happens frequently, often walk up with sentry going and it triggers and wont let me in. I'm wondering if a new android version has caused issues. I'm on S23 Ultra, app set to not sleep.
 
#4
Bogusburger said:
Same here, bought the car in september and it was flawless until a few weeks ago, since then it happens frequently, often walk up with sentry going and it triggers and wont let me in. I'm wondering if a new android version has caused issues. I'm on S23 Ultra, app set to not sleep.
Click to expand...
Mine also seems to have gotten worse recently, but I'm not sure it's related to our phone type since the guy above you said he has an iPhone 15.

At least I know it's not just me 🤷‍♂️
 
#5
iPhone 14, and for the past year, I have to have the app open and active(phone unlocked, screen lit up, app on screen) as I walk up, if I want the key to work consistently. Even then, it sometimes takes a beat or 10 to connect.

I can always unlock the car with the app within bluetooth range.

Background bluetooth standby protocols have become pretty weird lately (last couple years) and I don't think anyone's figured out how to make them work reliably. Not only a Tesla problem, also a phone problem, and compounded by the interplay of all of it.

I wonder if BT headphones or other devices muck things up too.
 
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#7
TexSam said:
This may or may not provide more information. The article is above my level of understanding but it seems to explain some issues we may be facing.

Core Bluetooth Background Processing for iOS Apps

Explains how to develop Mac and iOS apps that interact with Bluetooth low energy technology.
developer.apple.com
Click to expand...
This is part of the answer for iOS - the other part is that the iOS app uses the Core Location framework for what are called bluetooth ranging and region monitoring.

Translated, this means that your phone, while in your pocket, can only wakeup and look for bluetooth devices every so often and this is similar on both iOS and Android devices and designed to protect your battery (limits are imposed by the OS). If you have a modern device (iphone11 and newer, for instance), and you take your phone out of your pocket, and launch the Tesla App (into the foreground), these limits are removed and you should be able to unlock your vehicle within 1-3 seconds.

This is also the reason that a few Tesla app updates ago, they added the 'Improve Phone Key' option on iOS with directions to enable 'always' for location permissions as with this permission, the App is granted permission for region monitoring even when the app is in the background (in your pocket)...but this will drain your battery noticeably faster. I don't use Android so I can't tell you whether something similar exists in the Android version of the Tesla App.
 
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#8
I just got delivery on a 2023 Model Y and have not been able to get phone key to Auto Unlock. I have an IPhone 14 Pro. I walked up the the car with the phone in my hand awake and that does not seem to help. I need to go the the Tesla app to unlock manually
 
#9
Phone not connecting has been a problem for years. I get the "walk away key unavailable" pretty often, and the phone (iPhone13 Pro) not connecting, or bluetooth music unavailable pretty often. At least once per week. It has always (except one time) corrected itself minutes or hours later.

I used to think it was related to where I parked. Although there is some truth to that if you' happen to be in a cell dead spot where the car itself cannot connect to the service it is subscribed to. I also seem to have problems immediately following a car software update.

But what the problem actually is, or if it is something fixable -- beats me. I took it in for service due to this once and the tech couldn't figure it out either. He did the two button reset, and it still didn't resolve the connection problem. So we had to un-pair the phone, and then re-pair it from scratch and that worked. These days I just dismiss the issue and wait until the car and phone somehow become friends again. Maybe they need a time out every now and then to like each other again? The only save is that bluetooth gets me into the car, but it doesn't seem to lock it back up. I always bring the card key with me, just in case.
 
#10
Chase-ah’ said:
I just got delivery on a 2023 Model Y and have not been able to get phone key to Auto Unlock. I have an IPhone 14 Pro. I walked up the the car with the phone in my hand awake and that does not seem to help. I need to go the the Tesla app to unlock manually
Click to expand...
Should work fine with that phone. Tesla has some things to try in the manual under 'Keys' (here's the link to the US Model Y page) - most likely it's just not setup fully.
 
#12
I came here with the exact same issue. Disabling and re-enabling BT doesn't help with my Samsung S20 FE 5G. The only thing that seems to help is if I restart my phone. Sometimes it works for 2-3 days, but this morning I had to restart the phone, and now, maybe 10 hours later, it still won't unlock the doors for me. If I use NFC or the button ion the app, I can unlock the car, and even the music would play while the car still won't recognise the phone key unless I restart the phone.
I have tried everything I could think of, including not ever letting the Tesla app go to sleep, but nothing seems to help.
 
#13
Mine began doing this intermittently after the last software update. Since last August about 1/2 the time, any attempt at a voice command yields either nothing or a message that there is no connection. I don't know if the two are related or not. August was about when the black ring chasing its tail appeared in the lower left display.

I would put in a service request, but it's just easier to leave a sticky note on the display that says, "We checked over the air and didn't see anything wrong. Everything is fine, nothing to worry about."
 
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#14
legendsk said:
Mine began doing this intermittently after the last software update.
Click to expand...

The 4.29.5 iOS Tesla App update definitely caused a problem for some devices from my experience. My wife's iPhone 15 Pro Max immediately regressed and had problems where the car was not opening quickly where it had been 100% reliable previously (Tesla Mobile App Peeps, you listening? (DM me if you want details/testing assistance). No changes to permissions/settings/motion - all still the same, just the app update. She wasn't on iOS 17.3 so she updated - still testing whether this helped.

I'm on 4.29.5 iOS Tesla App both before and after the upgrade to iOS 17.3 - no issues on my iPhone 15 Pro (not the max). I haven't checked the ifixit teardowns between the two to see if there's any difference in bluetooth but I suspect there's none.

Waiting to see if the 17.3 upgrade helps - thus far, I've heard no wife complaints... not sure if you're iOS or Android.
 
#15
Same issue here on both my older Pixel 4a and my daughter's iPhone 15 pro. It's very inconsistent though, sometimes it doesn't happen for days, other times it does without any rhyme or reason.
This morning I went outside (with bluetooth, location etc enabled and the Tesla app running in the background) walk up to the car, push on the door handle to unlock and nothing..tried a few times. I can then bring up the app and unlock the car from it, it unlocks fine but then when I press on the brakes it wants me to place the card key on the center console. I tried exiting and reentering the vehicle and still the same behavior. So I go back in the house, grab the card key and used that to drive to work.
 
#19
Created an account just to confirm this. This started happening only the last few weeks for me too. It must be related to a software update.

When I open the car manually with the app's "Unlock" button, the Tesla screen still asks me for the key card, when I put it in Drive. My workaround for now is that I close the Tesla app on my iphone while in the car (swiping up - i'm on iPhone) and then reopen the Tesla app again. Then, the car recognizes the phone key immediately.
 
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