# If your Bluetooth Phone is not reliably unlocking, this may help



## NR4P

As an owner for two years and have both iOS and Android phones, I experienced great success with the BT unlock feature and over time, degraded performance. Meaning it wouldn't work without lighting up the phone or launching the App. From 100% effective to 20% effective over time.

I found a way into Tesla HQ and have their attention. Engineering has an investigation open.
For anyone with this issue on an Android or iPhone here's what they suggest we try.

Delete Phone Key parings in vehicle
Delete the Tesla app
Re-download the Tesla app
Re-pair your phone as a key
I have 2 phones where I did this (one is 3 years old) and one where I have not for comparison.
The 2 phones are perfect, again. Even in my pockets.

This could explain why if you get a new phone, everything is perfect.

Let's track any degradation over time. Chime in with success or failure and as the weeks and months go on, lets see what happens. I can provide feedback to the mother ship.

Disclaimer: Your body can still affect performance. If you have one of those bodies and removing the phone and holding it solves your problem, the above probably won't help you.


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## JasonF

You probably don't need to delete the app, though if it seems to work that way, it could happen if app registered with the Bluetooth service with an old certificate and never tried to re-register it. But that's kind of rare.

The more common issue that I've mentioned before is the Bluetooth LE key your phone uses to communicate with the car can become invalid. You'd think that would stop the car from unlocking altogether, but no, instead it annoyingly becomes intermittent (and pairing for music/phone as well).


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## sduck

I want to know more about how you accomplished this:


NR4P said:


> I found a way into Tesla HQ and have their attention. Engineering has an investigation open.


I use the fob with a consistent 100% success rate, but have other issues with other features of the car that don't work nearly as well. Any clues about how to get Tesla's attention would be greatly appreciated.


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## NR4P

JasonF said:


> You probably don't need to delete the app, though if it seems to work that way, it could happen if app registered with the Bluetooth service with an old certificate and never tried to re-register it. But that's kind of rare.
> 
> The more common issue that I've mentioned before is the Bluetooth LE key your phone uses to communicate with the car can become invalid. You'd think that would stop the car from unlocking altogether, but no, instead it annoyingly becomes intermittent (and pairing for music/phone as well).


Your insight may be correct but since the instructions came from Tesla and I will be providing them feedback periodically, I ask folks to follow the steps and report back on their experiences initially and over time if and when performance degrades. The key to bug fixes are repeatable defined use cases and steps.


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## NR4P

sduck said:


> I want to know more about how you accomplished this:
> 
> I use the fob with a consistent 100% success rate, but have other issues with other features of the car that don't work nearly as well. Any clues about how to get Tesla's attention would be greatly appreciated.


I have other annoyances too. But I am careful choosing my messages. Can't go to the well too many times. I have one suggestion about free supercharging miles expiring. Tesla extended referral supercharger free miles only 30 days. We know that we can't really drive too far, many out of work or WFH. If this strikes a nerve with anyone, I suggest a tweet to Tesla for extensions like the airlines have done would be helpful.


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## JasonF

NR4P said:


> Your insight may be correct but since the instructions came from Tesla and I will be providing them feedback periodically, I ask folks to follow the steps and report back on their experiences initially and over time if and when performance degrades. The key to bug fixes are repeatable defined use cases and steps.


That's fair, Tesla comes up with those instructions as a one-size-fits-all to solve as many issues as possible. If you're willing to analyze the problem yourself, that's where the info I supplied comes in.


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## sduck

I have one major issue, that I share with a lot of tesla owners. I've tried reaching out to tesla repeatedly about this, as have many others, with no luck. So again, how did you get this connection to someone there? Without some kind of idea about how your signal chain is working, your claim of an inside connection doesn't seem quite as valid as perhaps it is.


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## garsh

sduck said:


> I have one major issue, that I share with a lot of tesla owners. I've tried reaching out to tesla repeatedly about this, as have many others, with no luck. So again, how did you get this connection to someone there? Without some kind of idea about how your signal chain is working, your claim of an inside connection doesn't seem quite as valid as perhaps it is.


The surest way to shut down such a connection is to make it public, leading to having too many people start to abuse it.


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## sduck

garsh said:


> The surest way to shut down such a connection is to make it public, leading to having too many people start to abuse it.


True. Hopefully if the OP gets a chance to throw in "one more thing" it will be that Tesla's support portals really NEED TO BE BETTER and MORE ACCESSABLE. Shouting because it needs to be shouted at tesla if by any chance they see this.


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## JasonF

garsh said:


> The surest way to shut down such a connection is to make it public, leading to having too many people start to abuse it.


I don't have any connections within Tesla (or anywhere near it), but I did find that sometimes if you _solve_ a problem and contact Tesla Support about it, they might contact you via text message for more details. That's what happened last year when I figured out how to fix when the car unlocks but won't start when using your phone as a key. And even then I probably only was questioned about it because they were actually getting some roadside assistance "my car won't start" calls about it at the time.

You're not going to make a new Tesla insider friend that way though; they keep it short and to the point, and aren't very chatty about it.


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## JimmT

Tried your steps today and so far, my phone seems to be unlocking the car with better results. It's weird, I never had any problems until relatively recently (about a month ago, coinciding with the 12 update?).


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## NR4P

JimmT said:


> Tried your steps today and so far, my phone seems to be unlocking the car with better results. It's weird, I never had any problems until relatively recently (about a month ago, coinciding with the 12 update?).


How long did you have the app installed in the phone before the problem surfaced (months or weeks)?


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## JimmT

NR4P said:


> How long did you have the app installed in the phone before the problem surfaced (months or weeks)?


I've had the app installed for many months. I think I only deleted it once or twice at most in the past two years.


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## shareef777

I swapped out phones and had to repair the key. Yep, working flawless now. Wonder what would cause it to degrade over time. It’s not like there’s any organic component. I’ve never EVER had a BT device that needs to be re-paired occasionally to continue to function optimally.


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## garsh

shareef777 said:


> I've never EVER had a BT device that needs to be re-paired occasionally to continue to function optimally.


Yes, but you're also not constantly changing the software on your bluetooth headphones. I'm guessing that some combination of updating software on both the phone side and the car side sometimes leads to issues.


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## NR4P

Hoping a bump of this thread moves it to the top of some folks lists.

As indicated earlier, I have been in contact with someone at Tesla and in turn Tesla engineering has been looking into this in great detail. Shared some preliminary hypothesis with me. I can't share the hypothesis but it isn't what anyone has suggested thus far. They want more data.
Specifically, have you run into the problem, followed the instructions in Post 1 of this thread and 1) had success? 
Or 2) no success, it didn't matter? 
Or 3) had success and now it isn't good again

If so please let me know which of the three choices AND
-Phone manufacturer/phone model/OS installed (Android and Apple welcome)
-How long ago did you follow the 4 steps? (estimate days or weeks if not sure)

If you prefer a DM, I will take that too.

BTW, my experience was the first few days were perfect, then slow deterioration and now about 50% success.

The more info the merrier.
Thanks


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## JimmT

NR4P said:


> Hoping a bump of this thread moves it to the top of some folks lists.
> 
> As indicated earlier, I have been in contact with someone at Tesla and in turn Tesla engineering has been looking into this in great detail. Shared some preliminary hypothesis with me. I can't share the hypothesis but it isn't what anyone has suggested thus far. They want more data.
> Specifically, have you run into the problem, followed the instructions in Post 1 of this thread and 1) had success?
> Or 2) no success, it didn't matter?
> Or 3) had success and now it isn't good again
> 
> If so please let me know which of the three choices AND
> -Phone manufacturer/phone model/OS installed (Android and Apple welcome)
> -How long ago did you follow the 4 steps? (estimate days or weeks if not sure)
> 
> If you prefer a DM, I will take that too.
> 
> BTW, my experience was the first few days were perfect, then slow deterioration and now about 50% success.
> 
> The more info the merrier.
> Thanks


I've had 100% success since doing your suggested steps, not that I've had much chance to drive (about once or twice per week).
- Apple iPhone X, latest iOS 13.5
- It's been 22 days so far.


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## NR4P

JimmT said:


> I've had 100% success since doing your suggested steps, not that I've had much chance to drive (about once or twice per week).
> - Apple iPhone X, latest iOS 13.5
> - It's been 22 days so far.


Thank you. If you have a failure please let me know.


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## iChris93

NR4P said:


> They want more data.


Why are they making you collect the data?


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## NR4P

iChris93 said:


> Why are they making you collect the data?


Rest assured they are not making me. 
I am just a helpful guy.


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## chronart

All of a sudden after 2 years my Model 3 wants the black card that let's me drive instead of my iPhone. My iPhone is connected for phone calls, etc, and it opens the door okay with the iPhone, but it won't let me drive the car without tapping the card and pushing the break peddle. I tried software reset and a full reset, but it was no help. Any idea what's cooking? Thank you. Barry Gamble


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## Ed Woodrick

in the app, under the new security area, does it show connected?
Also, take the phone out of you pocket and hold it facing the car as you approach it. 
Probably just need to remove the key and add it again. Some iPhone update might have made it unhappy.


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## JasonF

Delete the key from inside the Tesla app and re-pair it.


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## NR4P

Known issue 

Delete phone key on TS
Remove BT pairing on TS
Delete Tesla App in phone

Download Tesla App
Log in
Add phone as a key again
Reconnect BT

That normally fixes it.


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## garsh

@NR4P has a nice thread on fixing these issues.
I'll move these posts into that thread.



NR4P said:


> As an owner for two years and have both iOS and Android phones, I experienced great success with the BT unlock feature and over time, degraded performance. Meaning it wouldn't work without lighting up the phone or launching the App. From 100% effective to 20% effective over time.
> 
> I found a way into Tesla HQ and have their attention. Engineering has an investigation open.
> For anyone with this issue on an Android or iPhone here's what they suggest we try.
> 
> Delete Phone Key parings in vehicle
> Delete the Tesla app
> Re-download the Tesla app
> Re-pair your phone as a key
> I have 2 phones where I did this (one is 3 years old) and one where I have not for comparison.
> The 2 phones are perfect, again. Even in my pockets.
> 
> This could explain why if you get a new phone, everything is perfect.
> 
> Let's track any degradation over time. Chime in with success or failure and as the weeks and months go on, lets see what happens. I can provide feedback to the mother ship.
> 
> Disclaimer: Your body can still affect performance. If you have one of those bodies and removing the phone and holding it solves your problem, the above probably won't help you.


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