# Can’t wake car from iOS app after it goes to sleep



## Bear on the job (Jul 9, 2018)

Checking with others to see if this is a firmware bug, or if it just my car...

When I plug the car in at home, it is fine while it’s charging. I can open the Tesla app on my phone, and it is very responsive. But once charging completes (usually overnight), and the car remains idle for an hour or so, it will go to sleep. Once this happens, I can no longer wake or access the car from the Tesla app. The only way to wake the car is to open one of the car doors.

Doesn’t matter if the car is connected to WiFi or LTE, the issue happens consistently every time the car finishes charging. Also, if the charging cable is plugged in, pressing the button on the charger will not wake the car and unlock the port. I have to open the car door to first wake it, then I can press the button on the charger handle.

Using my phone as a key has no problems. The Bluetooth connection has worked flawlessly for me since I first got the car, and even when the car is asleep like this, pressing the door handle wakes it up consistently. 

But without the ability to wake the car with the app, I can’t precondition the car unless I walk to the garage and open the door, the start it up. Now that it’s winter, the issue is becoming more frustrating and I’m aftaid if the door gets frozen I may not be able to wake it at all.

Anyone else have this issue as well? Should i make an appointment for Tesla service? This seems like an issue entirely in software, so I’m not sure how they could help me...


----------



## Skione65 (Apr 4, 2016)

What Version are you on?

Ski


----------



## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

What is the state of the screen in the car when this happens?


----------



## Bear on the job (Jul 9, 2018)

Car firmware is 2018.42.3, but it has been happening since first upgrade to version 9. Car screen is turned off when in this state. Once I open car door, screen turns on and shows normal driving screen with car/speedo and map.


----------



## Rick Steinwand (May 19, 2018)

I'm still on 42.3 and have no trouble prewarming.

Try hitting the unlock button to wake the vehicle. I've read that works quickly.


----------



## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

The charge handle button not working until the doors are unlocked happeden in an earlier fw version,and had been changed to unlock with the button press (when phone was in proximity), to then stop working since 39.x... so hopefully this feature will be brought back in a future fw update.
For me, when the car is sleeping, when I open the app (iOS tesla app 3.6.2), it shows the ‘waking up’ at the bottom, but the three buttons (unlock, frunk and fan) are still responsive prior to it fully waking.


----------



## iChris93 (Feb 3, 2017)

Bear on the job said:


> Car firmware is 2018.42.3, but it has been happening since first upgrade to version 9. Car screen is turned off when in this state. Once I open car door, screen turns on and shows normal driving screen with car/speedo and map.


Interesting. When I have this issue the screen is black and takes over a minute to boot up. Sounds like you're having a different issue than I am.


----------



## Jay79 (Aug 18, 2018)

First double check you have the most current version of the app installed. I've only had that happen once, it said connection error after trying to wake the car up. I did reset in the car and It's worked ever since, the Bluetooth works flawless and I can get in my car every time with no delay as well. I wouldn't worry about it too much, just keep an eye out for updates and try a reset on the car and your phone.


----------



## Bear on the job (Jul 9, 2018)

Rick Steinwand said:


> I'm still on 42.3 and have no trouble prewarming.
> 
> Try hitting the unlock button to wake the vehicle. I've read that works quickly.


Unlock button is greyed out because car is not awake. Both in the iOS widget on lock screen, and inside the app. Can't press any buttons while car is "waking up" with the white status bar at bottom of app screen.



iChris93 said:


> Interesting. When I have this issue the screen is black and takes over a minute to boot up. Sounds like you're having a different issue than I am.


The screen doesn't come on instantly, sometimes takes a 5+ seconds. Definitely not a minute though. Also, since I have to open the door first before I can unlock and remove the charging cable, the first screen is usually the charging screen since it's still plugged in. If I open back door and unplug charger quickly enough, screen will still be black, and will go directly to normal screen once it wakes up.



Jay79 said:


> First double check you have the most current version of the app installed. I've only had that happen once, it said connection error after trying to wake the car up. I did reset in the car and It's worked ever since, the Bluetooth works flawless and I can get in my car every time with no delay as well. I wouldn't worry about it too much, just keep an eye out for updates and try a reset on the car and your phone.


App version is 3.6.2. I may try resetting the mobile connection option in the car, and reinstalling app on my phone. The Bluetooth "Phone Key" is not a problem, that has always worked and continues to work. The problem is only with the remote control (climate, unlock, charging, etc) from the app while away from the car.


----------



## msjulie (Feb 6, 2018)

sure sounds like the car went into deep sleep.. least mine will do that if it's been unused for some number of days in a row..


----------



## ADK46 (Aug 4, 2018)

I have had this problem - the app sitting at "waking up" for longer than I've been willing to wait, or eventually reporting an error. I have not discerned a pattern. Just now, it woke up instantly. 

Could be the app, my phone, my car, the local cell tower, or - the theory that most easily explains the randomness - an overloaded or flaky Tesla computer that's in the loop.


----------



## Bear on the job (Jul 9, 2018)

msjulie said:


> sure sounds like the car went into deep sleep.. least mine will do that if it's been unused for some number of days in a row..


Yes that seems to be exactly what it is doing. It used to deep sleep before v9, but that was after more than a day being idle in the garage. Now it happens every time it is idle after it finishes charging, probably 1-2 hours after completing.



ADK46 said:


> I have had this problem - the app sitting at "waking up" for longer than I've been willing to wait, or eventually reporting an error. I have not discerned a pattern. Just now, it woke up instantly.
> 
> Could be the app, my phone, my car, the local cell tower, or - the theory that most easily explains the randomness - an overloaded or flaky Tesla computer that's in the loop.


For me it is very consistent after charging. So basically every morning I don't have access to the car, and also in the evening before scheduled (12am) charging begins.

However, if the car happens to lose enough charge from vampire drain, and it kicks back into charge mode, I can access the car again. That just happened right now. I haven't driven since before thanksgiving, and I checked the app just now and it is now charging again (I don't know why it doesn't respect the scheduled charge time when trying to recoup from vampire drain...but that's another story).


----------



## Bernard (Aug 3, 2017)

Bear on the job said:


> Checking with others to see if this is a firmware bug, or if it just my car...
> 
> When I plug the car in at home, it is fine while it's charging. I can open the Tesla app on my phone, and it is very responsive. But once charging completes (usually overnight), and the car remains idle for an hour or so, it will go to sleep. Once this happens, I can no longer wake or access the car from the Tesla app. The only way to wake the car is to open one of the car doors.
> 
> ...


I am on 42.3 and I have not had any issues waking up the car on a regular basis, but I have an Android phone, not an iPhone.
Note that it may take 20s-50s (a long time in terms of smartphones!) for the app to show the car has awakened and to give you the information, even with perfect connectivity (e.g., at home, with both the car and my phone on the same wifi network and strong signal). For me, the typical time is less than 10s when the car is awake, 30s when it is asleep, but it has occasionally taken over one minute (an eternity... ;-)
I'd guess that if it consistently takes several minutes to connect when the car is asleep, there is an issue with the signal strength or perhaps with the app on your phone or even with message traffic congestion in your area.
Have you tried deleting the app and reinstalling it -- just in case something funny is happening on your phone?


----------



## yvo109 (Oct 9, 2018)

Wonder if Tesla is aware of this annoying issue?
All newest versions (46.2, app updated as well). Happens both at home (Tesla on WiFi) or at office


----------



## sduck (Nov 23, 2017)

Sounds like a relatively isolated problem that only a few people are having. Tesla will be aware of it if you make them so...


----------



## RickO2018 (Mar 13, 2018)

Same thing happens to me regarding the charger button. Need to open door first. Car wakes up for me from, albeit slowly. 

Rick


----------



## stlgrym3 (Nov 4, 2018)

my Model 3 is parked at home today, i've been trying to connect to it from work but were not successfully all day. the iOS Tesla app would show "waking up" for a long time and then display a "vehicle connection error". i've closed and reopened and app, and even restarted my phone. i've had the car for over a month now and this is the first time i've encounter this.


----------



## Bigriver (Jan 26, 2018)

I’ve not had that happen with my Model 3 (yet) but it happens fairly frequently with my Model X. When with the car, it comes back online easily... occasionally needing to reboot to fully kick it out of its funk. It can be a little unnerving if I left it in a public location and wanted to check on its status, but it’s never indicated a real problem.


----------



## stlgrym3 (Nov 4, 2018)

I’m off work soon, now I can’t wait to get home to see what’s going on. There’s goes my Friday afternoon.


----------



## BluestarE3 (Oct 12, 2017)

Sometimes I use phone-as-key to unlock the door and then the app would connect to the car. Of course, this won't help if you're not within BLE range.


----------



## SR22pilot (Aug 16, 2018)

Bear on the job said:


> Checking with others to see if this is a firmware bug, or if it just my car...
> 
> When I plug the car in at home, it is fine while it's charging. I can open the Tesla app on my phone, and it is very responsive. But once charging completes (usually overnight), and the car remains idle for an hour or so, it will go to sleep. Once this happens, I can no longer wake or access the car from the Tesla app. The only way to wake the car is to open one of the car doors.
> 
> ...


When I am at home and this happens,I push the unlock button on the app. That unlocks the car which causes it to wake up. Then I can turn the climate controls on. My bedroom is over the garage so the car is safely locked away and within Bluetooth range. This doesn't work elsewhere but at least at home it is a workaround.


----------



## TMK26 (May 2, 2018)

I have about a 7-8 minute walk to the car from my office. When it's cold out, I like to warm up the car for about 15 minutes before leaving work in the evening. I open the Tesla App and turn climate on... easy peasy (usually). 

This works most of the time, but sure enough, as soon as this polar vortex is about to hit, my car won't wake up. I wanted to wake the car up earlier today to be sure it would wake up later when I needed it. It keeps timing out and saying "vehicle connection error". Maybe between now and when I leave work it will wake up.

The car is not plugged in while at work and I'm on 50.6


----------



## Bernard (Aug 3, 2017)

Most likely unrelated, but...

For the first time since I got the car in June, my app would not wake up the car at all; got the message "vehicle connection error", even though the car was in the garage, about 5m from my second router to which it normally connects, and that router was working fine (my phone connected to it w/o trouble).
Got in the car using the keycard and discovered that, while the car showed it was "connected" to wifi, in fact, it was not responding to anything requiring communications. Initiating a wifi search just got me quickly "connected" again to one of these two, but found nothing else. I tried a soft reboot (brakes and wheel buttons), no change: car remained convinced it was connected to my router, but in fact wasn't. (So it would not connect on LTE, since it was convinced it was already connected on wifi.)

What finally worked was to power down the car from the console, then restart it (brake pedal). On restarting it showed it had no wifi connection, searched for connection points, found its usual one, and quickly connected. The app then immediately updated the status of the car (did not have to wake up the car). Tried the app again later in the day, worked with the usual 15-25s delay to wake up the car.

No clue as to what happened; the only event of note is that the car had upgraded from 50.5 to 50.6 two days before and had been driven once in the intervening two days, and I had not checked wifi connectivity when I got back from that one drive.

So, the one thing in common is a move to 50.6 -- but almost half the Tesla fleet (and over half the Model 3 fleet) is on 50.6 now and I don't see a lot of reports of that type... I'll write this one off as a fluke, I think.


----------



## MelindaV (Apr 2, 2016)

Bernard said:


> So, the one thing in common is a move to 50.6 -- but almost half the Tesla fleet (and over half the Model 3 fleet) is on 50.6 now and I don't see a lot of reports of that type... I'll write this one off as a fluke, I think.


When I first got my car (sept '18 on 2018.26.x) the app regularly took 20-30 seconds to wake the car up. 2018.48.x seemed to resolve this and it was maybe 10 seconds max. Now on 2018.50.6, it is minimum 45 seconds, max it gives up with the connection error, around the 2 minute mark. This is the same if I am at home with it on my wifi or if at work and it on LTE.


----------



## Bernard (Aug 3, 2017)

Bummer, you're right about 50.6: same thing again today -- no answer from app, gives up after 45s with "vehicle connection error" message.
Once again, the car thinks it's on wifi, but in fact dropped the connection, so it has to be forced to re-establish it from scratch.
That means no updates unless on LTE or freshly re-connected...

Given that half the fleet is using 50.6, why are we not seeing more reports on that?


----------



## 350VDC (May 20, 2018)

Tesla ranger came out today for this same issue. I noticed the car would not wake from the app when the weather was cold, (30 here in TX).
They conclude that the car had a weak wi-fi signal when it happened and it is better to have no wi-fi and just use the LTE to wake more reliably.
Well, not sure about that but i will test again when it gets colder again. They also updated me to 50.6 today.


----------



## Bernard (Aug 3, 2017)

350VDC said:


> Tesla ranger came out today for this same issue. I noticed the car would not wake from the app when the weather was cold, (30 here in TX).
> They conclude that the car had a weak wi-fi signal when it happened and it is better to have no wi-fi and just use the LTE to wake more reliably.
> Well, not sure about that but i will test again when it gets colder again. They also updated me to 50.6 today.


Hmm, it cannot be either reason here. Temperature is around 78F (+78, just in case ;-) -- it's Hawaii ;-)
And wifi signal is strongest it can be -- the router literally sits 10ft from the car, which shows (no surprise) full signal strength at both 2.4 and 5 GHz.
I'd never had that happen over my 8mos with the car, and over about 10 different firmwares, not until I got 50.6 and all of a sudden it happens every time.


----------



## Moeshorz (Sep 12, 2018)

I’ve had it happen similar to the original poster for the past few months. Usually in the morning more than anything. However after it times out I hit the refresh button and it comes up pretty quick. Problem is you have to let it time out which can take a minute or two and you have to keep your phone on and active. Not ideal but it seems to be a consistent workaround for me when it happens. FWIW I’m on iPhone, have the law test app and am on 50.6


----------



## yvo109 (Oct 9, 2018)

Strange, but once I switched to 50.6, things became much BETTER, not worse. Before installing 50.6, I could wait "waking up" forever (on WiFi or LTE); now the car wakes up in 5-10 sec. I have iPhone SE, ios 11.4.1, and it's quite cold today here in NJ.


----------



## Needsdecaf (Dec 27, 2018)

Based on the above, I'm convinced that I'm going to just disable WiFi at home unless an update is coming. My car gets "moderate" WiFi connection while in the garage and I wonder if that's also causing the issues with waking up in the morning. 

Ironic since it's also causing issues not allowing the car to go to sleep...


----------



## mikeband (Sep 7, 2018)

This morning, after charging to 90% overnite, I tried for over an hour to wake up the Model 3 on the Android app - via cell/data, wi-fi, cell&wi-fi, toggling airplane mode, toggling app. BT would show connected but had no affect and wouldn't operate. My Tasker apps were also NOP'd. The screen remained black. Opening the door turned on the screen and then the app would connect and I started my qtrly charge to 100% via the app. It's parked in the garage and the interior is 56 deg. The SW ver. 50.6. I'll also check it after it completes charging and it goes to sleep. Edit: No more problems after waking the car by opening the door. We'll see what happens on the next overnite charge.

This appears to be another random flaky bug and, IMO, standing on your head with your right index finger stuck in your left ear while singing the national anthem isn't the answer.


----------



## AlohaAdam (Dec 23, 2018)

Same issue. Cannot wake via the app, either. I get Vehicle Connectivity error.
I have contacted Tesla via telephone. They claim to have engineers looking at the logs of when I told them this is happening. Service Center appt scheduled to get wifi / LTE antenna replaced (which I am told is in the driver-side side mirror). Very annoying. There have been at least 4 times now in the last month of owning the car where I had no LTE connectivity my entire 20+ mile ride home.


----------



## Bernard (Aug 3, 2017)

LTE works fine for me. But app got through to car from my wife's phone once and mine once, with about 100 failures between the two, with car in garage (i.e., on wifi) since we got 50.6.


----------

