Re: Ford's lack of support for Apple Car Key

[hypersnake]

Then don’t close the app?? I don’t close it and have no issues with PAAK.

PaaK is sketchy at best. iOS constantly closes the Ford app on me which means every time i go out to my car I need to pull my phone out of my pocket and open up the app for PaaK to work.

It's far from the solution it should be.

Im running an iphone 12 on the latest stable version of iOS 26 and using V6.0 of the Ford app.

seems like after an hour of so, whenever I open the ford app it's opening from a closed state (IE the ford logo shows up as it loads into the app) instead of just pulling up the app from an already opened state. I'm fairly certain it's iOS closing the app for whatever reason for resource management, but its very consistent. if I don't pull out my phone and open the app prior to walking up to my phone, it's won't recognize it.

I bolded, italicized, and highlighted the relevant parts to help with your reading comprehension.

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[hypersnake]

He’s talking about having the app running in the background (swipe up once), which works for me. Swiping up twice force-stops the app (it’s no longer running at all) and will indeed impact PAAK function.

From your description of the problem in post 1, it sounds like you are saying that iOS is doing the equivalent of force-stopping the app. I’ve never seen that, but I’m not on the beta version.

Im not on a beta version either but if you look into it iOS may close apps to help save resources so for whatever reason it may be deciding that the Ford app should be closed to save resources whether it be RAM or battery or whatever.

iphones don't have an option like androids to force an app to stay open.

 

[Buh-Bye Tesla]

Try updating the app? You mentioned you’re on 6.0. 6.1 was released yesterday with performance improvements and bug fixes.

 

[User100723]

Imma go on a limb here an say maybe location settings? Always allow (i know we don’t like that, but worth a shot).

Course all else fall, an old delete and reinstall just to make sure…

Then again, i wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because you’re on an iPhone 12. Could be wrong, but pretty sure that model is on its last legs in terms of updates, and iOS 26 with Liquid Glass and all may be too much for it, of not barely cutting it.

Sorry, just an ole dude spitballing as best as i can…

 

[Sikkun]

He’s talking about having the app running in the background (swipe up once), which works for me. Swiping up twice force-stops the app (it’s no longer running at all) and will indeed impact PAAK function.

From your description of the problem in post 1, it sounds like you are saying that iOS is doing the equivalent of force-stopping the app. I’ve never seen that, but I’m not on the beta version.

If you swipe up once it also tells you it’s best to leave the app “open”.

But really there is no reason to swipe up the app at all.

 

[Jeffvisor]

Here is a something to look at....if you go to settings then battery then go to Power Mode do you have adaptive Power mode turned on or off? I have mine turned off. If turned on it could maybe close the app in background to save battery

 

[Space_Pony]

A lot of brands support it, and I really wish Ford would reconsider. It's a first world problem to be sure, but opening my phone to open the Fordpass app, to open the controls to unlock the car when I don't have my key is silly when there is a faster and more elegant solution.

"Ford does not currently support Apple Car Key, which allows users to add a digital car key to the Apple Wallet app for locking, unlocking, and starting compatible vehicles via iPhone or Apple Watch. This feature requires specific hardware in the vehicle, including NFC readers and Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology for precise proximity detection, which Ford vehicles lack. Ford's focus remains on its own ecosystem."

It sounds like you need to get an Android phone. No problems with my Samsung.

 

[Mach-Lee]

A lot of brands support it, and I really wish Ford would reconsider. It's a first world problem to be sure, but opening my phone to open the Fordpass app, to open the controls to unlock the car when I don't have my key is silly when there is a faster and more elegant solution.

"Ford does not currently support Apple Car Key, which allows users to add a digital car key to the Apple Wallet app for locking, unlocking, and starting compatible vehicles via iPhone or Apple Watch. This feature requires specific hardware in the vehicle, including NFC readers and Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology for precise proximity detection, which Ford vehicles lack. Ford's focus remains on its own ecosystem."

The Mach-E does not have any Ultra Wideband (UWB) hardware, so it doesn't support Apple Car Key. It is not something that can be enabled by software alone since the current hardware is not capable. Bluetooth was chosen for greater compatibility with basically all phones (not just iPhones).

UWB support would require a completely new set of phone key hardware and antennas. That's not going to happen unless there is a major revision to the Mach-E, and Ford chooses to spend the money on doing so. They seem to be focused on minimizing costs right now, not adding features.

 

[hypersnake]

Imma go on a limb here an say maybe location settings? Always allow (i know we don’t like that, but worth a shot).

Course all else fall, an old delete and reinstall just to make sure…

Then again, i wouldn’t be surprised if it’s because you’re on an iPhone 12. Could be wrong, but pretty sure that model is on its last legs in terms of updates, and iOS 26 with Liquid Glass and all may be too much for it, of not barely cutting it.

Sorry, just an ole dude spitballing as best as i can…

honestly the phone being old might be it. I went through earlier and noticed I had a ton of apps that were refreshing in the background that, frankly, had no business doing so. I set a bunch of them not to not update and also changed the setting to allow the apps to update on WiFi and on mobile data (previously did not have unlimited data so I set that to WiFi only) and this far I’ve noticed the phone seems a little better performance-wise and seems to not close the app since I changed the settings

still iOS really doesn’t make it clear why it’s closing apps and there’s no options to keep it forced open, but im assuming at this point iOS was using too much resources maybe constantly checking apps for updates and it was so resource intensive it was closing apps.

bottom line is I don’t like iOS but the silly iPhone group chats keep me walled in

 

[YunniorO]

A lot of brands support it, and I really wish Ford would reconsider. It's a first world problem to be sure, but opening my phone to open the Fordpass app, to open the controls to unlock the car when I don't have my key is silly when there is a faster and more elegant solution.

"Ford does not currently support Apple Car Key, which allows users to add a digital car key to the Apple Wallet app for locking, unlocking, and starting compatible vehicles via iPhone or Apple Watch. This feature requires specific hardware in the vehicle, including NFC readers and Ultra Wideband (UWB) technology for precise proximity detection, which Ford vehicles lack. Ford's focus remains on its own ecosystem."

Even if ford did, you’d have to buy a new vehicle because like your post even says, there’s no NFC and UWB to support this functionality.

 

[ChrisO]

I’ve never has iOS close any app, ever.

When I look at my wife's iPhone, I can certainly believe that is true.

I do wonder though if the people that say it has closed the app really mean that instead of it isn't working when running in the background.

BTW when I look it up it seems that with iOS the application has to request running in the background, or it will be suspended really quickly. For Android the user can tell the OS to allow it to run in the background/use battery.

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

honestly the phone being old might be it. I went through earlier and noticed I had a ton of apps that were refreshing in the background that, frankly, had no business doing so. I set a bunch of them not to not update and also changed the setting to allow the apps to update on WiFi and on mobile data (previously did not have unlimited data so I set that to WiFi only) and this far I’ve noticed the phone seems a little better performance-wise and seems to not close the app since I changed the settings

still iOS really doesn’t make it clear why it’s closing apps and there’s no options to keep it forced open, but im assuming at this point iOS was using too much resources maybe constantly checking apps for updates and it was so resource intensive it was closing apps.

bottom line is I don’t like iOS but the silly iPhone group chats keep me walled in

I too suspect it's your phone. Sadly a five year old phone is pretty ancient these days, especially running a processor-intensive operating system like iOS 26. If you've not already done so, I'd suggest you go into the Accessibility settings and enable Reduce Transparency. It should help to reduce processor loading and increase battery life. But I'd glad to hear that the changes you've made so far are improving the situation!

 

[hypersnake]

I too suspect it's your phone. Sadly a five year old phone is pretty ancient these days, especially running a processor-intensive operating system like iOS 26. If you've not already done so, I'd suggest you go into the Accessibility settings and enable Reduce Transparency. It should help to reduce processor loading and increase battery life. But I'd glad to hear that the changes you've made so far are improving the situation!

Yeah, I replaced the battery on it last year and it was doing good until iOS 26 when everything went into the tank. I really wish Apple would test their shit with older hardware before pushing it out, cause I would have been just fine staying on iOS 18 with just security updates until it's EoL in 2026 or 2027.

 

[Keanen]

Are you using the TestFlight version of the Ford application? Every time the app updates I have to open it again, which can be annoying, but it’s a balance of having the new updates. When I walk up to my truck, it doesn’t always unlock because the app has been updated and therefore closed.


I have mapped my action button to start my lightning so that opens up the app for me

 

[JohnFoxeSheets]

Are you using the TestFlight version of the Ford application? Every time the app updates I have to open it again, which can be annoying, but it’s a balance of having the new updates. When I walk up to my truck, it doesn’t always unlock because the app has been updated and therefore closed.


I have mapped my action button to start my lightning so that opens up the app for me

I presume the first rule of test flight club is…

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