FordPass app phone battery usage

[jasdf2345]

The FordPass app, when using it as a key, seems to use a lot of battery on my iPhone. I'm showing it's responsible for 13% of battery usage since charging phone in the last 24 hours, but with phone in battery saver mode it's responsible for 57% of battery usage due to background activity. I charge my phone to 80% and then put it in battery saver mode overnight, as just like the car, I try to avoid charging it to 100%. But this morning I woke up and it was already down to 57% due to the FordPass app, that's how much battery it uses.

I'm hoping Ford is aware and can do something about this. I know the phone needs to poll often as you could walk up to your car at any moment, but this feels like the impact to the phone battery is just a bit too much.

Sponsored

 

[RickMachE]

Stop the app as you go to bed?

If you're in BT range, turn BT off at bed, then on when you awaken?

 

[jasdf2345]

Stop the app as you go to bed?

If you're in BT range, turn BT off at bed, then on when you awaken?

I'm interested in having a discussion about this and raising awareness, not for workarounds.

Ford has the code that probably does the Bluetooth polling on a schedule or something, it's probably just too frequent. There is a way to fix this I'm sure of it.

How are android users fairing here? Better or worse or same as iPhone users?

Because right now, an app using this much battery is insane. I can't be the only one who's noticing this.

 

[bshaw]

Earlier versions of FordPass had this issue with my phone. Like 3 yrs ago though.
What model of iPhone do you have?

My FordPass works pretty well with iPhone 15, don’t notice a huge drain by keeping the app always open.

 

[noflipping]

Just looked at mine - 3% using the V5 app. I'd make sure you're completely up to date. Reboot the phone every once in a while and hit airplane mode for a few seconds every so often - seems to kinda shake up the connection (in a good way).

 

[Mach-Lee]

Disable permissions for location tracking in the background. That will reduce the battery usage a lot. FordPass will need to be open in the background for PAAK to work.

~10% is pretty normal for FordPass, especially if you spend time near the car because the phone stays connected via BLE in the background.

 

[jasdf2345]

Disable permissions for location tracking in the background. That will reduce the battery usage a lot. FordPass will need to be open in the background for PAAK to work.

~10% is pretty normal for FordPass, especially if you spend time near the car because the phone stays connected via BLE in the background.

That's what it is, it's close enough to stay connected via bluetooth.

That doesn't mean there's not room for improvement though, which is the point of my post.

It also in my opinion isn't acceptable, an app should not need to use this much battery. There is some efficiency that is being lost here I'm feeling.

 

[RickMachE]

That's what it is, it's close enough to stay connected via bluetooth.

That doesn't mean there's not room for improvement though, which is the point of my post.

It also in my opinion isn't acceptable, an app should not need to use this much battery. There is some efficiency that is being lost here I'm feeling.

FordPass is about to role out a new version, 5.0, based on posts here. It has come a long way. That said, even the new version has issues.

As you would expect, the many combinations of OS versions and phone models make it quite hard to be anywhere near perfect.

If you bought a Mach-E for the technology, you probably misjudged that. Ford will never be at the bleeding or even leading edge. Some issues get fixed a year later. Some never.

In the vehicle, you can record feedback and send it to Ford.

 

[Snakebitten]

I have only recently acquired my Mach-E, but have been using FordPass for a few years.
When I decided to enable PAAK, Ford made it very clear that I had to enable FordPass to run in background and disable the phone from being able to use battery save settings on the app. It even included a disclaimer that this feature can impact battery life on my phone.

So obviously Ford knows.
And Ford wants ME to know too.

It makes sense why it would have such an impact too.

Having said all that, I park the car too close to my abode at night and choose to turn off Bluetooth on my phone before settling in for the night.

 

[jasdf2345]

Earlier versions of FordPass had this issue with my phone. Like 3 yrs ago though.
What model of iPhone do you have?

My FordPass works pretty well with iPhone 15, don’t notice a huge drain by keeping the app always open.

FordPass is about to role out a new version, 5.0, based on posts here. It has come a long way. That said, even the new version has issues.

As you would expect, the many combinations of OS versions and phone models make it quite hard to be anywhere near perfect.

If you bought a Mach-E for the technology, you probably misjudged that. Ford will never be at the bleeding or even leading edge. Some issues get fixed a year later. Some never.

In the vehicle, you can record feedback and send it to Ford.

13% in the last 24 hours on background activity.

Can anyone else share what theirs is?

"If you bought a Mach-E for the technology, you probably misjudged that." yeah... uhh i gotta disagree with you here. The mach-e is one of the most technologically advanced vehicles ever made. I'm not sure what you're trying to say here.

 

[jasdf2345]

I have only recently acquired my Mach-E, but have been using FordPass for a few years.
When I decided to enable PAAK, Ford made it very clear that I had to enable FordPass to run in background and disable the phone from being able to use battery save settings on the app. It even included a disclaimer that this feature can impact battery life on my phone.

So obviously Ford knows.
And Ford wants ME to know too.

It makes sense why it would have such an impact too.

Having said all that, I park the car too close to my abode at night and choose to turn off Bluetooth on my phone before settling in for the night.

yeah that sounds about right. The only thing i see on the store page is they mention background location services.

It's kinda hard for me to believe they can't improve it though. I'd like to see an option for battery saver mode to disable it completely so that i can actually you know, save battery.

 

[Mach-Lee]

13% in the last 24 hours on background activity.

Can anyone else share what theirs is?

Remember iPhone reports percentage of total power used, not percentage of the battery used. So if you don't use your phone much, the percentage will be higher. If you use your phone a lot, the percentage will be lower even though the app used the same amount of energy.

About 8% for me, but again varies with how much I use my phone.

 

[RickMachE]

<1٪ since 7am, Android.

But % matters compared to what else I am running...

 

[CarlSagan82]

iPhone 14 Pro Max. Just checked and mine is less than 8% last 24 hours. I probably come into range of my car 10-12 times a day. I have background app refresh set to on for FordPass. I have 6 apps with more usage and I feel I use most of them less.
Edit:I now use the newer version as of two months ago and I have no idea if the older version was a hog.

 

[jasdf2345]

Remember iPhone reports percentage of total power used, not percentage of the battery used. So if you don't use your phone much, the percentage will be higher. If you use your phone a lot, the percentage will be lower even though the app used the same amount of energy.

About 8% for me, but again varies with how much I use my phone.

"Remember iPhone reports percentage of total power used, not percentage of the battery used" And where did you read this?

Doesn't much matter to me, the app uses a lot of battery. I saw another thread from 2020 where ford acknowledged it and recommended to make sure it was updated... some said uninstalling and reinstalled made a difference but I'm not sure how it could. That's just a shot in the dark.

Sponsored