Another PAAK rant…..giving up

[Nklem]

I received the PAAK update in Early June. I have praised how well it functioned until today. I did have a hiccup with 1.6.0 but the phone/PAAK was already in a running car, I rebooted the phone, FordPass crashed 2 times and after it worked fine….until today.

It worked this AM when I left for work. I plugged into charge. A few hours
Later I checked Ford pass to see the charge status and it just showed the splash screen and crash. And it kept crashing.
So I deleted FP reinstalled. It worked but with no fob , it was passcodes on the way home to lunch. At lunch I brought out a fob to re-setup PAAK again. No luck, failed PAAK setup to the car 8 times over and over even after walking away and trying again.

So back to the fob. This cannot be relied upon period. Ford must stop advertising it. It does not work. It Is flawed.

I would think it’s phone related but i had an iPhone XR update about 5 days ago and PAAK worked fine right through it. No new apps on phone and no changes to anything.

so sad, I tried for a few months, spoke highly of it, followed the phone rules, but at this point I have to give up. It is seriously flawed. A car needs a reliable key.

And the passcode process stinks too. It will get you out of a PAAK jam, but it takes forever for it to show on the screen when you do not have a valid key. At one point 1 waited a full minute for it to display.

I did not buy the Mach E for this feature and can live without it,. I did enjoy it while it worked. Maybe someday it will work again.

 

[RockwallRick]

I never intended to use my phone as a key! My Wife tried it with her IPhone 12 Pro and it was way too flaky!! Life is much better now that we have another FOB!!

 

[Brofessional]

The correct PR move would be to begin issuing 2 fobs with each mach e, and to offer an additional one to owners of already delivered vehicles free of charge if they want one. Not sure how that would affect microchip allocation though.

 

[MarkP213]

I receive the PAAK update in Early June. I have praised how well it functioned until today. I did have a hiccup with 1.6.0 but the phone/PAAK was already in a running car, I rebooted the phone, FordPass crashed 2 times and after it worked fine….until today.

It worked this AM when I left for work. I plugged into charge. A few hours
Later I checked Ford pass to see the charge status and it just showed the splash screen and crash. And it kept crashing.
So I deleted FP reinstalled. It worked but with no fob , it was passcodes on the way home to lunch. At lunch I brought out a fob to re-setup PAAK again. No luck, failed PAAK setup to the car 8 times over and over even after walking away and trying again.

So back to the fob. This cannot be relied upon period. Ford must stop advertising it. It does not work. It Is flawed.

I would think it’s phone related but i had an iPhone XR update about 5 days ago and PAAK worked fine right through it. No new apps on phone and no changes to anything.

so sad, I tried for a few months, spoke highly of it, followed the phone rules, but at this point I have to give up. It is seriously flawed. A car needs a reliable key.

Hey Norm, have you tried disconnecting the 12 volt battery - wait about 30 seconds, then reconnect? Maybe the car components need to be rebooted. Pain in the ass option (getting to the battery), but might be worth a try to see if it works.

I’ve had my Mach E since April and only had the fob with me on the ride home on the day of purchase. PAAK can be flaky at times for sure, but has never failed on me where I couldn’t get in or start the vehicle.

All else fails, take it to Ford and have them do the reboot and make it right for you!

 

[Nklem]

Hey Norm, have you tried disconnecting the 12 volt battery - wait about 30 seconds, then reconnect? Maybe the car components need to be rebooted. Pain in the ass option (getting to the battery), but might be worth a try to see if it works.

I’ve had my Mach E since April and only had the fob with me on the ride home on the day of purchase. PAAK can be flaky at times for sure, but has never failed on me where I couldn’t get in or start the vehicle.

All else fails, take it to Ford and have them do the reboot and make it right for you!

Oh I agree this is an option, but 2 hours of travel to the dealer or a battery disconnect to fix a broken /flawed system is not proper.
II may try it but my guess is this same thing will happen again no matter what we do.

 

[MarkP213]

Oh I agree this is an option, but 2 hours of travel to the dealer or a battery disconnect to fix a broken /flawed system is not proper.
II may try it but my guess is this same thing will happen again no matter what we do.

Yeah, I get that. My Mach E, iPhone, and apps are up to date, and so far I haven’t experienced any of the issues you’re having.

If they offer it, you should see if your dealer would be willing to do a mobile service out to your Mach E. I don’t know how far they travel, but they should be doing something to help you out!

 

[Trede]

He's talking about disconnecting the 12v battery under the "hood", not the big HV battery pack. This should not require going to a dealer, just popping a cover or two and disconnecting the regular-old-car-battery.

Also, your phone may be as up to date as it can be and still not be compatible with PaaK. IDK the requirements on apples, but Android 11+ is required to fully support PaaK.

 

[crazyfool54]

I received the PAAK update in Early June. I have praised how well it functioned until today. I did have a hiccup with 1.6.0 but the phone/PAAK was already in a running car, I rebooted the phone, FordPass crashed 2 times and after it worked fine….until today.

It worked this AM when I left for work. I plugged into charge. A few hours
Later I checked Ford pass to see the charge status and it just showed the splash screen and crash. And it kept crashing.
So I deleted FP reinstalled. It worked but with no fob , it was passcodes on the way home to lunch. At lunch I brought out a fob to re-setup PAAK again. No luck, failed PAAK setup to the car 8 times over and over even after walking away and trying again.

So back to the fob. This cannot be relied upon period. Ford must stop advertising it. It does not work. It Is flawed.

I would think it’s phone related but i had an iPhone XR update about 5 days ago and PAAK worked fine right through it. No new apps on phone and no changes to anything.

so sad, I tried for a few months, spoke highly of it, followed the phone rules, but at this point I have to give up. It is seriously flawed. A car needs a reliable key.

And the passcode process stinks too. It will get you out of a PAAK jam, but it takes forever for it to show on the screen when you do not have a valid key. At one point 1 waited a full minute for it to display.

I did not buy the Mach E for this feature and can live without it,. I did enjoy it while it worked. Maybe someday it will work again.

When you re-setup paak, did you make sure you reset it in the car settings too?

I'm not in my car now, but I thought I had to reset paak once, early on into ownership, and it took a couple of days to get it working again. I finally found out that I needed to delete the key on the infotainment screen ( in settings somewhere, My key?) and also forget both bluetooth connections in your phone bluetooth settings. Car play will have to be set up again, as well.

 

[DYohn]

Yes, adding to the above in my case I had to delete all PaaK in both the car and on Ford Pass before re-pairing the phone via BT and setting up PaaK again. Pain in the arse but it worked.

The software is just not ready for prime time. But we are early adopters... I guess.

 

[Nklem]

It’s a Ford network issue is my guess. See the latest notification….

 

[kwailau]

Feeling all the pains of an early adopter with using my phone as key...

I ran into this issue after updating my iPhone to 14.7.1. The FordPass app was flaky and I was forced to deleted the app and reinstall.

Here lies the beginnings to my issues...

When I received the car, setting up the PAAK was a breeze. No issues at all. The update caused connectivity issues to occur and I found myself standing in front of my car locked out.

Several attempts of sitting in the car trying to get Phone as Key setup up. Several failures later... I am still using the key fob. I think I reached the maximum attempts of 5 and now I need to wait 48 hours for the system to reset before I can try again.

I've tried resetting my FordPass app as well as the Connectivity settings on the car.

I know that people who uses the key fob are spared of this technological pain. My wife has it for this exact reason... Ford really should have issued 2 key fobs for the car knowing that PAAK is a work in progress.

 

[mpshizzle]

Yeah. I also think recent PAAK issues are server side. My car has STILL not gotten power up 1.4.0 or 1.6.0 (which I find very strange cause it seems everyone else has at this point)

But even without any updates my PAAK has been acting poorly the last couple of days. It's usually been pretty solid for me

 

[nanohead]

The entire PAAK idea is flawed in its scope. Its yet another naïve and idealistic use for a mobile phone app to solve a problem not one person on the earth has.

If I leave my Fordpass active with background on, it kills my phone battery in 6 hours (usually get 2-3 days), it freaks the Mach E out every time I walk through the garage near the car with my phone in my pocket, and it does really strange things if I get out of the car leaving the car switched on, and walk to get the mail at the mailbox. It nearly stranded me at the airport last week when I was dropping one of my kids off. I got out of the car to open the hatch to get her suitcase out, and it then shut the car off by itself, and I literally sat their at airport drop-off trying to restart the car for 20 minutes.

Its just a stupid idea and profoundly unreliable.

FWIW, I also have a 2021 Ford Ranger, and the Fordpass app is slower than heck with that car. It doesn't use the phone as anything other than monitoring and remote start, which also works poorly.

I'm going to push Ford hard for a second key, just like all of us should do. My car was close to 60K, and another key fob might cost Ford $25 all in. Its the least they can do.

I can get my head around using the PAAK idea as a supplemental key to those that are interested, but forcing real customers to rely on it as a primary key is actually borderline unethical.

 

[JRT]

Yup, expect no change from @Ford Motor Company update my survey.

 

[dbsb3233]

I never intended to use my phone as a key! My Wife tried it with her IPhone 12 Pro and it was way too flaky!! Life is much better now that we have another FOB!!

Same here. Even if the car side of it were perfect, cell phone Bluetooth is always hit and miss. I don't want entry/starting to be hit or miss. It's too important. I ordered a 2nd fob right after I got the car. I'm perfectly fine with dependable fobs. Just wish the car came with 2.

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