Key not detected error Stranded!

[danf]

Lately the MachE does not recognize the phone key. The confusing part is that it does unlock the car from the app and does allow you to press the start button on the app. Then it says to press the start button on the car. However when you press the start button, it says key not detected.

It's a recurring issue. Then the passcode option comes up and the last three or four times I have driven with the passcode.

However, yesterday the passcode option would not come up. So there was no way to start the car. I was stranded. I called the help number and the person on the other had no clue even after describing the issue. They wanted to send tow truck to do a jump start. I explained that this is an electric vehicle and needs a different kind of assistance. Then I started a chat and the person on the other hand said that they can only help me troubleshoot if the car starts. But the car wouldn't start because it wouldn't detect the phone key. So basically I was stuck. I waited a half hour and suddenly the passcode option came up again. Then I was able to drive to my garage. The chat agent said that an engineer would contact me in 3 to 5 days. That seems odd because it could be very dangerous if you were stranded in an unknown place. It seems that this would be an immediate attention. Anyway I'm now going to call my local dealer to see if they can fit me into resolve this issue.

Has anyone else had connection and starting problems with their phone? Ford only gives us one key. So if you're a family of two or more sharing the car then it's a disaster waiting to happen.

This is kind of draconian, but we were having all sorts of funky, unexplainable events happening like what you are describing. I basically "reset" the MME, deleted FordPass from our phones and started fresh like it was a new car. That fixed those crazy kind of issues for us... (I write down our custom settings so configuring the car anew doesn't take too long.)

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[mkhuffman]

Hi sorry I'm late getting to this thread. If you are able to enter the vehicle with the phone then there is an active connection. Another way to confirm this would be to look at the status indicator in the app "Bluetooth Connected" or the notification in drawer which will either say "Phone as a key connected to your vehicle"(Connected) or "Phone as a key is trying to connect to your vehicle"(Not Connected)

Those two things being said, when you get into this situation and the vehicle cannot detect the phone in the car, and assuming you have a connection. Have you tried sending a lock or unlock command to the vehicle?

If so and it doesn't work.
Then I advise you to:
-> close the app
-> go to the paak notification and hit the cancel button
-> then turn off bluetooth on your phone
-> turn bluetooth back on
-> launch the app
-> wait for phone to reconnect to vehicle.
The order of these steps is important.

If this seems like to many step and you would rather reboot your phone and relaunch the app that is another option.

A little background for those who are interested. What we are trying to do here is force the vehicle to find your phone. For some reason the vehicle does not recognize that the phone is inside the vehicle so by terminating the all of the paak services (app and notification) followed by turning off bluetooth we are ensuring that the phone and the vehicle have no connection whatsoever. Then restarting all these services forces the vehicle to go through all of it's initial checks again and hopefully figure out that the phone is inside the vehicle granting you the start functionality.

I hope this helps!

I can confirm that this works. At least is has for me.

 

[phil]

Have you updated all your software modules? I am just wondering if that could help. I have not had the problem you are experiencing. My PaaK was horrible prior to the software updates. Now it is mildly glitchy, and I think all the issues I have are phone related, not car related. The passcode has always come up when I needed it, but I have only needed it one time since Feb 7 (the date the dealer did all the updates).

The dealer tech told me all my software is up to date, but did not specifically say they updated modules. I got my car in October. Would there be modules needing updates after that?

 

[AkMach]

Hi sorry I'm late getting to this thread. If you are able to enter the vehicle with the phone then there is an active connection. Another way to confirm this would be to look at the status indicator in the app "Bluetooth Connected" or the notification in drawer which will either say "Phone as a key connected to your vehicle"(Connected) or "Phone as a key is trying to connect to your vehicle"(Not Connected)

Those two things being said, when you get into this situation and the vehicle cannot detect the phone in the car, and assuming you have a connection. Have you tried sending a lock or unlock command to the vehicle?

If so and it doesn't work.
Then I advise you to:
-> close the app
-> go to the paak notification and hit the cancel button
-> then turn off bluetooth on your phone
-> turn bluetooth back on
-> launch the app
-> wait for phone to reconnect to vehicle.
The order of these steps is important.

If this seems like to many step and you would rather reboot your phone and relaunch the app that is another option.

A little background for those who are interested. What we are trying to do here is force the vehicle to find your phone. For some reason the vehicle does not recognize that the phone is inside the vehicle so by terminating the all of the paak services (app and notification) followed by turning off bluetooth we are ensuring that the phone and the vehicle have no connection whatsoever. Then restarting all these services forces the vehicle to go through all of it's initial checks again and hopefully figure out that the phone is inside the vehicle granting you the start functionality.

I hope this helps!

 

[AkMach]

Seems complicated. Will we have to do it everytime when trying to use phone as key?

Are you with Ford engineering team?

They haven't yet responded in 3 days.

 

[PaaK_Android]

Seems complicated. Will we have to do it everytime when trying to use phone as key?

Are you with Ford engineering team?

They haven't yet responded in 3 days.

You shouldn't have to do it every time. This will only be when you get the no key detected in the vehicle problem. Rebooting the phone is an easier option to hopefully resolve this bug. I provided both as an option in my original message because some users don't like to reboot their phones.

I am the lead developer for the PaaK Android Team. I do not work on the vehicle side of things. I only work on the phone. Also posting here is not a part of my profession. I monitor this forum to attempt to help users when they get stuck. I just want everyone to have the best experience they can. Sometimes the vehicle has defects sometimes the phone does. Either way I usually know a way to get around because of what I do.

 

[available_username2]

if you can't figure out how to turn bluetooth off and on or restart your phone to get paak working when it's not then you really shouldn't be relying on paak

 

[Art]

Lately the MachE does not recognize the phone key. The confusing part is that it does unlock the car from the app and does allow you to press the start button on the app. Then it says to press the start button on the car. However when you press the start button, it says key not detected.

It's a recurring issue. Then the passcode option comes up and the last three or four times I have driven with the passcode.

However, yesterday the passcode option would not come up. So there was no way to start the car. I was stranded. I called the help number and the person on the other had no clue even after describing the issue. They wanted to send tow truck to do a jump start. I explained that this is an electric vehicle and needs a different kind of assistance. Then I started a chat and the person on the other hand said that they can only help me troubleshoot if the car starts. But the car wouldn't start because it wouldn't detect the phone key. So basically I was stuck. I waited a half hour and suddenly the passcode option came up again. Then I was able to drive to my garage. The chat agent said that an engineer would contact me in 3 to 5 days. That seems odd because it could be very dangerous if you were stranded in an unknown place. It seems that this would be an immediate attention. Anyway I'm now going to call my local dealer to see if they can fit me into resolve this issue.

Has anyone else had connection and starting problems with their phone? Ford only gives us one key. So if you're a family of two or more sharing the car then it's a disaster waiting to happen.

I would never trust my phone as a key. I think I paid $260 to get another fob. Well worth it.
I was always feared something would happen to a fragile phone.
I always carry my phone in case I lose my key somewhere.
Worse case, I could call home and ask my wife to bring the spare if "phone as a key" doesn't work.

 

[Bill]

PAAK works better for me after recent upgrade but with just one fob I keep it in a faraday bag (amazon) in the car.

 

[AkMach]

You shouldn't have to do it every time. This will only be when you get the no key detected in the vehicle problem. Rebooting the phone is an easier option to hopefully resolve this bug. I provided both as an option in my original message because some users don't like to reboot their phones.

I am the lead developer for the PaaK Android Team. I do not work on the vehicle side of things. I only work on the phone. Also posting here is not a part of my profession. I monitor this forum to attempt to help users when they get stuck. I just want everyone to have the best experience they can. Sometimes the vehicle has defects sometimes the phone does. Either way I usually know a way to get around because of what I do.

Appreciate your efforts and info. Good to know people are dedicated to resolving these issues.

 

[AkMach]

Since I started this thread, I'm happy to report a resolution. Local Ford dealer finally looked at it today. There was an update that they needed to perform which I have attached here for others to be aware of.
That still didn't resolve the issue and the same problem appeared.
Then we also removed our existing keys from the app and re-added my phone as a key, by doing a new setup again.
Now it works well. It recognizes my phone as I approach the car and I don't even need to open the Ford pass app anymore to hit the unlock or start button.
It recognizes my phone and unlocks the car when I push the door button and also immediately starts when you press the start button without needing to interact with the Ford pass app.
I call that a satisfactory resolution!

 

[Ghost Ryder]

It obvious that PAAK is flaky. For some it works great but for others, its unreliable. Hopefully everyone has at least to keys. If you do, just buy another one on ebay for 30$ (I bought one made for a mustang 2018-21)and program it yourself. Takes 2 minutes. put it in an metal container like an altoid box and hide it somewhere. I can assure you that if a thief and going to break in your car to steal it, they're not going to be searching for a key.

Cheap insurance, and you don't have to carry a fob with you, if your PAAK is reliable enough.

problem solved.

 

[PaaK_Android]

There are a few steps that can be taken to improve PaaK performance. 1 is to make sure that location permissions are enable for the app and set to allow all the time. This is a requirement by Google for us to use Bluetooth. PaaK doesn't actually user your location. 2 make sure that battery optimization is turned off for FordPass. Paak runs as a service on your phone, in the background, in order to work. When the service has been on for a while and you haven't opened the app. The operating system will destroy the service to preserve battery. The second step is optional the end result if you don't do this is that you will sometimes have to launch the app in order to get into the vehicle.

 

[AkMach]

There are a few steps that can be taken to improve PaaK performance. 1 is to make sure that location permissions are enable for the app and set to allow all the time. This is a requirement by Google for us to use Bluetooth. PaaK doesn't actually user your location. 2 make sure that battery optimization is turned off for FordPass. Paak runs as a service on your phone, in the background, in order to work. When the service has been on for a while and you haven't opened the app. The operating system will destroy the service to preserve battery. The second step is optional the end result if you don't do this is that you will sometimes have to launch the app in order to get into the vehicle.

Yes, your suggestions for permissions and optimization was already mentioned early in the chat and implemented.

 

[AkMach]

It obvious that PAAK is flaky. For some it works great but for others, its unreliable. Hopefully everyone has at least to keys. If you do, just buy another one on ebay for 30$ (I bought one made for a mustang 2018-21)and program it yourself. Takes 2 minutes. put it in an metal container like an altoid box and hide it somewhere. I can assure you that if a thief and going to break in your car to steal it, they're not going to be searching for a key.

Cheap insurance, and you don't have to carry a fob with you, if your PAAK is reliable enough.

problem solved.

Wow. That's pretty creative to have the ability to buy a cheaper FOB and program it.

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