Phone As Key issues

swingdj

Member
First Name
Sean
Joined
Feb 3, 2021
Threads
5
Messages
14
Reaction score
10
Location
48085
Vehicles
Mach E First Edition
Occupation
Certified Financial Planner
Country flag
Anyone having issues during their phone as a key? When I’m out and about it’s fine. But when it’s in my garage, about half of the time, the car doesn’t unlock when I’m standing next to it with my phone. Just now, I went out, the car was unlocked so I opened it and the alarm went off.

The keys are left inside the house but only about six feet away from the back corner of the car.
Sponsored

 

JellyBelly

Well-Known Member
First Name
Kris
Joined
Jun 27, 2020
Threads
14
Messages
2,481
Reaction score
1,937
Location
San Diego
Vehicles
MME RR FE
Country flag
Anyone having issues during their phone as a key? When I’m out and about it’s fine. But when it’s in my garage, about half of the time, the car doesn’t unlock when I’m standing next to it with my phone. Just now, I went out, the car was unlocked so I opened it and the alarm went off.

The keys are left inside the house but only about six feet away from the back corner of the car.
yes others have had issues as well
 
OP
OP
swingdj

swingdj

Member
First Name
Sean
Joined
Feb 3, 2021
Threads
5
Messages
14
Reaction score
10
Location
48085
Vehicles
Mach E First Edition
Occupation
Certified Financial Planner
Country flag
Anyone having issues during their phone as a key? When I’m out and about it’s fine. But when it’s in my garage, about half of the time, the car doesn’t unlock when I’m standing next to it with my phone. Just now, I went out, the car was unlocked so I opened it and the alarm went off.

The keys are left inside the house but only about six feet away from the back corner of the car.
I might have just fixed it. I realized I had two Bluetooth connections from my phone to the car so I deleted one and on one test of it, it works.
 

DBC

Well-Known Member
First Name
Don
Joined
Oct 1, 2020
Threads
8
Messages
1,224
Reaction score
1,428
Location
San Diego
Vehicles
Volt ELR
Country flag
I might have just fixed it. I realized I had two Bluetooth connections from my phone to the car so I deleted one and on one test of it, it works.
Thanks for the update. May help someone else. We're going to see this type of things for a while.
 

CP-Mach-E

Well-Known Member
First Name
Bill
Joined
Dec 30, 2020
Threads
7
Messages
47
Reaction score
154
Location
Ottawa, Ontario
Vehicles
Nissan Murano, 21 F150 PB Plat, 21 Mach-E PESR
Country flag
I've had my Mach-E for a little over a week, and I'm finding the Phone as a Key to be a bit unreliable. It mostly works, but a couple of times the door would not open for me, so I had to enter the code on the door to get in. Once I was in the vehicle I could not start it. I restarted the FordPass app on my phone, and after waiting for a bit I was able to turn on the car.

I am the primary driver of the car, but my wife has no patience for unreliable technology, so I gave her the one key fob that you get. I hope that they work out these issues soon.

Regarding the two Bluetooth connections on the phone, one is for making phone calls and listening to music. The second connection is for the Phone as Key. When I initially set up the Phone as a key, it didn't have a description for some reason, and was added to my phone with just the MAC address. I accidentally deleted it from my phone, and had to set up the phone as a key all over again. Strangely the second time I set it up, it did get set up with a description so now I have two connections for the Mach-E. One is listed under media connections, the other is listed under "Other".
 


Jimmy2

Well-Known Member
First Name
Jimmy
Joined
Jan 23, 2021
Threads
17
Messages
661
Reaction score
811
Location
Wilmington NC
Vehicles
21 MME Premium 4EX; 23 MME GTPE Vapor Blue Met
Country flag
Anyone having issues during their phone as a key? When I’m out and about it’s fine. But when it’s in my garage, about half of the time, the car doesn’t unlock when I’m standing next to it with my phone. Just now, I went out, the car was unlocked so I opened it and the alarm went off.

The keys are left inside the house but only about six feet away from the back corner of the car.
not good.
 

NoMoShocks

Well-Known Member
First Name
Larry
Joined
Jul 9, 2020
Threads
19
Messages
347
Reaction score
525
Location
Camas, WA
Vehicles
2017 Chevy Bolt Premier EV, 2018 Mitsubishi Outlander GT PHEV
Occupation
Electrical product safety engineer
Country flag
Even if their software worked, they should provide two fobs.
I keep thinking I'll want to buy a second key fob just because I have always had two. Kind of reminds me of the first time I bought a computer without the 3.5 floppy drive and how many hoops I jumped through trying to figure out how I could add one.
 

DaveRuns

Banned
Banned
First Name
Dave
Joined
Jun 24, 2020
Threads
4
Messages
1,130
Reaction score
1,695
Location
Virginia
Vehicles
N/A
Country flag
I've had my Mach-E for a little over a week, and I'm finding the Phone as a Key to be a bit unreliable. It mostly works, but a couple of times the door would not open for me, so I had to enter the code on the door to get in. Once I was in the vehicle I could not start it. I restarted the FordPass app on my phone, and after waiting for a bit I was able to turn on the car.

I am the primary driver of the car, but my wife has no patience for unreliable technology, so I gave her the one key fob that you get. I hope that they work out these issues soon.

Regarding the two Bluetooth connections on the phone, one is for making phone calls and listening to music. The second connection is for the Phone as Key. When I initially set up the Phone as a key, it didn't have a description for some reason, and was added to my phone with just the MAC address. I accidentally deleted it from my phone, and had to set up the phone as a key all over again. Strangely the second time I set it up, it did get set up with a description so now I have two connections for the Mach-E. One is listed under media connections, the other is listed under "Other".
I hope Ford figures this out fast.
 

occhris

Member
First Name
Chris
Joined
Feb 11, 2021
Threads
0
Messages
7
Reaction score
7
Location
Orange County
Vehicles
Mach-e
Country flag
I have also experienced this issue. I think many of these issues are related to their bug with the android 11. Not sure if apple users are also experiencing this issue. I'd say its like 85% reliable. There are a couple times I get through the door and it won't let me start the car. As you mentioned earlier, restarting the app fixes the issue.
 

portlandg

Well-Known Member
First Name
grahame
Joined
Mar 17, 2020
Threads
7
Messages
2,913
Reaction score
3,660
Location
Dorset UK
Vehicles
Black RWD ER and loving it
Occupation
Cabinet maker
Country flag
I've just updated my phone to android 11. Good thing PAAK is not available in UK if that is what is causing the issue.
 

Metv707

Well-Known Member
First Name
Mark
Joined
Nov 23, 2020
Threads
1
Messages
114
Reaction score
118
Location
Canada
Vehicles
Ford Mach E
Country flag
I might have just fixed it. I realized I had two Bluetooth connections from my phone to the car so I deleted one and on one test of it, it works.
I think you’re supposed to have two Bluetooth connections. One is the standard Bluetooth we are used to seeing, the other is the PAAK.
 

ChasingCoral

Well-Known Member
First Name
Mark
Joined
Feb 3, 2020
Threads
376
Messages
12,403
Reaction score
24,517
Location
Maryland
Vehicles
GB E4X FE, Leaf, Tacoma, F-150 Lightning ordered
Occupation
Retired oceanographer
Country flag
I set up PAAK and the backup codes for Marlin when I went to pick him up. The setup was a breeze and worked fine right away. I then had no problem setting up my wife's phone. Mine's an iPhone 12 Pro, hers an iPhone 7.

On my second day I went off about my business, using PAAK and leaving the key fob at home. It worked flawlessly except the pickup isn't really good. I found it worked great if I was holding the phone or had it in a front pocket, back pockets don't work so well. This is true for both opening the door and for starting the car. Of course for starting the car, PAAK works great with the phone in the Qi charger.

Day 2.5
Early afternoon I returned home, had a couple of video calls and went to leave again. The FordPass app was frozen and wouldn't run at all. I closed it, reopened it, turned off the phone, and restarted the phone. Nothing. The app wouldn't work at all. All I got was a frozen white screen with a big F (in nice cursive of course).

As a final step, I deleted the app from my iPhone and reinstalled it.
Good news: the app worked
Bad news: PAAK didn't work any more
I tried to set up PAAK again from the FordPass app. It went through all the steps but the car still had the old instance of my phone and the old backup codes. So I picked a new name for my phone and established new backup codes. No dice. All the steps seemed fine but PAAK wouldn't work.

Day 3
I followed the in-car manual's instructions to delete the PAAKs that were already saved and went through the install again (also deleting and reinstalling the app on my phone for a clean start). I reinstalled my wife's phone, too.

Good news: PAAK is now working fine, in fact better than before. All the commands like window up/down, lift gate are working -- I don't think they were before.

Now let's see how long it all lasts.

One remaining issue: When I went to get into the car this morning (day 4), Marlin didn't automatically recognize me and set the seat, etc. to my preferences. I switched the driver to my profile on the infotainment screen and all was good.
 
Last edited:

agoldman

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2020
Threads
49
Messages
2,889
Reaction score
2,397
Location
Charleston, SC
Vehicles
GT Cyber Orange
Country flag
It's Ford, it's the Phone, it's Apple, it's Google, it's user error, it's the weather. I can see it now... Sounds like we better get used to the FOb and call it a day...

Let's face it. Technology has a way to go. We'd like to think it is further along and more reliable than it really is.
Sponsored

 
 




Top