Phone as Key - One week Trial leaving FOB at home

Scarpia

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Am I missing something? I see these posts pop up every now and then and it baffles me why no one just uses the door code as a backup if PaaK doesn't work?

I got my Mach-E 2 months ago and have the fob in a drawer. The phone works 75% of the time, but when it doesn't I just use the door code.
I want to walk up to the car, get in, push start, and drive. Immediately.
I don't want to have to fumble with my phone or punch codes a couple of times.
Maybe I'm spoiled, but when new tech makes things actually less reliable and/or take longer, I'll stick with the tried and true option. Fobs work perfectly.
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macgyver60

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I may have stumbled onto something.

At a couple of the car meetups I am pretty much always fairly near the car with my phone and I noticed the car was frequently trying to wake-up (e.g. the walk-up lighting would turn on). But after a while it stopped doing this and THAT is when the PaaK didn't work unless I opened the FordPass app and press the button to unlock the doors.

I also noticed this at home. I have a detached garage so as long as I'm in my house the phone is never close enough to the car to wake-up and unlock. So when I actually DO go out to the car it always "just works" with no fuss.

But I have done projects in my garage where I'm constantly walking in and out of range with my phone ... and the car did the same thing it does at the car meetups ... it stops responding after enough times of walking up, walking away, walking up, etc. etc.

This makes me wonder if people with attached garages might have their phones close enough to the garage that the car is waking up ... and after enough times it gives up on you and requires manually unlocking the car.
I am in a similar situation where the car keeps reacting every time i go in and out of out attached garage getting garden tools etc but Im not sure Ive seen a consistent pattern. Sometimes the car seems more likely not to respond if its been left alone for long times.
 

Eraser

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I may have stumbled onto something.

At a couple of the car meetups I am pretty much always fairly near the car with my phone and I noticed the car was frequently trying to wake-up (e.g. the walk-up lighting would turn on). But after a while it stopped doing this and THAT is when the PaaK didn't work unless I opened the FordPass app and press the button to unlock the doors.

I also noticed this at home. I have a detached garage so as long as I'm in my house the phone is never close enough to the car to wake-up and unlock. So when I actually DO go out to the car it always "just works" with no fuss.

But I have done projects in my garage where I'm constantly walking in and out of range with my phone ... and the car did the same thing it does at the car meetups ... it stops responding after enough times of walking up, walking away, walking up, etc. etc.

This makes me wonder if people with attached garages might have their phones close enough to the garage that the car is waking up ... and after enough times it gives up on you and requires manually unlocking the car.
I was thinking the same thing. My garage is attached and I'm in a two story house. FordPass (Pixel 5) is usually connected to my car at all times, or it drops and reconnects. 9 of 10 times when I do have a problem with PaaK its when I'm at home leaving in the morning for work. When I'm out and about it usually works fine. By the time I actually get to the car it works. The no key detected problem only started after that last OTA from a month ago. This is the first time going back to PaaK in weeks, but there has been a FordPass update since I stopped using PaaK. So far so good, we'll see how long this lasts.
 

Superdeg

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It's sometimes a bit slow but I always leave the fob at home.
I always leave my fob at home however I had my MME breakdown and it had to be towed to the dealer. I had to borrow a car to go home to get the fob so the dealer would have a way to work on it and the tow truck driver would not have to drag it off.
 

imstriker

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Seems like most everyone has a similar experience and just decides if it is worth the pain or not. I have gone FOB free since the day I got the car. I'd say it is about 60% successful. Another 30% of the time I can switch off Bluetooth, kill FordPass, start Bluetooth, restart FordPass and it works after 30 seconds to a minute. The last 10% seems to require the old reboot phone, stand on your head, club a baby seal maneuver.

Most of the time I do not find it too annoying, although obviously it is a rather silly waste of time. A day is coming though that this forum will be filled with someone very angry because they had an emergency and their car would not start without games or codes. It's a pretty ridiculous proposition all and all.
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