The PAAK POLL - does it “work” for you?

[SnBGC]

This is a very timely thread to stumble upon. I just got my car and started using PAAK straight away. I've already developed "bad" habits of not only leaving the fob at home, but I have also started to forget my house key as well. And it's only been three days.

1. PAAK isn't as good as the fob, but the issues haven't been common (yet)
2. 2022 GT Performance Edition
3. iPhone 14 Pro Max
4. I try to use the phone as the fob, but in the handful (literally less than 5 times) the car didn't recognize my phone, I got the phone out to force an unlock. For what it's worth, once I force an unlock it seems the car doesn't want to recognize PAAK.

The question I have for everyone is: do you keep the Ford Pass app running 100% of the time like the reminders keep suggesting?

Edit: I only plan to use PAAK for short little trips, like groceries or to the coffee shop. For longer trips, like a bigger drive or to go to a hockey game or the movies, I plan to have the fob just to ensure no shenanigans happen.

I leave FordPass running 100% of the time. Not because I use PaaK but because I like to remote start my car and check each morning to confirm it charged overnight.

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[Darkenmage]

Please pick the one option that best describes your PAAK experience. Then, please respond below with:

1. Your poll choice.
2. Your MME and year.
3. Your phone.
4. Whether you are treating your phone like a fob or if you are doing anything with it (taking it out of your pocket, unlocking it, etc.) to get your result.

If you are bringing your phone out of your pocket and opening up FordPass, etc. to get to your “PAAK works great” result… that’s doesn’t mean PAAK works as well as the fob.

This is going to assume that you are doing what you are supposed to do for PAAK to work optimally - keeping FordPass running in background and you have Background App Refresh enabled.

2022
GT
iPhone 11 Pro Max
My phone works 99% of the time and I don't do anything special to it.

 

[Marque]

I had an iPhone 8 and PAAK was terrible. I needed to restart the Ford app to get it to work 50% of the time. Now with an iPhone 13, it is almost always perfect with the odd delay now and then. Love it and never want to carry the, too big in my opinion, Fob.

 

[mkhuffman]

I am kinda curious if the reliability reduces as the daily trips increase? It was nearly perfect for the first 6 trips and then sorta went MIA.

I didn't do anything different. Was still using my phone the same as normal for voice and text etc. One time I was actually in a call when I tried to start my car and it just said no key detected. Bluetooth connected fine for phone calls though. Didn't have any issues that I remember with that yesterday.

I think people think PaaK is just to open the door and start the car but it also is supposed to let you use kick to open before your drive. Then when parked, the kick to open should work again as well as walk away lock.

The walk away lock is the one that bothers me the most because it could fail to lock and we might not realize it. With the fob, that feature is super reliable. With PaaK it wasn't very reliable.

From my experience the reliability is completely random. There is no increase or decrease in issues related to any user behavior that I have seen. And overall it pretty much maps to what you have experienced. Except I have not had a problem with walk away lock. I am not sure why, but that seems to always work.

 

[mkhuffman]

The question I have for everyone is: do you keep the Ford Pass app running 100% of the time like the reminders keep suggesting?

To improve PaaK reliability, you must keep the app running and you must remove all restrictions: FP must have full access to location services and no power saving. If you haven't made those changes in your phone settings, reliability will be much worse. Guaranteed.

 

[SnBGC]

From my experience the reliability is completely random. There is no increase or decrease in issues related to any user behavior that I have seen. And overall it pretty much maps to what you have experienced. Except I have not had a problem with walk away lock. I am not sure why, but that seems to always work.

I thought about leaving the fob at home again today but I was running late and had a busy day planned so I didnt want to mess with it today. But I did have a thought... For those that use PaaK,
If you get the "no key detected" message then your walk away lock might not work when you finish that drive. So might want to check and make sure.

 

[mkhuffman]

I thought about leaving the fob at home again today but I was running late and had a busy day planned so I didnt want to mess with it today. But I did have a thought... For those that use PaaK,
If you get the "no key detected" message then your walk away lock might not work when you finish that drive. So might want to check and make sure.

True. It sometimes takes me getting a very long away from the car for it to lock, but it does. Recently I turned off the lock horn which was annoying the crap out of me, and now I usually just hit the lock button on the door pillar since there is no confirmation sound I can hear when far away. And like you, I don't trust it.

 

[Mirak]

To improve PaaK reliability, you must keep the app running and you must remove all restrictions: FP must have full access to location services and no power saving. If you haven't made those changes in your phone settings, reliability will be much worse. Guaranteed.

Yes. And this poll assumes that people are doing that (I am). It’s possible that some poll respondents with issues are not using FP correctly. It’s also possible that some respondents who say that PAAK works just as good as the fob aren’t really treating the phone the same as the fob (taking it out of their pocket, waking it up, etc.) So all in all the data being collected here probably isn’t perfectly accurate, but there are likely some errors on both sides that largely wash out. At least that’s my hunch.

 

[SnBGC]

Yes. And this poll assumes that people are doing that (I am). It’s possible that some poll respondents with issues are not using FP correctly. It’s also possible that some respondents who say that PAAK works just as good as the fob aren’t really treating the phone the same as the fob (taking it out of their pocket, waking it up, etc.) So all in all the data being collected here probably isn’t perfectly accurate, but there are likely some errors on both sides that largely wash out. At least that’s my hunch.

I am obviously doing something wrong or my phone isn't compatible as other models. Wife and I went out to the car today and I had accidentally left the fob in the house. No problem, I have my phone with me. We'll, it didn't work no matter what I tried. Waking up the phone, pulling FP to the main screen etc. Nothing I tried worked.

This must be an incredibly complicated system in the background.

 

[Rotting Piñata]

1. PAAK will work fine one day - then not the next. It's random and unreliable. Overall, it works 25% of the time. This past Spring, it seemed to work for weeks in a row, and then it was back to sparingly.
2. '21 Premium AWD
3. Google Pixel 4a
4. There is no change in how I approach the car on the days is does or does not work. My phone is in my pocket.

One time when the car wouldn't start, I took out my phone, disconnected and reconnected Bluetooth - thought it was do the trick - it did not. I haven't tried again.

I do notice that when my PAAK doesn't work (and I use the backup code to start), my phone is paired to the car via Bluetooth (for calls, texts). Seems like if the car can connect to the phone, PAAK should be working - not sure why it isn't so.

Also with using the backup code (b/c PAAK isn't working), if I put the car in park, I have to enter the code again to start driving. Makes PAAKs unreliability even more frustrating. For example, I was pulling out of my driveway and needed to get out of my car to move a garbage can. The car was in park for 20 seconds (never turned off) and I needed to put the code in again to get out of P.

Love the car. I just do my best to use the FOB.

 

[kindofblue]

I am so glad to have an actual key fob for the MME rather than the PAAK for the Tesla. The PAAK for the MY is almost always delayed in responding.

 

[SnBGC]

Why do I get alert on my phone that PaaK connected to the vehicle? What is the benefit of that message?

The notifications in FordPass make sense...

 

[Mrn]

I never bothered to set up Phone as a key (hate the PAAK abbreviation) since so many people were complaining about it.

I've always carried a passport wallet in my cargo pants and that's where my fob, CC, drivers license, etc etc lives. All the important stuff you need to get successfully to the store with.

 

[mkhuffman]

I never bothered to set up Phone as a key (hate the PAAK abbreviation) since so many people were complaining about it.

I've always carried a passport wallet in my cargo pants and that's where my fob, CC, drivers license, etc etc lives. All the important stuff you need to get successfully to the store with.

Adam Sandler pants?

 

[awp0]

Well it finally happened. About 7,000 miles in and PAAK finally failed and would not let me in the car. It worked when I was leaving the house, but I parked at a restaurant for about 10 minutes and then it didn’t work for the return trip. I tried unlocking my iPhone and loading FordPass, I tried turning Bluetooth off and on, and nothing worked. I simply could not open the door with PAAK. Thankfully the backup door code and touchscreen password worked just fine.

Probably just a coincidence, but when I got back home the headlight knob problem happened again (first time in a couple weeks).

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