Phone as a key danger.

[TaxmanHog]

Do you wear an Apple, Samsung or an Android (not sure if ALL Android OS watches have access) watch? The Ford app can also be locked or unlocked from the watch too.

You mean the vehicle can be locked or unlocked from the watch.

Yes. My Samsung Ultra watch has lock/unlock buttons for the Ford App. My guess was that people with Apple watches were the first to be able to connect to the Ford App, so they should have been able to do this too.

You missed Ricks point ......

Sponsored

 

[Jim Lewis]

Yes, I have the Ford app on my Apple Watch. But I also always carry the fob with me in a Faraday pouch in case PAAK fails for some reason, e.g., I drop my phone, and it's somehow totaled.

BTW, I realized something last night. My truck is kept in a garage right next to the kitchen. My phone as a key stays BT-connected to my truck from there, even when in my bedroom, more than 50 feet away. I think this is likely to keep the truck from ever fully entering a deep sleep and may contribute to the 12V battery aging faster than it should. I discovered that if I force-kill the Ford app on my iPhone, it breaks the 12099 F-150 BT connection. That comes back as soon as I relaunch the Ford app. Somehow, either overnight or by coming to the kitchen for breakfast, the connection came back on by itself. Ford really needs to add a BT connection toggle in the Ford app so owners can selectively disable BT for the truck.

Besides the potential added drain on the 12V battery, if the truck never really sleeps for 8 hours, it's not going to measure open circuit voltage (OCV) and recalibrate what the BMS thinks of the 12V battery % SOC (maybe more on that later), which can get screwed up by trickle charging the 12V battery a lot. Since I'm a hearing aid wearer and count on my Apple Watch to monitor a cardiac condition, I can't just turn off my iPhone BT without losing those connections.

Update: A better way to turn PAAK on and off on an iPhone is to go to iOS Settings > Privacy & Security > Bluetooth, find the Ford app, and turn BT off specifically for that app. I'll see if I can create a Siri Shortcut to specifically access those settings. Just force-killing the Ford app doesn't work very well, as iOS keeps reestablishing the BLE connection.

Now I'm all set to see if wandering in and out of my kitchen all day with PAAK makes a difference in 12V battery drain. IIRC, my 12V battery drains ~3% to 4% a day with the truck just sitting around, which seems a little high. So, I'll see if selectively turning off BT for the Ford app makes a difference.

 

[Bokenator]

Thanks @MidAtlanticLightningClub for the information on how to find out your master code if you misplace it. I keep the white credit card size master code @Heliian references in my toolbox at the house, but it wouldn't do me much good there unless this just happened to go down while I was parked at the house.

I will say that I lock the truck often using the bottom two buttons on the keypad (more reliable than the finicky door handle), leaving both my phone and keys inside (in a console safe) when I work out at the gym. Luckily, I keep my Apple Watch on for its heart rate monitor, so I should be good if I have received an update and it killed my personal code. That being said, I have yet to experience the problem; anybody know which update triggers it? I got one that screwed up my PaaK and had to reset it, but it didn't impact my personal keycode for the door.

 

[chrisvitek1]

Same situation. I had to climb through my sun roof to get back into the truck. Not well thought out. I will never use phone as a key again. Thanks Ford, but no thanks!!!!

 

[struckby]

First time I used paak I got home and realized I did not bring the house key.

 

[mylightningbeetle]

My Subaru won't even pick with a key inside the vehicle. Super great feature. Why hasn't Ford done the same thing?

 

[JimmySasquatch]

I have done this before. Thankfully my Apple Watch can unlock the vehicle.

 

[TaxmanHog]

First time I used paak I got home and realized I did not bring the house key.

The absolute reason I still carry the FOB, got to have my house key as we don't use a digital lock system on our home, so that said key & Fob and happy motoring, PAAK has it value but I still don't trust it.

 

[RickLightning]

Open phone contact list. Add "Ford". Save factory code and your code.

 

[astrand1]

I tried and tried to get a part number for an uncut flat key like I had with my Ford ICE trucks but never found it. Does anyone have a part number or a link for a flat key that would fit in my wallet?

I just made a copy of the small metal key that come with truck. Put it into a magnet keybox and it’s hidden on my truck that way I can always get in no matter what.

 

[Heliian]

Same situation. I had to climb through my sun roof to get back into the truck. Not well thought out. I will never use phone as a key again. Thanks Ford, but no thanks!!!!

Even if your paak went out you can still unlock the truck through the app. Why you would climb in the sunroof

 

[chrisvitek1]

The phone was in the car. the keypad did not work and I was at a rest stop on the Interstate.

 

[struckby]

I just realized. We have this thread because someone locked their key in the truck.

 

[JayF]

Open phone contact list. Add "Ford". Save factory code and your code.

This is such a good idea. Thanks!

 

[Webbo85]

So for me when the update came through, there was a message at the top of the Ford Pass App that told me I needed to re-setup PAAK. Did it and it's continued to work. The door pass code has never changed or been deleted in the 3 years I've had the truck. I use PAAK exclusively, but do keep a key in the truck in a Faraday bag, which works great until your son borrows your truck and forgets to put it back in the bag. I found this out after golfing when my phone died. Used the door code to get in, realized my key was missing, and used the Password to get the truck started to drive home. Maybe I've just been lucky...

Sponsored