Phone As A Key VERY Unreliable!

[K6CCC]

With a Flash I don't have PaaK, but I really don't understand the advantage. I walk up to the truck, grab the door handle and it unlocks almost instantly. Other than trying the keypad once to verify that it worked, never used that either.

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[drdirk]

With a Flash I don't have PaaK, but I really don't understand the advantage. I walk up to the truck, grab the door handle and it unlocks almost instantly. Other than trying the keypad once to verify that it worked, never used that either.

One less thing to carry?

 

[K6CCC]

One less thing to carry?

I wear cargo pants with 7 LARGE pockets. There is stuff in all of them. Carrying the fob is no big deal. Hardly even notice it.

 

[Henry Ford]

I wear cargo pants with 7 LARGE pockets. There is stuff in all of them. Carrying the fob is no big deal. Hardly even notice it.

I would stop carrying my wallet if I didn't need my ID occasionally. Seven pockets full of stuff is the kind of thing that keeps me up at night.

 

[jeep2liberty]

Is anyone else having problems with PAAK? Mine works intermittently at best. I was having to use the touch pad to get in and enter passcode to start so often that I started carrying my key fob!

Our 25 Lariot Trim does the same annoying thing, delays including releasing of the tailgate and start-up. Samsung S24 Ultra in use here. The wife's iPhone 16 ProMax does same thing.

 

[rp1723]

if it’s an iPhone as long as you don’t quit the app out it works pretty well for me. Only had it not work once and I had to reboot my phone and that was it. Otherwise works perfectly as long as the app is running in the background and isn’t closed out

 

[Deleted member 12322]

I had been having some issues but that may have been due to being on both the iOS 26 beta and fordpass beta. No problems now.

Service doesn’t affect PaaK. I used it in areas with no cell coverage just fine.

Make sure you set up the correct app permissions. Also, Bluetooth seems to be sensitive to where it’s located. Sometimes if it’s in my pocket a funny way or around other emitting objects that causes issues.

I personally keep my spare FOBs in a faraday bag in the glovebox, they can’t be sniffed but if for some reason my phone doesn’t work I can keypad in and then retrieve them that way.

I hope one day we have digital IDs as an option, not having to carry anything but a phone is pretty nice.

 

[GrokTime]

It seems like there is a lot a variability as to how well PaaK works. I have had up and down success. It works most of the time but it seems to go through periods where it is far less reliable. I always have the newest generation iPhone Pro. Lately it has failed a lot. It doesn't matter if my phone is awake. It doesn't matter if the Ford app is open. Frequently it just doesn't work and I have to type in my password. But lately I have even had some problems with my keyboard appearing for me to do that.

For all those who don't mind carrying a FOB, more power to you. But for me I am so happy not to have to carry keys or a FOB that I deal with the inconsistency.

The iPhone 17 line has a new Apple Silicon bluetooth chip. I hope that improves things.

 

[ZSLC]

Generally reliable. maybe 10% of the time I need to enter the door code to get in. Another 5% I need to open or restart the Ford app to get it to recognize. Once in a while (maybe once a month?) that fails and I have to dig out the fob I keep hidden in a faraday bag. Setting up the passcode never worked with my old phone (Pixel 7a) but I tried it recently with my new phone (Pixel 10) and had no issues.

So, not good enough that I go without a backup, but it is my main method.

 

[luebri]

With a Flash I don't have PaaK, but I really don't understand the advantage. I walk up to the truck, grab the door handle and it unlocks almost instantly. Other than trying the keypad once to verify that it worked, never used that either.

not having to carry that comically Ginormous key fob is absolutely an advantage.

 

[jimfigler]

Mine works for the most part, occasionally the doors won't unlock on the first try. Ford does recommend the phone be in your hand if I remember correctly.

 

[MountainAlive]

It’s been a poor experience for me as well. I’ve learned you need to have opened the ford app prior to approaching the vehicle and the phone needs to be in your hand like 6 inches from the door handle.

 

[Altivec]

I have an iPhone 14 Pro and have been using it exclusively for at least 6 months. I would say it has been 95% successful opening the door without delay. 5% of the time there is a delay that can be up to 20 seconds or when that happens, I quickly pull out my phone and tap the shortcut on my homescreen and its back to instant.

Once in the truck, it's been 100% successful at starting the truck with the phone in my pocket and no interaction. I do keep the ford pass app active in the background all the time though like they recommend (Not that its the active app, just that its been launched and not forced quit)

I love not having to carry the fob around in my pocket. Its interesting that people are having such different experiences. Unless Ford has different antenna's for each model, the only thing that is different in each case is everyone's phone. Before blaming Fords Paak, maybe think, it just might be my 15 year old Nokia phone that's the problem. My phone is 4 years old and I am surprise how well it works.

 

[McCarley]

Ford PAAK is well below what it could have been in terms of reliability and performance. We know this by just being able to see what Tesla has done with both phone and watch as a key. I hope Ford knows feedback and is working to improve this but that hope may be misplaced.

 

[MasalaMixx]

I noticed on certain phones with PaaK, that they tend to have to constantly be running as a background app to have instant functionality. A lot of android phones require permissions to have it constantly run. Theres certain settings that change how often its running or how quickly it can be "started" in the background due to the fact it communicates using Bluetooth.
Fair warning when I had my Mach e in 2021, the battery drain on my phone increased by a noticeable amount when having it constantly be running. Since then I haven't used it again and just use a Fob for the lightning, so im not sure if they've updated any of the processes to make it more efficient.

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