Tesla owners love their car and all it can do, but some are having problems with their Tesla not connecting to Bluetooth. Everyone knows you have to have Bluetooth in your car nowadays if you have a cellphone. It’s the best way to:
- Listen to music
- Make and receive phone calls
- Send and receive texts
- Get directions while driving
So, what happens if your Tesla is not connecting to Bluetooth?
Tesla not connecting to bluetooth? Some of the Tesla models do not seem to have issues at all while others are constantly pairing and unpairing your phone, sometimes pairing you when you are not even in the car yet. Keeping it in your pocket, the center console, or in the door pocket seem to be the most common trouble spots.
The most common issues are intermittent connections with the Tesla Model S and iPhones, although other Tesla models and Samsung phones have had problems as well. Rebooting seems to be the best solution, but doesn’t always work. And the reasons are not known. Why? Because when the car is brought in for servicing, they could not reproduce the problem in most cases. Let’s look at some of the problems Tesla owners have been having.
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1. Watch Where You Place Your Phone
Sometimes it may be where you are placing your phone while you drive. Some of the most common issues arise when:
- Putting your phone in your pants pockets
- Leaving your phone in the center console
- You have special characters in your contact list
- You may have a faulty touchscreen
- You could need to reinstall your Tesla app
- Having an errant app taking over your Bluetooth
Tesla has suggested different places to put your phone such as on the passenger seat, or in a hands-free holder near the dash, but the results are not consistent.
2. Special Characters in Your Username May Be a Problem
Strangely, if you have any special characters in your username or in any of your contact names, your Bluetooth may be dropping the calls. Just having a contact with a parenthesis in their username can cause the phone to unpair with the Tesla.
Music may pause mid-song, or you may drop an important call just because of a parentheses problem. This is not just your username; it is all of your contacts’ usernames as well. Just one friend with a special character in their username can cause all kinds of havoc.
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3. Check to See if Your Tesla Has Touchscreen Issues
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), there have been many complaints about touchscreen issues and Bluetooth problems.
Some Tesla owners who had Bluetooth issues and took their car to get serviced were given replacement touchscreens, which seemed to have fixed the problems. So far.
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4. Reload Your Tesla App on Your Phone
In some cases, when your Bluetooth is not performing correctly, you may just need an app reload.
There may have been an update in the app that your phone did not recognize.
Go ahead and uninstall your Tesla app and then reinstall it. Sometimes, this fixes the issue right away. This is simple and free so why not try it?
5. Make Sure You Do Not Have Any Rogue Apps
Other Tesla drivers are finding that their Tesla app is being interrupted by other apps on their phone.
It could help to go through your apps one by one until you figure out which one is the culprit.
If you have a lot of apps, this may be time consuming. However, it does not cost you anything, so it is worth a try.
Why Does This Happen?
Why is it that whenever you take your car to the mechanic it never acts up? No matter what the problem, it seems like your car wants to make a fool out of you when you get to the service bay because the mechanics will drive it and test it with no bad results at all. Then when you take it home, it starts acting up again.
This has been common with the Bluetooth connectivity issue as well.
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Resetting or Rebooting Your Tesla’s Touchscreen May Work
Doing a soft or hard reboot of your touchscreen may work for you.
You can try this just to see if it works for you because it seems tp have worked for many people.
Sitting in your driveway is the best place to do this. If the reboots do not work, try powering down your car and restarting it.
How to Perform a Soft Reboot
- Put your car in park.
- Unplug any USB drives attached to your vehicle. This includes your sentry/dash camera and any music USB devices you have.
- Hold down both of the scroll wheel buttons until the touch screen turns black and then reboots to the Tesla logo.
- Wait for the screen to power up completely before trying the Bluetooth.
How to Perform a Hard Reboot
- Put your car in park.
- Unplug any USB drives attached to your vehicle. This includes your sentry/dash camera and any music USB devices you have.
- Press on the brake and keep holding it down.
- Hold down both of the scroll wheel buttons until the touch screen turns black and then reboots to the Tesla logo.
- Wait for the screen to power up completely before trying the Bluetooth.
Full Power Off and Restart
- Sitting in the car with the door shut in a quiet place, do not touch anything except for what these instructions tell you to.
- Go to your main screen and to the service menu. Select the power off button.
- Wait for the screens and interior light to go off.
- Wait several minutes for your car to fully shut down all the way.
- Press the brake pedal to wake up your car.
Other Things You Can Try
While rebooting your screen or vehicle is likely to fix the problem, at least for a while, sometimes it just does not work.
Some Tesla owners have said that their door locks will not disengage when they are approaching the car or will disengage or engage when you are inside the car. Some of the other issues include:
- Dropping calls
- Losing GPS
- Losing radio frequency
- Screen shutting down
Try Using the Seat Sensors
According to Tesla owner, Elon Musk, the solution to the Bluetooth problem may be in your seat.
For some who have been in the middle of the call while getting in their Tesla, the call is dropped rather than switching over to the car. By using the seat occupancy sensor to see if the driver is in the seat, the Bluetooth will activate in the car.
In some instances, owners have been near the car while talking on the phone when the phone suddenly gets switched to the car so you cannot talk anymore on your phone. This is because the Tesla believes you are in the car just because you are nearby.
It is a tech glitch that is supposed to be fixed by changing the Bluetooth connection to only switch when the seat occupancy sensor is activated.
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The Bottom Line
Bluetooth is a fantastic invention and pairing it with your awesome new Tesla makes things even better. There are so many things you can do with the Bluetooth in your Tesla such as:
- Automatically unlock your doors when you approach
- Stream music from your phone
- Make and receive phone calls through the car
- Send and receive hands-free texts
- Get and give directions
- Transfer files from your computer or phone
- Listen to your favorite books
- Listen to or send emails
No matter what you enjoy using your Bluetooth for in your Tesla, it can be aggravating when it does not work properly. If you cannot get your Bluetooth to work after rebooting or restarting your screen or vehicle, you should talk to your Tesla service provider for help.