FordPass experiences for a new guy.

[Martyd]

I thought I'd try FordPass a try in my 2020 XL. Downloaded the app to my prepaid phone. A lot of trial and error getting things to work. After fooling around it appears my phone will not run the app. Old phone, prepaid use, stuck on Android 7 with wifi, no data. I was able to finally get things working with my ipad. Didn't know I had remote start until yesterday. Nice.
So in the driveway the truck is on my home wifi as well as the ipad. What happens when not at home? Do I have to find a free wifi and enter it into the truck and my tablet? It doesn't appear this will be of much use to me when on the road. Do the trucks usually use cellphone technology to communicate info to the phone? Oh well still playing with this.
A last question. When in the driveway at home is the truck always on wifi? Any battery problems, which I see there are various threads about on the forum?
Sometime new stuff for an old guy can produce lots of questions.

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[wanted33]

Good question all Marty. I'm just in for the answer to some of your questions myself.

 

[forestale]

So far I've been able to start the truck with fordpass with or without an active wifi connection. I believe it sends the command to start (or lock/unlock) either by satellite or thru a wireless cell tower. So it might not work if you or the truck are very remote and out of range of cell services.

 

[port43]

I thought I'd try FordPass a try in my 2020 XL. Downloaded the app to my prepaid phone. A lot of trial and error getting things to work. After fooling around it appears my phone will not run the app. Old phone, prepaid use, stuck on Android 7 with wifi, no data. I was able to finally get things working with my ipad. Didn't know I had remote start until yesterday. Nice.
So in the driveway the truck is on my home wifi as well as the ipad. What happens when not at home? Do I have to find a free wifi and enter it into the truck and my tablet? It doesn't appear this will be of much use to me when on the road. Do the trucks usually use cellphone technology to communicate info to the phone? Oh well still playing with this.
A last question. When in the driveway at home is the truck always on wifi? Any battery problems, which I see there are various threads about on the forum?
Sometime new stuff for an old guy can produce lots of questions.

Howdy Sir. You have to have an internet connection on the device you have FordPass installed on in order to communicate with your truck. This is why your iPad works but not your phone.

You are correct in the assumption that if you are out somewhere you would have to have your iPad with you to connect to the internet in order to use the app. If your iPad does not have a data plan then, yes, you would have to find a wifi network to connect to in order to use FordPass.

Your truck is not connected to your wifi while sitting in your driveway. When you use the FordPass app to control your vehicle the app creates an encrypted request that uses the internet (data plan) to connect to the Ford servers in Dearborn/Allen Park, Michigan, where it is unencrypted and processed. Once processed, a return package is encrypted and sent to your vehicle which decrypts the package and processes it. The point is, your device running FordPass is not communicating directly with your vehicle so this is why you need an internet connection.

If your truck is equipped, you can turn it into a wifi hotspot using the FordPass app and FordPass Connect so that you can use other devices to access the internet if you are out and about.

FordPass currently has an issue with device battery management where once it has connected with the vehicle it may randomly start a background process on your device which will quickly drain the device battery. Ford is aware of this and claim to be working on it. Personally I believe there is a bit of finger pointing about whether the app or the hardware platform is responsible for this bug and that is why it is taking so long to get resolved. If you notice your battery being drained you can check if FordPass is the culprit by looking at the battery setting on your device. If it IS FordPass that is causing the drain, the only way to currently stop it is to power the device off and then back on. However, if you use FordPass to connect to the device again, this will possibly start the battery drain again.

 

[port43]

So far I've been able to start the truck with fordpass with or without an active wifi connection. I believe it sends the command to start (or lock/unlock) either by satellite or thru a wireless cell tower. So it might not work if you or the truck are very remote and out of range of cell services.

FordPass doesn't need a wifi connection per se but it does need to connect to the internet. People sometimes use wifi or data interchangeably. Marty can't connect with his cell phone because he doesn't have a data plan. However, his iPad connects through his home network so it functions correctly.

 

[forestale]

FordPass doesn't need a wifi connection per se but it does need to connect to the internet. People sometimes use wifi or data interchangeably. Marty can't connect with his cell phone because he doesn't have a data plan. However, his iPad connects through his home network so it functions correctly.

Sorry. I wasn't clear. What I meant was the device (phone, etc) needs to be connected to the internet, but the truck does not, as long as you've set up ford pass with your vehicle already. Thanks for clarifying.

 

[Martyd]

Well thank you all so much. Getting a better picture of all this. One thing to clear up. My phone does have wifi and can connect to the internet. I downloaded the app from the play store and opened it put in name and password and it just keeps trying to move to the next step, but keeps failing. Eventually times out. My wife's phone is like mine and it does the same thing, that's why I think the app won't run on my old software. I do plan on messing with the phone part more. Since posting I did try an older samsung tablet also running android 7, and it worked. So now I'm confused.

 

[port43]

Well thank you all so much. Getting a better picture of all this. One thing to clear up. My phone does have wifi and can connect to the internet. I downloaded the app from the play store and opened it put in name and password and it just keeps trying to move to the next step, but keeps failing. Eventually times out. My wife's phone is like mine and it does the same thing, that's why I think the app won't run on my old software. I do plan on messing with the phone part more. Since posting I did try an older samsung tablet also running android 7, and it worked. So now I'm confused.

The app is supposed to be compatible with Android 5 and up. What, exactly is the error you are receiving?

 

[Martyd]

The app is supposed to be compatible with Android 5 and up. What, exactly is the error you are receiving?

Briefly here's how it goes. Download app, open and put in name and password. Long wait then "fordpass not responding". Choices close, wait, send feedback. Closed and restarted. Name- password- login. Get blue circle with white line advancing around circle. In the center icons like a key, a wrench, a ?, the letter F and a couple more. After one revolution it starts all over again, and again etc. Complete hangup.
Interesting notes. If I mistype my password it picks it up so something is getting to Ford, I think. I went to Fordpass website and it said phones supported Android 8 and above. My android 7 tablet may have more brainpower or something so that's why it works. MAYBE. All very interesting.

 

[port43]

Briefly here's how it goes. Download app, open and put in name and password. Long wait then "fordpass not responding". Choices close, wait, send feedback. Closed and restarted. Name- password- login. Get blue circle with white line advancing around circle. In the center icons like a key, a wrench, a ?, the letter F and a couple more. After one revolution it starts all over again, and again etc. Complete hangup.
Interesting notes. If I mistype my password it picks it up so something is getting to Ford, I think. I went to Fordpass website and it said phones supported Android 8 and above. My android 7 tablet may have more brainpower or something so that's why it works. MAYBE. All very interesting.

I'm not sure what is going on. I found this at google play:

I imagine you've checked out everything here?

 

[Martyd]

Interesting post #25 in this thread.
https://www.ranger5g.com/forum/thre...3-to-setup-activate-ford-pass-app.1859/page-2

 

[port43]

There's always 1.800.392.3673 but I would wait until regular business hours so you can speak to someone who's native tongue is English. Difficult issues should not be made more difficult through communication.

 

[Martyd]

There's always 1.800.392.3673 but I would wait until regular business hours so you can speak to someone who's native tongue is English. Difficult issues should not be made more difficult through communication.

OK thanks for your time. I’ll keep trying different things mainly because it’s interesting. I have read a few things about probs with FordPass so I don’t think it’s the smoothest software out there.

 

[port43]

OK thanks for your time. I’ll keep trying different things mainly because it’s interesting. I have read a few things about probs with FordPass so I don’t think it’s the smoothest software out there.

No, it is far from the smoothest but they are trying.

 

[Martyd]

Well I had some success. Here's what worked.
Deleted app from phone, rebooted phone, downloaded app, rebooted phone. FordPass opened and ran properly, but it could not see my truck. Found out the way I was parked was now out of range of my home wifi (router not in the best spot). When I looked around the truck wifi list I could see my local cable company hotspot. I connected and was able to lock the doors on the truck from the phone. So maybe back in business. We'll see. It appears wifi is necessary for FordPass to operate and I see they have some kind of a hotspot program which I probably don't need. Thanks again to all.
Forgot to mention still problems with getting the latest stats from the Ranger. There is still some kind of communication problem going on. Tablet picked up an update one hour ago, phone just keeps looking.

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