I have the U-Bolt Pro WiFi, and its Auto Unlock is unreliable to the point that it is not useful. I would like to know more how about it tries to work, because maybe it is just a timing thing. But the door is rarely unlocked when we approach. I think it has either unlocked and relocked before I got to it or it unlocked after I (manually unlocked and) entered the house.
Based on the notifications and lock activity, it correctly detects away and returning in the app. And, it does notify that it automatically unlocked the door, just not in my timing.
It seems like the Auto Unlock should immediately unlock as soon as it sees Bluetooth and stay unlocked for much longer. If it has a delay upon arrival in my garage, it is probably too long. Then, when we are a little slow getting out of the car (like with packages, or groceries… you know, when auto unlock would really be nice), the door has already relocked. Seems like a 5-minute relock after an auto unlock would solve most scenarios. Then, it just needs to unlock faster.
Can you scan your customer lock activity data to see this in the field. For example, how many times did a user manually unlock within a few minutes of an auto unlock/relock. That would reveal the timing mismatch in the device versus real-world activity.
I understand that your problem is that the automatic unlocking and automatic locking are not working well together. Thank you for your feedback, we will continue to optimize such issues.
I concur your sediments. I purchased this brand solely for the auto unlock feature.
I have yet to approach the door, loaded w/ groceries or otherwise, to no avail, have the door locked…;(
I am experiencing the same problem. It works a couple times, and then either turns it self off, or just doesn’t unlock. I too correctly get the notifications that I have left, and then I am coming back, but I end up bouncing my head off the door, and then, have to put my code to unlock the door with my arms full of stuff, because I was counting on it being unlocked.
Same here.
Worked a few time at the beginning but now doesn’t. Factory reset multiple times to no avail. Bluetooth implementation seems to be horrible.
Also unable to have a second admin account I get admin login failed every time.
My problem is that the auto unlock activates about a minute after I manually unlock and enter my home. This bug creates a safety issue. It’s not hard to imagine someone locking their door, unaware that U-tec is unlocking it a minute later. Sounds like a lawsuit if it causes a break-in.
This is also my problem. Auto unlocks immediately or 30 seconds after I manually lock the door. Seems like an easy fix to check if the door was manually locked before you auto unlock…
My autolock also does not work as it is supposed to. Worse it works when it should not. The geofencing works fine. I am notified leavingband re-entering neighborhood. But when I approach door it stays locked. It sometimes unlocks after I use thumbprint to open, enter, and then manually relock. Other times it unlocks when i enter through another door and get close to UBolt. So worse than useless. I think that the bluetooth receiver is on the inside of the lock/door and my steel-clad door blocks signal until I’m inside. Apple watch app also fails from outside and is unusably slow inside.
The Auto Unlock has been a major disappointment for a long time. I’ve had 2 units now for about a year and would be lucky if it’s worked more than 10 times. So from 5-7 times a week for that time that’s an awful lot of misses. It’s got to the stage now where if and when it works you feel like rejoicing.
Difficult to get across that this is an important feature and really can’t understand why it can’t be fixed.
What a great selling point that is just wasted.
My experience has been that auto-unlock only activates when you leave the geofenced area and return. If I’m within the geofenced area, leaving bluetooth range and re-approaching does not trigger auto-unlock.
I’ve been told (not by u-tec) that this is not a supported feature. I had assumed it was, and it caused me a lot of headache configuring and monkeying with settings before I became aware of this. It seems like a no-brainer that it should support this.
If I have auto-lock and auto-unlock enabled, I would expect if I go out to do yardwork, for example, that the door would auto-lock after the timeout I set, and auto-unlock when I came back from the yard to go inside.
As it is, if I go out to my adjacent garage to do something and come back, I have to pull out my phone or punch a code to go back through my auto-locked door. Who would want that behavior?
Sigh……auto unlock I believe has gotten worse with the drop of firmware 01.36.0023.
At least prior it would work sometimes but now nothing
What happened to regression testing.
May be better to just withdraw the feature, It has never and quite possibly won’t ever work properly.
Broken records and violins in the background.
I give up.
Same here. Auto unlock stopped working. I am giving serious thought to replacing U-tec with a Yale Assure Lock 2 Touch. It has an integrated fingerprint reader, bluetooth and Wi-Fi connectivity and a physical back-up key.
I’ve lost the auto-unlock feature too. I reported the problem to U-Tec. They said they were trying to fix it. While that was going on, I tried to think of ways to get by with the help of other devices in my home. I found a work around using SmartThings, but when I reported that to U-Tec, it wasn’t a week before SmartThings’ workaround became unresponsive. In fact, I can’t even manually use the app to lock or unlock my Ubolt Pro Wifi lock. It may be time to move on.
I have had my UltraLock for two years and it worked great until 8-10 months ago. I am seeing the same thing everyone has described above…
You have left the GeoFence message when I leave the house.
I have arrived back and the door will unlock when I approach message.
then…
either NOTHING
or it will “auto-Unlock” once I manually unlock and go inside and manually lock it.
Please Keep us posted on an update. It is maddening. Also maybe work on the wording of the “Auto Unlock” screen of the lock.
It shows Back Mode either Away or Back, Then the map of the location of the lock. “enable auto unlock” on or off toggle.
But what the HECK does “Auto Unlock Activated” and “Away Mode Activated” mean?!?!?! Both are toggled on. They are very confusing to me.
ommenting again…hard to believe only 10 people are active/affected with this issue. Mine worked again, out of the blue for about a week, then not at all again. It has likely not worked 70-80%, over the past cpl years I’ve owned it…
" If I have auto-lock and auto-unlock enabled, I would expect if I go out to do yardwork, for example, that the door would auto-lock after the timeout I set, and auto-unlock when I came back from the yard to go inside. As it is, if I go out to my adjacent garage to do something and come back, I have to pull out my phone or punch a code to go back through my auto-locked door. Who would want that behavior?"
It’s not so much wanting that behavior but rather NOT wanting the behavior you describe. The auto-unlock is only active once you leave the geofence. when you re-enter the geofence your phone tells the lock to activate the auto-unlock feature…and when you get within bluetooth range it unlocks. If it were designed to enable auto-unlock every time you were within bluetooth range, then as you walk around the house it would unlock when you clearly don’t want it to.
Presumably there could be a software switch that you could hit to say activate auto-unlock even though I’m local, but you can accomplish 90% of the solution by just deactivating autolock while you’re running in and out of the house… or set autolock for a longer time delay.
I’d guess the problem is that your phone is not making a good BT connection with your lock, or, if your system uses a bridge, the bridge-to-lock bluetooth connection is flaky. If you have build in WiFi it could be that the WiFi commands are not being properly read by the lock, but that would not be fully consistent with what you have descibed.
Clearly, your phone is properly sensing when you cross the geofence.
When you re-enter the geofence your phone communicates over the internet with your lock to tell it you are on the way home. With a bridge, that communication depends on the bluetooth connection between the bridge and the lock.
Then, when your phone is within bluetooth range of the lock, the lock unlocks. The bridge is not involved in this step.
You described 2 “failure” modes:
I have arrived back … then…
(1) either NOTHING
or (2) it will “auto-Unlock” once I manually unlock and go inside and manually lock it.
In (1) the lock simply doesn’t get the message that it should unlock… either it didn’t get the activating message from your phone (via the bridge BT or directly via built-in WiFi).
In (2) the lock got the message but didn’t make the BT connection with your phone until way after you were inside.
Since both failures involve the phone-to-lock BT connection not working “well”, that’s where I would look first.
BTW, I’ve only had my (bridge) lock for a week or so but auto-unlock has worked for both me and my wife multiple times. And it has been the case that sometimes I can see it unlock from my driveway and other times I have to wait 10 seconds or so right at my door before it unlocks, so the bluetooth connection does not have a consistent range.
definitely scenario 1. I’m hopeful your continues to operate, as it should, although I believe it works for All for a week & then takes a 3 to 4 week vacation. Then, out of blue (sometimes strangely in synch with forum activity, it begins to work again…only for another week, before it departs. My bridge is located within 5 feet of the front door, in the foyer.
ommenting again…hard to believe only 10 people are active/affected with this issue. Mine worked again, out of the blue for about a week, then not at all again. It has likely not worked 70-80%, over the past cpl years I’ve owned it…