I am having the same issue although it will unlock on occasion. The app shows away and back as it should but most of the time, even though it shows back it either doesn’t unlock at all or several minutes after entering the house and locking the door manually, it will unlock.
Hi - I’ve been watching this thread for a while and have concluded that one or both of two things are going on.
Your phone is confused about whether to communicate with the lock via its Bluetooth or WiFi channel. OR
Your phone (sometimes) doesn’t immediately “see” your phone via Bluetooth.
The autounlock feature, as far as I can tell, is really all in the app. The app uses the phone’s GPS to sense when you leave the geofence and when you return. Once you return, the app watches for the Bluetooth signal from the lock and, when it sees it, sends an unlock command to the lock.
Based on Bennett2’s experiments it seems that this last step - actually sending the unlock command - may be sent via Bluetooth. However, it is possible that it can also be sent over WiFi.
In any case, the delayed unlocking you’ve experienced is obviously a delay in establishing communication between your phone and the lock at one or both of the steps above.
I’m sorry I don’t have a fix recommendation for you.
When is the lock supposed to connect via Bluetooth and how will it show in the Bluetooth list. I see no listing under Bluetooth items. I have walked up to the lock with my phone (Android) and it stays on WiFi.
On my iPhone it shows up as U-Bolt (I have the version that uses a bridge to connect WiFi to Lock, not that that should make a difference). When you set up the app it should have had a step where you Bluetooth-paired the lock and phone. If you have a unit with built in WiFi I don’t know what that step looks like.
Also, I don’t see U-Bolt in the BT list at all if the lock is not open in the app.
Even though I see the Bluetooth symbol sometimes in the app, It does not show in saved Bluetooth devices and I am never able to see it listed at all under Bluetooth.
if you see the BT symbol in the app sometimes (the rest of the time I assume you see the wifi symbol at the same location) then that’s a pretty good indication that you have a BT connection at those times. I only see the lock in the BT list when the app is open and showing the BT symbol. At all other times the BT list does NOT show the lock. I don’t know why it doesn’t persist in the list as “not connected”
You can prove that you have a BT connection by switching your phone to airplane mode (so you know there’s no wifi connection), re-enabling BT, opening the app, and locking/unlocking the door.
Also, again for my lock, only one phone can be BT connected. If there’s a second phone in the area with the app open, one will be BT connected and the other via wifi.
If I understand correctly, it uses my phones GPS location to determine if I’m home or away and my phones Bluetooth to unlock. I rarely see the Bluetooth symbol even within a few feet of the door. Why not unlock using the GPS location or the WiFi?
Remembering that I’m just an engineer/user who has made some observations… Yes, your phone senses when you leave the geofence and then re-enters. GPS can handle that because it only needs to recognize a 1000 ft radius around your lock. However, to unlock your door you want it to wait until you are pretty close - you would not want it to unlock if you were just driving down your street going from one errand to another. The GPS is not so precise. Hence, the unlock “trigger” is sensing the Bluetooth signal/handshake from your lock. Arguably you could say the app could use making a connection to your wifi router as the trigger, and maybe it does that, but again I would not want the lock to unlock until I was really close to my lock. It does not have to be one or the other… it could be whichever happens first.
After the app is triggered, the phone sends the unlock command to the lock. At a minimum, if you have a lock with a bridge, we have observed that the command can be sent by BT since it has worked with the bridge unplugged. Of course, this does not mean that it cannot also be sent to the lock over the WiFi channel.
Another advantage of using BT for these functions is that the lock’s BT is battery powered and will work in a power outage, but your wifi router is probably not on an uninterruptible power supply (of course, in a power outage you can always use your code/fingerprint/key - we are only talking about auto-unlock)
So it appears that the Bluetooth connection with the lock is not robust enough. I have no issues with other Bluetooth devices and my phone. Not sure if there is anyway to cure this problem.
well, there is some evidence that the system (lock and phone) sometimes gets conflicted when both the wifi and BT channels are active, at least as far as sending the unlock command. See Bennett2’s post from about 2 weeks ago, where he thinks having a WiFi channel to the lock causes a problem.
I think he experienced failure when the lock was communicating over BT with his bridge, thereby precluding it from communicating over BT with his phone, and success when the bridge was plugged in and communicating for some reason with the lock. I know that the lock can only communicate over BT with one phone at a time and I assume the same holds true for any two devices.
I know it’s not a solution but maybe you can learn something by trying similar “experiments”. You would think that if it can’t make a BT connection to the phone it would try the WiFi channel.
BTW, I would try deleting the app from your phone and re-installing it (all your setup information is stored on the u-tec server, I believe, so re-installing >should not< mean re-entering everything… but no promises.
So I have deleted and reinstalled the app. I tried placing the phone within 3 ft of the lock with no obstructions and I was expecting the communication to go from WiFi to Bluetooth but it did not. Is the Bluetooth only active when it senses you are away? Maybe I have a defective lock. I also tried turning Airplane mode on expecting it to connect via Bluetooth and it did not. It just told me the WiFi network must be down.
I’m assuming you have a lock with the built-in WiFi (and, of course, built-in BT). I have the version without built-in WiFi (I have the bridge that converts info coming in on WiFi to BT to communicate with the lock). Thus ALL communications with my lock reach the lock via BT. When I open the app, it first shows WiFi and then, if I am within range, it switches to BT.
Since BT takes less power than WiFi, I would have designed your lock to switch to BT if it could.
I hate to ask but… are you sure you BlueTooth paired the lock and the phone during setup? The setup procedure for my lock started off with BT pairing and later we plugged in the bridge and joined the WiFi network. I don’t know your lock setup procedure. You said originally you did see the BT symbol occasionally in the app but now - nada?
Like any other computer problem, we’ve tried the easiest fix, the next “harder” fix, but now we need to try the most pain in the butt fix; time to delete the lock from your app, do a factory reset on the lock, and pretend it’s day one and re-add the lock being sure to follow the steps exactly. If that doesn’t work, contact customer support, tell them the steps you’ve taken, and, if they don’t have other things for you to try, request a replacement under their 30-day guarantee.
Yes lock with built in WiFi. The WiFi obviously paired, how do I know if the BT paired? The only thing I see is if I go under Firmware it shows a lock firmware and a Bluetooth firmware. Have not seen the BT symbol lately, even when standing directly in front of the lock. I will do a total reset later today. Thank you for all the time you have spent trying to help me.
BTW on return entering the Geofence and getting the return message. As you approach the door there is a quick blue illumination of the lock ring which it appears to signify BT recognition as this, when it works, initiates an unlock.
I’ve seen it also, when it fails and does nothing.
So it seems to see the phone BT but fails. I’m not sure if this is the normal operation or it’s totally unrelated because more often than not no blue illumination and this no unlock.
Like said range is a definite issue from getting out of the car to right in front of the door. Either can or does work with as stated terrible intermittentency.
Exactly the same experience. I’m wondering what is the purpose of the “Away” and “Back” modes. The app does detect those conditions correctly, but never opens the lock when I approach. I think it work maybe 1 out of 5 times. Is anybody working on this?
They are sending me a new lock however, I not convinced it will be any different. I’m assuming that when I’m close to the lock I should see it connected via Bluetooth even when I’m in the house. Is that a correct assumption? I can stand within 1 foot of the lock and it still shows a WiFi connection not Bluetooth. It appears they have a major issue with the Bluetooth connecting.
Hi Hal - the phone will only send an autounlock signal to the lock if it senses you have left and then returned to the geofence. Away mode is just telling you your phone knows you’ve left the geofence and the Back mode is just letting you know it has sensed your return to the geofence. Once in the back mode I believe the phone begins watching for a Bluetooth handshake from the lock, at which time it should send the unlock command… probably over Bluetooth.
It appears that the lock/app gets messed up sometimes when they have both a WiFi and a Bluetooth connection available. The problem seems more prevalent with the built in WiFi, but that’s just an observation.
Stephen5 - While it MAY not make a difference, it’s the best hope you have. If your phone can’t shake hands over BT then it can’t send the unlock signal. We can be pretty sure that your phone is capable of doing it’s part in making the BT handshake so the problem is most likely in the lock.
My phone usually connects easily over BT with my lock, but I have the one with the external WiFi, so BT is my lock’s only native channel. You, I believe, have one with built in WiFi, so maybe that’s part of the issue. But in any case, I doubt the problem is in your phone and the only other party to the connection is the lock… which you are going to have replaced.
Bruce4,
Do you know if there is any data on the bridged model vs the Wifi built in model as far as the auto unlock being an issue? Any downside to the bridged model? All the same features? I have an Amazon return window until Jan 31st and if the new one doesn’t work I might consider returning and ordering the bridged one.
