Remote Lock via app not functioning

[SWTaycanSTgts]

Left my car at the airport car park only to find I’ve left it unlocked. The app keeps failing to lock it so I was hoping someone may have a solution or idea in which I may be able get some relief from having the car locked.

The lock button on the app hangs for a very long time with a loading bar before giving an error. Images below.
Other functions seem to operate fine suggesting the car has acceptable connection to the online world.

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[WattTurbo]

That has happened to me when there’s a bad signal, which also could mean that it’s locked but just hasn’t updated your app. Has the SOC and guessometer been updated yet or are they stale as well?

 

[whitex]

Sadly, Porsche implementation of the MyPorsche app and the car status is a lot of smoke and mirrors - it actually shows you the status of your car's "digital twin", a virtual car representation of your car in the cloud, not your real car (when the app says the status is "just updated", it means it synced up with the virtual car in the cloud, not that the virtual car in the cloud is in fact in sync with the real car). I've had a number of problems over the last couple of years of ownership with the app reporting false "open window" or "unlocked car", or in some cases falsely reporting "locked car", or on some occasions telling me the car has HVAC/pre-conditioning going forever (always starting at some number, like 45 minutes, then when I restart the app, we're back to 45 minutes remaining), occasionally telling me my car is in some location I know it's not (usually it's location the car was maybe an hour before where it really is - there was definite cellular coverage during that hour as I was using Spotify, but yet the "digital twin" missed an hour worth of updates from the car).

In short, I don't trust MyPorsche to show real status of the car. If the car would have let you "lock" it, I would probably trust that a little more, as that action require an acknowledge from the car, so if the app says it was locked (after you told it to lock the car, not the "locked" status). If you're really worried, send one of your friends to the airport to check on your car, buy them dinner or something as a recompense when you get back.

EDIT: does your car location show the where you left it?
EDIT2: even if the car is unlocked, the door handles should still retract after some short time, so someone would have to come up to the car and put their hands on the handle to see if it's unlocked (and in my car's case, if they are trying the driver's door, 25% of the time they'd have to actually force the handle up because the handle is not signaling reliably since new, even though I had it replace twice).

 

[W1NGE]

Left my car at the airport car park only to find I’ve left it unlocked. The app keeps failing to lock it so I was hoping someone may have a solution or idea in which I may be able get some relief from having the car locked.

The lock button on the app hangs for a very long time with a loading bar before giving an error. Images below.
Other functions seem to operate fine suggesting the car has acceptable connection to the online world.

I always found this feature problematic and unreliable not to mention incredibly slow to complete the task. Pointless in a word.

Connectivity is key to the car which may not be as good as you think. If parked underground then that won't help.

When you open the app does the last updated timestamp change to "Just updated"? If not then that suggests poor connectivity.

 

[Tooney]

(when the app says the status is "just updated", it means it synced up with the virtual car in the cloud, not that the virtual car in the cloud is in fact in sync with the real car).

If 'just updated' does not mean syncing info with the real car, that is really poor. I hope you are wrong about this, but it sounds like you have confirmed it.

 

[SWTaycanSTgts]

Thanks for the responses. Much of which are correct, the app suggests just updated each time however I then realised that the location of the car and the battery percentage are inaccurate. Confirming that the car clearly is not updated at all!
Fortunately I’ve managed to retrieve an image of the car after it was parked up with the mirrors in and therefore can relax abroad with a bit more comfort.
It would therefore appear that this could have been avoided had the app simply advised me it was not updated or unable to update.
Thanks all.

 

[SWTaycanSTgts]

If 'just updated' does not mean syncing info with the real car, that is really poor. I hope you are wrong about this, but it sounds like you have confirmed it.

My experience would enforce this to be correct.

 

[whitex]

If 'just updated' does not mean syncing info with the real car, that is really poor. I hope you are wrong about this, but it sounds like you have confirmed it.

On more than one occasion It is obvious when the app says “just updated” but shows the car 20 miles away from where it actually is.

 

[whitex]

Fortunately I’ve managed to retrieve an image of the car after it was parked up with the mirrors in and therefore can relax abroad with a bit more comfort.

Ha, ha… I do this all the time when I leave the car at the airport. It started this when I traveled a lot for a week at a time because I needed a way to remember where I parked. Then I started driving cars which fold mirrors on fold, so a picture where I parked with folded mirrors helps my OCD worries “did I lock the car?”.

Apps can be good for that too, but not Porsche’s since they chose to pacify customers and show them old car status rather than admit that the car cannot be reached. Tesla app for example actually connects to the car, so the status you see is real-time. They also show you old status if the car cannot be reached, but the whole app is “greyed out” including all controls disabled, so there is no mistaking it for live status. Porsche does another fake out too, if the old status of the car was with pre-conditioning on, the app just starts a time countdown from that time, misleading customers that it’s showing a live time remaining - a good tell for that one is killing the app and restarting it, will reset the time remaining counter in the app, as it always starts with what the old status in the cloud is.

 

[whitex]

If 'just updated' does not mean syncing info with the real car, that is really poor. I hope you are wrong about this, but it sounds like you have confirmed it.

This UX might have been a marketing decision. I have come across at least one such decision in the past, in a very large company, where marketing did a bunch of surveys and concluded that customers are happier with apps which lie to them about the real-time status of whatever the app is monitoring. Their rational is that showing the customer that “server cannot be reached” or “status cannot be retrieved” leaves customers with a negative impression, so the app just faking it makes for happier customers. No different than some progress bars always moving toward completion even if there is no actual progress to report (operation is stalled or progress status cannot be retrieved).

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