Is the Toyota app down right now?

Had a number of troubleshooting conversations with Toyota Canada and my dealership about the non-functional connected services. TLDR: still no solution in sight.

Toyota Canada

• Talked to their customer support, walked through similar troubleshooting steps as above:
  • Does it have a green light next to the SOS button when started
    • Yes, solid green
  • Does the App work? Do you get an error when trying to use it?
    • No, the App just times out whenever using it, no error message is produced
    • They did specifically asked if I got an 'error 42'
  • Does the Key fob remote start work?
    • No, hasn't worked for a similar period of time
• They indicated that there was no resolution available at this time
  • There seemed it be little other information available to customer support on what was going on or causing this
  • Asked that I reach out to my dealership to have them connect it to their computer for diagnosis

Dealership

• Had a worksheet from a Connected Services person to work through (most of the questions were similar to Toyota Canada customer support):
  • Does the Key Fob or App remote start work?
    • No to both
  • What is the status of the DCM (SOS) when vehicle is running?
    • Solid green light
  • What happens when you try and start the vehicle with the App?
    • The 'Start' button spins for 2 minutes and then stops with no message
  • What happens when you try and lock the vehicle with the App?
    • The 'lock' button spins for 2 minutes and then stops with no message
• Based on those responses, the Connected Services person was going to investigate behind the scenes on what is causing it to not work.

UPDATE - I've gotten a ton of information from Toyota.
First, from Toyota Canada Customer Service: Known issue.


Summary of the issue: 2020 Toyota Vehicles with certain Head Unit has been known to stop accepting Remote Connect commands from both the Application as well as the Keyfob (IE: Car start function stops working). Specifically, it appears to be a communications chip within the head unit that stopped working as of (roughly) a couple of weeks ago. Many customers having this issue!

Toyota Canada customer service would not provide me any technical info - they insisted that the Dealer/Service needs to call them or use the "special email address" to reach out and a lead technician, from Toyota, will instruct them on the work-around.

I instructed my local Toyota service to reach out to Toyota and they did - after a day or so wait, they got the info.

This is what the service center told me:

• Toyota is aware of the problem but do not have a permanent fix.
• They have a workaround procedure which involves a reset and reprogram procedure.
• The workaround works for some people - has not worked for all people
• There is a bulletin on this issue with a procedure: Bulletin: TIP-5085

My strongest advice to all people (Canadian or US) having this issue:
Call Toyota customer service line and raise hell - they know about this issue but do not have a permanent fix yet - this is unacceptable. Fix your problems!
Call your local service department and raise a ticket - instruct them that there is a bulletin that addresses the issue and suggests a workaround: TIP-5085

If you're in Canada, the # is: 1-888-869-6828. Press 1 (English) and then Wait until the menu starts and press 1 again for Remote Connect. Then provide your phone #.
After a wait, someone in Customer Service will pick-up. Advise them that your Remote Connect App is unable to send commands to the vehicle and the key fob is no longer able to start the vehicle. Complain about the problem.



As for myself, I have setup another service appointment to apply the work-around.
I indicated I wanted a permanent fix, the center advised that this is not a permanent fix and Toyota is "working on the problem".

As of tis morning, my Toyota app asked me to do a full login. Now the app is stating "Remote Activation is Pending."

Perhaps this is progress ?, given I am getting a new message in the app. That said, data is still not updating and pressing "Refresh" changes nothing on the app screen. Black box was me removing the VIN.

Toyota app asked me for the activate Remote Connect. Put in the authorization code 5 minutes ago. Now activation is pending