[PeteMox]

Just experienced neither key fobs worked this morn to unlock the charge chord lock. The fob lit but did not unlock the doors , or anything . I had charged the vehicle overnight on my low amp garage plug. I got my second fob, same issue. Both fobs appeared lit, yet dead. I wondered if the system shut down due to someone trying to open doors and take the charge chord out? ( like me) I was just about to research the WWWeb, but thought to remove the blade key from the fob, and tried that? Worked like a charm. The fob system came back to life (reset maybe) , the car alarm went off but a couple of quick lock ,unlock presses stopped that . Voila!! ,all reset, and fixed.
Hope this helps you instead of trying fob battery replacement, or stuck in a parking lot , or trying to phone AAA , or Toyota!

 

[dpostman]

Hi Pete, Welcome to the forum.
Yes, others have also started to chime in with the same issue.

Hopefully it might get resolved in a future OTA update.

Smart Key Glitch

Had a weird smart key glitch just now. Came out to the garage to unplug my charger like I do every morning. Grabbed the rear door handle to unlock the charger, nothing. Tried the other 3 doors, nothing.:( Pressed the unlock button on the fob, nothing. Pressed other buttons, nothing. The...

www.rav4world.com

dp

 

[jazhanel]

Yes, this is exactly what I experienced. I even tried the Toyota App, even it refused to unlock, and gave a Conditions Not Met message.

I really think it is a software bug. Toyota has been making smart keys forever. My 2012 Prius SKS was flawless. I would speculate they added a anti hack safe off mode that gets set off incorrectly/prematurely?

 

[jlawr1]

I thought if you use the FOB button to unlock the doors twice in a row, it works. No?

 

[JFox562]

Unless I read something wrong, why would the car alarm go off if the manual key is used to unlock the door? Is this the OEM alarm system or one the dealer installed? Either way, it sounds like a bug.

 

[jazhanel]

I thought if you use the FOB button to unlock the doors twice in a row, it works. No?

No. Only thing that woke the system from coma was the mechanical key.

 

[jazhanel]

Unless I read something wrong, why would the car alarm go off if the manual key is used to unlock the door? Is this the OEM alarm system or one the dealer installed? Either way, it sounds like a bug.

OEM. There is a bug for sure to put the SKS in a coma, but the alarm part is completely normal, expected, and documented.

 

[JFox562]

OEM. There is a bug for sure to put the SKS in a coma, but the alarm part is completely normal, expected, and documented.

Yep, this is something new. I searched my 2019 manual and this is not outlined.

 

[surfstar]

If you lock the car with the mechanical key, it won't alarm when unlocked with the key later. I don't know if that means the alarm is disabled, though.
You can leave the fob in the vehicle, lock with the key and no issues. Useful for water sports, etc.
If worried, I'd hide the fob inside a faraday cage to ensure no one can break a window and drive off.

 

[jazhanel]

If you lock the car with the mechanical key, it won't alarm when unlocked with the key later. I don't know if that means the alarm is disabled, though.
You can leave the fob in the vehicle, lock with the key and no issues. Useful for water sports, etc.
If worried, I'd hide the fob inside a faraday cage to ensure no one can break a window and drive off.

No need for a faraday cage. You can put the fob in power saving mode and turn off the SMART part.

I spent a lot of time reading the manual since the SKS coma incident.

 

[Arcanox]

Unless I read something wrong, why would the car alarm go off if the manual key is used to unlock the door? Is this the OEM alarm system or one the dealer installed? Either way, it sounds like a bug.

If you just use the manual key, the car has no way of knowing if you unlocked it legitimately or if someone picked the lock. If the alarm is set and the door gets mechanically unlocked without the car expecting it, it'll assume the worst (that somebody picked the lock).

If you lock the car with the mechanical key, it won't alarm when unlocked with the key later. I don't know if that means the alarm is disabled, though.

I would assume it does mean the alarm is disabled, for the reasons I wrote above.

 

[perkins]

Just experienced neither key fobs worked this morn to unlock the charge chord lock. The fob lit but did not unlock the doors , or anything . I had charged the vehicle overnight on my low amp garage plug. I got my second fob, same issue. Both fobs appeared lit, yet dead. I wondered if the system shut down due to someone trying to open doors and take the charge chord out? ( like me) I was just about to research the WWWeb, but thought to remove the blade key from the fob, and tried that? Worked like a charm. The fob system came back to life (reset maybe) , the car alarm went off but a couple of quick lock ,unlock presses stopped that . Voila!! ,all reset, and fixed.
Hope this helps you instead of trying fob battery replacement, or stuck in a parking lot , or trying to phone AAA , or Toyota!

I experienced this problem yesterday May 7th in the morning.... my key fob was blinking red... didn't pay much attention to it... tried to unlock the car...nothing... no reponse...changed the battery... no response, used my spare key fob... no response.... in the mean time i was charging my phone... called my local toyota dealership and they acted like I had 3 heads.... never heard of this before.... while speaking to the service rep, I tried my regular fob again and it worked... tried the spare and it worked as well... put the old battery in the regular fob and it worked... I seem to think this issue is related to the connected services that I have on my cell phone to the car.... seems odd that once the phone was charged up a bit the fobs worked again.... the last thing to do is to contact a toyota dealershop.... good lord!!!

 

[perkins]

Just experienced neither key fobs worked this morn to unlock the charge chord lock. The fob lit but did not unlock the doors , or anything . I had charged the vehicle overnight on my low amp garage plug. I got my second fob, same issue. Both fobs appeared lit, yet dead. I wondered if the system shut down due to someone trying to open doors and take the charge chord out? ( like me) I was just about to research the WWWeb, but thought to remove the blade key from the fob, and tried that? Worked like a charm. The fob system came back to life (reset maybe) , the car alarm went off but a couple of quick lock ,unlock presses stopped that . Voila!! ,all reset, and fixed.
Hope this helps you instead of trying fob battery replacement, or stuck in a parking lot , or trying to phone AAA , or Toyota!

I experienced this problem yesterday May 7th in the morning.... my key fob was blinking red... didn't pay much attention to it... tried to unlock the car...nothing... no reponse...changed the battery... no response, used my spare key fob... no response.... in the mean time i was charging my phone... called my local toyota dealership and they acted like I had 3 heads.... never heard of this before.... while speaking to the service rep, I tried my regular fob again and it worked... tried the spare and it worked as well... put the old battery in the regular fob and it worked... I seem to think this issue is related to the connected services that I have on my cell phone to the car.... seems odd that once the phone was charged up a bit the fobs worked again.... the last thing to do is to contact a toyota dealershop.... good lord!!!

I experienced this problem yesterday May 7th in the morning.... my key fob was blinking red... didn't pay much attention to it... tried to unlock the car...nothing... no reponse...changed the battery... no response, used my spare key fob... no response.... in the mean time i was charging my phone... called my local toyota dealership and they acted like I had 3 heads.... never heard of this before.... while speaking to the service rep, I tried my regular fob again and it worked... tried the spare and it worked as well... put the old battery in the regular fob and it worked... I seem to think this issue is related to the connected services that I have on my cell phone to the car.... seems odd that once the phone was charged up a bit the fobs worked again.... the last thing to do is to contact a toyota dealershop.... good lord!!!

Actually my issue was I couldn't unlock the doors to the car.... of course that would make it so I couldn't remove the charge cord as well... just wanted to clarify.

 

[jazhanel]

I experienced this problem yesterday May 7th in the morning.... my key fob was blinking red... didn't pay much attention to it... tried to unlock the car...nothing... no reponse...changed the battery... no response, used my spare key fob... no response.... in the mean time i was charging my phone... called my local toyota dealership and they acted like I had 3 heads.... never heard of this before.... while speaking to the service rep, I tried my regular fob again and it worked... tried the spare and it worked as well... put the old battery in the regular fob and it worked... I seem to think this issue is related to the connected services that I have on my cell phone to the car.... seems odd that once the phone was charged up a bit the fobs worked again.... the last thing to do is to contact a toyota dealershop.... good lord!!!

I can promise you it has nothing to do with the phone or the app. Myself, and many others have experienced this. Probably a bug in the SKS ECU firmware related to anti-scanning security. If this happens again, use the metal key. It is the sure fire way to wake the SKS from the coma.

 

[perkins]

I can promise you it has nothing to do with the phone or the app. Myself, and many others have experienced this. Probably a bug in the SKS ECU firmware related to anti-scanning security. If this happens again, use the metal key. It is the sure fire way to wake the SKS from the coma.

thanks for your response although a little above my understanding…. is there a reason why the dealerships are unaware of this issue? I’ve been corresponding via email with a woman at the local dealership and she keeps asking if a service rep has called me and my response is “no”… at least 3 times.

 

[jazhanel]

thanks for your response although a little above my understanding…. is there a reason why the dealerships are unaware of this issue? I’ve been corresponding via email with a woman at the local dealership and she keeps asking if a service rep has called me and my response is “no”… at least 3 times.

Most dealerships are pretty clueless. Unless you print out a TSB and hand it to them, they would not have a clue. This was when times were good. With today's labor shortage I am sure it is down a notch from the previous low bar.

Since you are a member of this forum, you are probably more knowledgeable than 90% of the dealership service advisors.

 

[iTim314]

thanks for your response although a little above my understanding…. is there a reason why the dealerships are unaware of this issue? I’ve been corresponding via email with a woman at the local dealership and she keeps asking if a service rep has called me and my response is “no”… at least 3 times.

As @jazhanel pointed out, your first problem is believing that dealerships know anything beyond how to deal cars.