Can the car be locked using the app while it's charging?

[Rolfe]

I did a rather silly thing last week. I got to the multi-storey car park near the theatre, and connected the car up to one of the type 2 chargers there. I reached into the back seat for handbag and stuff, closed the rear passenger door, and forgot to press the door button on the driver's door. I walked to the theatre and up two flights of stairs. About 15 minutes before the performance was due to start I suddenly realised what I'd done. Aha, I thought, and pulled out my phone to lock it remotely.

No dice. The app truthfully reported that the car was unlocked. I asked it to lock, and it asked me for the PIN. I entered that, and got a dialogue box asking me to confirm the car was secure. I confirmed, and got thrown back to the home screen of the Control Panel. Three times. The car remained unlocked.

I ended up fighting my way back down the two flights of stairs against the human tidal wave coming up, hurrying to the car park, and there was the car sitting in the dark corner where they hide the type 2 chargers, headlights embarrassingly blazing (well, I suppose it was the DRLs). I pressed the door button, all went quiet and dark, and I got back to the theatre just in time for the start of the performance.

Why wouldn't it lock? Was there some sort of a glitch that happened three times? Or is it impossible to lock the car while it's charging?

 

[RayReliable]

I have only had success locking or turning on hvac when not plugged in. No idea why it doesn’t seem to make sense to me. Should work either way in my opinion.

 

[Rolfe]

Well, since we can't change it, it's good to know to save wasting time. But it was a damned nuisance. Surely to goodness if it's charging, it definitely isn't about to drive off somewhere!

If it also won't turn on the heating if the car is plugged in, that's a bit of a bummer for these cold winter mornings. Leave the car on the charger all night so it's ready to go, warm it up for ten minutes before going out to start it and - oh dear it's still frozen solid because it wanted you to come out into the snow and disconnect its charger first.

Might as well just turn the heating on too while we're out there.

 

[RayReliable]

Not sure if there is a time out auto lock on the car, would be useful. It does check for the key before driving so at least they can’t drive off but someone might have away with your loose change!

 

[Rolfe]

I was more worried about the blazing lights in the dark car park. I never had to touch my previous car to lock it, and taking the key out of the ignition was all that was needed to turn it off completely anyway. I sometimes left it in safe places unlocked, with the key in the door pocket for safety. (Dropping the key out riding was a far bigger risk than someone at the stables nicking my car from under the noses of a bunch of people.) Unfortunately, with the MG4, simply getting out, closing the doors, and walking away with the key concealed about my person isn't enough. I'm having trouble getting into the habit of pressing that wee button, though I suppose I'll get it in the end.

 

[Diggsy]

There’s 2 ways to lock / unlock. First is via the main screen of the app, whilst the second is via the profile section. Mine wouldn’t lock using the main one after driving it with the Bluetooth key, but as soon as I used the lock option in the profile, hey presto, it locked fine.

Also, regarding using the HVAC when plugged in not charging works just fine for me using a Zappi v2. I even saw from the Zappi (MyEnergi) app that it seemed to feed the car a small amount of power just to start the process, then reverted to not charging, whilst the HVAC did it’s thing.

Whether MG have sorted something or it was the Zappi I don’t know, but it worked perfectly.

 

[Rolfe]

I'm only using a granny charger, so there's nothing complicated going on. I'm driving it with the normal key, concealed about my person. I don't know anything about a Bluetooth key.

When I go into the profile on the app I get an icon that seems to indicate that the Bluetoth is disconnected. The lock/unlock icon is greyed out.

So that wouldn't have worked last Thursday, but it may be something that has promise. What am I doing wrong, do you know?

 

[Diggsy]

Hmm, the Bluetooth key likely has to be within Bluetooth range of the car, which would probably be no more than several metres.

One thing I did notice about mine though was that the remote locking from the main screen of the app wouldn’t work when it thought the car was ‘on’, and wanted it turned ‘off’ first.

That being the case, and the fact your lights were blazing leads me to suspect that your car wasn’t completely shut down, hence it wouldn’t lock remotely.

When the car isn’t completely shut down, I have a feeling only the physical key, or the Bluetooth key will lock it, as both complete the locking/shut down process.

Perhaps I’m wrong, but that’s my theory on it anyway…

Edit - you could maybe shut the car down from the infotainment screen then leave it and move far enough away to test the theory with the lock button on the main app screen…

 

[Rolfe]

Could be. My dealer said to power off from the infotainment screen, but others say not to, and I'm not sure quite what it does. It doesn't have the same effect as taking the key out of the ignition of an older model ICE car as far as I can see.

The problem is, if I'm sufficiently together to power down the car, the likelihood is that I won't forget to press the door button. I needed the app to lock it because I had left it parked and with the doors shut, but hadn't pressed the button, because I was distracted.

If the phone has to be within a few metres of the car to lock it, that's not much use. I could probably have locked it from the entrance to the car park by fishing the physical key out of my underwear and using that in the same way I would have locked my Golf, but by then I was close enough just to walk across and press the button anyway.

I could go back to what I used to do with the Golf and wave the key at it, pressing the lock button on that, as I walk away. But that negates the advantage of never having to take the key out of its hiding place (and risk dropping it). This is no hypothetical. Last year I walked all the way back to the Golf in that car park after the opera to discover that its key wasn't in my handbag. I hadn't shoved it deeply enough inside, and it had fallen out under my seat during the performance. I had to walk down two flights of stairs and back to the theatre and ask a member of staff to open up and find it.

So of course I was pleased to realise that the MG4's key can be kept inside a zipped pocket of the handbag and not removed, or even closer to the skin, and in this way it won't be lost.

It's all fine if I don't do something absent-minded like forgetting to press the door button. The locking function on the app seems designed to rescue me if I inadvertently do that, except it doesn't work?

 

[JDMB]

I believe that if using the app to remotely lock the car and you’re not either nearby or not using Wi-Fi on the car then it’ll have to use the inbuilt mobile connection for remote connection. The Navi manual seems to indicate this too, see attached screenshot.

I often find my infotainment system shows the car doesn’t have a mobile signal, in which case it won’t have the ability of receiving a remote command sent to it.

Incidentally, I think there is an issue with this 4G connection. The regularity with which it drops its connection and fails to re-establish it makes me think it’s either a weak antennae problem or requires a module update.

 

[Rolfe]

The app was sensing the car though. I could see that it was charging and that it had moved from 75% to 77% charge since I'd left it. Anyway, this is an SE and it doesn't have in-car internet.

It was just annoying. It didn't say it couldn't talk to the car or anything. It asked me to confirm that the car was secure, and when I did, it just dropped me.

 

[JDMB]

The app was sensing the car though. I could see that it was charging and that it had moved from 75% to 77% charge since I'd left it. Anyway, this is an SE and it doesn't have in-car internet.

It was just annoying. It didn't say it couldn't talk to the car or anything. It asked me to confirm that the car was secure, and when I did, it just dropped me.

Does the SE have the Car SOS function? If it has the Car SOS system then it must have a 4G SIM to make that call.

 

[Rolfe]

Yes, it has that. And the app is perfectly capable of telling me the state of the charging process and scanning the car when I'm some way away. It was in contact with the car at the time it wouldn't lock it, showing the charging process ongoing.

It seemed as if it was going to lock it, but then it asked it the car was secure, I clicked on OK, and it dumped me back to the Control Panel screen with the car still unlocked. It just let me unlock and lock it through the app right now, no funny stuff about "is the car secure". I reckon it must be because it was charging at the time, but it makes no sense at all. Why wouldn't you be able to lock the car with the app while it's charging?

The solution to this is not to be so bloody stupid and walk away without pressing the door button, obviously. But if it won't pre-heat the car either if it's plugged in, that's a serious disadvantage. If you have to walk out into the snow to disconnect the car before you can start pre-heating it, that's not a lot of fun.

 

[JDMB]

Yes, it has that. And the app is perfectly capable of telling me the state of the charging process and scanning the car when I'm some way away. It was in contact with the car at the time it wouldn't lock it, showing the charging process ongoing.

It seemed as if it was going to lock it, but then it asked it the car was secure, I clicked on OK, and it dumped me back to the Control Panel screen with the car still unlocked. It just let me unlock and lock it through the app right now, no funny stuff about "is the car secure". I reckon it must be because it was charging at the time, but it makes no sense at all. Why wouldn't you be able to lock the car with the app while it's charging?

Seems to have been a bit of a problem for some for a while: Remote control function failed

Looks like it does use an Esim for remote functions too, as I suspected.

 

[Rolfe]

Interesting, because that seems to be a different problem. In his case none of the lock/unlock/pre-heat functions seem to work at all and he's getting an error message. The functions work for me, except this one time when I really needed it and I got this "confirm that the car is secure" dialogue box, and then couldn't get past it.

Just checked "find my car" and that works too, except it placed it at my neighbour's house (it's about three feet from the boundary of the properties, I'll forgive it that).

I'll read more of that thread in the morning.

 

[WonkoTheSaneUK]

If it helps to secure the key, you can open the loop on it like a carabiner, if you press the silver square on the black side.
This also reveals the hidden manual key for emergency use.

 

[Rolfe]

I saw that, handy to know it's there.

Lads, I just stick the key inside my bra when I get dressed in the morning. I don't even notice it, and it's a sure-fire way of not losing it. But this does mean that when I leave the car I need to remember to turn round and press that door button, and I do not have that reflex drilled into me yet.