Why do I have unexpected Phantom Drain or why won't my vehicle sleep?

A lack of sleep is generally the cause of unexpected phantom drain. Determining the cause of unexpected phantom drain can be rather tricky as there is no data available to determine where power is used or precisely why a vehicle might not be sleeping. However, following the steps below should ensure that you have no additional phantom drain while using TezLab.

When used as designed, TezLab does not cause additional phantom drain provided that our default sleep settings (Deep Sleep Assist) are enabled.

Most vehicles fall asleep regularly. If you are finding that your vehicle is not sleeping as expected and are in turn seeing unexpected phantom drain, please review the following possible causes:

  • If you have shared driver access for your vehicle with someone else, ensure they are not causing the vehicle to wake up (either intentionally, or by opening their Tesla app)
  • Ensure you have Deep Sleep Assist enabled in TezLab. Consider setting a shorter Deep Sleep Delay Time under settings, such as 30 minutes.
  • Consider disabling Smart Summon Standby (can prevent sleep)
  • Consider disabling Sentry Mode (will prevent sleep)
  • Consider disabling Cabin Overheat Protection (will run the HVAC to maintain interior temperature).
  • Ensure your vehicle has a strong WiFi connection if it is connected to WiFi where parked. If the vehicle has to continually re-attempt to connect to WiFi, it can cause the vehicle not to sleep properly.
  • Ensure your phone is not within bluetooth range of the vehicle when it's idle.
  • Disable the official Tesla widget on your iPad and iPhone. (We know, it's awesome, but it's known to wake up your car at times). 
  • Consider changing your Tesla password. If you have signed in to an app previously that you are no longer using, change your Tesla password to lock out all apps, and sign back into TezLab only.
  • Consider setting a charging schedule. If your car is plugged in and idle for long periods of time (i.e. several days), particularly in cold climates, it will wake up regularly to top off the battery. Deep Sleep Assist will activate to allow the vehicle to sleep as soon as the charge is finished, however, this sleep-charge cycle does create a large number of periods where the car is awake for a few minutes each time. These periods add up over the span of days or weeks. Setting a charging schedule in the vehicle ensures the car will remain asleep and top up once at its scheduled time instead of repeatedly waking for small charges.
  • Review the other third-party apps and widgets you are using. Apps are designed to work on their own and using multiple apps can cause conflicting attempts to let your vehicle sleep. Please see Multiple Third Party Aps & Sleep.
    • If you are currently, or have ever, used multiple third-party applications and you are still experiencing issues with sleep after following the instructions in Multiple Third Party Apps & Sleep, please follow the following steps to isolate the issue.
      • Start by changing your Tesla password on all authorized user accounts to revoke any previously issued authentication.
      • Next, sign back into TezLab only. Your vehicle should sleep regularly with no additional phantom drain.
      • If you wish to continue to use multiple third-party apps, add them back one by one 24 hours apart and monitor for changes in sleep activity. You should try to ensure that they all attempt to let the vehicle sleep at the same time to allow your vehicle to sleep regularly (i.e. see if other apps have the equivalent of TezLab's Deep Sleep Delay Time setting).