PCM Wouldn’t Accept Password @ Delivery - Bug Found?

Have you had password issues with Connect, PCM or PorscheUSA?


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MetallicBlue

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I canceled my 4S order and purchased the dealer’s demo Taycan Turbo after the factory shut down. They did a very good job with the delivery overall, and even walked me through the Porsche Connect App setup. Since I already had a Porsche ID that mainly consisted of them entering codes into their sales system, then me responding to e-mails to confirm receipt as they associated the Turbo to my ID and App.

After the paperwork was complete and everything set up on my iPhone, we went out to the car to configure the car to my ID. They had factory reset the PCM so we were starting as a brand new car. We tried to log in many times and the car would just not accept my login. A more experienced Tech came out to help the salesperson, and they were not able to figure out why they couldn’t get the PCM configured. I was able to log out of my Connect app, and log back in without a problem. I even had my wife verifying they were typing everything in accurately, but no matter what they did the car wouldn’t accept the login.

After running through different scenarios such as was this a problem with the factory reset, they were at a loss and suggested they’d have to contact engineering in Germany. With nothing left to lose on my end, and not wanting to wait another day, I started thinking about other potential causes. I use a password manager to help keep track of my passwords so I don’t use the same password everywhere. That manager automatically generates secure passwords. Normally they’d be a pain to type in, but the manager also types them in for me so I get better security and ease of use.

I decided to try changing my complicated password to a shorter simpler one. I changed it in my iPhone app, and then we went to login to the Turbo PCM. We used the new simple password and viola! The system accepted the login and I was able to activate and setup the PCM. Even though the old password was complicated, we entered it so many times with several different people entering and double checking it that it couldn’t have been mistyped every time.

Once I changed to a shorter simple password we logged into the PCM on the first attempt. I can only surmise that the online Porsche Connect will accept longer, complex passwords but the car’s PCM doesn’t. It seems strange to me that there would be different password criteria for each since they have to talk to each other, but I can’t think of another explanation.

Has anyone had a similar issue, or problems logging in in general? Any other ideas what could be behind some of these connect issues? My PCM has been fine ever since that initial setup and I haven’t changed my password back yet.
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louv

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I had to scroll back up to see if I had written this! LOL :)

Yeah. I’ll wager it was a coincidence that the changed password worked. It’s a terrible user experience; the password isn’t wrong, the car just isn’t listed in the system as “been sold to customer” yet. The error messages are flat out Wrong.

The car hasn’t been RDR’ed yet, in Porsche-Speak.

(In my giant list of bugs and features requests it is Louv-011)
 
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MetallicBlue

MetallicBlue

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I had to scroll back up to see if I had written this! LOL :)

Yeah. I’ll wager it was a coincidence that the changed password worked. It’s a terrible user experience; the password isn’t wrong, the car just isn’t listed in the system as “been sold to customer” yet. The error messages are flat out Wrong.

The car hasn’t been RDR’ed yet, in Porsche-Speak.

(In my giant list of bugs and features requests it is Louv-011)
Thank you for that feedback. We literally tried with the salesman and the tech for ~20 minutes.. It may have been a coindence, but as soon as I changed the password from my iPad and then went to he PCM it worked. That timing seemed to be directly correlated but it is possible that it was thinking... that would just be a strange coincidence.

I saved my old password if anyone is interested in testing this. I may also reset it back myself to see what happens to PCM but am a little hesitant since the car is working well now. Here’s the old password (it’s complex thanks to LastPass):

Password:
AYs#45sl6pAJ!rCM
 

louv

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Thank you for that feedback. We literally tried with the salesman and the tech for ~20 minutes.. It may have been a coindence, but as soon as I changed the password from my iPad and then went to he PCM it worked. That timing seemed to be directly correlated but it is possible that it was thinking... that would just be a strange coincidence.

I saved my old password if anyone is interested in testing this. I may also reset it back myself to see what happens to PCM but am a little hesitant since the car is working well now. Here’s the old password (it’s complex thanks to LastPass):

Password:
AYs#45sl6pAJ!rCM
My salesman and I tried my password for twenty minutes. Then I changed it to a 2nd simple password via my phone. Kept trying. Then we changed it to a 3rd simple password using my salesman’s laptop, twenty minutes more, no joy.

Then we ask the sales manager if the car had been RDR’ed yet. Nope.

we give up for the night.

Next day, morning, I try again. No joy.

I drive to the dealership. We ask: RDR’ed yet? “Nope. But I’ll do it right now.”

We try again in 30 minutes. It works.

Your Mileage (and Timing) May Vary.

It’s really just an incorrect error message that leads to a frustrating, terrible first day of ownership experience.
 
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MetallicBlue

MetallicBlue

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My salesman and I tried my password for twenty minutes. Then I changed it to a 2nd simple password via my phone. Kept trying. Then we changed it to a 3rd simple password using my salesman’s laptop, twenty minutes more, no joy.

Then we ask the sales manager if the car had been RDR’ed yet. Nope.

we give up for the night.

Next day, morning, I try again. No joy.

I drive to the dealership. We ask: RDR’ed yet? “Nope. But I’ll do it right now.”

We try again in 30 minutes. It works.

Your Mileage (and Timing) May Vary.

It’s really just an incorrect error message that leads to a frustrating, terrible first day of ownership experience.
Louv,

That’s a good timeline description. It makes me wonder if that’s what was happening, and if the timeline itself was the issue.

In all cases, congrats on your awesome car,! Once we get past the setup the thrill begins!

Mike
 


louv

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I guess my point is that the timing problem will ALWAYS exist. A customer will always try to log in before the Sales Manager RDR’s the car.

The proper (read: helpful) feedback to the user attempting to log in when the car isn’t ready yet, is to say some like “Hey, this car doesn’t yet have an owner registered in Porsche’s records. If you just bought your car, please verify that your dealership has finished their paperwork and then wait an hour/day/fortnight until our database has been synchronized and brought up into the 21st century.”

...instead of “Password incorrect”. Which causes massive pointless frustration. And self doubt.

I’m a nerd who wants software to be helpful in solving problems, not the cause of headaches due to bad design.

...and I’ll stop beating this dead horse now.
 

dnanian

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I was just bit by this. Basically:
  • Tried to configure my user during initial onboarding, and despite entering it 5 times, failed
  • Gave up, initially drove in Guest
  • Went back, selected "New account" from the user drop-down
  • Got weird Welcome screen in German (!)
  • Clicked "x" to close it, since I don't read German
  • Tried it again, failed
  • Went into the house, looked to sky, questioned existence, verified not living in simulation
  • Changed password to something short
  • Went back out to the vehicle
  • Logged in successfullly
The other thing that's going on is that the vehicle says to connect to its WiFi during onboarding, but no hotspot is visible (nor does connecting using its name/password attach to a hidden SSID, it's just not there).
 

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I'm having problems with logging into the app, code: 5_MP_PP.
Logging in at the website works perfectly, it's just the app. Think I need to get it activated at a Porsche centre but it can wait for now since it's not too important for me. Need to link account to the vehicle but I'm going to do that when taking delivery in August. Maybe they can fix the login problem with the app too.
 


dryii

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I'm having problems with logging into the app, code: 5_MP_PP.
Logging in at the website works perfectly, it's just the app. Think I need to get it activated at a Porsche centre but it can wait for now since it's not too important for me. Need to link account to the vehicle but I'm going to do that when taking delivery in August. Maybe they can fix the login problem with the app too.
Don't expect much from the app. They are doing a terrible job with it. Very disappointed with Porsche.
 

tk23

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I'm having problems with logging into the app, code: 5_MP_PP.
Logging in at the website works perfectly, it's just the app. Think I need to get it activated at a Porsche centre but it can wait for now since it's not too important for me. Need to link account to the vehicle but I'm going to do that when taking delivery in August. Maybe they can fix the login problem with the app too.
I had the same issue. It’s because you don’t actually own the car yet. They will activate it when you take delivery. I called the PCNA support line to ask. They were able to activate it for me as I had my VIN and was taking delivery soon. It seems like it starts the clock on your 3 years of free charging so I wouldn’t do it too early.
 

windmills

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Same issue here - took delivery two days ago and still cannot get the PCM to connect to Porsche Connect (says invalid password). The other issue is that without that set up, it seems you have to login as a guest and lose functionality of the software. The dealer has worked on it for two days and can't fix it - they are now saying its a known issue at Porsche USA but no fix yet.
 

windmills

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Same issue here - took delivery two days ago and still cannot get the PCM to connect to Porsche Connect (says invalid password). The other issue is that without that set up, it seems you have to login as a guest and lose functionality of the software. The dealer has worked on it for two days and can't fix it - they are now saying its a known issue at Porsche USA but no fix yet.
Update - after 2 full days, they were finally able to get it fixed with Porsche - the problem was somewhere in the network and not the Taycan. The tech guy couldn't really explain to me what the problem was or how it was fixed, other than Porsche had them reset the password again and it worked....
 

MissionC

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I had the same issue yesterday, but it was resolved today. I thought it was due to a special character in my password, but a network issue makes more sense. Glad to hear you’re all set!
 

Dogs_Tess_Tickle

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Thank you for that feedback. We literally tried with the salesman and the tech for ~20 minutes.. It may have been a coindence, but as soon as I changed the password from my iPad and then went to he PCM it worked. That timing seemed to be directly correlated but it is possible that it was thinking... that would just be a strange coincidence.

I saved my old password if anyone is interested in testing this. I may also reset it back myself to see what happens to PCM but am a little hesitant since the car is working well now. Here’s the old password (it’s complex thanks to LastPass):

Password:
AYs#45sl6pAJ!rCM
I have seen this in other systems, where one Operating System likes certain characters and another do not. It is possible that the PCM does not like special characters like # in your original password.
 

paladin732

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We had that.

My email had a medium complexity password, logged in fine.
My husband had a complex one and couldn't log in. Reset it to something much simpler and it worked immediately.

This was several ays after the dealer had released the car to us, and it was already showing in the app.

I'm going to agree with op that the pcm has some bug around password complexity (size/length/special characters /or something)
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