Sentry and locaation not working when car was towed.

WaltG · 2025-10-01T11:21:03-0400

Parked in hotel lot day after day. One morning car is gone. I check the app and it shows the caar is still in the empty spot. ?? Sentry was always on and battery was at 50%. Called tow company and they had car. (Parking slip had blown off dashboard onto floor) No problem or damage but unable to figure why sentry gave no alert and location was not updated. there also were no sentry clips on the video. Can Tow companies somehow disable this?
First time I know of in almost 8 years of Tesla driving that this happened. If I hadn't known it was the tow company, I'd have been in the dark what happened and where it went.
Any ideas what might have happened to my sentry and location? It appears fine since then.

Ed Woodrick · 2025-10-01T16:56:15-0400

What was charge of battery? Was sentry on when you got back in?
Garages are notorious for not having cell signal to send you the alerts.

WaltG · 2025-10-01T18:24:40-0400

Ed Woodrick said:
What was charge of battery? Was sentry on when you got back in?

Battery was at 50% (in my post) Sentry status unknown but location showing in the app was still 3 miles away in the hotel parking lot. When I drove it out, the nav screen showed the car in the hotel parking lot by the beach. As I drove east, the nav screen showed the car moving into the ocean. Reboot fixed it and Sentry was definitely on then.
Weird.

JasonF · 2025-10-01T17:12:36-0400

Some tow companies know how to pull the Fireman’s Loop to shut off all power to the car.

WaltG · 2025-10-01T18:29:42-0400

OK. Don't think that happened but why wouldn't there be a Sentry video clip when they approached the car or why didn't I get an alert.
Also the tow impound lot was open street level behind fence. No roof. No dogs, though.

android04 · 2025-10-03T01:38:09-0400

Not sure about the missing sentry mode footage, but Tesla doesn't update the GPS location of the car unless it's driving. So if it gets towed you won't know where it is.

WaltG · 2025-10-03T09:24:11-0400

Ah. Of course. Thank you.
That makes sense but still no idea why I didn't get a sentry alert.🤷‍♂️

Sentry and locaation not working when car was towed.

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