My FordPass app blocked in the middle of the night. I was told 5-7 days to unlock!

[LSP]

At 1:46AM on Saturday morning I received an email from Ford with the title “User profile modified”. The body of the email said that my account information has changed. There was more nonsensical information after that and at the end it said to contact my system administrator if I did not request the changes.

So I tried logging in to the app and it wouldn’t accept my password. Thinking maybe it was a password related I reset it and tried to log in again. This time I received the following error message “CSIAH0320E”. I called customer service and was told that the problem may be because I was perhaps using the same credentials for the FordPass app for other apps. I said, well if you mean my email address and password then yes, of course I do and have been since I got my truck in July. I, like most people use the same email address and password on various accounts.

He said that my account was blocked for this reason and would take 5-7 days (not hours) for them to look into this and unblock it due to the volume of problems that they are experiencing. Finally, he gave me a case number and said someone will get back to me.

Anyone else have this problem and/or no what is going on and how to fix it? As limited as it is, I rely heavily on the app and would like having its functionality back sooner than later.

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[chillaban]

Yeah recently this has been happening to more people. The most common reason for this block is if you use your FordPass account to log into other services that attempt to automate your Ford, like OptiWatt or Home Assistant, IFTTT, etc. if you don’t do that, it could just be a false positive.

My advice is that you should call back every day until it is unlocked. I waited 7-8 days and didn’t get a response but when I called on the 8th day, within an hour my account was reinstated.

 

[Pioneer74]

https://www.f150lightningforum.com/...-light-reverse-engineering.13550/#post-283843

Lots of information in this thread and the one I linked to the Mach-E site on why accounts are being locked.

 

[HaroldCal]

I, like most people use the same email address and password on various accounts

FWIW, this is one of the most common vectors of vulnerability for breached accounts.

Use a password manager like LastPass(.com). It will allow you to generate good strong random passwords, and not have to remember them. Never reuse credentials across websites.

Edit to add: worth mentioning that LastPass has a browser plugin and a mobile app that stay synchronized with your password database.

Thanks for attending my TED Talk.

 

[LSP]

Yeah recently this has been happening to more people. The most common reason for this block is if you use your FordPass account to log into other services that attempt to automate your Ford, like OptiWatt or Home Assistant, IFTTT, etc. if you don’t do that, it could just be a false positive.

My advice is that you should call back every day until it is unlocked. I waited 7-8 days and didn’t get a response but when I called on the 8th day, within an hour my account was reinstated.

Thanks for the info. FYI, the only third party app that I use that is integrated I believe is Electrify America per Ford instructions to be part of the Blue Oval network.

 

[chillaban]

Thanks for the info. FYI, the only third party app that I use that is integrated I believe is Electrify America per Ford instructions to be part of the Blue Oval network.

That should be fine.

Like you, I got my account locked with zero third part logins. The only thing the tech said may be weird was I updated my phone to iOS 16.2 the morning it came out.

Their algorithm for locking people out is a little touchy.

 

[TaxmanHog]

I've had this happen to me twice, both instances were because I was using allowing a third party system to connect to my FP account to skim the charging history data.

Charge Smart Mass was the problematic system, Ford uses an IBM cloud service to manage FP backend, it's their system which is extremely sensitive.

The delay in restoration of service appears to be linked to delays in action from the accounts managers and system administrator at Ford Pass, confirming the root issues, then authorizing restoration of service via the vendor to reactivate the customer account.

BTW, upon my second violation, I was advised a third lock out would result in a permanent ban of that user account name ...... I could bypass the ban by building a new FP account and re-enrolling the trucks VIN to the new user account, but that is a PIA and you lose all your FP points, etc.......

 

[meow]

I dealt with this last week, and the culprit was Smartcar.com. The app A Better Routeplanner uses it for live data from the truck instead of an OBDII connector - and I thought it was rather neat until that lovely lockout. ABRP contacted Smartcar who are telling everyone it’s Ford’s fault because they published an API that wasn’t stable. But the thing is, our T&Cs on FordPass are that we do not give credentials to third parties - and the Smartcar auth flow requires you to give them your credentials. And the shady bastards skin their site to make it look like Ford‘s own system. And their excuse is “this is our only option.”

Shady AF.

Data provided through Smartcar will trip the security. And no matter how you signed up and who it was through, you will have to go direct to Smartcar to have them erase your creds and VIN - and you must reset your password too.

Here’s the simplest steps:

1. Do a password reset
2. Call FordPass directly at about 9am eastern - 1-800-883-2966
3. Tell them you’re locked out and the error code
4. Wait for a call back.

They say “within 5 business days.” They might chastise you for giving out your credentials. But they also might call back 15min later to tell you the account’s been re-enabled. That’s what happened the fourth time I called up.

 

[RickLightning]

Thanks for the info. FYI, the only third party app that I use that is integrated I believe is Electrify America per Ford instructions to be part of the Blue Oval network.

The EA app is NOT integrated in any way with FordPass.

If you use the same username and password on multiple sites, that's really bad practice - but NOT why you got your account locked. It was locked because you gave those credentials, to log into FordPass, to some other app - such as OptiWatt.

 

[RickLightning]

Yeah recently this has been happening to more people. The most common reason for this block is if you use your FordPass account to log into other services that attempt to automate your Ford, like OptiWatt or Home Assistant, IFTTT, etc. if you don’t do that, it could just be a false positive.

My advice is that you should call back every day until it is unlocked. I waited 7-8 days and didn’t get a response but when I called on the 8th day, within an hour my account was reinstated.

FYI, Google Home Assistant is in fact 100% approved by Ford.

 

[RickLightning]

I dealt with this last week, and the culprit was Smartcar.com. The app A Better Routeplanner uses it for live data from the truck instead of an OBDII connector - and I thought it was rather neat until that lovely lockout. ABRP contacted Smartcar who are telling everyone it’s Ford’s fault because they published an API that wasn’t stable. But the thing is, our T&Cs on FordPass are that we do not give credentials to third parties - and the Smartcar auth flow requires you to give them your credentials. And the shady bastards skin their site to make it look like Ford‘s own system. And their excuse is “this is our only option.”

Shady AF.

Data provided through Smartcar will trip the security. And no matter how you signed up and who it was through, you will have to go direct to Smartcar to have them erase your creds and VIN - and you must reset your password too.

Here’s the simplest steps:

1. Do a password reset
2. Call FordPass directly at about 9am eastern - 1-800-883-2966
3. Tell them you’re locked out and the error code
4. Wait for a call back.

They say “within 5 business days.” They might chastise you for giving out your credentials. But they also might call back 15min later to tell you the account’s been re-enabled. That’s what happened the fourth time I called up.

I warned people about Smartcar and Recurrent a year ago.

 

[chillaban]

FYI, Google Home Assistant is in fact 100% approved by Ford.

Alexa has an officially approved skill too!

I meant the open source “home-assistant” project used by many power users to do advanced home automations

 

[LSP]

The EA app is NOT integrated in any way with FordPass.

If you use the same username and password on multiple sites, that's really bad practice - but NOT why you got your account locked. It was locked because you gave those credentials, to log into FordPass, to some other app - such as OptiWatt.

I agree about what you advise for the credentials and for most sites I use last pass. I do not use Optiwatt. So it will be interesting to find out why I was blocked and will be sure to post. Thank you for your input.

 

[meow]

I warned people about Smartcar and Recurrent a year ago.

I’ve warned people about things in years past too, but it becomes apparent that unfortunately some lazy assholes don’t have the foresight to read every post of every forum on the internet - despite having the access!

 

[LSP]

At 1:46AM on Saturday morning I received an email from Ford with the title “User profile modified”. The body of the email said that my account information has changed. There was more nonsensical information after that and at the end it said to contact my system administrator if I did not request the changes.

So I tried logging in to the app and it wouldn’t accept my password. Thinking maybe it was a password related I reset it and tried to log in again. This time I received the following error message “CSIAH0320E”. I called customer service and was told that the problem may be because I was perhaps using the same credentials for the FordPass app for other apps. I said, well if you mean my email address and password then yes, of course I do and have been since I got my truck in July. I, like most people use the same email address and password on various accounts.

He said that my account was blocked for this reason and would take 5-7 days (not hours) for them to look into this and unblock it due to the volume of problems that they are experiencing. Finally, he gave me a case number and said someone will get back to me.

Anyone else have this problem and/or no what is going on and how to fix it? As limited as it is, I rely heavily on the app and would like having its functionality back sooner than later.

Update- I received an email today saying that my profile had changed and subsequently was able to successfully login to my app. Only Two days to unblock vs. estimated five to seven.

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