Reboot instructions for your Tesla

Last updated 14-Aug-2022

Tesla cars can sometimes find themselves with a software gremlin that requires a reboot or reset. It's not that common but it's certainly something that all owners need to be aware of as it solves the majority of issues. A typical example might be where the Tesla has a frozen screen. There are different reset options available which progressively reboot more of the computers and clear local cache, the most common one is a simple main screen reboot, also known as a scroll wheel reboot, but if the fault is deeper within the car, for instance linked to the autopilot or chargers, one of the bigger resets may be required. It's also possible that just leaving the car alone for a few hours will cure the problem as the car will go to sleep and effectively partially reboot itself when you wake it up.

The reboot options

The following reboot options exist. While some are possible while driving, we recommend that the car should always be stationary and in a safe place before rebooting the car.

Tesla now suggest unplugging all USB devices prior to performing a reboot as it can prevent some sub systems from shutting down.

Option 1: The scroll wheel reboot

Press and hold both scroll wheels on either side of the steering wheel for up to 10 seconds until the main/central screen starts to reboot. While rebooting you may see the airbag icon become visible in the dash (MS and MX only) and the clicking noise from the indicator will not be heard.

While this can be done while driving a M3 or MY, you will not see the speedometer and so we recommend doing this only when stationary.
Option 2: Top button reboot (MS and MX only)

Press and hold both buttons above the scroll wheels on either side of the steering wheel for up to 10 seconds and the drivers dash/screen will reboot.
Option 3: Configuration reset

There are other forms of reboot but sometimes the issue is menu options have gone missing, especially after a software update. This can also help if the car is stuck and won't allow drive to be selected. Via the menus, change the wheels size and/or design. This will cause the car to want to reboot, let this reboot automatically happen afterwards, and then change back the wheels to the correct one if you want to and reboot again although thisisn;t important. It's not an elegant solution, but some have found it can solve a number of problems.

Option 4: Full steering wheel hard reset and brake pedal

This reboot is a little harder to do and we're less convinced its beneficial if you've already tried the reboots above. That said, if you're struggling with the car, it may help as the brake pedal when pressed during a reboot causes some local caches to be cleared. You need to be sitting in the car with the doors closed and not open them for the duration of the reboot to perform the hard reset.
- Place your foot on the brake and keep it there, although some believe this is optional, it does no harm.
- Now press and hold both buttons above the scroll wheels, and the scroll wheels on either side of the steering wheel (MS and MX). or just the scroll wheels (M3 and MY)
- Hold for up to 10 seconds and the drivers dash/screen will reboot (centre screen on the M3 and MY).
- Wait, keeping your foot on the brake. Eventually the screens will restart.
Option 5: Full power down and restart

This is one of the bigger reboots and is similar to leaving the car over night and shutting down naturally. Sit in the car with the door closed and don't touch anything or open the door other than to follow the instructions to do a powerdown. This is also best done where its quiet as being able to listen to the car can help, otherwise pay attention to the time.
- Release the brake pedal if pressed
- Go to the main screen, bring up the service menu and select "Power Off".
- After a while the screens will have gone out, the interior light will have gone off and the system are shutting down.
- If you can hear the car, you may still hear some background noises from the car. If this is the case wait until the car is quiet.
- If you can't hear the car because of background noise, wait for several minutes, we suggest a minimum of 5 - it seems a long time but it is worth doing to ensure the car is fully shut down.
- Press the brake pedal to reawaken the car.
Option 6: Factory hard reset

We don't advise doing this hard reset unless you are selling the car but if you are stuck and Tesla support is unable to help, then this can be tried. The process is the same as Option 4 just pick the different option from the screen.

Additional things to try

Some people report their car screens rebooting randomly, the first sign of this on an MS or MX is if the Air-bag light comes on. Nobody knows all the reasons, but there have been a number of software glitches over the years that can cause this to a greater or lesser extent. If you are experiencing frequent reboots, maybe the air-bag light appearing and the steps above do not help, then some or all of the following have been known to help.

They all point to a memory issue, possibly the eMMC issue below, or a software fault of one form or another. Either the memory cannot handle some form of corrupted data, or the actions below move the active part of the eMMC memory to a different area which has not started to fail. If one of the suggestions below does resolve the issue, you should still log the issue with Tesla especially if in warranty as it may be temporary. If out of warranty you may want to consider the eMMC resolution below. If you can attribute the issue to a specific rogue music file or contact then there is no need to contact Tesla.

Clear the trip computers

Your car stores up a history of your driving and clearing the trip computers has been known to improve the stability of the computers, especially if one of the trip computers has a significant amount of history captured.
Clear previous destinations

Your car also stores the sat nav locations that have been previously used. These build up over time. These can be deleted by swiping them off the list.
Remove any USB devices

If you are using a USB dashcam or have a USB stick with music on it, then try removing it. Similar to the trip computer, a large amount of data can cause problems and in the case of music files, the car reads these in and stores the information to make the contents available to the driver. If this cures the problem, then try reducing the number of files on the USB stick and seeing if that solves the problem while regaining the utility of USB music.
Disconnect your Bluetooth phone

You may see a pattern here, if your phone has a lot of contacts then these will be loaded into the car. Disconnecting your phone for a while will help determine if this is the problem.

None of the above options are ideal, the car should be able to handle problems, but if one of these temporarily cures the problem you can start to work out how to permanently fix. It may be a rogue MP3 file, or a phone contact with some corrupted details. If however its trip or destination data then it could point to a problem with the car memory.