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How to set up and use your lock

This page covers the jobs most people need in the first week or two: setting a lock up on the TTLock app, adding codes for the people who live there, giving a cleaner or a guest access that expires, adding a card or fob, and what changes if you add the Wi-Fi gateway, which is a separate purchase. Read the section you need and skip the rest.

Before you start

Our locks are operated through the TTLock app, made by Hangzhou Sciener. It is not a Keyless Solutions app. Setup happens over Bluetooth, so you need to be standing at the door with your phone in your hand.

A little preparation saves most of the problems people ring about.

1. Have the lock fitted and working mechanically first. The bolt or latch should throw cleanly and the mechanical key should turn before you touch the app.
2. Fit fresh batteries. The battery type for your model is listed with its specifications. Use a full set of new batteries, not a mix of old and new.
3. Turn Bluetooth on and allow the app to use Bluetooth and location when it asks. A declined permission is a common reason the app cannot find a lock.
4. Set the lock up as soon as it is fitted. A lock that has never been registered to an account can be claimed by anyone standing nearby with the app, so do not leave it sitting unregistered.

Setting up your lock on the TTLock app

Work through these in order. Do the whole thing in one go, standing at the door.

If the app cannot see the lock at step 4, touch the keypad to wake it again and rescan. The lock goes back to sleep quickly.

1. 1. Download the TTLock app from the App Store or Google Play. Check the maker is listed as Hangzhou Sciener so you know you have the right one.
2. 2. Create an account using an email address or mobile number you control and will keep. This account will own the lock, so use your own, not a flatmate's and not the installer's.
3. 3. Wake the lock by touching the keypad so it lights up. Stand right at the door.
4. 4. In the app, choose to add a new lock. The app scans over Bluetooth and lists locks nearby that are not yet registered to anyone. Yours should appear in that list.
5. 5. Select your lock and let the app pair with it. Stay at the door while it works.
6. 6. Give the lock a name you will still understand in a year, such as Front Door or Sleepout. If you are setting up more than one, name them all as you go.
7. 7. The app sets an administrator passcode for the lock. Write it down and keep it somewhere that is not near the door, such as your wallet or a password manager. Treat it like a spare key, because that is what it is.
8. 8. Test all of it before you walk away. Lock the door, then open it with the app, then with the administrator passcode, then with the mechanical key. If all three work, the lock is set up properly.

The account holder is the administrator

The account you created in step 2 is the administrator for that lock. Every code, every card and every person you add later hangs off that account. Nobody else can change anything on the lock unless you send them access from it.

This is worth understanding properly. If you lose the login, you lose control of the lock. Keep the email address or mobile number on the account current, and use a password you can actually recover. Sharing the administrator passcode is not the same as sharing the account, and it does not give someone else the ability to manage codes.

Adding a permanent code for someone in the house

A permanent code suits the people who live there. Give each person their own code rather than one shared code for the household. When somebody moves out you then delete one code and leave everyone else alone.

1. 1. Stand at the door with the app open and let it connect to the lock over Bluetooth.
2. 2. Open your lock in the app and go to where codes are managed.
3. 3. Choose the option for a code with no end date.
4. 4. Either let the app generate a code or enter one yourself. Avoid a birth year, your street number, or 1234.
5. 5. Name the code after the person it belongs to. Six months from now you will not remember whose code 4471 was.
6. 6. Have that person enter the code at the door while you are still standing there, so you both know it works.

Adding a temporary or one-time code

For a cleaner, a dog walker, a tradesperson or a guest, do not hand out a permanent code. The app has code types that stop working on their own, which means you do not have to remember to cancel anything.

Without the Wi-Fi gateway, all of this is done over Bluetooth at the door. So plan ahead and set the code up before the visit, not when you are across town and the cleaner is on the step.

1. A code limited to a date and time range suits a cleaner who comes on a set morning, or a guest staying for a week. It expires by itself.
2. A one-time code works once and is then finished. That suits a single visit, such as a one-off repair.
3. Name every code after the person or the job. A list of unnamed numbers is useless later.
4. You can delete any code early if plans change.

Adding an RFID card or fob

Cards and fobs suit children, older family members, and anyone who does not want to carry a phone or remember a number.

If a card is lost, delete it in the app and it stops working. Without the Wi-Fi gateway you have to be at the door to do that. That is the real advantage over a mechanical key, which has to be found before you can be sure of it, or else the lock has to be rekeyed.

1. 1. Stand at the door with the card or fob in your hand and the app connected to the lock.
2. 2. In the app, go to where cards are managed and start adding a new one.
3. 3. When the app prompts you, hold the card or fob flat against the front of the lock until the lock responds.
4. 4. Name the card after the person who will carry it.
5. 5. Test it, then shut the door and test it again.

What the Wi-Fi gateway adds

None of the current KS150 to KS300 locks has Wi-Fi built in. On its own, a lock talks to your phone over Bluetooth only, which means you have to be at the door to change anything. Remote features need the Wi-Fi gateway, which is a separate purchase.

The gateway plugs into a power point inside the house, reasonably near the door, and joins your home Wi-Fi. It sits between the lock and the internet.

1. Lock and unlock from anywhere you have a phone signal.
2. Send someone a code, or delete one, without going home.
3. See when the lock was used and which code or card was used, which is why naming them matters.
4. Check the battery level without standing at the door.
5. If the power or the internet is out, the lock itself carries on working normally at the door with a code, a card or a key. You just lose the remote side until things come back.

The four ways through the door

There are four ways in: the TTLock app, a PIN code on the keypad, an RFID card or fob, and the mechanical key. The KS150, KS200, KS250, KS280 and KS300 have no fingerprint reader.

Set up at least two before you rely on the lock, and make sure everyone in the house knows where the mechanical key is.

If the batteries go flat

Every lock in the range takes a mechanical key override. That is the answer to a flat battery. Keep a key in your bag, in the car, or with a neighbour, rather than in a drawer inside the house.

The KS150, KS200 and KS280 have a USB port for emergency power. Holding a USB power bank to the port gives the lock enough power to open on a code, so you can get in and then change the batteries. The KS250 and the KS300 are not published with that port, so for those the mechanical key is the backup.

When you do change batteries, replace the whole set at once and do not mix brands or mix old with new.

When the property changes hands

This is the part people get wrong, and it matters more than any of the setup steps.

The lock is controlled by whoever holds the app account, not by whoever owns the house. If the account is not dealt with at handover, the previous holder still has control of the door.

1. Before you hand over, delete every code and every card you do not want to keep working.
2. The new occupant should end up as the administrator, either by taking over the account or by the lock being set up again under an account of their own.
3. If you are moving in and you did not do the setup yourself, ask who holds the app account. If nobody can tell you, treat it the same as being handed a house with an unknown number of keys floating about.
4. Do not hand over the administrator passcode instead of handing over the account. A passcode opens the door. The account controls the lock.

If something is not working

Work through the simple things first. Most setup problems are one of these.

If the problem is mechanical, the door, the strike plate, or the bolt not throwing properly, that is a fitting matter rather than an app matter. LockLab fit our locks across Auckland. If you are not sure whether it is the lock or the door, send us an enquiry and describe exactly what the lock does with the door standing open, and what it does with the door closed.

1. Touch the keypad to wake the lock, then scan again in the app.
2. Check Bluetooth is on and the app has permission to use Bluetooth and location.
3. Stand closer to the door. Bluetooth is short range.
4. Close the app completely and reopen it.
5. Try a fresh set of batteries.
6. If the lock is already registered to someone else's account it will not show as available to add. That has to be released by whoever holds the account, which is the usual situation with a second-hand or handed-over lock.