Tesla Toolbox – What is it?

Tesla’s Toolbox is now in its third iteration and is even more powerful than ever before.  The previous version ‘Toolbox 2.1’ required to be installed on a Windows computer whereas ‘Toolbox 3’ can be run inside a browser on Windows, Linux and Mac.

We at Becker Automotive Ltd use Toolbox all the time to change configurations for our customers or to perform diagnostics remotely.  We are more than happy to configure your computer if you have your own Toolbox subscription.  This service is also included in any of our support services where we use our Toolbox subscription.

There are 2 Steps needed to prepare your computer to let Tesla Toolbox Diagnostic software communicate with your Tesla vehicle.
1. Configure the IP manual address
2. Configure Google Chrome Page Settings for the Toolbox.tesla.com website

How to configure IP address for use with Toolbox

Select your operating system:

Tesla needs to be able to speak to the car via the ethernet port. To do that, you need to configure the adapter settings.  This was super easy back with older generations of Windows, but newer ones have ‘made things easier’ which brakes compatibility with Toolbox.
As such, please follow these directions exactly.  Do not use the modern UI of the network settings! You’d think it should work as it’s “the same thing”, but no… 

Click on the windows logo and type in ncpa.cpl and hit the Enter/Return button on your keyboard to open it.

This will open up the network connections submenu of the control panel where you will see your WiFi connector, possibly some VPN connectors but most importantly you should see an Ethernet connector.  If your laptop does not have a physical Ethernet port, you will need to purchase and connect a USB or USB-C to Ethernet adapter so you can then see this connector in this window.

Right click the Ethernet adapter and select ‘Properties’

Select ‘Internet Protocol Version 4 (TCP/IPv4)’ and then click Properties

Next you will want to select ‘Use the following IP address:’ and input:
IP address: 192.168.90.125
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0
Then click on ‘ok’ to close the window, and click on ‘ok’ again to close the next window.

Your IP address is now correctly set on your ethernet adapter.

Step 1: Get a USB or USB-C to Ethernet adapter

In 2012 Apple removed Ethernet ports from their laptops.  As such you will need to get a USB-Ethernet adapter, or if your laptop has USB-C ports, get a USB-C to Ethernet adapter.  Make sure it is a branded model, typically $10-15. They are most likely to work with MacBooks.  Most $5 adapters that claim to work with Macbooks end up to be a waste of time as they keep dropping connection which is just going to cause a lot of headaches for you.

Step 2: Open System Settings

Click on the Apple icon top left hand corner of your screen and then on ‘System Settings’

Step 3: Open Network Tab

Click on ‘Network’ to showcase all your network adapters.  Every company names their USB-Ethernet adapter differently. In the example image below there are 4 different USB-Ethernet adapters listed just to prove this point.

Step 4: Select your Ethernet adapter

Select whatever the name of your Ethernet adapter is to see this next page.  Proceed by clicking on ‘Details…’

Step 5: Set IP Address TCP/IP

Click on ‘TCP/IP’, then under ‘Configure IPv4’ select ‘Manually’.

Next input:
IP address: 192.168.90.125
Subnet mask: 255.255.255.0

click ‘OK’ and then close the System Settings window.

Toolbox can now communicate with the car using this USB-Ethernet adapter.

How to configure Google Chrome

Visit https://toolbox.tesla.com and log in with your Tesla account.

Depending on whether you have an active Toolbox subscription or not, you will see one of the two screens below. It doesn’t matter right now if you have a subscription or not.

To the left of the website URL, you will find the page settings icon. Click it to unfold the menu and select ‘Site Settings’.

Scroll down to ‘Insecure Content’ and change it from ‘Block (default) to ‘Allow’.  This ‘insecure content’ are the scripts that try to access your Tesla vehicle via your network adapter.  Under normal circumstances blocking such access rights makes perfect sense, but it’s 100% required.

Close the settings window once you’ve selected ‘Allow’.  Now you will see at the top of the Toolbox page a banner requesting you to reload the page.  Click the ‘Reload’ button.

Congratulations.  Your computer now has the network connection properly configured as well as Google Chrome.  Now all you need is a Tesla Toolbox subscription.

To access Toolbox you can either visit Tesla’s Diagnostic Software and purchase a day, month or annual pass (if available in your territory), or you can use a discounted Toolbox login via THIS page here.