How to unlock Kevo Smart Lock without phone

Kwikset Kevo mostly depends on your smartphone for locking and unlocking, but what if your phone died or you just forgot to take it with you when you left the house? You’re not entirely out of luck, and with a few preventive measures, you can rest easy knowing that you can still open your door even if your phone can’t help.

RELATED: How to install and configure Kwikset Kevo Smart Lock

Kevo relies heavily on the convenience of locking and unlocking your door without the need for a physical key. Instead, it uses a combination of your phone’s Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and GPS to determine if you’ve arrived home and are at your front door. If so, you can click on the lock to quickly unlock it. If not, then Kevo remains unlockable.

However, if your phone’s battery is dead, you’ve forgotten your phone, or you’ve lost it, you might be wondering how the hell you’re getting into your own home. There are a couple of things you can do.

Use your actual keys (Spirit)

The Kwikset Kevo can still act like any other deadbolt — it has a traditional lock that unlocks and locks it with a regular key (which is included with the Kevo), completely bypassing the lock’s smart keys. So no, you’re not completely screwed if your phone dies or you don’t have it with you.

Well, great; now you should always have a spare key with you just in case. But the truth is, you already carry your key fob with you anyway, especially if you have a car. So the issue of adding another key to your setup is probably not a big deal.

However, if you don’t carry a key fob with you, it would be nice to have access to a spare key, preferably hidden somewhere outside of your home.

Now don’t be obvious and hide your spare key under a rug or in a porch light as these are obvious places thieves will look. Instead, hide it somewhere that is not close to your front door, like somewhere along the side of your house. From there, hide in a place no one would think to look, like inside your grill or even somewhere under your big air conditioner.

Retrieving that spare key can be a hassle in the back if you lock yourself in your house… but at least you’ll be able to get back into your house.

Borrow a friend’s phone

If you don’t have access to either a spare key or your phone, there’s still hope. As a last resort, you can ask a friend if you can borrow their phone, download the Kevo app, log in with your Kevo credentials, and then use your phone to unlock the door. Since your digital security keys are locked to your Kevo account and not to your phone, this will work.

Of course, this is kind of a last resort and I guess a friend wouldn’t be too happy that you downloaded the app on your phone. I hope this is a good friend and they will help you anyway.

Locking the door without a phone

As far as locking the door when leaving the house, all you need to do is press the Kevo to lock it if you have your phone on your face. So if it doesn’t block, then you know you probably forgot your phone and you can run it back to retrieve it. And hopefully you’re smart enough not to leave the house with a phone with a dead battery.

However, in case you don’t have your phone, or it’s dead, and you need to lock the door, you can take advantage of Triple Touch Lock, which is a Kevo feature that allows you to lock your door without your phone being present.

To do this, you need to remove the lockable inner cover and find a small switch board (as shown above). From there, turn on switch #2 by taking the handle and pressing the small switch.

From there, Triple Touch Lock will be activated and all you have to do is tap the lock three times in a row to lock your door.