Hi Terrence,
This is Terry from Milesight IoT Support Team.
For this issue, can you follow the steps below for troubleshooting?
1. Please first check the location of the NFC antenna on your phone. The NFC antenna location on the WS202 is as shown below.
2. Please check whether the plastic sheet on the back of the WS202 has been removed. We need to remove the plastic sheet so that the battery can power the WS202, allowing the NFC to be read properly.
3. When using the Toolbox to read the WS202, make sure to align the NFC locations of the phone and WS202, and do not move the phone or WS202 during the reading process, otherwise, the reading will fail.
If your phone shows that reading has started, it means the NFC antennas of the phone and WS202 are aligned. Please use the same position to read. If it fails during reading, try several times.
If it continues to fail, please record a video showing your reading process so that I can check whether the issue is due to incorrect operation.
Best Regards,
Terry He | Technical Specialist
Xiamen Milesight IoT Co., Ltd.
Building C09, Software Park Phase III, Xiamen 361024, Fujian, China
T:86-592-5085280-5775
Ticket System: https://support.milesight-iot.com
I am able to connect if I close the phone app, turn off NFC and then turn it back on. Then open the app and connect.
If I connect and it fails to read the data, I have to repeat the above process.
Hi Terrence,
Sorry for the late response, we just got back to office from the national holiday.
For the current situation you described, could you please share an operation video or a screen recording from your phone showing the process when the issue occurs? Also, please share the version of Toolbox you are using. The latest Toolbox version is 2.0.7, and I recommend updating to this version first.
In theory, when the phone’s NFC is turned on, if a read fails, we only need to read again from the correct position without moving the phone or the sensor during the process. There is no need to turn the NFC off and on again.
If you try reading again in the same position without turning off NFC, can you see the progress bar appear on Toolbox? If it does appear, does the progress bar increase?
If the progress bar does not appear and the position is indeed the same, to rule out a phone-related issue, could you try testing with another phone to see if the same problem occurs? So far, we haven’t encountered similar cases.
Best Regards,
Terry He | Technical Specialist
I am having the same issue with the WS302 that we ordered for testing. We have many, many, many apple and android cell phones that all work very well with the many NFC tags that we use on a semi daily basis on project sites. With the WS302 I am unable to get any of the apple phones to read the NFC tag and the android phones fail about 93% of the time. When I do finally read the tag, the one thing that I need is the APPkey and that is hidden with *********************. Absolutely useless. How do we get the Appkey value out of the toolbox to use if it is hidden with ***********************?
Hey Andy, I had this same issue with the Appkey, but then I remembered that Choovio, the vendor I purchased the PIRs from, sent me an email with identifier data in it.
Hi Andy,
This is Max from Milesight IoT Support Team.
Regarding the NFC issue, could you kindly record a video and share it with me? I can check whether there are any operational errors.
Regarding the AppKey issue, for Milesight sensors purchased before September 15, 2025, the default AppKey is 5572404c696e6b4c6f52613230313823. For sensors purchased after September 15, the default AppKey is composed of the concatenation of the Device EUI of the sensor twice. For example, if your sensor's Device EUI is 24e124743f170333, then its AppKey would be 24e124743f17033324e124743f170333.
Based on the sensor serial number (SN) you provided in the ticket(6743F17025700001), I have checked and found that the default AppKey for this device is 24e124743f17025724e124743f170257.
Best Regards,
Max Cai | Technical Specialist
Hello Max,
We view the ability for anyone with a free app to be able read the device and find all of its device information including the Appkey as a security risk. The app key should be only accessible to the owner and not anyone with basic knowledge and a free app. The fact that you just put our Appkey on a public forum is not okay. I acknowledge that the likelihood of anyone correlating this thread to our device is improbable in this case but it is a security risk in general to provide details such as this in any public forum. Please have a read of my comments in the ticket as well for more details.
Hi Andy,
We understand your concerns regarding information security, and I apologise for my oversight. However, all pre-configured keys are insecure, so we would recommend manually modifying the Appkey while configuring an NFC password to restrict read and write access by other users. This will further protect your information security.
Best Regards,
Max Cai | Technical Specialist
Terrence Spencer
I just purchased 2 - WS202 PIRs.
I have 4 cell phones in my possession with NFC and I can barely get a connection.
I have read all the instructions on getting phone close and locating the NFC chip on my phones, but this will not work
I can't go to customer site and show them how to connect with NFC if it does not work.