Had a problem with my hatch lock not locking, so I took it to the dealer. I told them that we would lock the car with the fob and check the hatch and it would not be locked. Although when the car was running it would not open and remained locked. They called me in about an hour and said it was fixed. The service tech took me to the car and stood around 20 feet away from it and clicked lock on the fob and asked me to open the hatch, I could not. Then he walked toward the car and stood next to me and asked again if I could open it and lo and behold it opened with out him activating the unlock button. Then he told me it was a normal operation. Wow!

 

I thought mine was not locking when I first had the car, but then found that moving the key away 5 feet it was locked and would not unlock.

 

Frustrating but completely normal. Its to help you load your groceries without having to find the remote and unlock the tailgate first.

 

Reading the manual sure is nice.

 

Havent had such good luck with the manual so far. Found it to be lacking with a number answers to questions I've had about out cx5 grand touting all wheel so far. May be they should have made it thicker than it is.

 

My tailgate will not unlock at all

 

Make sure you have read the manual and your settings are correct.
That said there is a TSB for certain year the rear hatch actuator control.
I didn't have an issue, but they still replaced mine replaced for free.