Hellooooo im having issues with my 2016 Mazda 3 and am hoping someone on here can help me 🙏🏻

A few days ago I noticed my key fob was blinking red, and then the next morning I wasn’t able to unlock the car. I figured the fob battery was dead so I replaced it thinking that would solve the issue but it didn’t.

As a side note - I do NOT have a spare key fob! I bought the car used from a dealership and they for some reason only gave me one. Also, I don’t have the manual key that fits inside the fob because I lost the original fob a few years ago and had a locksmith come program a new one but he wasn’t able to cut the key for my car…so it’s just a generic key that doesn’t work.

Anyway, I called AAA and they manually opened my door for me. Car still wouldn’t start though, so I asked him to give me a jump but that didn’t do anything. the guy basically told me he had no idea what was wrong and then left.

I ended up emergency starting the car by holding the fob up to the start button and it worked. Now this is the only way I can start the car and I’ve been having to leave my drivers side door unlocked everyday otherwise I’ll get locked out again. Also thought it might be worth mentioning that there was never any kind of warning light on my dash indicating there was any issue with the key before all of this started happening.

Does anyone have any idea what the issue might be? I’ve tried looking on here but seems like answers vary. This is my first time posting on here so I apologize if I’m not doing this correctly, but If anyone can help I would really appreciate it! I hate having to leave the car unlocked every night seeing as I park on the street. Thank you!!!