HA Device Tracking via IOS App

Configuration
1

I’ve been unsuccessful in getting device tracking to work using the HA IOS App. I’m running HASSIO 0.941 on a Raspberry Pi.

I inserted “IOS:” in configuration.yaml and verified the Device Tracker Component is loaded in the IOS App. I see the devices listed in the know_devices.yaml file to which I added the Wi-Fi MAC addresses of the devices. I do see the devices listed in the HA Developers Tools State tab as “device_tracker.xxxx,” but the States shown is always “NOT_HOME.”

Am I missing some configuration steps to get this working?

2

v0.94.1 is not supposed to be using known_devices. Check the integration page.

3

you need to use beta 2.0 of iOA app and that doesn’t use ios: anymore.

4

I didn’t create known_devices.yaml. It was created automatically by HA. Should I delete the file?

I looked in the integration page. The devices are there. How do I get device_tracker to work? I thought the IOS app automatically reports presence status back to HA periodically.

5

I’m as in the dark as you are on this @ptmy

David’s information that we have to now use the beta app is a surprise.

The ios documentation has not been updated and there was no mention of this in the release notes.

@DavidFW1960 would you mind helping out with what the upgrade procedure is if currently using the v1.5 iOS app?

6

Device tracking I believe relies on mobile-app and that needs the 2.0 beta app. It is certainly working on my system with that.

7

You can use both the 1.5 app and the beta 2 app - configured independently.

You will need:

mobile_app:
zeroconf:
ssdp:

In config yaml

Then sign in on the v2 app. You then will most probably need to restart home assistant… Make sure you have a push_id and then do the restart.

8

Should I delete ios: from configuration.yaml?

9

If you use the old app and actionable notifications you will need ios:. I don’t use either so I removed it months ago.

10

The only thing I’m using the app for is tracking and remote access to HA.

I’m just catching up by reading the iOS discord history and wondering if it’s worth holding off updating HA until the next app release.

11

Not sure why you would do that - Robbie has been recommending people run the beta app for a while now and it seems to work fine with 0.94.x - what particularly is your concern?

12

Documentation shown here (and included hyperlinks): https://www.home-assistant.io/getting-started/presence-detection/ leads one to believe that just by loading the HA IOS app available from the Apple App Store, he/she would get device tracking capability automatically. I didn’t even know about a beta version of the IOS app. Where can one find information on features of the beta software?

13

tom_i: are you able to get tracking to work using the production App from the Apple App Store?

14

Having to change all my automations to use the mobile tracker for the beta device (that seems to be a separate device) and then change them back for the release candidate.

15

I haven’t updated to 0.94.1 yet. Still on 0.93.2 and am considering whether or not do do it.

Beta documentation: https://companion.home-assistant.io/
iOS app discord chat: https://discord.gg/tza7GM
iOS beta testing: Home Assistant for iOS 2.0 Beta Testing

16

The difference is the 0.94.x stopped using the known_devices.yaml file and it renamed the sensors from device_tracker.UUID-really-long and replaced the UUID with a friendly name.

17

Installed the beta app. Interestingly I get a beta tracker with a really long UUID. Not a friendly name.

18

I was seeing that till I deleted it from the known_devices.yaml. Now I only see ones with a friendly name.

19

I’m going to remove the whole iOS integration, clean and reinstall when I get home as there’s some old iOS devices that need deleting too.

1 Like
20

The problem with HA documentations and suggestions on the internet is that it’s very difficult to tell which version of HA those suggestions and documentations pertain to. In fact, most are completely obsolete due to the fast pace of HA development. But as far as I can tell, I thought there were only two steps necessary to get IOS App tracking to work with the current version of HASSIO:

  1. add “IOS:” in configuration.yaml
  2. install the HA IOS App available from the Apple App Store, and log in.

But I was wrong; it didn’t work.

One confusion is that I read somewhere that IOS App device tracking works by periodically sending IPhone location GPS information back to the HA server. If that’s the case, seems like I would need to expose my Hassio instance to the internet. My Hassio installation is local only; is this what’s causing my problem?

Does anyone know the exact steps necessary to get IOS App device tracking to work with the production IOS App and most current Hassio version? I don’t want to mess around with the beta IOS App, and based on everything I read, running the Beta software isn’t required.