iCloud3 v2.1 Device Tracker - iCloud3 v2.2 has been released (10/10/2020)

Hello @gcobb321

Gary, amazing work you did with iCloud3. I had been using it since day 1, stopped when Apple changed the 2fa thing and iC3 stopped working, and I’m back now. Installed version 2.0.4 and it’s working very well.

I noticed something that’s probably more related to the Waze calculator than with iC3 itself, but I think it’s worth posting here: I get no Waze distances, if I’m out of my home zone it shows NoRoutes. I live in Brazil, I use Waze almost everyday for my daily commutes, but for some reason iC3 can’t get the data. If I remember well we had talked about this already, there is a reason, I just can’t remember what it is.

Anyway as I said it’s working great I’ll just use distance_method: calc and move on.

Thank you very much for all the hard work.

PS.: In the “all parameters” example I think you missed unit_of_measurement.

Regards from Brazil
Tales

I am also getting NoRoutes when I didn’t before (icloud3 v2). I live in the US too.

The ‘NoRoutes’ status indicates some type of error getting data back from Waze or with the data itself. That piece of code has been running for a while although I did make a minor change to that routine to prevent old Waze data from being used later on and moving the device back to a previous location. I’ll take a look at it and see if I see anything.

Edit: Waze adds a few entries to the HA log file showing the from/to location and results. Check to see what you are getting. The iCloud3 Event Log also shows Waze info if it uses it.

Hello,
i was using icloud3 since a couple of month before and i updated it to the new one using HACS.
i tried to follow the documentation but i’m stuck on a point concerning the fmf configuration. I’m sure i’m missing something obvious but can’t figure it out …

i have an iphone which i want to track with 2fa enable. so i tried to set up the fmf workaround.

i created a fake account on icloud.com and tried to share my iphone real account with it. Until this point it seems ok. i received an email on the fake account email saying that my real account is sharing its position with it.
but after that, in the documentation it says i should be able to see my iphone location into the icloud fake account … but i dont even have the find my friends application available … only some junk app (contact, drive, notes, pages, number and keynotes)

should i link this fake account to a real device ? how can i do since i only got 1 iphone.
am i missing something obvious ?

i’m really sad since it was working great before that.

I’m using the iOS home companion on all of my iOS devices (3 iPhones and an iPad) as well as a Mac. I’m not too thrilled with the update delay on the iphones, especially when it comes to entering and exiting zones. Will iCloud3 help speed this issue up without draining my devices batteries? Currently I have the following in my configuration.yml. Will I need to remove these and/or add anything else?

Is installing via HCAS the preferred method?

discovery:
ios:
device_tracker:
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@Oniric75

  1. The Find my friends app was changed to just ‘Find My’ in ios13 so that is the app you want to use to make sure your non-2fa account can see your real account once you share the real one with the’fake’ one, which it appears you have done since you got the email from Apple.
  2. You need to create a contact in the non-2fa account with the name and email address of the real 2fa account. This is how it’s info is tied to the non-2fa account and picked up by iCloud3.
  3. The track _devices parameter ties both accounts together with the email address of the real account you put in the contacts of the fake account.

@FutureTense

  1. iCloud3 uses the iOS app for exit/enter Triggers when the iOS app exits or enters a zone and monitors a state change or trigger change every 5-seconds so it is pretty responsive. I pick up the exit triggers Probably within a minute or two of leaving my home zone but your timing would depend on your cell coverage.
  2. I think the config uses ‘iOS’ for iOS app v1, which has now been discontinued, and ‘mobile_app’ for v2.
  3. Yes, I would use HACS.
  4. You won’t see any battery drain using iCloud3.
  5. I’d try it out on one phone to see how it does. The easiest way would be to first set it up with the Family Sharing tracking method to see if you get the zone triggers without any problems. Do it on one device. You will get the Apple notifications every half hour on that device. If it works ok, then go on to setting up the’fmf’ sharing method to eliminate the notifications on all of your phones.

I’m seeing no routes also.

I reverted back to 2.0.2 and I have Waze distance and Travel time back.

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IOS 13 turns on 2fa automatically and it can not be turned off. The non-2fa account should be added on a computer instead of an iPhone or iPad.

How do you create a new Apple ID on a PC without 2fa? Do I have to install iTunes? I can get temporary access to an old iPhone, but will I need to have that long term?

ETA:

Ah, you can do it on a web browser. Just click on that link and follow the instructions.

You set up the device’s primary user as a friend on the Find My app (iOS 13) or the Find-my-Friends app (iOS 12) and iCloud3 will locate them just like the app does. Since your Apple iCloud account probably has 2fa turned on, you need to create a new iCloud account without 2fa, then add the person using the device as a friend to that account, share their location and verify their location is being shared before setting up iCloud3.

This part is confusing me a bit. My Apple ID is [email protected]. I created a new account called [email protected]. Do I need to login on an iOS device with the iCloud3 account and then add all my Apple IDs as friends? Which is the primary user?

[email protected] is used as the AppleID running Find My/Find My Friend on an iOS device. 2FA accounts are added as Friends to enable tracking of the 2FA devices. The iOS Companion App creates a device tracker of its own. IC3 monitors both the FMF App and the iOS Companion App for motion events.

I use three devices. An older iPhone to run FMF, a newer iPhone running iOS Companion, and a server running HA.

Do you need that phone running constantly, or only to setup? And I assume since you’re running FMF you didn’t upgrade to 13? But as long as I created the new Apple ID without 2fa, it’s safe to upgrade to 13 and login with this new account? Meaning it won’t force me to 2fa?

Yes. It’s plugged in to power. It’s a 5, so 10.2.4 I believe.

I was under the impression that you could simply run iCloud on a Windows PC and not have to have an extra iOS device. Was I incorrect?

You run IC3 as a component of Home Assistant on the same machine. Your iOS device is logged in to a single Apple iCloud account. The second iOS device allows you to use the Apple non-2FA account. IC3 does not replace your Apple iCloud account.

So to be perfectly clear, a second iOS device is required to “host” your new non 2fa Apple ID account. correct?

Sorry to sound like a nag, but if this is true it should be mentioned somewhere in the documentation. Maybe it is and I’m just missing it.

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No, you don’t need the extra device. I have not logged into the non-2fa account since the initial setup months ago.

It may be convenient if you are adding more devices, but then you could always log out of your primary (2fa) icloud account and into the non-2fa account as required.

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So IC2/3 logs into the non 2fa account and sees its “friends”. Does this work for all devices each friend has that is running the Home Companion app? So if I have both an iPhone and iPad they would show up on the map and respond to zone triggers?

No. Each device requires a unique ID. The intention is to track the person using the device.