iCloud3 v3 iDevice Tracker - Version 3 Prerelease version is now available

I presume iCloud3 needs an update before allowing you to track Airtags? (hopefully it will be possible!) I don’t seem to be able to do it at the moment, presumably because they are categorised separately as “Items” and not “Devices” in iCloud?

Regarding Tracking Airtags…
There have been a few questions of tracking Airtags. I have read some of the technical details about how Airtags work in several articles and I do not think it will be possible to track them. From what I have read, they use a Low Energy Bluetooth to broadcast their signal to broadcast their signal range is about 300-400m. More importantly, they are not located by iCloud, that is, they do not have wifi or cell service so iCloud does not locate them so it does not have their GPS location. This means they can not be tracked like an iPhone, iPad or watch.

At some time, I will get one and see if it can be used for detecting when a phone enters a zone. I suspect that will require an update to the iOS App to detect that and fire off the appropriate triggers but do k=not know at this time.

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I haven’t read up on iCloud3 yet as I only discovered/installed it today, but the other iCloud integration works by scraping the iCloud web page I believe - where the tags are visible (so iCloud does track them in that sense) so hopefully it’s possible!

@zil0g
@Actually, iCloud and iCloud3 do not scrape the iCloud web page. They use the pyicloud module to request location information from your iCloud account. Both components use access the account after being authenticated using Apple’s 2fa security protocols.

The tags would be visible, just like all devices in the Family Sharing list, since they are a valid device within the account. Just because they are listed as a valid device does not mean the location is available. This will need further investigation after getting (and dumping) the raw data that is returned from iCloud in response to a location request.

iCloud3 has a debug option that lets you dump the raw data to the HA Log file for your account. You might want to install it and take a look at the data to see if anything is available. Let me know what you find out.

thanks, it doesn’t look like the tags are visible (they’re listed separately to devices including Family Sharing devices on the Find My app).

Hi Gary

I am just starting up with IC3. Hit my first problem and I can’t progress any further. I hope you can help me out. Many thanks

I installed IC3 from HACS.
Setup Event Log settings
Setup Configuration.yaml as follow:

device_tracker:
  - platform: icloud3
    username: !secret icloud3_username_br
    password: !secret icloud3_password_br
    tracking_method: iosapp
    config_ic3_file_name: "/config/config_ic3.yaml"
    event_log_card_directory: "www/custom_cards"

In the config_ic3.yaml, I have following:

devices:
  - device_name: my_iphone
    email: !secret icloud3_username_br
    name: my_name
    noiosapp: true
    ... other parameters after this

no matter what I do, I keep getting this error:
image

My device name matches with what I have on my phone

Do you have any suggestions or do you spot anything wrong with what I have done so far? Sorry it is a very noobie question but I just cannot go pass this hurdle.

I am running the latest 2.4.2 software

Just saw this in the log file:

File "/config/custom_components/icloud3/device_tracker.py", line 8577, in _get_recds_from_config_ic3
error_msg = (f"{EVLOG_ERROR}iCloud3 Error > Invalid configuration parameter > "
IndexError: list index out of range

And this:

2021-05-07 12:20:57 ERROR (SyncWorker_1) [custom_components.icloud3.device_tracker] iCloud3 Error 

@scooby

  1. Try without the !secrets. I remember reading somewhere in a HA update that is going to be changed so it will only work from configuration.yaml and not from other files.
  2. You have ‘tracking_method: iosapp’ and then have ‘noiosapp: true’. That says to track with the iOS App and not use iCloud. The noiosapp: true means the iOS App is not installed on the phone. You need to correct this.

Thank you for your quick reply, I will look at this and give you any feedback

Hi, different error message now

The see service is not supported for this entity device_tracker.my_iphone

@scooby
The icloud3 device_tracker.entity (my_iphone) can not have the same name as the iosapp device_tracker entity. See here for more info on changing the iosapp device_tracker entity name. Also see Chapter 1.2 for info on how the name ties things together.

You are a star. Thank you very much. No errors so far in the log.

Since yesterday I noticed that only two devices show on the map at a time, it didn’t happen before. Is anyone else facing same problem?

Been using iCloud3 now for a couple of weeks and it is working pretty well for me. The one thing I have not been able to figure out is how to stop the error message:

Logger: homeassistant.components.device_tracker
Source: components/device_tracker/legacy.py:507
Integration: Device tracker (documentation, issues)
First occurred: 12:01:36 PM (99911 occurrences)
Last logged: 3:16:56 PM

The see service is not supported for this entity device_tracker.my_iphone
The see service is not supported for this entity device_tracker.wifes_iphone

These started when I installed and configured iC3. If anybody has any hints or directions on how to get them to stop, it would be appreciated. They seem like no big deal, but it takes no time for 10s of thousands of entries to build up.
Thanks,
Bill

Does icloud3 use a high amount of cellular data?

@codemannh
This it’s caused by the iOS app having the same device_tracker entity name as iCloud3 for the device. See here in the iCloud3 docs for more info on the error and how to correct it.

My apologies, I missed that part of the set up even though I read it 2 or 3 times. I did do a search in the docs and did not find the part about the see service. Either way, it is fixed now and I do appreciate the effort on iCloud3.

Great work, there’s a lot of value here. I love the additive sensors and the lower power utilization. I do have a couple of requests…

  1. Any progress on getting Airtags in?
  2. Can this be made into a proper Integration so it’s added via the UI and shown in the integration screen?

Doesn’t the system use “find my devices” formally known as “find my friends” app ?