iCloud3 v3 iDevice Tracker - Version 3

cedricdelecole · November 22, 2024, 11:35am

ok guys, something I am missing in here … my daughter is currently almost home and the tracker still shows she is at the university :

she was at the university at least since 8am this morning …
she left around 12 … and the map is still showing here at the university, where she is now almost at home.

Here is the log :

I see things like “2 hours ago” …
Is there an explanation somewhere on WHEN the tracker is being updated because “every 2 hours” is obviously not ok …

Now at 12.30 finally you see she is almost home …
But I also do not see frequent updates during the travel from University to home on the map :

at 12h24, she was definitely not at the university anymore !!
and at 12h32 it shows like almost at home … the travel time is much more than 8 minutes …
And you also do not see updates during the traject …

Can someone explain that to me please ?

Many thanks !!

gcobb321 · November 22, 2024, 6:08pm

@cedricdelecole
The explain action is rather simple.

Your daughter went into the UCL zone. She has an inZone interval in her configuration of 2 hours so the next location request would be done 2-hours after she entered the zone and would continue to be 2-hours until she exited it.

At 12:24:20, she exited the zone and her location was requested. iCloud responded with several old locations so iCloud3 kept requesting the location until a good one was received. It then look at her location and set the next request to 3-mins based on her location.

The problem is she does not have the Mobile App installed so there is no trigger to do an immediate locate update when she exits the zone. The trigger is the inzone interval of 2-hours.

Either install the Mobile App, change her inzone interval to 15-mins or less, or set up an automation that would issue the iCloud3 Action Locate when she disconnected from the UCL network. See Service Calls in the iCloud3 docs for more info about that.

cedricdelecole · November 23, 2024, 12:30pm

Thanks a lot, @gcobb321 … so let me rephrase in my own words.
If a zone is defined in HA (like the UCL one), and so enters the zone, and its config has “Inzone” interval set to 2 hours, the next localisation request will be every 2 hours from the moment you enter the zone, and this until you exit the zone.

Something I do not understand … if Icloud3 continuously monitors de device to check when the zone is quitted (exit), why is it not then also continuously requesting the position (I mean this is the same resource consuming, no, as position needs to be known anyway ?)

Coming back to the explanation … if I enter the zone at 8:00, and exits at 12:24 … there would be a request at 10:00, then at 12:00 … then at 12:24, the zone is exitted so location is requested … but what happened then when you say “iCloud responded with several old locations so iCloud3 kept requesting the location until a good one was received” ?

Is it that location was requested but no location was returned ? Like for example apple would not have responded with the location ? And that would have been solved vy installing the companion app on the phone ?

I thought I installed and configured it, but let me check to be sure … but I am almost sure the companion app is installed …

gcobb321 · November 23, 2024, 5:18pm

@cedricdelecole

iCloud3 continually monitors the mobile app triggers, not the device itself. It gets the location from Apple iCloud location by requesting the location and to request it continually would cause Apple to locate all the devices on each request ethics that will eat the battery. The mobile app is on the device and sends zone exit triggers when it detects it the device exits the zone. This has no effect on the battery since Apple is not involved. Also involved is Apple will report an old location when one is requested. It is sending back the last known location since it also only locates the device when the location is requested. Going to the FindMy app is a good example. When you locate your devices, you see a spinning wheel while it gets the location and displays the last one while it is waiting for one. And Apple might not be able to locate it if it is in a poor cell area or can not get a good gps signal.
When iCloud3 sees the location is old, typically more than 3-mins old, it keeps asking for one until it gets a good one. It starts at a 15-sec interval, then goes to 1-min, 5-mins, 15-mins etc to give Apple time to get it. Always requesting on a 5-sec interval doesn’t get it any faster and can slow down the handling of other tracked devices. It can get pretty complicated.
A Watch runs into the same problem since it does not have the HA on it that can do location updates. The default inzone interval it’s 15-mins so it will locate the device every 15-mins and respond to zone exits a lot sooner. If you are not using the mobile app, set her value to 10 or 15 mins and see what happens.

cedricdelecole · November 23, 2024, 5:31pm

ok … I need to look more in details.
I just checked the Mobile app and it IS installed and configured.
What let you think in the log it is not installed ?
Is there a way I can test this ?

many Thanks !!

gcobb321 · November 23, 2024, 5:51pm

@cedricdelecole
The Results Line at the top of each tracking event (in red) shows NotUsed under the Mobile App heading. UCL is under iCloud and it changed to Away after the zone was exited. Check Stage 4 & 5 to see how the Mobile App Device tracker entity name is matched with the iCloud3 device that Is set up on the Configure > iCloud3 Devices > Select > Update Device screen.

cedricdelecole · November 23, 2024, 6:28pm

Ok … I co firm HA is configured on the mobile (Mobile app), but I nees to find a way to check it sends the position …
;-(

cedricdelecole · November 24, 2024, 9:01am

@gcobb321 thank you …

now I have this kind of message in green :

… and its configuration seems like the device is not in it anymore ?? :
1 out of 0 iCloud Devices Tracked ??
(even not 0 out of 1 lol)

It says the device is not in apple account anymore …

Login and password are ok, I can connect … Is it an issue with the fact that the 2 Authentication code is expired or something maybe ?

crankycowboy · November 25, 2024, 7:18pm

I’ve been a longtime user of icloud3 and have had very few problems. Semi-recently my wife and I as well as our 3 kids all got new iphones. I had go in and edit the family share device associated with each account. It all seemed to work fine, but then I realized that I selected the wrong device (swapped between my wife and I). I tried to correct it, but it kept saying the device wasl aready tied to another account etc. Finally, I went into icloud 3 and completely deleted my wife’s and my icloud 3 entry. However, they still show up within icloud 3. Restarting killing my vm and starting again, nothing seems to remove it from icloud 3. Any suggestion? Thanks.

gcobb321 · November 26, 2024, 5:36am

@crankycowboy
Set the Apple account to None on Configure > iCloud3 Devices > device > Update Device screen for both phones which will make them available again. Then select them again the way you want them to be.

When you say it keeps showing up, do you mean as a tracked d device at the top of the Event Log or listed as a device I in the Apple acct in Stage 4 when iCloud3 starts.?

gcobb321 · November 26, 2024, 5:43am

@cedricdelecole
Logging into Apple it’s a multiuser process. One is to validate the password. The second is to load all of the devices. It looks like the devices in the account did not load properly. Restart iCloud3 from Event Log > Actions > Restart iCloud3. Look at Event Log Stage 4 and see if the devices are listed or if there are any errors.

cedricdelecole · November 26, 2024, 9:43am

Thanks a lot @gcobb321 … did a restard of Icloud 3 … out of the 3 accounts, I see Cédric login successfull, Alessio as well … Inès no error message but only says “Device Data refreshed”

STAGE 3 says Inès and Alessio are ok, I understand :

later on in stage 4, it seems that the Devices could not be found from Apple I understand “APPLE ACCOUNT DEVICE NOT FOUND” … at least for Alessio

Later on on Stage 4 a RETRY, unsuccessfull again

I though this may be linked to the open issue again with login to Apple ?

So what I have at current :

gcobb321 · November 26, 2024, 5:41pm

@cedricdelecole
See here for more information about this problem

cedricdelecole · November 29, 2024, 8:46am

Thanks a lot @gcobb321 … but is this normal it seems to work for Inès, and not for Alessio ??

At least I am not sure, because the position of Inès is updated on the map, but the log seems to give a warning
;-(
→ Or the position is updated thanks to the Mobile App working instead of Icloud3.

gcobb321 · November 29, 2024, 9:23am

@cedricdelecole
It looks like you are still running v3.1.3.

See here for more information about this problem.

cedricdelecole · November 29, 2024, 9:46am

yeah, I know Apple change back their settings, but it was unclear to me I had to revert back OR wait for some stabilisation.
I will revert back then

Many thanks !s

mirekmal · December 5, 2024, 7:55am

Worked fine for quite some time and then ~a week ago I started to notice that frequency of updates dropped down. Now it gets even worse, like not updating position for hours.:

Here you can see that my wife went to shop (API Zielonka) yesterday 16:59:15. She was back home around 17:20, but integration noticed this just today at 8:07:55…

Same lack of updates I can see on device entities screen:

After update at 8:07, next update should happen in 5 minutes (8:13), but did not happen, despite time being already 8:21. I can log into iCloud and from there I see that location of my wife’s phone was changed properly.

I was also looking at devices configuration in integration and I noticed something strange, I did not seen previously:

How could it be 3 out of 0 ? Looks like devices are configured that are not part of my account… which somehow makes sens looking on following screen:

Strange again, as all these devices are included in my family sharing and I can see them directly in iCloud.
I also checked log file and seems there is some sort of authentication error related to iClod3 integration:

ERROR (SyncWorker_6) [custom_components.icloud3] mirek, Authentication Failed, Connection Error, Secure Password Validation Data was not returned from Apple. ErrorCode-503
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/config/custom_components/icloud3/support/pyicloud_ic3.py", line 655, in __init__
    self.authenticate()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/config/custom_components/icloud3/support/pyicloud_ic3.py", line 824, in authenticate
    raise PyiCloudFailedLoginException(err_msg)
custom_components.icloud3.support.pyicloud_ic3.PyiCloudFailedLoginException: mirek, Authentication Failed, Connection Error, Secure Password Validation Data was not returned from Apple. ErrorCode-503
2024-12-05 05:50:09.555 ERROR (SyncWorker_6) [custom_components.icloud3] mirek, Authentication Failed, Connection Error, Secure Password Validation Data was not returned from Apple. ErrorCode-503
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/config/custom_components/icloud3/support/pyicloud_ic3.py", line 655, in __init__
    self.authenticate()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/config/custom_components/icloud3/support/pyicloud_ic3.py", line 824, in authenticate
    raise PyiCloudFailedLoginException(err_msg)
custom_components.icloud3.support.pyicloud_ic3.PyiCloudFailedLoginException: mirek, Authentication Failed, Connection Error, Secure Password Validation Data was not returned from Apple. ErrorCode-503
2024-12-05 05:50:10.823 ERROR (SyncWorker_6) [custom_components.icloud3] mirek, Authentication Failed, Connection Error, Secure Password Validation Data was not returned from Apple. ErrorCode-503
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/config/custom_components/icloud3/support/pyicloud_ic3.py", line 655, in __init__
    self.authenticate()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/config/custom_components/icloud3/support/pyicloud_ic3.py", line 824, in authenticate
    raise PyiCloudFailedLoginException(err_msg)
custom_components.icloud3.support.pyicloud_ic3.PyiCloudFailedLoginException: mirek, Authentication Failed, Connection Error, Secure Password Validation Data was not returned from Apple. ErrorCode-503
2024-12-05 05:50:10.824 ERROR (SyncWorker_6) [custom_components.icloud3] iCloud3 Device Configuration Error > Mirek iPhone (icloud3) (mirek_icloud_iphone), iCloudDevice-Mirek's iPhone, Not in Apple Acct-mirek@…………
2024-12-05 05:50:10.825 ERROR (SyncWorker_6) [custom_components.icloud3] iCloud3 Device Configuration Error > Dorota iPhone (icloud3) (dorota_icloud_iphone), iCloudDevice-iPhone (Dorota Malinowska), Not in Apple Acct-mirek@…………
2024-12-05 05:50:10.825 ERROR (SyncWorker_6) [custom_components.icloud3] iCloud3 Device Configuration Error > Mama iPhone (mama_icloud_iphone), iCloudDevice-iPhone Barbara, Not in Apple Acct-mirek@…………
2024-12-05 05:50:11.965 INFO (MainThread) [homeassistant.core] Starting Home Assistant
2024-12-05 05:53:04.302

I tried to reaunthenticate, but I do not get code on my phone upon request, to enter in integration. After each retry to request the code I see in log:

2024-12-05 08:53:30.018 ERROR (SyncWorker_4) [custom_components.icloud3] mirek, Authentication Failed, Connection Error, Secure Password Validation Data was not returned from Apple. ErrorCode-503
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "/config/custom_components/icloud3/support/pyicloud_ic3.py", line 655, in __init__
    self.authenticate()
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~^^
  File "/config/custom_components/icloud3/support/pyicloud_ic3.py", line 824, in authenticate
    raise PyiCloudFailedLoginException(err_msg)
custom_components.icloud3.support.pyicloud_ic3.PyiCloudFailedLoginException: mirek, Authentication Failed, Connection Error, Secure Password Validation Data was not returned from Apple. ErrorCode-503

What should I do to get proper tracking back? Please advise!

gcobb321 · December 5, 2024, 8:42am

See here for more information about this problem

mirekmal · December 5, 2024, 1:25pm

Thanks Gary! It did the trick, back in business now! Follow up question; so shoul dve now expect another integration release with roll-back of login process, but with proper versioning?

poudenes · December 6, 2024, 9:44am

@gcobb321 A request to update 3.0.5.9 > 3.1.4 ?
Then we can update that version and the 1 Update in HA is gone