iOS App not updating location tracking

Mobile Apps Home Assistant Companion for Apple
1

I’m trying to test GPS location tracking through the iOS app.
If I don’t do anything, iPhone location is never updated (by updated I mean that the iPhone device tracker’s state will switch between Home/Not at home/Work zones).

If I connect to my Home Assistant through the VPN of my home router, and click the manual location update button, it updates correctly.

I read several other topics of people not having success with iOS location update: is still this the situation? Does someone use it at all? Should I simply stop using assuming it’s a bugged feature?

Thanks

2
3

Home Assistant iOS app is v1.5.1
Home Assistant on python virtual environment is v0.100.1

4

It is not reliable with me as well. Works when i manually update the gps location.

In the background it only worked once and while driving it sent an update every few minutes or so.

5

I’m also testing it with fake GPS moving.
It seems quite obvious now to me that it does work if the iOS app is opened and on the foreground. If it’s closed or opened in background, significant location change doesn’t happen.

Is there someone who can report a properly working iOS location tracking, with the iOS app closed or opened in background?

6

I would like to understand if it’s commonly accepted as a bug of the app. If not, I don’t see how could it be fixed in v2.0, when it will be published.

7

After some days of testing I can say that the location update works as expected, but I ended up using a third-party method to ensure the iOS app is never killed in background.

8

@Vinz87 would you mind sharing what method you used to ensure the app isn’t killed?

9

well I used some jailbreak tweak that prevent apps from being killed by iOS, but after some days of testing I realised it wasn’t necessary, so I don’t know exactly which was the problem at the time. I used for some months now the v2 beta app without issues out of the box, I’m starting only now to use the official v2 app.

10

How do you manually update your gps location?
I have the latest version but can’t find how to send my location to my hassio manually.

11

I too would like to know!

(how to update manually)

12

Just pull down to refresh, which also updates location manually.

13

How do location updates work when you have a vpn setup? Do you need to be connected always?

14

This isn’t working for me either.
The device_tracker lat/long does not change for my iPhone.
However, the sensor.geocoded_location for the same device is updating.

I’ve diligently followed the Migrating to Home Assistant Companion 2019.1instructions but still no go.

Any ideas?

15

@exeljb @filippos you could also long press the app icon and then choose update location

1 Like
16

thanks… yep all settled now but they could have just implemented it inside the app for easier access.
I would have never throught to look for aptic touch for this option!

17

It is implemented inside the app. When you pull down any of your lovelace frontend views the app will basically do an F5 refresh of the webview and also update location data at the same time. Takes zero space on the UI and it’s quick and painless.