I’ve just set up tracking on two ios devices at my home. I’m noticing that the location reporting is really delayed. I’m trying to use it to open and close my garage door based on presence, but it’s not reliable because it doesn’t report location quick enough.
Is there a known solution for speeding it up?
Thanks - your post has reminded me…I’ve noticed recently (can’t pinpoint it exactly, last 10 days or so - might even be an after an iOS update) but device tracking is not always updating like it used to.
People can leave the house, or come home, and the status refuses to change unless we open the HA iOS app and press the little “up arrow” (Location update, sends a one shot location to the server) on the bottom left hand side of the display.
I’m having the same issue. I’ve set up an MQTT and Owntracks, and it tracks my device with MUCH more frequent updates. Give it a try. There’s a good video here on how to set it up: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VaWdvVVYU3A&t=468s
As above this problem appeared to be introduced in iOS v11. It was much more reliable before then, at least it was for me. I’ve also moved over to OwnTracks and just waiting to see if there’s any difference. I haven’t moved much this week!
The iPhone app uses iOS’s “significant location change” event to determine when updates are sent back to HA. OwnTracks has the following four modes:
Move = Can heavy on battery usage. You can configure when OwnTracks updates HA based on the amount movement in a specified period of time. I.e. if you move more then 100 meters in under 2 minutes.
Significant location change = This seems to be the recommended option in terms of battery life and reliable updates. However, this is technically the same mode as the HA iOS app uses, so in theory it should update HA at the same time. I’m just hoping that theory is wrong. The rule for a “significant location change” is 500+ meters in 5 minutes.
Manual = Only update when you tell it to
Quiet = Don’t send location updates
You could also introduce another device_tracker platform like nmap or one specifically for your router. The theory is the more device tracking platforms you have the more reliable the results, within reason.
seems to be still very slow. my both ios phones are updating quite slowly. sometimes there is a note on the device tracker ‘6 hours ago’. why isn’t updating more frequently?
I’m also having this same issue. The significant location change and zone enter/exit seem to work less than 50% of the time. Sending a manual location update works fine, but usually when I notice that iOS location tracker hasn’t changed, it will have been hours since it last updated. What seems odd to me is that the the iCloud platform, which I’ve gone back to using in my Bayesian presence sensor for the mean time, seems to work much more reliably. I’m also running a couple IFTTT automations based on the same enter/exit zones without any delay or reliability issues, so I’m assuming this isn’t a problem with my iPhone hardware or OS.
iCloud is more accurate for me also but kills the battery on my S0 Apple Watch. When I use iCloud my watch will be dead by 2pm, whereas when I don’t it can make it through until midnight.
Think I’m going to have to look at Owntracks. 
Oh wow, within minutes of posting this I just came across this topic… iCloud custom_component device tracker that will not drain your battery