I want to use the device_tracker entity of the HA companion App in my iPhone. Unfortunately, it keeps telling me that the phone is always home, even when I’m not. The App has the location services set to always with location accuracy to full. I even created a shortcut that triggers update sensors in HA when I leave home.
The iPhone has asked me several times to allow the tracking because HA has use my location more than 20-50 times lately, but in the end, none of that is shown in HA. The geolocation remains always home. Is there anything I am missing? Do I need to have the Nabucasa subscription for it to work? Anyone can help me solving this issue?
I am not sure if it is just iphony but I have had issues since years and not sure when/why it works or not. My son’s iphone12 worked reasonably fine, then he got a iphone13 and it sucks, I reinstalled, it works a bit then nothing. I have everyhing on/allowed/etc. removed all from phone and HA and reïnstalled again, no luck … My iphone14 is pretty much OK
So…also looking for pointers
And no, you donot need NC for this, just the &^@#& iphone to work
EDIT: at one point I thought it was related to the network provider, not sure though
Can you please specify the phone? When searching (a lot !!) I found out that newer models have less issues…or, that is the feedback I get, not sure how academic that is. As mentioned, I reïnstalled the app multiple times, assuming this is also deleting the cache, without much succes
Today my son’s iphone13 was visible until 3km from home, then disappeared to reappear 6 hours later in school. On the way back sort of similar. My iphone14 is showing lots of updates but I am with a different ‘main’ network provider, just guessing loudly…is it phone or network?
How would the phone with a companion app report its location back to HA if you do not have a way to talk to it outside your home network? Either Nabu casa, VPN or similar is needed, right?
Do you have HA accessable from outside your home network?
That’s where I’d start also. The first thing to check is to see whether the companion app on the iPhone still being able to open & load the frontend UI, when the iPhone is not on home wifi.
If no frontend, that means the companion app cannot report whatever new locations back to HA server.
And that’s when you’d want to figure out a way to connect back from outside… and I quote:
I agree that I assumed you had something setup to remotely connect to HA, your findings relate this much to mine where I do have remote access.
I use a dns service from Synology now (as I have their NAS) but in the past duckdns, added to that a reverse proxy.
have a look here if you did not make external access possible yet Remote access - Home Assistant
There are multiple posts on setting up a reverse proxy. A VPN as mentioned by @k8gg is also possible but then you’d need additional software on your phone too. NC is a paid service and tbh, you could take that too and support HA a bit.
Thanks for the answers! @vingerha, I use an iPhone 13, and no, @fleskefjes, I don’t have any remote access option set up. I assumed that as I get notifications in my phone from some automations, the HA companion App would also keep location updates. It was never clear to me from the documentation about trackers that it was required.
VPN, reverse proxy will ask more knowledge from you to install/maintain too, never underestimate that, esp. if you are the sole person in the family who knows what to do
EDIT: even with that pov… I myself did install a reverse proxy but most of HA is my personal project where I like to learn (and fail a lot)
FYI, the HA companion app receives notifications because your HA instance uses Google’s Firebase Cloud Messaging service. You can turn it off in settings → companion app → privacy. Its only capability is to deliver notifications from your instance to your mobile phone. It offers no functionality for the phone to send info back to your HA instance.
There are some man-in-the-middle options that would allow your phone to (indirectly) provide location information back to HA without remote access. Integrations like iCloud v3 work by letting your phone send location data to a middleman (like iCloud, in that case) and then your HA connects to that same middleman to retrieve the data.
I have also never been successful getting good location data from my iPhone (14 Pro). I have remote access working but to no avail. I am not using any location-based automations other than home/away and I detect that through my WiFi router seeing my phone.
So I’m subscribing here to see if I learn anything.
Then perhaps the provider may have some effect on how well location services work on the iPhone, as well as your actual location. I have the 12 Pro. My wife has the latest and greatest iPhone. As mentioned, it works really well for us. I’m in a densely populated area in the midwest USA. I’m in the suburbs and surrounded by 2 bigger cities and I’m an hour away from a major city. I use AT&T mobile.
I’ve a 15 pro and face the exact same issue.
It is reporting me home and looking at history, there is no data for the past 10 days (my retention period is empty !)
We had a similar issue, I have a 15 Pro and my wife an SE2. To resolve it we had to turn off location permissions for the companion app, and then back on again and it started working again.
May not be the answer but it’s an easy thing to try
I use a combination of ICloud3, Apple Home, and the Companion App. I use Nuba Casa for external access and an AppleTV connected to the home network as the Home Hub to receive inbound iPhone data. I’m using and iPhone 13 Mini, she’s using a 17 Pro. Her tracking has improved since she switched from a 12 Pro.
I have never been able to achieve 100% automation activation as we live in a cell signal wasteland GPS varies as well. Give your home zone a big radius initially, then reduce the size as you tune your setup.
GPS varies as well. Give your home zone a big radius initially, then reduce the size as you tune your setup.