It looks to me that the new zone based tracking doesn’t report that I am away (outside all defined zones). Instead I seems to be home until I enter another zone (work)
That makes it less useful, I think
1 Like
I don’t understand the purpose of zone based tracking? What does it do?
You can define zones like “home” or “work” and the status of the tracker will reflect the zone you currently occupy
But I already configured zones in HA itself… So I already see if I am at home or work or away… Even without this option enabled… So what does this give me as extra? Still confused 
The new device_tracker device will now show this status as well. You choose, what you prefer. After all, if you have Google maps integration or Bluetooth or wifi presence detection you wouldn’t need the app for location at all. It’s all a matter of choice.
With zone based tracking it is supposed to only report zones. Nice if members in the family wants some privacy
Aha , it’s a privacy setting… ,Ok understood now… so I don’t need it
I’m also a bit confused on this. If it is just a privacy settings so that is only reports what zone you are in or Away, then what would be the purpose for having both Zone Based Tracking and Background Location Tracking enabled?
Currently, it does not report away, making it almost unusable
So is this feature usable or not?
Once enabled the feature in the app I see no new device tracker no new zones, so how can I use it?
Mine is reporting my location as away as well. I have the zone based tracking enabled. Other than missing an accuracy filter is been working pretty well for me. It’s been more reliable than GPS Logger for me.
Mine will report away, but ONLY if I open the app when I’m away from a zone. I still get notifications in the background and have Background location tracking turned on in app configuration.
Haven’t tried exempting battery optimization yet. Just changed that setting and we’ll see how tomorrow goes.
1 Like
Just to update I made an exception for the app on my phone saying it will be allowed to use as much battery as it wants and no difference. Still get all the app notifications when it is in background, but location is never updated unless I open the app.
1 Like
Did you allow the app to also access your location when running in the background? Your were asked this when you first enabled this feature and you can change this in Android permission settings
I would have thought that I did since this is what I would like it to do, but after checking the only permission is Location and it is on. It does work, just only when the app is active.
So I cleared all data to do a “reinstall” and after accepting the permission prompt for location I got into the app settings and it has both options on. Both zone based tracking and background location tracking.
I am going to leave them both on for now and see what happens.
Did you get anywhere with this? I am having the exact same problem - my location doesn’t update in the background, only when I open the app, which makes it less than useful. I’ve tried fully reinstalling the app and the only Android permission I was prompted for was the “precise location” one.
For what it’s worth, this is on a Nokia 7.1 running Android 9 (although in checking the version it appears I can update to 10 now - what could possibly go wrong?)
No I went out today and although I forgot to look while out I looked at the history when I got home and it shows I never left.
So no change.
Same here, only updates my location when I open the app.
I have the same issue. Looking forward to a possible solution