28. IMPROVE INACCURATE LOCATION TRACKING
Make sure each phone has all location services turned ON, including GPS and WiFi. Turning GPS on for your phone does not improve the accuracy of other PERSAFE users – they must turn this ON for their phone.
Turning on WiFi on your device dramatically improves location accuracy, even if you are not actively connected to a WiFi network. Your device uses the WiFi sensor to detect nearby WiFi base stations and narrow your exact location based on that information. With WiFi turned on, your device can quickly locate you within the bounds of a building; but with WiFi turned off, your location accuracy can be off by more than a kilometer as your device needs to rely on less precise location inputs (e.g. the location of mobile phone towers).
Accuracy depends on many factors, such as your environment and your phone. At times, a highly accurate location won’t be available as some areas might have very poor signal or no signal at all.Having the app open on your phone improves your location accuracy; when the PERSAFE app is running in the background, location accuracy will not be as high.
Apple and Android Settings for Best Accuracy:ALL PHONES:
- Log out of PERSAFE and turn off the device for at least two minutes to refresh it
- A VPN will interfere with accuracy – do not use a VPN with PERSAFE
- Some vehicles with Wifi Hotspot will prevent accurate location from being collected by the app since your signal provider location moves with your phone.
- Mobile hotspots – will not provide accurate location as the Wifi signal is not based on a fixed physical location
- Mobile Data – PERSAFE must be allowed to use mobile data to function properly
ANDROID (all versions):
Go to the Android phone Settings, tap on Apps, tap on PERSAFE
- ‘Data usage’ setting:turn on ‘Background data’ and turn on ‘Unrestricted data usage”
- OR you may see: ‘Mobile Data’ setting: turn on ‘Allow background data usage’ and ‘Allow app while Data saver on’
- ‘Permissions’ setting:turn on ‘Always Location’ (other permission settings ensure PERSAFE features work as intended).
- ‘Notifications’ setting:these settings should be turned on in order to receive notifications from the app.
Go to the Android phone Settings, tap on ‘Device maintenance’ (for Android 7 OS)
- ‘Battery’ setting:turn off power-saving mode
- ‘App power monitor’:make sure PERSAFE is not in the list in this section
- Scroll down to ‘Unmonitored app’ sectionand tap on it. Add PERSAFE to this list to help ensure location data is always current
Go to the Android phone Settings, tap on ‘Connections’ OR ‘Network”
- ‘Wifi’ setting:turn on Even when not connected, Wifi can detect the location of routers, helping to improve location accuracy
- ‘Mobile data’ OR ‘Data usage’ setting:turn ‘Data saver’ off. Turn on ‘Mobile data’OR turn off ‘Limit mobile data usage’
- Android 8 OS or lower:‘Keep Wifi on during sleep’: Go to the Wifi setting, tap on ‘Advanced’, turn on ‘Keep Wifi on during sleep’. This will help prevent location inaccuracies while the phone is not being used.
For Android 9 (Pie) OS:
- Go to ‘Settings’ on the phone
- Tap on ‘Apps’, tap on ‘PERSAFE’, tap on ‘Battery’ (may have to tap on ‘Advanced’ to see this)
- Find ‘Battery optimization’. This needs to say ‘Not optimized’. If it does not, go to next steps
- Tap on ‘Battery optimization’ here, and again on next screen, then select ‘All apps’
- Find and tap on ‘PERSAFE’ in the list, tap on ‘Don’t optimize’
For Samsung phones on Android 9 (Pie) OS:
- Apps that have not been opened in three days go into ‘sleep mode’ on Samsung phones
- PERSAFE in ‘sleep mode’ will not update a user location
- Open PERSAFE every two days to prevent it from going into ‘sleep mode’
For Android 10 ( Q ) OS:
- Go to ‘Settings’ on the phone
- Tap on ‘Apps’, tap on ‘PERSAFE’, tap on ‘Permissions’
- Change the ‘Location permission’ access to ‘Allow all the time’
- Change the ‘Physical activity permission’ to ‘Allow’
- Tap on Battery, tap on battery optimization, select ‘All Apps’
- Find and tap on ‘PERSAFE’ in the list, tap on ‘Don’t optimize’
For Huawei phones:
- Go to ‘Settings’
- Tap on ‘Advanced settings’, tap on ‘Battery Manager’
- Tap on ‘Protected apps’, find PERSAFE and toggle the setting to protect it from having background data restricted
APPLE/iOS:
- Location Setting needs to be set to ‘Always’. Using the setting ‘While in Use’ will not allow the app to work correctly or maintain location accurately.
- Low Power Mode: turn off Low Power mode as it will prevent PERSAFE from updating in the background
- Background App Refresh needs to be turned on
- Motion and Fitness needs to be turned on
- See the screenshot below for correct iPhone settings
