Checking your permissions and battery settings

Two settings decide whether Family Nest can report your location while you are not looking at it. If either is wrong, your family sees you frozen wherever you last opened the app.

iPhone

Location — Settings → Family Nest → Location. It needs to say Always, and Precise Location needs to be on. “While Using the App” looks fine until the phone locks, then updates stop.

Notifications — Settings → Family Nest → Notifications. The permission has to stay on, because the app is woken by a silent push to report its position when it is closed. If you do not want to be pinged, leave the permission on and turn off Sounds, Badges and Banners underneath — the app keeps working and stays silent.

Background App Refresh — Settings → General → Background App Refresh, on.

Low Power Mode — off while you need live updates. It delays background work rather than stopping it, which shows up as an orange warning badge rather than a red one.

Android

Location — Settings → Apps → Family Nest → Permissions → Location, set to Allow all the time. Also allow Physical activity, which is what lets the app tell driving from walking.

Battery — Settings → Apps → Family Nest → Battery. It needs to read Not optimised. The app can take you straight there: menu → Settings → turn off battery optimisation.

Background data — allowed, with Data Saver off or Family Nest excepted.

Menu paths move between Android versions and manufacturers. If yours does not match, search your phone’s settings for “Family Nest” and the permission list will come up.

If your phone is a Xiaomi, OPPO, OnePlus, Huawei, Vivo or Samsung

These ship an extra battery manager on top of Android that has to be told separately to leave the app alone — usually by enabling auto-start and excluding Family Nest from the battery saver. dontkillmyapp.com has current instructions for each manufacturer.

Easier than any of this

If someone in your nest cannot see you, ask them to open you in the app and tap Ask to fix. You will get a notification that checks these settings on your actual phone and takes you to whichever one is wrong.