Notify When Left Behind Audible Alert is Unreliable

[RonAKA]

I have a 8 plus iPhone and recently got an AirTag to help me from forgetting to take my insulin with me when I leave the house. It basically works, and reliably gives me an alert on my Lockscreen when I get about 300 yards from my house. However, the audible alert is unreliable. Sometimes I get it, and other times I don't. If there is any pattern to it, it would be that when I walk away from my house I get the audible alert, but when I drive away in my car or truck I do not get it. I have gone over the setup many times, and my house is not set as an exception, and I have Notify When Left Behind turned on. Under Settings, Notifications, Find My, I have Allow Notifications on, Time Sensitive on, with Lock Screen, Notification Center and Banners all checked. Banner style is set to Temporary with Sounds and Badges On.

This feature is essentially useless to me as it currently is. If I can remember to check the Lock Screen, I can remember to check for my insulin. I need the audible feature to work. I use hearing aids and get all other alerts going reliably to my hearing aids. And when walking I get the Forgot Behind alert as well. The problem seems to be only in my vehicles, but I am not 100% certain of that yet...

This has gotten me thinking it may have something to do with the Bluetooth pairing in the vehicles. I see that they are pairing but I don't usually have my sound system audio on in the vehicle. Have not tested that combination out yet. Oh, I am on iOS 15.7.1.

Any thoughts on what could be causing the unreliable audible alerts?

 

[RonAKA]

I have concluded that somehow this phone is detecting when I am driving and is muting the audible notification from the Find My app. I don't recall ever setting the phone to do this, and I think the phone used to give me text and email notifications when driving.

I finally found the way to add driving to the Focus function screen. Now I think I have it turned off based on the toggle settings, but I am not sure. To be sure I also set the toggle to allow notifications marked Time Sensitive to be allowed, and also listed Find My as an exception app that will be allowed to notify me.

I have an 8 plus with iOS 15.7.1. Any suggestions you can give me to disable the disable alerts while driving feature would be appreciated.

 

[RonAKA]

With the changes I made to the Focus function, nothing has changed. Left Behind audible alarms work when I walk far enough away, but do not work if I get in my vehicle and drive away. Super puzzling....

 

[NO🇳🇴]

Pull up your phone, and check what tags you have on you before leaving! And better to be warned 20% on the way than remembering at 99% on your way.

 

[RonAKA]

Pull up your phone, and check what tags you have on you before leaving! And better to be warned 20% on the way than remembering at 99% on your way.

I don't follow. I only have one tag. I leave it home when I am testing how it works. It consistently alarms when I leave my home - by showing an alert on the lock screen. My problem is that there is no audible alarm if I am in a vehicle. When I walk away from my home on foot, then I get the audible alarm.

Without an audible alarm the function is essentially useless to me. If I can remember to look at the lock screen for the alert, I can also remember to take my insulin.

I am convinced there is something about vehicle travel that is turning off the audible part of the alert.

 

[NO🇳🇴]

I don't follow. I only have one tag. I leave it home when I am testing how it works. It consistently alarms when I leave my home - by showing an alert on the lock screen. My problem is that there is no audible alarm if I am in a vehicle. When I walk away from my home on foot, then I get the audible alarm.

Without an audible alarm the function is essentially useless to me. If I can remember to look at the lock screen for the alert, I can also remember to take my insulin.

I am convinced there is something about vehicle travel that is turning off the audible part of the alert.

Have you gone to settings - notifications/allerts - FindMy - then turned on Time critical alerts?

 

[RonAKA]

Yes,
Allow Notifications - On
Time Sensitive Notifications - On
Lock Screen, Notification Center, Banners are all checked off
Banner Style - Temporary
Sounds - On
Badges - On

 

[NO🇳🇴]

Yes,
Allow Notifications - On
Time Sensitive Notifications - On
Lock Screen, Notification Center, Banners are all checked off
Banner Style - Temporary
Sounds - On
Badges - On

Check and see if Car Focus automatically turns on when you connect to the car stereo! And possibly go into Bluetooth settings on your phone for your car and try setting it to headphones instead of car stereo.

 

[RonAKA]

Under Focus I have:

Do not Disturb - Off
Under this I have also have Find My as an allowed app
And Time Sensitive is also on

Driving is also - Off
Focus Status - On
Turn on Automatically - While Driving - Set to activate manually
Under Driving I have not figured out how to add an app. Seems to only have a option for People

Under Accessibility, Hearing Devices, I have everything turned on.
Audio Routing is set to:
Call Audio - Automatic
Media Audio - Automatic
The choices for these are Always Hearing Devices, Never Hearing Devices, and Automatic. For other things Automatic has worked for me.

I have considered unpairing my phone with the car audio system, but have not tried that yet.

 

[Alex Cai]

check the focus modes

 

[NO🇳🇴]

Under Focus I have:

Do not Disturb - Off
Under this I have also have Find My as an allowed app
And Time Sensitive is also on

Driving is also - Off
Focus Status - On
Turn on Automatically - While Driving - Set to activate manually
Under Driving I have not figured out how to add an app. Seems to only have a option for People

Under Accessibility, Hearing Devices, I have everything turned on.
Audio Routing is set to:
Call Audio - Automatic
Media Audio - Automatic
The choices for these are Always Hearing Devices, Never Hearing Devices, and Automatic. For other things Automatic has worked for me.

I have considered unpairing my phone with the car audio system, but have not tried that yet.

Any luck? Apple really should implement a feature to alert whenever more than 50 meters away from selected AirTag. It has happened that I haven't gotten an alert at all at times..

I would try removing the AirTag, taking out the battery and pairing it again. Possibly adding FindMy to control centre to make it "always active"..

What changes have you done under privacy and location? Relevant places are relevant for AirTags imo

 

[RonAKA]

check the focus modes

Under Focus I have Do not Disturb and Driving switched to off. Does that disable them?

 

[RonAKA]

Any luck? Apple really should implement a feature to alert whenever more than 50 meters away from selected AirTag. It has happened that I haven't gotten an alert at all at times..

I would try removing the AirTag, taking out the battery and pairing it again. Possibly adding FindMy to control centre to make it "always active"..

What changes have you done under privacy and location? Relevant places are relevant for AirTags imo

I will have to have a look at these settings. Thanks for the suggestions. When I go for a walk, the lock screen banner and audible alert always come in at virtually the same spot. If I put an X on the sidewalk where I am when they alert. I think all the X's would be within about 10-15 feet of each other. The Alert is also reliable in the vehicle, but I am sure there is no audible sound.

Thank you for the help in this..

 

[NO🇳🇴]

I will have to have a look at these settings. Thanks for the suggestions. When I go for a walk, the lock screen banner and audible alert always come in at virtually the same spot. If I put an X on the sidewalk where I am when they alert. I think all the X's would be within about 10-15 feet of each other. The Alert is also reliable in the vehicle, but I am sure there is no audible sound.

Thank you for the help in this..

Have you gone into alert if forgotten "exempt"?? forgot to ask. Thos will automatically turn on if you spend enough time there (relevant places)

 

[RonAKA]

Have you gone into alert if forgotten "exempt"?? forgot to ask. Thos will automatically turn on if you spend enough time there (relevant places)

I have no exemptions in the Notify When Left Behind. It likes to add "Home" but I delete it.

This morning I tried this change with no luck.
Accessibility, Hearing Devices, I have everything turned on.
Audio Routing is set to:
Call Audio - Always Hearing Devices
Media Audio - Always Hearing Devices

Still nothing but the banner on the lock screen.

 

[NO🇳🇴]

I have no exemptions in the Notify When Left Behind. It likes to add "Home" but I delete it.

This morning I tried this change with no luck.
Accessibility, Hearing Devices, I have everything turned on.
Audio Routing is set to:
Call Audio - Always Hearing Devices
Media Audio - Always Hearing Devices

Still nothing but the banner on the lock screen.

They behave like that for me too. (but random the amount of time it takes before getting the notification if driving)
They are made to find objects lost in the couch and so on so pretty much what we can expect the use case for now at least. still, better to get a notification than No notification tho.

 

[RonAKA]

Out of frustration today I updated the iOS to 16.1.1. I had read that the Focus feature had been revamped, and hoped that would change things. Well I really can tell the difference between the Old and New Focus. I initially had no Driving Focus set up, and the audible alert still did not activate, just the lock screen banner. Then I set up the driving focus, with it set to manual and off. Still no audible alert. There seems to be something else somewhere in this phone that is shutting off the audible alerts when driving. Have not tried the walking method since the update to 16, but I expect it will work. The bug seems to be caused by driving.

 

[NO🇳🇴]

Out of frustration today I updated the iOS to 16.1.1. I had read that the Focus feature had been revamped, and hoped that would change things. Well I really can tell the difference between the Old and New Focus. I initially had no Driving Focus set up, and the audible alert still did not activate, just the lock screen banner. Then I set up the driving focus, with it set to manual and off. Still no audible alert. There seems to be something else somewhere in this phone that is shutting off the audible alerts when driving. Have not tried the walking method since the update to 16, but I expect it will work. The bug seems to be caused by driving.

Yeah the one thing to always check first is the latest iOS update and see if that changes things. The no audible alert is most likely tied to your hearing air or car stereo in relation to the phone possibly knowing you have started driving, again in relation to focus but possibly other things as well.. Whenever I encounter stuff like this I factory reset the iPhone HARD even downloading the newest iOS trough iTunes/MacBook (very easy) an reset the whole thing (just remember to log out of iCloud/appleID first) (tho with iOS 15+ it does that automatically if connected to the grid)

The thing to remember is that your 8 plus does not have the U1 chip that came with 11++ And it is aging tech wise. Basically the AirTag came out after your phone did an usually that's a guarantee for it not behaving "like it should"
But missing the U1 chip is ofc relevant.

 

[RonAKA]

Yes, I have accepted that this Left Behind feature just may not work with my phone. But, the big teaser is that it works perfectly when I am just walking. It is only when I drive my vehicle away that it does not work. And, I realized later yesterday that I did not have my hearing aid app running on my phone after I updated to iOS 16, so my test may not of been valid. But, I don't think so, as my hearing aids are MFi, and should operate without the app. The app just adds some features. It may in fact eliminate the possibility that the hearing aid app is the bad actor. But I will try it with it on.

Besides that I think my next step will be to try unpairing my phone with my vehicle audio system. I see it flash up on the car screen that it pairs shortly after starting the vehicle. And with my hearing aid app running I can check to see whether the phone is still paired. I am also going to go for a drive with no hearing aids to see if the phone will alert by itself. Hoping to figure out what part off the driving environment is causing the problem.

 

[NO🇳🇴]

Yes, I have accepted that this Left Behind feature just may not work with my phone. But, the big teaser is that it works perfectly when I am just walking. It is only when I drive my vehicle away that it does not work. And, I realized later yesterday that I did not have my hearing aid app running on my phone after I updated to iOS 16, so my test may not of been valid. But, I don't think so, as my hearing aids are MFi, and should operate without the app. The app just adds some features. It may in fact eliminate the possibility that the hearing aid app is the bad actor. But I will try it with it on.

Besides that I think my next step will be to try unpairing my phone with my vehicle audio system. I see it flash up on the car screen that it pairs shortly after starting the vehicle. And with my hearing aid app running I can check to see whether the phone is still paired. I am also going to go for a drive with no hearing aids to see if the phone will alert by itself. Hoping to figure out what part off the driving environment is causing the problem.

Do post back if you find a solution tho! Good luck.

 

[KaliYoni]

Hoping to figure out what part off the driving environment is causing the problem.

First, it's good to see a thread on MR where actual troubleshooting is happening. Now, you might already have tried this but a potential workaround to your problem is setting up location-based reminders. I don't use this feature much but here are details in case you're interested:

Use Reminders - Apple Support

Keep track of all of life's to-dos.

support.apple.com

 

[GeekyGrannie]

What happens if you leave the house as a passenger in someone else's car?

 

[RonAKA]

First, it's good to see a thread on MR where actual troubleshooting is happening. Now, you might already have tried this but a potential workaround to your problem is setting up location-based reminders. I don't use this feature much but here are details in case you're interested:

Use Reminders - Apple Support

Keep track of all of life's to-dos.

support.apple.com

Thank you for that suggestion. I did a quick review of the feature and will see if that could work. At this point I am not sure any audible alerts are working when I am in our vehicles. I still have to check that by getting my wife to send me a text when I am in the vehicle. And that article also reminded me that I think I can set Siri to remind me of the Left Behind feature. Have not tried that yet.

 

[RonAKA]

What happens if you leave the house as a passenger in someone else's car?

Thanks for the suggestion. That will be hard for me to try. What I plan to do, which is an approximation of this, is to unpair my phone to my vehicle and see if that helps....

 

[NO🇳🇴]

Thanks for the suggestion. That will be hard for me to try. What I plan to do, which is an approximation of this, is to unpair my phone to my vehicle and see if that helps....

Have you checked your Car Stereo bluetooth setting (pressed the ℹ️) to see if it has additional settings specifically for your car. Turn on of sound notification ON car stereo etc?

I would still try to unpair it. But your car might have settings disabling loud notifications from phones, but if your car stereo plays iMessage/sms notifications its probably not that.