This is my 2nd post hoping someone can provide some information that might be helpful, Samsung Tier 1 and 2 support has been useless. I now have 4 smarttag2 devices, one smarttag2 (GW smarttag2) is sporadic and sometimes provides location change / location history, but the other 3 devices do not show any location change no matter how far away I take them (see test cases below). Does anyone have a clue as to why these smarttag2’s are so problematic? I read on the internet several comments that these are a “POS” and really do not work at all? Is that the truth of the matter? I have been talking with Samsung Smartthings 1st and 2nd tier for more than 2 weeks now! Just yesterday I finally after 10 attempts and numerous conversations with 2nd tier got a history report for GW smarttag2, but the 3 others are inop.
Following the addition of my newly purchased SmartTag2’s to the SmartThings ap. I attempted to test the function of the SmartThings Ap and the SmartTag2.
After the SmartTag2 has gone through a change of location, and the change of location shows on the Samsung SmartThings Map in a different location, I selected the “GW SmartTag2” on the SmartThings Ap and then selected the “location history”. The location history shows that the GW SmartTag2 has not changed location, even though I did see it change location on the SmartThings SmartTag2 map!
Test Setup:
SmartTag2 is name “GW SmartTag2”
My phone S21 Ultra (I use this phone to monitor the SmartTag2 location, monitor on the map)
2nd phone S20 Plus, for testing purposes, this phone travels with the GW SmartTag2 to a remote location that is more than 1 mile away. The S20 Plus has BT turned on and is connected to the GW SmartTag2 device. Remained at the remote location for a period of 2 ½ hours, then returned to home (the location where the GW SmartTag2 originated from and the location of the S21 Ultra).
Test Results:
I can see the GW SmartTag2 change location, and the shown location (as shown on the S21 Ultra SmartThings Ap map) is at the remote location. When the GW SmartTag2 returns to home I see the tag location on the map as the home location (the same location as the S21 Ultra).
Just so I can get my head around this, am I correct in thinking that the tags were installed using SmartThings on your S21 Ultra?
What about the S20 Plus? Is the idea that when your tag has been away from your S21 for twenty minutes (or however long it is) so it considers itself lost and starts pinging, the S20 acts as a third party phone that is around to detect it?
Now a question. If you travel with your S21 and the tag, does the location history update?
Are you assuming that the Location History will show where your tag is when it is ‘lost’, rather than just showing where it is when it has connected to your phone, or that of one of your Location members? I am not saying it doesn’t, but having just considered it I have realised that it would explain some behaviour I have seen with my own first generation tags. One is normally kept a significant distance away and I have seen it detected by third-party phones that are a hundred yards away in two or three directions from where I know the tag actually is. None of those detections appeared in the history when I looked and I don’t think I’d left it too late.
Yes, tags installed via SmartThings Ap. on phone (S21 Ultra).
The S20 Plus is acting as the phone to “ping” the SmartTag2’s. As I understand, the Samsung network requires an android phone to ping the smarttag2 and the android phone becomes the source for GPS location info., once it has pinged the SmartTag2. Then the location obtained by the android phone can be accessed by Samsung network, thus providing the location of the SmartTag2 location(s).
Since the S20 Plus has been traveling within BT range of the SmartTag2 then it should have been pinging the S20 along the journey and the location history should have been captured (saw this with the GW tag yesterday, S21 Ultra traveled with the GW SmartTag2). As I understand, as long as the SmartTag2 is within BT range of an Android phone then it should be able to provide not only current location, and all the points (pinged location points) along the way.
It is actually the tag doing the pinging, but perhaps more importantly it only does it when it thinks it is lost.
Well the tag won’t start pinging for a while, and I don’t know if the tag knows it has been detected by a ‘find node’ and modifies its behaviour at all, but you should certainly see the location of the tag updating. However I would hope that the tag moving with the S20 would be regarded as suspicious and that there wouldn’t be any further location reports without explicit permission. If that is the case then I would hope they would also purge the location history for damage limitation purposes.
Yes, that’s fine. Your tag is happily connected to or nearby your phone so it isn’t lost and its your data going into the history. Also if other members of your location are travelling with your tag nearby they have to explicitly agree to share their location to track the tag.
That is rather what I expected, but it isn’t quite what I have experienced over however long it is I’ve had my tags. Writing these posts is making me question my understanding. That happens a lot with the tags.
Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, my tags are normally only away from a phone that can connect to them when they are deliberately left in a fixed place. So I don’t get to see the full range of behaviour. However on further review I have seen enough to know that the ‘find node’ detections do appear in the location history. The location history does look a bit processed though.
Graham, thanks very much for your response and input!
I am planning to try some additional tests: turn my phone off and travel to some location where there is a high probability of an Android / Samsung phone and see if I can obtain tracking information i.e. GW tag pinging some other phone. Since I primarily plan to use the tags to track my luggage I do not need a lot of functionality, simply track my bag! Again thanks.
I have a SmartTag2 on my luggage and I get good tracking info on my Galaxy S24 Ultra. Had to check my bag between LHR and LIS and watched my bag move across the ramp and into the plane.