How do I get a background location update every n minutes in my iOS application

Question

I m looking for a way to get a background location update every n minutes in my iOS application   I m using iOS 4 3 and the solution should work for non-jailbroken iPhones   I tried   considered following options    CLLocationManager startUpdatingLocation startMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges  This works in the background as expected  based on the configured properties  but it seems not possible to force it to update the location every n minutes NSTimer  Does work when the app is running in the foreground but doesn t seem to be designed for background tasks Local notifications  Local notifications can be scheduled every n minutes  but it s not possible to execute some code to get the current location  without the user having to launch the app via the notification    This approach also doesn t seem to be a clean approach as this is not what notifications should be used for  UIApplication beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler   As far as I understand  this should be used to finish some work in the background  also limited in time  when an app is moved to the background rather than implementing  long-running  background processes    How can I implement these regular background location updates

User · Answer

Unfortunately  all of your assumptions seem correct  and I don t think there s a way to do this  In order to save battery life  the iPhone s location services are based on movement  If the phone sits in one spot  it s invisible to location services   The CLLocationManager will only call locationManager didUpdateToLocation fromLocation  when the phone receives a location update  which only happens if one of the three location services  cell tower  gps  wifi  perceives a change    A few other things that might help inform further solutions    Starting  amp  Stopping the services causes the didUpdateToLocation delegate method to be called  but the newLocation might have an old timestamp  Region Monitoring might help  When running in the background  be aware that it may be difficult to get  full  LocationServices support approved by Apple  From what I ve seen  they ve specifically designed startMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges as a low power alternative for apps that need background location support  and strongly encourage developers to use this unless the app absolutely needs it    Good Luck   UPDATE  These thoughts may be out of date by now  Looks as though people are having success with  wjans answer  above

User · Answer

Here is what I use   import Foundation import CoreLocation import UIKit  class BackgroundLocationManager  NSObject  CLLocationManagerDelegate        static let instance   BackgroundLocationManager       static let BACKGROUND TIMER   150 0    restart location manager every 150 seconds     static let UPDATE SERVER INTERVAL   60   60    1 hour - once every 1 hour send location to server      let locationManager   CLLocationManager       var timer NSTimer      var currentBgTaskId   UIBackgroundTaskIdentifier      var lastLocationDate   NSDate   NSDate        private override init            super init           locationManager delegate   self         locationManager desiredAccuracy   kCLLocationAccuracyKilometer         locationManager activityType    Other          locationManager distanceFilter   kCLDistanceFilterNone          if  available iOS 9                  locationManager allowsBackgroundLocationUpdates   true                    NSNotificationCenter defaultCenter   addObserver self  selector   selector self applicationEnterBackground   name  UIApplicationDidEnterBackgroundNotification  object  nil             func applicationEnterBackground            FileLogger log  applicationEnterBackground           start              func start            if CLLocationManager authorizationStatus      CLAuthorizationStatus AuthorizedAlways               if  available iOS 9                      locationManager requestLocation                 else                   locationManager startUpdatingLocation                           else                   locationManager requestAlwaysAuthorization                       func restart             timer  invalidate           timer   nil         start              func locationManager manager  CLLocationManager  didChangeAuthorizationStatus status  CLAuthorizationStatus            switch status           case CLAuthorizationStatus Restricted                log  Restricted Access to location           case CLAuthorizationStatus Denied                log  User denied access to location           case CLAuthorizationStatus NotDetermined                log  Status not determined           default                log  startUpdatintLocation               if  available iOS 9                      locationManager requestLocation                 else                   locationManager startUpdatingLocation                                     func locationManager manager  CLLocationManager  didUpdateLocations locations   CLLocation              if timer  nil                  The locations array is sorted in chronologically ascending order  so the                last element is the most recent             guard let location   locations last else  return               beginNewBackgroundTask               locationManager stopUpdatingLocation               let now   NSDate               if isItTime now                      TODO  Every n minutes do whatever you want with the new location  Like for example sendLocationToServer location  now now                                     func locationManager manager  CLLocationManager  didFailWithError error  NSError            CrashReporter recordError error           beginNewBackgroundTask           locationManager stopUpdatingLocation              func isItTime now NSDate  - gt  Bool           let timePast   now timeIntervalSinceDate lastLocationDate          let intervalExceeded   Int timePast   gt  BackgroundLocationManager UPDATE SERVER INTERVAL         return intervalExceeded             func sendLocationToServer location CLLocation  now NSDate             TODO            func beginNewBackgroundTask            var previousTaskId   currentBgTaskId          currentBgTaskId   UIApplication sharedApplication   beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler               FileLogger log  task expired                        if let taskId   previousTaskId              UIApplication sharedApplication   endBackgroundTask taskId              previousTaskId   UIBackgroundTaskInvalid                    timer   NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval BackgroundLocationManager BACKGROUND TIMER  target  self  selector   selector self restart  userInfo  nil  repeats  false            I start the tracking in AppDelegate like that   BackgroundLocationManager instance start

User · Answer

On iOS 8 9 10 to make background location update every 5 minutes do the following    Go to Project -  Capabilities -  Background Modes -  select Location updates Go to Project -  Info -  add a key NSLocationAlwaysUsageDescription with empty value  or optionally any text  To make location working when your app is in the background and send coordinates to web service or do anything with them every 5 minutes implement it like in the code below    I m not using any background tasks or timers  I ve tested this code with my device with iOS 8 1 which was lying on my desk for few hours with my app running in the background  Device was locked and the code was running properly all the time    interface LocationManager     lt CLLocationManagerDelegate gt   property  strong  nonatomic  CLLocationManager  locationManager   property  strong  nonatomic  NSDate  lastTimestamp    end   implementation LocationManager     instancetype sharedInstance       static id sharedInstance   nil       static dispatch once t onceToken      dispatch once  amp onceToken             sharedInstance     self alloc  init           LocationManager  instance   sharedInstance          instance locationManager    CLLocationManager new           instance locationManager delegate   instance          instance locationManager desiredAccuracy   kCLLocationAccuracyBest     you can use kCLLocationAccuracyHundredMeters to get better battery life         instance locationManager pausesLocationUpdatesAutomatically   NO     this is important              return sharedInstance     -  void startUpdatingLocation       CLAuthorizationStatus status    CLLocationManager authorizationStatus        if  status    kCLAuthorizationStatusDenied                NSLog   Location services are disabled in settings               else                  for iOS 8         if   self locationManager respondsToSelector  selector requestAlwaysAuthorization                           self locationManager requestAlwaysAuthorization                        for iOS 9         if   self locationManager respondsToSelector  selector setAllowsBackgroundLocationUpdates                            self locationManager setAllowsBackgroundLocationUpdates YES                       self locationManager startUpdatingLocation            -  void locationManager  CLLocationManager   manager didUpdateLocations  NSArray   locations       CLLocation  mostRecentLocation   locations lastObject      NSLog   Current location            mostRecentLocation coordinate latitude     mostRecentLocation coordinate longitude         NSDate  now    NSDate date       NSTimeInterval interval   self lastTimestamp    now timeIntervalSinceDate self lastTimestamp    0       if   self lastTimestamp    interval  gt   5   60                self lastTimestamp   now          NSLog   Sending current location to web service               end

User · Answer

I did this in an application I m developing  The timers don t work when the app is in the background but the app is constantly receiving the location updates  I read somewhere in the documentation  i can t seem to find it now  i ll post an update when i do  that a method can be called only on an active run loop when the app is in the background  The app delegate has an active  run loop even in the bg so you dont need to create your own to make this work   Im not sure if this is the correct explanation but thats how I understood from what i read   First of all  add the location object for the key UIBackgroundModes in your app s info plist  Now  what you need to do is start the location updates anywhere in your app       CLLocationManager locationManager     CLLocationManager alloc  init       locationManager delegate   self   or whatever class you have for managing location      locationManager startUpdatingLocation     Next  write a method to handle the location updates   say - void didUpdateToLocation  CLLocation  location  in the app delegate  Then implement the method locationManager didUpdateLocation fromLocation of CLLocationManagerDelegate in the class in which you started the location manager  since we set the location manager delegate to  self    Inside this method you need to check if the time interval after which you have to handle the location updates has elapsed  You can do this by saving the current time every time  If that time has elapsed  call the method UpdateLocation from your app delegate   NSDate  newLocationTimestamp   newLocation timestamp  NSDate  lastLocationUpdateTiemstamp   int locationUpdateInterval   300   5 mins  NSUserDefaults  userDefaults    NSUserDefaults standardUserDefaults   if  userDefaults             lastLocationUpdateTiemstamp    userDefaults objectForKey kLastLocationUpdateTimestamp            if     newLocationTimestamp timeIntervalSinceDate lastLocationUpdateTiemstamp   lt  locationUpdateInterval                   NSLog   New Location       newLocation                 AppDelegate   UIApplication sharedApplication  delegate didUpdateToLocation newLocation                userDefaults setObject newLocationTimestamp forKey kLastLocationUpdateTimestamp                       This will call your method every 5 mins even when your app is in background  Imp  This implementation drains the battery  if your location data s accuracy is not critical you should use  locationManager startMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges   Before adding this to your app  please read the Location Awareness Programming Guide

User · Answer

It seems that stopUpdatingLocation is what triggers the background watchdog timer  so I replaced it in didUpdateLocation with         self locationManager setDesiredAccuracy kCLLocationAccuracyThreeKilometers         self locationManager setDistanceFilter 99999     which appears to effectively power down the GPS  The selector for the background NSTimer then becomes   -  void  changeAccuracy    self locationManager setDesiredAccuracy kCLLocationAccuracyBest    self locationManager setDistanceFilter kCLDistanceFilterNone       All I m doing is periodically toggling the accuracy to get a high-accuracy coordinate every few minutes and because the locationManager hasn t been stopped  backgroundTimeRemaining stays at its maximum value  This reduced battery consumption from  10  per hour  with constant kCLLocationAccuracyBest in the background  to  2  per hour on my device

User · Answer

I did write an app using Location services  app must send location every 10s  And it worked very well   Just use the  allowDeferredLocationUpdatesUntilTraveled timeout  method  following Apple s doc   What I did are   Required  Register background mode for update Location   1  Create LocationManger and startUpdatingLocation  with accuracy and filteredDistance as whatever you want   - void  initLocationManager              Create the manager object     self locationManager      CLLocationManager alloc  init  autorelease        locationManager delegate   self         This is the most important property to set for the manager  It ultimately determines how the manager will        attempt to acquire location and thus  the amount of power that will be consumed       locationManager desiredAccuracy   45       locationManager distanceFilter   100         Once configured  the location manager must be  started         locationManager startUpdatingLocation       2  To keep app run forever using allowDeferredLocationUpdatesUntilTraveled timeout method in background  you must restart updatingLocation with new parameter when app moves to background  like this   -  void applicationWillResignActive  UIApplication   application         isBackgroundMode   YES         locationManager stopUpdatingLocation         locationManager setDesiredAccuracy kCLLocationAccuracyBest         locationManager setDistanceFilter kCLDistanceFilterNone        locationManager pausesLocationUpdatesAutomatically   NO       locationManager activityType   CLActivityTypeAutomotiveNavigation        locationManager startUpdatingLocation        3  App gets updatedLocations as normal with locationManager didUpdateLocations  callback    - void  locationManager  CLLocationManager   manager didUpdateLocations  NSArray   locations       store data     CLLocation  newLocation    locations lastObject       self userLocation   newLocation        tell the centralManager that you want to deferred this updatedLocation     if   isBackgroundMode  amp  amp    deferringUpdates                 deferringUpdates   YES           self locationManager allowDeferredLocationUpdatesUntilTraveled CLLocationDistanceMax timeout 10             4  But you should handle the data in then locationManager didFinishDeferredUpdatesWithError  callback for your purpose  -  void  locationManager  CLLocationManager   manager didFinishDeferredUpdatesWithError  NSError   error          deferringUpdates   NO          do something      5  NOTE  I think we should reset parameters of LocationManager each time app switches between background forground mode

User · Answer

if   self locationManager respondsToSelector  selector setAllowsBackgroundLocationUpdates            self locationManager setAllowsBackgroundLocationUpdates YES       This is needed for background location tracking since iOS 9

User · Answer

In iOS 9 and watchOS 2 0 there s a new method on CLLocationManager that lets you request the current location  CLLocationManager requestLocation    This completes immediately and then returns the location to the CLLocationManager delegate   You can use an NSTimer to request a location every minute with this method now and don t have to work with startUpdatingLocation and stopUpdatingLocation methods   However if you want to capture locations based on a change of X meters from the last location  just set the distanceFilter property of CLLocationManger and to X call startUpdatingLocation

User · Answer

Now that iOS6 is out the best way to have a forever running location services is     -  void applicationWillResignActive  UIApplication   application       Sent when the application is about to move from active to inactive state  This can occur for certain types of temporary interruptions  such as an incoming phone call or SMS message  or when the user quits the application and it begins the transition to the background state   Use this method to pause ongoing tasks  disable timers  and throttle down OpenGL ES frame rates  Games should use this method to pause the game       NSLog   to background     app isInBackground   TRUE   UIApplication  app    UIApplication sharedApplication       Request permission to run in the background  Provide an    expiration handler in case the task runs long  NSAssert bgTask    UIBackgroundTaskInvalid  nil    bgTask    app beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler           Synchronize the cleanup call on the main thread in case        the task actually finishes at around the same time      dispatch async dispatch get main queue                if  bgTask    UIBackgroundTaskInvalid                         app endBackgroundTask bgTask               bgTask   UIBackgroundTaskInvalid                            Start the long-running task and return immediately  dispatch async dispatch get global queue DISPATCH QUEUE PRIORITY DEFAULT  0              Do the work associated with the task       locationManager distanceFilter   100      locationManager desiredAccuracy   kCLLocationAccuracyHundredMeters       locationManager startMonitoringSignificantLocationChanges        locationManager startUpdatingLocation        NSLog   App staus  applicationDidEnterBackground           Synchronize the cleanup call on the main thread in case        the expiration handler is fired at the same time      dispatch async dispatch get main queue               if  bgTask    UIBackgroundTaskInvalid                         app endBackgroundTask bgTask               bgTask   UIBackgroundTaskInvalid                         NSLog   backgroundTimeRemaining    0f     UIApplication sharedApplication  backgroundTimeRemaining         Just tested it like that   I started the app  go background and move in the car by some minutes  Then I go home for 1 hour and start moving again  without opening again the app   Locations started again  Then stopped for two hours and started again  Everything ok again     DO NOT FORGET USING the new location services in iOS6  -  void locationManager  CLLocationManager   manager didUpdateLocations  NSArray   locations          CLLocation  loc    locations lastObject           Lat Lon     float latitudeMe   loc coordinate latitude      float longitudeMe   loc coordinate longitude

User · Answer

To someone else having nightmare figure out this one  I have a simple solution     look this example from raywenderlich com-  have sample code  this works perfectly  but unfortunately no timer during background location  this will run indefinitely   Add timer by using    - void applicationDidEnterBackground    self locationManager stopUpdatingLocation    UIApplication     app    UIApplication sharedApplication    bgTask    app beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler         app endBackgroundTask bgTask       bgTask   UIBackgroundTaskInvalid        self timer    NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval intervalBackgroundUpdate                                               target self locationManager                                             selector  selector startUpdatingLocation                                              userInfo nil                                              repeats YES       Just don t forget to add  App registers for location updates  in info plist

User · Answer

Attached is a Swift solution based in   Define App registers for location updates in the info plist  Keep the locationManager running all the time  Switch kCLLocationAccuracy between BestForNavigation  for 5 secs to get the location  and ThreeKilometers for the rest of the wait period to avoid battery drainage  This example updates location every 1 min in Foreground and every 15 mins in Background   The example works fine with Xcode 6 Beta 6  running in a iOS 7 device   In the App Delegate  mapView is an Optional pointing to the mapView Controller   func applicationDidBecomeActive application  UIApplication         if appLaunched     false      Reference to mapView used to limit one location update per timer cycle         appLaunched   true         var appDelegate   UIApplication sharedApplication   delegate as AppDelegate         var window   appDelegate window         var tabBar   window  rootViewController as UITabBarController         var navCon   tabBar viewControllers 0  as UINavigationController         mapView   navCon topViewController as  MapViewController           self startInitialPeriodWithTimeInterval 60 0     func applicationDidEnterBackground application  UIApplication         self startInitialPeriodWithTimeInterval 15   60 0     func startInitialPeriodWithTimeInterval timeInterval  NSTimeInterval        timer  invalidate      reset timer     locationManager  desiredAccuracy   kCLLocationAccuracyBestForNavigation     timer   NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval 5 0  target  self  selector  Selector  getFirstLocationUpdate     userInfo  timeInterval  repeats  false     func getFirstLocationUpdate sender  NSTimer        let timeInterval   sender userInfo as Double     timer  invalidate       mapView  canReportLocation   true     timer   NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval timeInterval  target  self  selector  Selector  waitForTimer     userInfo  timeInterval  repeats  true     func waitForTimer sender  NSTimer        let time   sender userInfo as Double     locationManager  desiredAccuracy   kCLLocationAccuracyBestForNavigation     finalTimer   NSTimer scheduledTimerWithTimeInterval 5 0  target  self  selector  Selector  getLocationUpdate    userInfo  nil  repeats  false     func getLocationUpdate         finalTimer  invalidate       mapView  canReportLocation   true     In the mapView  locationManager points to the object in the AppDelegate   override func viewDidLoad         super viewDidLoad       var appDelegate   UIApplication sharedApplication   delegate  as AppDelegate     locationManager   appDelegate locationManager      locationManager delegate   self     canReportLocation   true      func locationManager manager  CLLocationManager   didUpdateLocations locations   AnyObject              if canReportLocation                canReportLocation   false             locationManager desiredAccuracy   kCLLocationAccuracyThreeKilometers           else                 println  Ignore location update

User · Answer

I found a solution to implement this with the help of the Apple Developer Forums    Specify location background mode Create an NSTimer in the background with UIApplication beginBackgroundTaskWithExpirationHandler  When n is smaller than UIApplication backgroundTimeRemaining it will work just fine  When n is larger  the location manager should be enabled  and disabled  again before there is no time remaining to avoid the background task being killed      This works because location is one of the three allowed types of background execution   Note  I lost some time by testing this in the simulator where it doesn t work  However  it works fine on my phone

User · Answer

I used xs2bush s method of getting an interval  using timeIntervalSinceDate  and expanded on it a little bit  I wanted to make sure that I was getting the required accuracy that I needed and also that I was not running down the battery by keeping the gps radio on more than necessary    I keep location running continuously with the following settings   locationManager desiredAccuracy   kCLLocationAccuracyThreeKilometers  locationManager distanceFilter   5    this is a relatively low drain on the battery  When I m ready to get my next periodic location reading  I first check to see if the location is within my desired accuracy  if it is  I then use the location  If it s not  then I increase the accuracy with this   locationManager desiredAccuracy   kCLLocationAccuracyNearestTenMeters  locationManager distanceFilter   0    get my location and then once I have the location I turn the accuracy back down again to minimize the drain on the battery  I have written a full working sample of this and also I have written the source for the server side code to collect the location data  store it to a database and allow users to view gps data in real time or retrieve and view previously stored routes  I have clients for iOS  android  windows phone and java me  All clients are natively written and they all work properly in the background  The project is MIT licensed    The iOS project is targeted for iOS 6 using a base SDK of iOS 7  You can get the code here   Please file an issue on github if you see any problems with it  Thanks

User · Answer

There is a cocoapod  APScheduledLocationManager that allows to get background location updates every n seconds with desired location accuracy   let manager   APScheduledLocationManager delegate  self  manager startUpdatingLocation interval  170  acceptableLocationAccuracy  100    The repository also contains an example app written in Swift 3

[ios] How do I get a background location update every n minutes in my iOS application?

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