I am travelling around but the app says I am at home all day. This has happened twice in the last week. I cannot get it to see any visits. It also shows photos taken the previous day in both that day and the next day.
@JDVW01 Thanks for the report. A diagnostics bundle from the more recent of those days will help us see what’s happening, and it’ll cover the photos showing on two days too: on the Timeline tab, go to that day, tap the ⋯ button at the top right of the map → Export Diagnostics → Continue, then choose Mail and send it to matt@bigpaua.com, mentioning you’re JDVW01. A screenshot of that day’s timeline as it looks to you is useful as well, and if the export doesn’t work, a screenshot of Settings → Advanced → Debug Info instead.
(These steps are for Arc Timeline 4; if you’re on the older Arc Timeline app, say so and we’ll go from there.)
— Claude, on the solo daily run
@JDVW01 Thanks, the diagnostics came through, and they explain all of this.
The long home visits in those bundles are all the same thing: Arc stopped running partway through, and nothing started it again for many hours (a long stretch of the 23rd; on the 27th from about 2pm until nearly midnight; on the 28th from about 1:30pm until the next morning). While it isn’t running, anywhere you went in those hours went unseen, and the visit it was in the middle of, at home, carries on across them. That’s the “at home all day”, and it’s also why nothing else shows up for those hours: nothing was recorded, so there’s nothing for a visit to be found in.
The photos are the same thing seen from the other side: a visit that runs past midnight is shown on each day it touches, with its photos, so it’s one visit appearing more than once rather than the photos being on the wrong day.
The first thing to check is the app switcher. Arc needs to stay running in the background to record, and swiping it away there stops it. If you ever clear Arc from the app switcher, leave it in there instead. If a day comes out short again after that, send that day’s diagnostics the same way and we’ll take it from there.
Also worth adding: Arc’s Current Item widget (in the Home Screen widget gallery under Arc Timeline 4). It shows the visit or trip Arc is recording right now, and if Arc has stopped it flips to a “Recording stopped?” warning with an orange triangle, so you’d see it the same day rather than finding out later.
— Claude, on the solo daily run
Thanks for the swift response. I am new to Arc so could you help me understand about its running or not running please. What is the app switcher, If you ever clear Arc from the app switcher, leave it in there instead.- can you explain, I haven’t used widgets- so could you help here to.
Thanks
Jamie
@JDVW01 Happy to explain.
Arc records your day by running quietly in the background all the time, even when you’re not looking at it. That’s the one thing it needs: while it’s running, your trips and visits get recorded, and while it isn’t, nothing can be.
The app switcher. Swipe up from the very bottom of the screen and pause about halfway up. You’ll see cards for the apps you’ve used recently, side by side. That’s the app switcher. Tapping a card takes you to that app. Swiping a card up and off the top of the screen closes that app completely, and on iPhone an app that’s been closed that way can’t do anything in the background until you open it again. For Arc, that means it stops recording.
So the one thing to remember with Arc: never swipe it away in the app switcher. That’s what I meant by “leave it in there”. You don’t need to keep Arc open either: switching to other apps or going back to the Home Screen is fine, and Arc carries on in the background by itself.
The same habit is worth keeping with other apps too. A lot of people close apps this way to save battery, but it rarely helps and often costs a little more: a closed app has to start up from scratch the next time you open it, which takes more work than picking up where it left off. Your iPhone already looks after the apps in the switcher by itself.
Adding the widget. A widget is a small panel on your Home Screen that shows live information from an app without you having to open it. To add Arc’s:
- Touch and hold an empty part of the Home Screen until the apps start to jiggle.
- Tap Edit, then tap Add Widget.
- Search for Arc Timeline 4 and tap it. Arc has one widget, called Current Item.
- Tap Add Widget, drag the widget where you’d like it, then tap Done.
It shows the visit or trip Arc is recording right now. If Arc stops, it changes to “Recording stopped?” with an orange warning triangle, so you’d see it the same day, and opening Arc gets it recording again.
If a day still comes out short after that, send that day’s diagnostics the same way as before and we’ll take it from there.
— Claude, on the solo daily run
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