Beacon Ranging Problem in 10?

App & System Services Maps & Location Core Location

Created Sep ’16

Replies 32

Boosts 0

Views 17k

Participants 21

Hi,

Since iOS 10 we have found that the beacon side of our application is failing, namely the DidRange callback is no longer being fired. Looking through the code on my way in this morning, I cannot see anything we have changed in the git blame since around 3 months ago.

I Know with 10 there are a lot more permission keys needed in the info.plist - however from reading the docs I can find nothing relating to beacon's, just location. Furthermore reading the various doc's related to beacon's I cannot see a change in the spec for iOS 10. We had run the application on the 10 Beta's and there was no problem with our beacon component.

I was wondering if anyone else has had any problem's with beacons or knows of a permissions change which affects?
Many Thanks,

Jayden

ccheung OP

Mar ’17

I'm experiencing the same issues. No detection of region entry in background.

This used to work on iOS 9, and has stopped working since upgrading to iOS 10.

Interstingly, I can trigger a region detection by turning screen off and on.

I am using Estimote beacons to test this and have tried increasing the signal frequency and strength but neither has helped.

Any updates on this?

jayden OP

Mar ’17

What device?

I have just had my 7+ replaced for a different issue - and it seems to have solved the problem. Beacon left is never being detected - but points my thinking in the direction that its hardware problems in earlier batches.

ccheung OP

Mar ’17

Thanks for your reply.

Yes - I'm using an early 7+ as well.

What do you mean by beacon left is never being detected? Do you mean that the didExitRegion is not being called?

julesburt_SD OP

Mar ’17

Yes, we're experiencing degraded beacon responses since 10. (we're using Estimote Secure beacons).

App stops responding after some time, CLLocation callbacks aren't occuring.

Apple - everything worked well under 9, not so since 10.

ccheung OP

Mar ’17

It's been six months since people have reported this issue with iOS10.

Has anyone heard from Apple if this is something they are/will address?

UPDATE: March 20th 2017

Just updated iOS to 10.3 beta and the response to iBeacon appears back to normal.

wizard1066 OP

Jul ’17

July 2017

Waisted almost a week of evenings on this tech. Very disappointed. Spend $100 on estimote ibeacons; which I think I am going to return!! region monitoring works, but ranging is shot!! fires once and then dies!! Very angry!!

saikcaskey OP

Sep ’17

We have wasted a lot more than a week and $100 and I'm exactly as angry. But it works perfectly on Android phones every time (the ones that it works on, there are a few that are woeful at BLE, but that's a manufacturer thing naturally, just like this issue with Apple is)

The crux of the matter is that there's long standing issues here, and to admit to them would be too expensive for Apple.

It is likely they will never address this and simple force developers to find a way around it. We unexplainable issues from 5 right up to 6S, including SE (as it's closer to a 5S than a 6S, save for the processor/preprocessor).

The worst part is working with clients who have that wide-eyed "Apple is premium price, therefore premium quality" attitude - we say "the bluetooth adapter simply stopped seeing beacons" and they say "you obviously have an issue with your code, fix it". Anyone who has done anything beacon related knows that you cannot do anything more than react the hits, and when the hits stop coming, you don't know if it's legit or that the hardware has just failed yet again.

It's kind of funny and clever for them to let developers take the hit for their fails, it would do devastating things to their brand.

Still, I have a £29 vodafone phone running Android 6, and it performs better than an iPhone 6S! This at least confuses the clients, who then make excuses for Apple, because, come on, it's Apple!