Geolocation tracking not working at set frequency – only updates on task actions

[Joaquin_Aguirre]

Greetings,
I am working with the out-of-the-box geolocation tracking feature in ServiceNow. I understand there are two ways data can be recorded in the geo_history table:

1. When saving or updating a record derived from the Task table (e.g., Work Order Task), and

2. Periodically, based on the system property glide.geolocation.tracking.frequency.

However, I am unable to get the automatic tracking (based on frequency) to work. I have field agents working with Work Order Tasks, and geolocation data is only being recorded when they perform specific actions such as "Start Travel", "Start Work", or "Close Complete". No location data is recorded in between these actions.

Is there anything additional I need to configure to enable continuous tracking? Any guidance would be appreciated.

[Daniel Hills · Accepted solution]

Hi @Joaquin_Aguirre, Agent location is not continuously/ tracked or logged to the geo_history table, and the geo_history table is only updated with an Agents location when they select "Start work" or "Start Travel". So the issue you're describing is working as expected.

I confirmed with the dev lead I work with that this is the expected behavior. He also replied with the following to take into consideration:

"Additionally there is a flow to periodically update the current location of agent also. However the precision of these periodic updates may be limited to latitude longitude alone and the time of the presence at a location may not be accurate.

These settings for frequency of sending latitude longitude are driven by functionality from Mobile platform and Mobile clients. Once configured the mobile clients start calling Geolocation APIs to update the latitude and longitude of the agent's mobile device.

There is one more condition for this - Since Apple and Google are cautious about location tracking features, along with enabling location features on the servicenow server, the Agent has to enable location tracking explicitly for Now agent app on their mobile device. It is OFF on the device by default."

Please let me know if there's anything else I can help out with.

[Joshua Chen FX]

@Daniel Hills 

this post made me read the documentation

• Action-based location tracking for Field Service Management example
• Configuring manual location tracking
• Configuring action-based location tracking
•  

can you confirm which one is OOTB, is it manual or action-based? the SNDOC wording is a bit confusing, my PDI is set to manual OOTB, yet why does it update geo_history based on actions ?

[Daniel Hills]

Hi @Joshua Chen FX, I don't like to reply to comments without verifying my understanding with devs first, this is just to avoid any misunderstanding on my part. I'll reach out to my dev lead with this question and will circle back in the next few days-- he is traveling right now so may take some time to respond. I'll definitely get back to you about this though.

[Joshua Chen FX]

no problem this can wait, 

• my PDI is set to  location tracking options = manual
• actions like start travel, start work, etc. do update the geo history table (which is the intended behavior). 
  
  I am trying to understand the difference between (1) manual and (2) action-based

if you go into the action based config, you do see the "start travel" action. so if "manual" also updates geo history based on action ''start travel''

• what's the difference between manual vs action based?
• is the action-based ''invoked'' when it's set to ''manual''?
• is action-based used to enable customization on OOTB actions AND new custom actions? 
•  If i change the action-based ''start travel'' = 6 hours instead of 2 hours, will this apply to ''manual''?