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

Joaquin_Aguirre · ‎07-21-2025

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:

When saving or updating a record derived from the Task table (e.g., Work Order Task), and
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 · ‎07-23-2025

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.

View solution in original post

Joshua Chen MTL · ‎07-23-2025

@Joaquin_Aguirre , see this link (read the note section)

Location tracking

Geolocation adds the Geolocation tracked field to the User form. In the default view of a user record, select the Geolocation tracked check box to enable location tracking for the user.

When a user has geolocation tracking enabled, the system updates the user's geographic coordinates whenever the user opens, or loads, a record from the Task [task] table or from a table that extends Task.

After this initial update, the system continues to update the user's geographic coordinates at a recurring interval if the user does not close or reload the record. To edit the length of this interval, navigate to Geolocation > Administration > Geolocation Properties and change the setting for the property that regulates the update interval for the user's location. The default setting for this property is 300 seconds (5 minutes).

Note:

The system can update geographic coordinates only for users who have location services enabled in their browsers. Even users who have the Geolocation tracked check box selected may be prompted by their browsers to share or withhold their location.
A user's geo_history will not be logged if the user remained at approximately the same location, even if the Minimum distance an agent must move to be considered in a new location (in meters) property is set to 0.

.
Add me on LinkedIn 🙂 https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshuachen0510/

JunchiZ · 3 weeks ago

Hi @Andrew96

Your understanding of the docs is totally correct.

If admins have the data while users do not, it might be an ACL issue, like users dont have wm_agent role. If you do see a record got updated on sys_mobile_devices but no corresponding change on geo_history, probably the following chain is broken.

Update User's Location(Business Rule) => GeolocationUtils(Script Include) method

storeGeolocationHistory() => GeolocationUtils._insertGeoHistory()

Generally the chain works properly, if you still dont see the tracking records, feel free to open a case and we will have engineers to look into your instances.