iCloud3 v3, Release Candidate 2 (8/8/2023)

Important Links

Installing using HACS - iCloud3 is not available on HACS unless you have set it up as a custom repository. See here for instructions on how to do that and then install it. If you just go to HACS and do the installation, you will be installing v2.4.7, not v3.
Manual Download and Install - Go to the iCloud3 Releases page here. Scroll down past the notes, then select Assets, then select icloud3.zip. Download the zip file and unzip it into the /config/custom_components/icloud3 directory. Then restart HA.
Migrating from v2.4._ - See here for instructions on migrating from from an older version.
iCloud3 v3 Documentation - It is still in process, does not include the latest updates to iCloud3 and can be found here

Change Log:

1. Fixed the problem causing the duplicate_msg error during start up.
2. Services - Added the iCloud3 Service Calls to the Developer tools > Services screen.
3. Cleaned up some code.
4. Direction of Travel History - Reformatted the history that is display when showing Tracking Monitors

iCloud3 v3, Release Candidate 1 (8/6/2023)

iCloud3 has graduated from a Beta status to a Release Candidate status.

Beta 1 was uploaded in Dec, 2022 and went through 20 iterations. During that time many features were added based on your feedback, suggestions and feature requests. Not to mention that more than a few bugs were found and fixed. Right now, it has almost 30,000 lines of code and took more than 2 1/2 years from the last release of v2. At the last count, v2 has about 9800 downloads world wide.

Thanks for working with me. I appreciate it,

Gary

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Important Links

Installing using HACS - iCloud3 is not available on HACS unless you have set it up as a custom repository. See here for instructions on how to do that and then install it. If you just go to HACS and do the installation, you will be installing v2.4.7, not v3.
Manual Download and Install - Go to the iCloud3 Releases page here. Scroll down past the notes, then select Assets, then select icloud3.zip. Download the zip file and unzip it into the /config/custom_components/icloud3 directory. Then restart HA.
Migrating from v2.4._ - See here for instructions on migrating from from an older version.
iCloud3 v3 Documentation - It is still in process, does not include the latest updates to iCloud3 and can be found here

Change Log:

1. Event Log - Changed the text on the heading for each update. Now the Arrival Time (if going towards Home or another Track-fromZone) or the Next Update time is displayed.
2. Short interval tracking (15-secs when close to a zone) - The current location data is used if it is below the old location threshold. When interval is short (5-secs) after leaving or approaching a zone, that location was reused when the next interval was reached since it was not old and still acceptable. Now, the next update interval time is taken into consideration when determining if the locaqtion should be refreshed.
3. iOS APP Loation Request - If the iCloud account (FamShr) location is old a number of times in a row, a location request will be sent to the iOS App on every 4th iCloud request.
4. Improvements to Monitored Devices tracking.

iCloud3 v3, Beta 20.1.1 (8/3/2023)

iCloud3 v3, Beta 20.1 was Uploaded

1. The HA 2023.08 broke the way iCloud3 set up the notifications for iOSApp devices and the way the iOS App state and attributes values were being read. This has been fixed.
2. And a few other things

Important Links

Installing using HACS - iCloud3 is not available on HACS unless you have set it up as a custom repository. See here for instructions on how to do that and then install it. If you just go to HACS and do the installation, you will be installing v2.4.7, not v3.
Manual Download and Install - Go to the iCloud3 Releases page here. Scroll down past the notes, then select Assets, then select icloud3.zip. Download the zip file and unzip it into the /config/custom_components/icloud3 directory. Then restart HA.
Migrating from v2.4._ - See here for instructions on migrating from from an older version.
iCloud3 v3 Documentation - It is still in process, does not include the latest updates to iCloud3 and can be found here

Change Log:

1. The HA 2023.08 broke the way iCloud3 set up the notifications for iOSApp devices and the way the iOS App state and attributes values were being read. This has been fixed.
2. Direction of Travel - Tweaked the method used to determine how the direction of travel was being set.
3. Tracking from another zone - The zone name that is used to determine the next update is now capitalized. Also, it will only be used when traveling towards that zone, not away from it. When traveling away from it, the Home zone is used.
4. Monitored Devices - Their information is now displayed using the same 'next_update_time' method as tracked devices. This greatly reduces the duplicate results in the Event Log.
5. Event Log - Tweaked some display methods to improve readability. A browser refresh is needed.

iCloud3 v3.0, Beta 20 (8/1/2023)

iCloud3 is fast approaching the Release Candidate stage of development. I'm looking at one item that I doubt anyone is using (Tracking from other zones) and, once I make a few adjustments to several items, I'll be ready to release it. Thanks for giving it a try.

Gary

Update Notes

There are several important items in this release:

1. The Device Tracker State value (home (Home), not_home (Away), YourZone, etc. can now be configured to use the HA method of assigning the value by searching the Zones you have set up in HA or the iCloud3 method of determining the zone that takes considers GPS accuracy and prevents GPS wandering that can cause a zone exit when it did not really happen. This is configurable on the Format Parameters screen. See the Change Log below for more information.
2. The Stationary Zone Timer was being reset when the location data was old and a request for a new location was being handled. This causes delays moving the Device into a Stationary Zone. Sometimes the device would not move into a Stationary Zone at all because it was the timer was constantly being reset. This has been fixed.
3. There were some changes to icons, to the event log and a few other bugs were fixed.
   See the Change Log below for more information

Important Links

Download and Install - Go to the iCloud3 Releases page here. Scroll down past the notes, then select Assets, then select icloud3-beta-##.zip. Download the zip file and unzip it into the /config/custom_components/icloud3 directory. Then restart HA.
Installing using HACS - iCloud3 is not available on HACS unless you have set it up as a custom repository.
See here for instructions on how to do that and then install it. If you just go to HACS and do the installation, you will be installing v2.4.7, not v3.
Migrating from v2.4._ - See here for instructions on migrating from from an older version.
iCloud3 v3 Documentation - It is still in process, does not include the latest updates to iCloud3 and can be found here
Change Logs - See the notes below:

Change Logs, Beta 20 - 8/1/2023

1. Bug Fixes

   1. Fixed a problem displaying the iCloud3 Configure Settings screen on an iPad or iPhone from the iOS App.
   2. Fixed a problem requesting a new Apple Verification code from the Enter/Request Apple Verification code screen when it was selected from the HA Notifications > iCloud3 Reconfigure.
   3. Fixed a problem logging into the iCloud Account after getting an Invalid iCloud Account username/passwor error.

2. Device Tracker State Value Source parameter (New parameter) - The Device tracker state value is generated by HA based on the gps coordinates. When the device's location is updated, HA uses the lat/long to determine if that location is in one of it's zones. If it is in a zone, the state is set to 'home' if it is in the Home Zone or the zone's friendly name if it is in another zone. It is set to 'not_home' if it is not in a zone. This does not take the gps accuracy into consideration and gps wandering will take it out of the zone and set it to 'not_home'. iCloud3 overcomes this by creating it's own [devicename]_zone sensor (zone entity name) and [devicename]_zone_fname sensor (zone friendly name-the one HA uses and displays).

   This new parameter lets you select the state value to use:

   1. iCloud3 Zone Friendly Name
   2. iCloud3 Zone Display Name used on the Event Log
   3. HA zone based on the gps coordinates.

   Note: When iCloud3 is restarted and the device is in a Stationary Zone, the HA zone information is not updated on a timely basis so iCloud3 and the HA App on the devices still have the Stationary Zone information where HA may not. iCloud3 and the iOS App put the device in the Station Zone and HA sets it's state value to 'not_home'. This is not resolved until the next location is requested. To solve this, iCloud3 always sets the state value to the Stationary Zone friendly name when it is in a Stationary Zone.

3. Stationary Zone:

   1. Found that the Stationary Zone timer was being reset when an old location had been detected and the location update resulted in a good location. This delayed a device from moving into a Stationary Zone until it's still time interval was reached again 8-minutes from now. This would happen again if the location was old again the next time it was checked, further delaying a device from moving into a Stationary Zone. This has been fixed.
   2. Moving into a Stationary Zone will now happen much sooner after it's timer had expired. It now will be done as soon as it expires instead of the second or third update update after it had expired.
   3. Changed some of the text messages in the Event Log dealing with the Stationary Zone for consistency.
   4. Restart - When HA & iCloud3 restarts, the Stationary Zones do not exist yet. However, a device's Restore State data used during a restart will have Stationary Zone information (names, travel directioys, current status) in it's restore sensor values until the initial locate is done. The device's sensors would be set to a Station Zone incorrectly. This has been fixed.

4. Sensor tweaks:

   1. _arrival_time - Changed the icon to better show when the device was in the zone (house/map icon solid = arrived) or when you will arrive (house/map icon not solid = calculated arrival time).
   2. _zone_distance & _home_distance - Changed the icon to show if you are going towards Home, away from Home or at Home.
   3. _battery - Added the iOS App battery sensors entity names that are monitored to the sensor attributes.

5. Waze times and distances are now available when less than 2-minutes from home or a tracked-from zone.

6. Monitored Devices - The iOS App battery and location information was not displayed for monitored devices. This has been fixed.

7. Event Log - The iCloud3 and Event Log versions are displayed when you hover over Actions. Also made some other formatting changes.

8. Other internal changes.

---> A BROWSER REFRESH WILL BE REQUESTED <---

iCloud3 v3, Beta 19.1 (7/10/2023)

1. Bug Fix - Fixed a problem that may be encountered if you have a watch paired to an iPhone and are tracking the iPhone but not the watch.
2. New Sensors:
   1. [devicename]_travel_time_hhmm - Displays the travel time to the zone in an hh:mm format.
   2. [devicename]_arrival_time - The expected arrival time to the zone (current time + travel time) (5:25p, 17:25) or the time you arrived in the Home or other Tracked From zone (@5:25p, @17:25)
3. Simplified the sensors associated with track_from_zones other than Home.

iCloud3 v3, Beta 19.0 (7/8/2023)

1. Event Log - You will get a browser refresh notification
   
   1. Icons - The icons on the Event Log have a new look. They are brighter, have a little color and look similar to the HA icons.
   2. New 'Configure Settings' icon (The Gear) - This will display the Devices & Services > Integrations > iCloud3 Settings screen. Select Configure to open Configure Settings screens. When you exit the Configure Settings screens, selcet Back to return to the iCloud3 screen.
   3. New 'Buy Me a Coffee' icon (The Coffee Cup)- Drop me a dime if you find iCloud3 useful. Thanks. It's been a several year project rewriting iCloud3 from v2 and I appreciate your support.
2. Configure Settings -
   1. Format Parameters screen - Added Log Level > RawData (AutoReset) to automatically turn off RawData at midnight.
   2. Tracking & Other Parameters - Added the HA > Integrations > iCloud3 Configure Settings URL parameter. The Configure Settings icon on the Event Log gets base part of the URL from the URL used by HA (https://192.0.1.168:8123, https://localhost:8123, https://homeassistant:8123, etc). It appends /integrations/integrations/icloud3 to it and uses the result to display the Configure screen. When running in a virtual environment, docker, etc.. the first part might not be determined correctly, resulting in a 404 not found error. If this happens, paste the URL in this field and it will be used instead of trying to figure it out.
3. Start up > Stage 5 > Configured Devices - Paired devices (iPhone <--> Watch) are now identified and a message indicating how the devices are paired together is displayed. This is not used for anything yet but may be in the future.
4. v2-v3 Migration - The known_devices.yaml file has caused some problems with old iCloud3 device names being added to the HA entity_registry before the iCloud3 v3 Integration is able to create them. This creates a mess with duplicate device_tracker and sensor entity names. This file will be renamed when the migration starts to prevent these errors.
5. Updated the iCloud3 User Guide.

Special Note: Release Candidate 1 will be released very shortly.

iCloud3 v3, Beta 18.5 (6/21/2023)

1. Fixed a regression installing the iCloud3 Integration for the first time leading to a start_ic3.setup_username_password not found error.
2. Changed the sub-beta version number from b18e to b18.5 to comply with version numbering used by HACS and HA.

iCloud3 v3, Beta 18d (6/20/2023)

This beta is to test if HACS picks up beta 18d as a new release. Beta 18c below, lists the changes in this release.

iCloud3 v3, Beta 18c (6/17/2023)

Update Notes

There are several important items in this release:

1. If only the iOS App is being used to track devices (iCloud is not being used), a location request is now sent to the iOS App in the same manner as it is to the iCloud Location Service whenever an update is needed. It does not do this if you are using the iCloud Location Service
2. Various iCloud3 sensors are once again excluded from being added to the HA History database. The HA guys rewrote the recorder component, requiring a rewrite to the hack used to tie into the recorder component. The excluded sensors include icloud3_event_log, icloud3_wazehist_track, [devicename]_info and several others.
3. The iCloud3 Debug Log (icloud3_debug.log file) now contains all records that were written to the home-assistant.log file. Since it now contains all operational entries in addition to the debug records, it has been renamed to icloud-0.log. Three days of entries are kept in 3-files; '-0.log' is for today, '-1.log' is for yesterday and '-2.log' is 2-days ago.
4. When iCloud3 starts, the iCloud devices are verified using data from iCloud Location Services. If the service is slow to respond or a device is missing or was not located, it was not verified or tracked and an error message was displayed requesting you to restart iCloud3. Now, multiple types of retries are done to try to verify the devices being tracked. If it still fails, the restart message is still displayed. This occurred mainly with an Apple Watch that was asleep but would occur with other devices as well.

The full list with more details is below.

Important Links

Download and Install - Go to the iCloud3 Releases page here. Scroll down past the notes, then select Assets, then select icloud3-beta-##.zip. Download the zip file and unzip it into the /config/custom_components/icloud3 directory. Then restart HA.
Installing using HACS - iCloud3 is not available on HACS unless you have set it up as a custom repository.
See here for instructions on how to do that and then install it. If you just go to HACS and do the installation, you will be installing v2.4.7, not v3.
Migrating from v2.4._ - See here for instructions on migrating from from an older version.
iCloud3 v3 Documentation - It is still in process, does not include the latest updates to iCloud3 and can be found here
Change Logs - See the notes below:

Change Logs, Beta 18c - 6/17/2023

1. iOS App Only - Location requests will be sent to the device when the iOS App is the primary data source just like it is to the iCloud Web Service. This only sends a request to the iOS App. If the device is asleep or the iOS App is running in the background or not loaded, it will not respond and send the location. In this case, another location request will be sent when the next update time is reached.
2. History Recorder - Fixed the problem leading to the '_exclude_e' not being found error while adding iCloud3 HA Recorders sensors to the exclude_entities list. The original problem was caused by the HA guys rewriting the H recorder component and removing the ability to hack into the list of entities that should not be added to the history database. This will exclude the icloud3_event_log, icloud3_wazehist_track, [devicename]_info and several other sensor entities from being added to the history database.
3. icloud3_debug_log file - Since this file now contains everything that was previously added to the home-assistant.log file, it's name was changed to 'icloud3-0.log' . Three generations of the log file will be kept, indicated by the suffix ('-0'=Today, '-1'=Yesterday, '-2'=Two days ago). The file will be daily renaming will take place at midnight.
4. Device Verification during startup - When starting up, device data/location information is used to verify the device. If the iCloud Location Service does not respond with location data for one or more devices during startup, the verification process would display error messages and require you to restart iCloud3 to begin tracking the unverified devices. This mainly occurred with the Apple Watch. Now the verification is automatically retried several times. If it still fails for one or more devices after multiple tries, a restart is needed message is displayed to try again later. The verified devices will continue to be tracked.
5. Configuration Wizard - Change the range of the inzone interval parameter values from 5-240 minutes to 1-300 minutes.
6. StatZone - The Stationary Zone will not be created when the current location data is old.
7. Event Log - Fixed a problem where displaying a Nearby Devices message would display the text below the Event Log items window due to a HA Front End change.

iCloud3 v3, beta 17 (5/28/2023) has been uploaded

Update Notes

There are several important items in this release:

1. The problem authenticating the iCloud account introduced in 16b has been fixed.
2. Some changes to the Event Log that summarize alerts encountered during startup and displays an alert message at the top of the items list.
3. Changed the Configuration Wizard > Account Credentials screen toData Sources - iCloud Account & iOS App. The FamShr, FmF (dead for now) and the iOS App data sources are clearer and individual entries. FmF is turned off to avoid error messages, FamShr
   is turned on & iOS App depends on your settings.
4. Improved error checking at startup and when migrating from v2.

The full list with more details is below.

Important Links

Download and Install - Go to the iCloud3 Releases page here. Scroll down past the notes, then select Assets, then select icloud3.zip. Download the zip file and unzip it into the /config/custom_components/icloud3 directory. Then restart HA.
Installing using HACS - iCloud3 is not available on HACS unless you have set it up as a custom repository.
See here for instructions on how to do that and then install it. If you just go to HACS and do the installation, you will be installing v2.4.7, not v3.
Migrating from v2.4._ - See here for instructions on migrating from from an older version.
iCloud3 v3 Documentation - It is still in process, does not include the latest updates to iCloud3 and can be found here
Change Logs - See the notes below:

Change Logs, Beta 17 - 5/28/2023

1. iCloud Reauthentication - Fixed a problem where the reauthentication notification kept repeating after the authentication code was accepted. This also fixed the problem where two Authentication Entry windows were displayed on the HA Devices & Settings screen that could not be closed.
2. Configuration Wizard/iCloud Account Credentials screen:
   1. Changed it's name to Data Sources - iCloud Account & iOS App
   2. Split the 'iCloud Account' data source into 2-options - Family Sharing List and Find-my-Friends to prevent FmF error messages during start up.
3. New Configuration Parameter - Added a Display GPS Coordinates (Format Parameters screen) - This option indicates if the GPS Coordinates/Accuracy or only the GPS Accuracy should be displayed in the Event Log
4. Log Level - A Debug log level that automatically turns off at midnight was added (Format Parameter Screen).
   NOTE: A BROWSER REFRESH IS REQUIRED
5. iCloud3 Startup:
   1. Improved the error checking during startup.
   2. A summary of any startup errors is displayed at the end of the startup process.
   3. An alert will display at the top of the Event Log if there are any startup errors.
6. Event Log > Actions - The log_level is now saved to the configuration file when it is set to a new value (Start/Stop Debug or Rawdata Logging). You no longer have to go to the Configuration Wizard to save it. The Start Debug Log is automatically turned off at midnight.
7. iOS App Data Only Source - Fixed a few problems related to tracking only with the iOS App.
8. Fixed several issues related to the v2-to-v3 migration and installating iCloud3 for the first time.
9. Other internal changes dealing with tracking methods/data sources, non-availability of FmF as a data source, code cleanup, etc.