gcobb321/icloud3_v3 v3.0.0-beta-18c

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

on GitHub

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.