SAFE finder not working well

kekeyork

Hello! I have recently been very disappointed with the SAFE device Finder. Occasionally, I need to check on my childrens' device location. The Finder function has been painfully slow if it has worked, or often it doesn't work at all. Today, for example, I tried to locate my son's Android phone from two Android devices. I then tried to locate my own Android phone as an additional test. It failed to locate all devices. I would say that the Finder has been poor for several weeks or even months. I won't renew my SAFE subscription next year if the Finder feature is not improved. Any tips on getting it working better would be most appreciated. Thanks! 

[Deleted User]

Hello @kekeyork,

   
Thank you for sharing your feedback which we deeply appreciate. We value you opinion and see it as an opportunity to learn and improve.I will certainly spread the word to the respective department for future enhancement. 

 

Anyhow, there are four important things that need to make sure to allow Finder to work on your device in proper way.

 

 1. Enable Finder in the SAFE app on your device.
2. Check that you don't have any battery saving functions on that would disable SAFE application when the phone is not active.
3.  Location permission for SAFE app is enabled.
4. Smartphone is connecting to the network.

 

kekeyork

Thank you for your reply. I am still having the Finder problem with SAFE and I've trued many things over the past four months. I checked the steps 1 to 4 in your reply and they were fine. However, Finder will not locate my children's phones (Honor 8 Lite) when they are not active. It will only locate them when they are unlocked and in use.

 

I've had other niggles with SAFE, such as it deactivating on my children's phones several times when Android updates. Also, with Family Rules, one of my children had a one hour allowance. However, it said 'one hour left' even though he was playing games on it. I fixed this by reinstalling the app. I have uninstalled and reinstalled SAFE on their phones many times and still the Finder problem persists. I've been an F-Secure customer for a long time, but I simply don't feel I can trust SAFE. I want a simple solution that is reliable, not something that I have to keep checking and fixing.

 

Any other advice would be much appreciated. If it's not fixable, and especially the Finder function, I will have to buy a competitor's product instead. Thanks for your help.

Ukko

Hello,

 

Sorry for my reply. I am only an F-Secure user (their home solutions).

Just as discussion between users.

 

However, Finder will not locate my children's phones (Honor 8 Lite) when they are not active. It will only locate them when they are unlocked and in use.

Sounds that when a device can not be located - My F-Secure Account portal should contain / show  information about previous "saved" location of device. Is it not available?

And what is "active" / "not active" states? It is about "turned off" and "turned on"?

 

Also, just interesting. If it is suitable, of course. Have you tried built-in Google(?) Android functionality to locating device? Is it works for your device?

 

Thanks!

[Deleted User]

Hello kekeyork ,

 

Since you mentioned the phone is a Honor Lite8 (Huawei phone), I found a similar article here which explains why F-Secure SAFE goes inactive on Huawei devices. Does the steps mentioned help you with the issue?

 

kekeyork

Thanks, Ukko, for your comments and thoughts as another user. Much appreciated.

 

Yes, the portal shows the previous location of the phone. However, Finder won't find the new location of the phone unless the child is actually using the phone. If the phone is e.g. in their bag in 'sleep' mode (but still switched on), the Finder will not locate it. However, as soon as they pick up the phone and and start using it, the Finder then locates it.

Thanks for the tip about Google. I will try that.