Geofencing Problem - Answer button always enabled

[+sharkc]

One of our adventure labs has a location where the Answer button is always enabled - no matter how far away you are from its GZ. Its geofence is set at 30 meters. The other four locations work fine and the Answer button is disabled until the user is within the geofence range.

 

We received a problem report from someone who said the "coordinates were bad" for the location where the button was always active. When we checked the AL, we encountered the issue with the Answer button being enabled everywhere. It was not this way previously, with no cachers reporting it as a problem until about two weeks ago.

 

****PLEASE NOTE: We tested this with a separate geocaching account that has full AL functionality and had not interacted with this AL previously -- NOT in testing mode where geofencing is disabled.****

 

We changed the fence value from 30 meters to many different numbers, but no change. We deleted the suspect location and recreated it, but that didn't help. We revised the AL to work non-sequentially rather than sequentially, but that didn't help either.

 

About two weeks ago, we encountered a Lincoln Highway AL in Utah that exhibited this always-enabled-Answer-button issue, but didn't have any idea it might be something not intended by the creator.

 

What can we do to ensure that Answer button only activates when the user is within the geofence range? We disabled the AL until we can hopefully get a resolution.

[+Hügh]

1 hour ago, sharkc said:

PLEASE NOTE: We tested this with a separate geocaching account that has full AL functionality and had not interacted with this AL previously

 

Note that geofence unlock is saved by device, not by user. Once you tap "Answer" once, the phone remembers that it is unlocked, not Geocaching.com's servers. Try testing it on a different phone, or, uninstall and reinstall the app entirely. I suspect at one point you hit the "Answer" button on just that one stage and so your device is remembering that.

Edited June 5, 2024 by Hügh

[+sharkc]

Thank you for your helpful interest!

 

I just checked the adventure lab on another person's phone, logging their Adventure Lab app into the same separate fresh geocaching account that I used with the initial test.

 

The Answer button is enabled for the same offending location at three miles away on that other phone. The other four locations are fine (Answer button is disabled).

[+Hügh]

2 hours ago, sharkc said:

The Answer button is enabled for the same offending location at three miles away on that other phone. The other four locations are fine (Answer button is disabled).

 

Curious. I'm assuming that this is your CSI adventure, since that was private earlier and is now accessible. All five "Answer" buttons are disabled for me.

[+sharkc]

Yes, it's the CSI AL Thank you for letting me know you see all five Answer buttons disabled! Sheesh!

 

This must be some weird anomaly from using a new Geocaching account on phones that previously accessed the AL from another account. The other phone I used is the one belonging to the other member of the sharkc team, so she also worked with the CSI AL from our regular Geocaching account.

 

Still don't know why the user reported "bad coordinates" for that location and couldn't complete the AL, so I'll send them a note and ask. We'll leave that AL Public and see if anyone else trips over it.

 

Thank you again for your help!!