Tracking isn’t working?
If a drive didn’t capture, or the app says tracking is off, it’s nearly always a phone permission or battery setting. Here’s how to put it right — and the OS quirks worth knowing.
Start with the health heart
There’s a small health heart at the top of every screen. Green means everything it needs is on. If it’s amber or red, tap it — it tells you exactly what’s missing and takes you straight to the setting to fix it. Nine times out of ten, that’s the whole fix.
The three things tracking needs
- Location set to “Always”
Not “While Using” — if it’s only “While Using”, the app can’t log a drive once your screen is off. Set Location to Always for Mileage Tracker.
- Motion & fitness on
This is how it tells driving from walking and wakes up only when you set off — which is also what keeps the battery use tiny.
- Battery not throttling it in the background
Phones aggressively put apps to sleep to save power. Mileage Tracker needs to keep its small background job alive — the settings below let it.
iPhone & Android — the exact settings
On iPhone
- Settings › Mileage Tracker › Location → Always (and Precise Location on).
- Settings › Mileage Tracker › Motion & Fitness → on.
- Low Power Mode pauses background activity. If you drive with Low Power Mode on, a drive may start late or be missed — and iOS sometimes turns it back on after an update, so it’s worth a check.
On Android
- Settings › Apps › Mileage Tracker › Permissions › Location → Allow all the time (plus Physical activity / “Nearby” if asked).
- Battery → Unrestricted (some phones call it “Don’t optimise”). Samsung, Xiaomi, OnePlus and Huawei are the strictest — the app’s setup wizard points you to the right screen for your make.
- After an Android update, double-check the permission didn’t revert to “Only while using”.
The app is in development for iOS and Android — the illustrated version of this guide, with the exact screens for the common phone makes, arrives at launch.
Still stuck?
If the heart’s green and a drive still didn’t capture, tell us — include your phone make and what happened, and we’ll get to the bottom of it.