Device last used date in Google account wrong

[The W12ard]

I have several phones on my Google account but when I go to Google account it's showing that my most recently used phone was last used over a week ago. This is causing an issue with my Google home assistant when I ask it to find my phone because it says it can only find my last 2 recently used devices and one of the phones on the account, which I hardly ever use is showing as being used most recently. The other two phones (mine and my wife's) are showing that they haven't been seen for the past week.

When I view the list of devices active on my account on Google Play, the "last used" date is showing as 13/05/2019 but I've been using my phone all week and the date still hasn't updated. I've tried downloading some apps and even updated a few but the date still will not change.

When I go online and use Google's find my phone service it says "last seen just now" but for some reason when it's listed in my devices on my Google account it's showing as last seen a week ago.

I've tried disabling sync and even deleted my Google data and disabled backup and then re-enabled it all again but it's still not updating the info.

How do I get it to update the last used/seen date?

 

[methodman89]

Were you signed into your main Google account when this blackout occurred?

 

[The W12ard]

OK here's what's happened. I have an old phone (Galaxy S2) that I keep in a drawer as a backup and 2 days ago I had to power it on to access some old documents and mp3s that I had stored on the old device. When it booted up it automatically updated Google Play store and Google Play Services and did a sync. It was on for about 30 minutes while I transferred over some documents and music from my old device. I then turned it off and threw it back in the drawer.

A couple of days later I couldn't find my phone (My Galaxy S7) so asked my Google assistant to "find my phone" It listed 2 devices. The first one was my spare phone (the S2) that I'd turned off and put back in the drawer and the second was my wife's phone but it wasn't able to find mine because it said it could only list my last 2 recently used devices.

I went to the following link to view my devices "https://play.google.com/settings" and my old S2 was showing at the top of the list as last seen on 17th May but my wife's phone said 14th May and my phone said it hadn't been used since 13th May (last Monday).

I've tried re-synching both phones but the date on Google Play devices list doesn't update. I then went to my Google account and "find my phone" where it located it just fine but it's still saying it hasn't been seen since last week so I'm not able to update it as my most recently used device. I've also checked Google drive and it shows that my last backup was this morning and my calendar, apps and contacts are all syncing as normal so why does Google show my phone as not been used/seen since last week?

I've turned off sync and backups and re-enabled them again and it seems to be synching and backing up but it doesn't show either mine or my wife's phone as being used since last week. I can't seem to find any other way of getting Google to update the date of when the phone was last used or seen. Because of this it's now showing my old phone as most recently used device which I don't want.

 

[The W12ard]

OK I've just tried something interesting...

According to my Google account it says my son's tablet hasn't been used or seen for two days which I know isn't true as he's never off the thing and it's been syncing and backing up just fine and all location services are on.

I went to settings/apps/Google Play Store/Storage and cleared all data. After this his tablet showed up top of the list as last used 20th May (today). Only issue with doing this is, it resets all preferences including the option to not auto update apps which it tries to do the second you open the Play Store so it barely gives you any time to head over to settings and uncheck the box.

I'm inclined to think that the device last used/seen is somehow linked to the Play Store app and the info gets updated when the Play Store updates which is usually once every couple of weeks so maybe I will just have to sit this one out until the next update as there seems no other way of forcing it to update the info without deleting all data.

If anyone knows of another way then please drop a comment.

 

[methodman89]

Sign out of the S2 in the Google account. Sign in attempt on your regular device.

 

[The W12ard]

I'm already signed in on my regular device. All of my devices are currently signed in.

 

[methodman89]

Sign OUT of the S2. While you're at it, sign out of all the devices, reboot everything, and then only sign in your phones and devices that you want to currently use.

 

[The W12ard]

Thanks but signing out of my Google account made no difference but I've finally managed to figure it out for anyone else who's having this issue. If you're having the issue of your devices showing up on your Google account in the wrong order as last seen or last used with an old date and want it to refresh your device to today's date, (i.e. make it the most recently used device) then do the following...

•Turn on flight mode. (I'll explain why later)
•Delete all the data in the Google Play Store app. This will revert it back to the factory version.
•Open the app and go straight to settings and reconfigure your settings like auto update and notifications etc. as all these all get turned back on when you clear data.
•Turn off flight mode and go back in to the Play Store and let it update.

Now everything should show as updated on your Google device list with today's date as being the date it was last seen/synced/used.

It seems that Google Play Store is somehow linked to all the devices on your Google Account so when it shows "last seen" or "last synced" in the device list or in the Find My Phone service, it basically means that was the last time that the Play Store updated on your device. It seems like the last used date is only ever refreshed when the Play Store updates or in my case, when I force it to update. Other than doing what I have suggested there's no other way to get the device list to update than to basically sit it out and wait for the next Play Store update which may take a couple of weeks.

Note: To ensure that none of my apps auto updated during this process I turned on Flight Mode so when I opened the Play Store App I was able to access the settings menu to turn off Auto Updates without fear of any of my apps being updated before I got chance to check the button.

Hope this helps anyone else with a similar issue. Now when I ask my Google Home/Mini to find my phone it says my phone first as it's now the most recent device listed in the Play Store.

Seems like yet another of Google's weird issues with the way they sync and handle your data.