Smart Lock not working... Anybody else??

[mwbryant1977]

Smart lock is not working on my Android phone, also when you open smart lock setting in location and security it opens to a blank screen. I have searched this on Google and clearly this is a widespread problem across multiple devices and device brands. I have found one TEMPORARY fix, which is disabling smart lock in trusted agents, rebooting the device, then re-enabling smart lock in trusted agents. After doing this it works again for maybe half a day before smart lock is broke and opens to blank screen in settings once again. I need a fix. Im using a Moto Z3 (Verizon) running Android 8.1 with most recent updates installed.

 

[sophiegriff]

Android Smartlock has not worked for 2 years. I now have a Samsung S10+ running pie and Smart Lock still does not work. *I found a work around a year ago, I have to go into "smart Lock in settings and move the pin slightly every day by 1 degree or so and save that and it will work for the rest of that day only.* I also have 5 locations set for the area around my home but still, it does not stay unlocked for more than at most 48 hours. What is the problem?

 

[maxman1]

This is a bug in Android 8.1. I find it works until a reboot & goes out again. It's pretty unlikely to be fixed until hopefully, Pie 9.0 arrives.

 

[sophiegriff]

I am running 9 PIE but I just found this on google about smart lock.

Important: When you don't use your device for 4 hours, and after it restarts, you'll need to unlock it.

 

[cjreyes666]

I have around 7 trusted devices, I currently don't have issues. But I do remember on the Note 4 days never using because I could never get it to work.

 

[maxman1]

9.0 Pie restored proper function for me.....so far.

 

[Scott337]

9.0 Pie restored proper function for me.....so far.

Just to confirm, you are saying that the bug in Android 8 that causes the Smart Lock screen to go blank is fixed in Android 9? I certainly hope so. This has become a real PITA for me. I'm tired of turning off Trusted Agents every time I need to reboot, the have to turn them on again for Smart Lock to work.

 

[maxman1]

Just to confirm, you are saying that the bug in Android 8 that causes the Smart Lock screen to go blank is fixed in Android 9? I certainly hope so. This has become a real PITA for me. I'm tired of turning off Trusted Agents every time I need to reboot, the have to turn them on again for Smart Lock to work.

Yes. I've not had a problem since the update...and, Smart Lock pretty well works as intended. Sometimes, after a reboot, it will not unlock at home unless you leave & return. Overall, it's the best Smart Lock has worked on any phone for me.

 

[Scott337]

Good deal. Thanks for the confirmation.

 

[somnambulator]

There was a serious Smart Lock bug in either Android 5 or 6 that bothered the crap outta me. The SL settings page would be blank after entering your PIN, completely empty with no listings for the different unlock options. The workaround was turning off Smart Lock in Trust Agents (also in Settings > Security), rebooting, then turning it back on. Consequently, if you toggled SL's trust agent off before rebooting you could just re-enable after it powers on and SL would work normally. This issue went away automatically for me, but i don't remember if it was because of an OTA OS upgrade or from getting a newer phone. This was probably 3 years (and 3 phones) ago.

 

[Rod L Jones]

For me, the problem is Smart Local - Trusted Places. It works (or did on my Pixel 2 XL, just switched to a 3 a couple days ago) only if the phone has been charging for as little as a half hour or so or all night. The phone will stay unlocked. But if I leave the area and come back, it doesn't stay unlocked until it is charged.
Trusted devices works fine every time. I have a few devices that my phone is set to trust. Before smart lock I used security settings in Locale to set the password default and when there is no password.

 

[ThrowinRocks]

trusted devices no issue. trusted places? sucks and does not work. I have 10 locations saved for home and nada.

 

[eagleseed]

I have been giving it my best shot to get trusted places to work, across 2 Pixel phones and 3 iterations of Android. I have discovered bizarre work-arounds which function intermittently, and over time stop working, but then others work, for awhile anyway. While the 4-hour timeout of trusted places is an intentional supposed safety feature, I find on my new Pixel w/Pie that the timeout is around an hour (occasionally receiving a notification will time it out!) and that leaving the perimeter of saved trusted location is not 100% reliable.

As I love and rely on this feature --especially as the Pixel 3a doesn't have facial recognition-- I'd go to great lengths (but not rooting) for a quick work-around. What befuddles me is why Google can't figure out how to fix this! It seems from my experience that Play Services has a part in the problem, and probably some interaction between various system components that changes when one or another is updated. (worthless speculation, eh?)

 

[Feech]

Not sure if anyone cares but I think Android 10 fixes Trusted places. I just reactivated it and lock screen said kept unlocked by smart lock.

 

[rkohlin]

Android 10 did NOT fix Smart Lock (that is actually when I started having issues!) However,
Today I found the following, & it seems to be working (so far) -
"other possibility is that your location status on the phone has not been updated for a while. This feature requires a recent location report to work, therefore, not updating its location can make your Trusted Place feature on Smart Lock to stop working. What you need to do is open Google Maps and tap the compass icon on the bottom-right corner. This step will update your location by zoom over to your location and shows it in the form of a blue dot in Google Maps. When this is the source of the problem, your Trusted Place should work fine now."

This was an older post (above) so I found when going to the compass icon, Google maps wanted me to "calibrate" my phone - which I did numerous times, but could only get it to "medium accuracy." However, smart lock is continuously working for over an hour, so that's longer than it's been in a while! Fingers crossed it continues!

Got from: https://www.15tools.com/android-smart-lock-not-working/