Greenlight Safe Family Device: Troubleshooting issues when location tracking or place alerts are not working

The location of my Greenlight Safe Family device is not updating. What can I do?

If you are not seeing an updated location for your Greenlight Safe Family device, start with a few troubleshooting steps:

1. Check your device’s battery charge. In your app’s Safety dashboard under the device’s profile, you should see an indicator if your battery’s device is low. If the device is low, plug your device into its charger. It will light up to indicate that it is charged. 
2. Check your device’s signal. You can also see the most recent connectivity level for your device under your device’s profile in your app. If the device is charged but in a place with no working signal, the device will not be able to provide location updates effectively.
   • Tip: Move the device to a less obstructed area, like an outer pocket, bag strap, or your child’s pocket, instead of keeping it inside a backpack or school cubby for example. The less obstruction around the device, the better chance it has to maintain a strong signal in areas with low connectivity.
3. Check your device’s location update frequency. If your device is charged and has a signal, it may be that your device’s location frequency setting is set to only provide occasional updates. To check your device’s location, update frequency or make it more frequently.
   • Tap the device’s “Settings” gear on the top right corner of the device profile’s “Safe Family Device” status bar (which shows your Frequency, Battery, and Signal.)
   • Tap “Device tracking”
   • Select the update frequency option that works best for your needs, from every 1 minute to every 4 hours. Please note that the more frequent your location updates, the shorter the life of your device’s battery.
4. Verify you have an active subscription. If you do not have an active data plan subscription for your device (due to cancellation or due to an inability to charge your payment method), your device’s location will not update after the subsequent billing period has passed unless you reactivate or update your payment method. 
   
   To do this, tap “Billing & Payment” in your device’s settings and follow the instructions to update your subscription. 

My Greenlight Safe Family device is not sending me place alerts. What can I do?

After following the steps above to verify that your device’s location updates are working as expected, there are a few more things you can do to ensure place alerts are being triggered from your device.

1. Check that your device’s public alerts are turned ON. Public place alerts allow you to get an alert any time a device enters or leaves a geozone around any public place, like a park, store, or school. On your device’s profile on your safety dashboard, tap “Manage all place alerts.” Then scroll down to “Public places” and toggle this “ON” for your device if you would like to receive these kinds of alerts. 
2. Create custom alerts. If your public alerts are on, but you are not receiving alerts for certain locations more custom to your needs (like home, a school soccer field, or a workplace), create a custom place alert for these locations by selecting “Add a new place” in your “My places” section of your “Place alerts” management screen and following the in-app instructions.
3. Ensure your device is set to receive alerts for existing places. If you already have a custom place alert set for a certain location but your Safe Family Device does not seem to be triggering an alert for this area, tap into that location’s details and assure your listed device is toggled ON to receive alerts when it arrives at or leaves that location.
4. Make sure your phone allows notifications from Greenlight. If you have disabled notifications from the Greenlight app entirely, you will not receive place alert notifications. Navigate to your phone’s settings, search for the Greenlight app, and make sure your permissions to receive notifications are toggled on.

If you have tried all of the actions in this article and things still do not appear to be working, please reach out to our Customer Service team at 888-483-2645 and a team member will be happy to assist you!