Norton Family Location notifications are wrong

[a2j]

I get notifications when my kids leave or arrive at saved location. However, usually these notifications are wrong. For instance, my kids may have been home with me all day, then sometime in the evening, I’ll get the notification that child has left grandma’s house or school or whatever location we’ve saved. I know this isn’t true because I’m home looking at my kid. Norton family is installed on their phones and they would have had their phones with them at the time, so it isn’t the phone riding in someone else’s car. This happens daily.

[bjm]

@a2j

I get notifications when my kids leave or arrive at saved location. However, usually these notifications are wrong. For instance, my kids may have been home with me all day, then sometime in the evening, I’ll get the notification that child has left grandma’s house or school or whatever location we’ve saved. I know this isn’t true because I’m home looking at my kid. Norton family is installed on their phones and they would have had their phones with them at the time, so it isn’t the phone riding in someone else’s car. This happens daily.

Hello @a2j

Are the notifications arriving hours after the child was last at the reported location?
If the answer is yes, then intermittent connectivity, battery optimization, or delayed background processing moves much higher on the suspect list than GPS drift.

In fact, if I were Norton engineering, one of the first things I’d want to know is whether the alerts are:

• factually wrong (“child never went there”), or
• temporally wrong (“child did leave there, but six hours ago”).

Those are very different problems. The user’s wording doesn’t yet tell us which one it is.

That doesn’t sound like expected behavior. While occasional location inaccuracies can occur with any geofence-based service, daily incorrect arrival/departure notifications would be frustrating.

To help narrow down the cause, could you provide:

• Are the children’s devices Android or iPhone? What models are they?
• Does this affect one child/device or multiple children/devices?
• Has this always occurred, or did it begin recently?
• Does it happen with all saved locations or only certain ones?
• Are the notifications delayed by hours, or do they occur around the time of the reported departure/arrival?
• Are location permissions set to allow Norton Family access at all times, and are any battery-saving restrictions enabled?

The answers may help determine whether this is a device/location-services issue or something Norton Support should investigate further.

That sounds like a location accuracy/geofencing issue rather than Norton Family literally thinking the child traveled.

A few things could cause it:

• GPS drift: Phones do not always report an exact location. When a device is stationary, the reported position can occasionally jump hundreds of feet (or more indoors), especially if GPS reception is weak and the phone is relying on Wi-Fi or cellular location data. If a saved place has a relatively small geofence radius, Norton Family may interpret that jump as a departure or arrival.

• Battery optimization / background restrictions: If Android battery optimization, power-saving modes, or manufacturer-specific battery management (Samsung, Motorola, Xiaomi, etc.) restrict Norton Family in the background, location updates can become intermittent. When the app finally receives a new location, it may generate an incorrect arrival/departure event.

• Location permission settings: Norton Family generally needs location access set to Allow all the time (Android) and precise location enabled where available. If location access is limited, notifications can become unreliable.

• Wi-Fi and network-based positioning changes: A phone sitting at home can switch between GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular positioning. Sometimes the location estimate “snaps” to a previously visited location or briefly reports an inaccurate position.

• Large number of saved places or overlapping geofences: If locations are close together, or the radius around a saved location is small, false triggers can occur.

For troubleshooting, I’d suggest asking the parent:

1. What phone models and operating systems are the children using (Android or iPhone)?
2. Is the issue happening with all saved locations or just certain ones?
3. Are the location permissions set to always allow Norton Family access to location?
4. Are battery optimization/power-saving features disabled for Norton Family?
5. Do the incorrect notifications correspond to locations that are far away, or are they relatively close to home?

If this is happening daily across multiple locations, even with correct permissions and no battery restrictions, it may be worth collecting screenshots of the notifications and contacting Norton Support, as that would suggest either a geofencing bug or a location-services issue on the device rather than normal GPS drift.

Daily false arrival/departure alerts usually point to a location-services or geofencing issue rather than the child actually moving. Check that Norton Family has “Always Allow” location permission, disable any battery optimization for the app, and verify that location services are enabled and working properly on the child’s phone. If the alerts continue, please let us know the phone model(s), Android/iOS version, and whether the problem affects all saved locations or only specific ones. That information will help determine whether this is a device-location issue or a Norton Family geofence problem.

If the issue occurs frequently, Norton Support may be able to review diagnostic information and determine whether the device is experiencing delayed location updates, location-service issues, or a geofence processing problem. They may also be able to confirm whether the behavior matches any known issues affecting specific devices or app versions.

GPS drift is possible, but the described behavior doesn’t immediately sound like classic GPS drift. The delayed notifications suggest a location-update, geofence-processing, or background-app issue may be involved. I’d want to know the phone model, OS version, and whether battery optimization is enabled before blaming GPS accuracy alone.

The behavior you’re describing does not sound like the occasional false geofence alert that can occur with any location-based service. Since you’re seeing incorrect arrival/departure notifications on a daily basis, it would be worthwhile to gather some additional details (device model, OS version, Norton Family version, permission settings, and whether the issue affects one or multiple children/devices). If the settings appear correct, Norton Support may need to review logs or diagnostics to determine whether there is a location-reporting or geofence-processing issue.

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[bjm]

Hello @a2j
Care to share your progress