Stuck Notifications

[gnipun]

Running the latest iOS (18.6.2), with the latest OwnTracks (18.5.1/en_CA).
I have 5 notifications in my iOS app. This started when the app couldn’t communicate with the recorder server (low network connectivity, as well as when the recorder server went offline).

The recorder server is back online, and new location is being properly pushed to it (also tested with ‘send location now’).

In the older version, I was able to clear notifications by turn off some toggle in settings and then turning them back on. But, I can’t seem to clear these “stuck notifications” anymore.

Using MQTT

[jpmens]

I assume you mean the red message count on the app's icon badge. These should go away (decrement) automatically as the app is delivering queued location publishes to the MQTT broker, and you oughtn't need to "fiddle" with settings to clear that.

Which MQTT broker (and version) are you using?

[gnipun]

Yes, the red message count on app icon badge.
I'm running version 2.0.22 version of eclipse-mosquitto as the MQTT broker (via docker).
Also, I'm using 1.0.1 of the recorder (using owntracks/recorder as the image)

So, at the moment, my app is "stuck" on 5 notifications. I've noticed that if I'm flying on a plane, the app count goes up (to hundreds). And, when I land (and connect to Internet), the count decrements to 5 - but, doesn't clear anymore.

[ckrey]

You may "reset" the connection which is out-of-sync between app and broker by changing the DeviceID for the MQTT connection.

Probably you cleared the broker's database and the client is still waiting for a transmission response.

[gnipun]

Thanks! I just changed my DeviceID. It took a few seconds for it to sync.
While it was synchronizing, the count went down to 0. But, then got back up to 5..

Not sure what’s happening

[ckrey]

If this doesn‘t help, please change back your ClientID.
Then delete and reinstall the app. You may expprt your settings to files or email before and reload after reinstallation

[gnipun]

Thanks - I uninstalled and reinstalled the app, and it seems fine now.
Just concerned that the issue might come back - not sure if uninstalling and reinstalling is the only way?

Also - I couldn't figure out how to import the exported settings? I was able to copy and paste it.
But, can't find if there is a way to easily load it on the iOS app?

[ckrey]

You open the file config.otrc from your files or email app, then hit the action button and select the owntracks app

[gnipun]

Perfect, thank you!!

[gnipun]

So, I had to restart my recorder server again, and the 2 notification badge is back.
I know I can delete and re-install the app to clear it.

But, is this the actual intended implementation? If the recorder goes offline, the app will get “stuck” with a couple of missed “updates”?
Or, is there something else I’m missing?

[ckrey]

It is not related to the recorder because the recorder and the app are not directly connected.

But the mosquitto MQTT broker is. Did you configure persistency in mosquitto? Please show us your broker configuration.

[ckrey]

Or, do you use more than one phone with the same clientID?

[gnipun]

Thanks for your continued support @ckrey!

I'm using just this phone with a clientID. And, I have 2 phones in total reporting to the same back-end server (both different IDs).

In terms of broker configuration, I'm using this mosquitto.conf

# mosquitto.conf

listener 1883
allow_anonymous false
password_file /mosquitto/config/passwd

acl_file /mosquitto/config/aclfile

# TLS
listener 8883
cafile /scripts/owntracks/certs/chain.pem
certfile /scripts/owntracks/certs/cert.pem
keyfile /scripts/owntracks/certs/privkey.pem
tls_version tlsv1.2

And, this docker-compose file, if it helps at all.

version: '3.8'

services:
  owntracks-recorder:
    image: owntracks/recorder
    container_name: owntracks-recorder
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "8083:8083"  # Web UI
    volumes:
      - ./owntracks_data:/store
      - /etc/letsencrypt/live:/etc/letsencrypt/live:ro
    environment:
      - OTR_HOST=mosquitto  # Connect OwnTracks to Mosquitto
      - OTR_PORT=1883
      - OTR_USER=REDACTED
      - OTR_PASS=REDACTED
      - OTR_HTTP=1  # Enable HTTP UI
      - OTR_TLS=0   # Disable TLS (use Nginx for SSL termination)
      - OTR_HTTP_PORT=8083
      - OTR_STORAGE=mqtt
      - MQTT_HOST=mosquitto
      - MQTT_PORT=1883
    depends_on:
      - mosquitto
    networks:
      - owntracks-network

  mosquitto:
    image: eclipse-mosquitto
    container_name: mosquitto
    restart: unless-stopped
    ports:
      - "1883:1883"  # MQTT Port
      - "8883:8883"  # MQTT over SSL
    volumes:
      - ./mosquitto_data:/mosquitto/data
      - ./mosquitto_config:/mosquitto/config
      - ./mosquitto_log:/mosquitto/log
      - ./certs:/scripts/owntracks/certs
    environment:
      - MOSQUITTO_USERNAME=REDACTED
      - MOSQUITTO_PASSWORD=REDACTED
    networks:
      - owntracks-network

networks:
  owntracks-network:
    driver: bridge

volumes:
  owntracks_data:
  mosquitto_data:
  mosquitto_config:
  mosquitto_log:

[ckrey]

It seems there is a problem (not intended) in the synchronisation when the broker does not persist the session status. I will open a separate issue for this.

You can eliminate the problem by adding persistence to mosquitto (add the following lines to mosquitto.conf):

persistence true
persistence_location /var/lib/mosquitto/