iPhone 12 Upgrades Interfering With COVID-19 Contact-Tracing App Notifications, How to Fix

[msp3]

>imagine living in a police state where if you don’t have a government mandated spying app installed on your phone you’re not allowed to eat or pick up food at restaurants, or even buy a coffee at Starbucks

And people still fall for the lie these spying apps are “optional”. Britbongs, what do you have to say for yourselves?

 

[DeepIn2U]

This is sheer stupidity from a developer point of view. You couldn't have a more poorly designed and badly descriptive error message for this type of situation.

Error messages are so easy to program. It's text which takes minutes to code. This is such a cheap default message that probably deals with multiple errors.

unfortunately we still face this in macOS windows & Linux computer OS codes

I doubt it’ll ever get fixed therein.

 

[FrankieTDouglas]

Uh oh, the spyware infrastructure is broken?

 

[and 1989 others]

I know this is an API thing, but the whole Track and trace thing in the UK has been an unmitigated disaster, as £12Bn disaster.

I don't think I know anybody that uses the app because they do not trust the system to be robust enough- as a whole not just the app.

 

[mariusignorello]

>imagine living in a police state where if you don’t have a government mandated spying app installed on your phone you’re not allowed to eat or pick up food at restaurants, or even buy a coffee at Starbucks

And people still fall for the lie these spying apps are “optional”. Britbongs, what do you have to say for yourselves?

And imagine being complacent and scared enough to buy into it. Screw that.

Oh and before anyone comes at me whining about not caring about public health, you're wrong. I don't need my privacy invaded to be mindful of others.

 

[purpleparrotuk]

I swapped from an 11 pro to a 7 yesterday and cant get this to work. Exposure notifications are turned on.

Edit: Fixed it. The nhs tracking region had gone. Had to reactivate it.

 

[lamerica80]

Swiss Covid (Switzerland) users: Re-installing the app will fix this.

 

[bransoj]

Looking forward to my 12 Pro - on my 6s Exposure Notifications is often between 12 and 55% of battery usage. Add to that another 1 to 5% for the NHS COVID-19 app itself.

The app is also telling me that the risk level is HIGH. Despite just four new cases in my county today (only one yesterday). I guess this is simply because the whole of the country is in a 17 day lockdown. Not any change to actual risk. (With the lockdown in force, risk has almost certainly gone down.)

And the mechanism for scanning QR codes seems to have very limited utility. If I went to a cafe, I'd have to give them my name and phone number even if I scan the QR code.

Presumably you are in Wales based on the 17 day lockdown bit, the risk level is just postcode related and taken from the official government levels isnt it so just the app pulling that info and will update accordingly. Where i am is High as well but my actual area isnt that bad but we are close to Sth Yorkshire which has gone to Very High.

As for the QR code scanning everywhere i've been, i am in England however, if i've scanned the code i didnt need to fill anything else in. It was one or the other with most understandably preferring you scan the code as its less hassle in terms of handling the paperwork, ensuring its stored then discarded correctly etc.

 

[JulianL]

This is sheer stupidity from a developer point of view. You couldn't have a more poorly designed and badly descriptive error message for this type of situation.

Error messages are so easy to program. It's text which takes minutes to code. This is such a cheap default message that probably deals with multiple errors.

That's simply not fair as a blanket statement. I don't know the specifics in this case but what if it is the underlying Exposure Notification APIs that are at fault by returning the same generic error code for multiple causes of error?

For instance I might sell books and I either accept an order or I reject it because either the book is out of stock, the title given is slightly wrong so doesn't match anything in my inventory, or the book cannot be shipped to your country for legal reasons. If all I ever say to confirm the acceptance of an order is "Yes" or "No" then just how are you supposed to work out a meaningful reason for your order not being accepted?

 

[JulianL]

>imagine living in a police state where if you don’t have a government mandated spying app installed on your phone you’re not allowed to eat or pick up food at restaurants, or even buy a coffee at Starbucks

And people still fall for the lie these spying apps are “optional”. Britbongs, what do you have to say for yourselves?

Can't say I've ever been forced to use the app. I have it installed and use it when it's more convenient for venue check-in but all that "you’re not allowed to eat or pick up food at restaurants, or even buy a coffee at Starbucks" disinformation is ridiculous. I know plenty of people who don't have smart phones and are somehow managing to do all of those things.

As for characterising the track & trace app as "spyware" I'll be charitable and assume that's simply because you haven't taken the time to understand how the app actually works in terms of centralised vs distributed matching algorithms rather than more spreading of disinformation.

 

[tridley68]

Could care less about the covid app so not really a issue for me.

 

[cocky jeremy]

You could always just stop being paranoid and delete the app.

 

[spinstorm]

Correct me if I’m wrong. BUT

YOU CANT TRANSFER THE DATA FROM THE EXPOSURE NOTIFICATIONS AS IT IS ATTACHED TO THE HARDWARE.

Look my understanding (and I’m not a developer) is that the app uses the hardware you have to create an ID. That ID is not transferable as a new device would have a different ID.
Therefore back up or no back up the app considers you to be a new person on a new device.

Which means all my data from the last month of using the track and trace is gone as is everyone else who changed their iPhone.

 

[iConnected]

Seems to me that the only way to retain the benefit - for yourself and potentially also for others - of data generated by the app using the old phone is to keep that old phone active for two weeks after you switch over.

Obviously switch the SIM card over to the new one, but keep that old phone connected to Wi-Fi, keep it charged up and keep checking it, so that, over the course of the next 14 days*, the app can still advise you of any contact or venue alerts relating to two week period before you switched phones.

And also so that, if you test positive yourself within that time, you can register that in the app so that any other users who received beacons from your old phone can be notified accordingly.

And only erase the old phone after those 14 days have passed (after which time all codes on your phone - and your codes on others' phones - will have been deleted automatically).

In the meantime, of course, also set up the app on the new phone that you're now taking with you everywhere, to provide ongoing tracking.

*These timings relate to the NHS COVID-19 app for England and Wales. Don't know whether they might differ for other apps and regions.