It works but I wouldn't call it the cleanest solution, more a workaround. As far as I know only apps targeting SDK 37 are affected, older apps still get the permission implicitly. So the proper way would be to just grant "Nearby devices" to the apps that need it e.g. Immich or Jellyfin and if an app doesn't ask for it that's actually a bug and worth reporting, because it should request the permission as soon as the server resolves to a local IP. I also find the "Nearby Devices" title a bit misleading for apps that only need it to reach your own server, but on the other side it gives a somehow proper hint what the permission actually allows.

Tunnel is fine security wise. Keep the reverse proxy anyway and let the tunnel point at it. Routing, logs, etc. stay in one place this way.

Zero Trust with Google etc. is the way for family. Tailscale or Wireguard means installing a VPN client and making sure it keeps running, that's too much for most people who just want to click a link.

There is a toggle next to it which enables it. A rework for the UI is already on the roadmap :D

Sorry, should have mentioned it when i refer to it. In "Settings > Tracking & Sync > Advanced Settings" See also https://colota.app/docs/configuration/gps-settings

A profile with "speed above 10 km/h" will kick in when the last 5 points average speed is above 10 km/h. The notification banner and dashboard will tell you if the profile is actually active.

If your interval for that profile is 5s, a new point will be requested every 5 seconds and with a 10m movement threshold every point closer than 10m to the last recorded point gets discarded.

So to get smoother tracks you can decrease the movement threshold. Personally I use a movement threshold of 2m with a tracking interval of 6 seconds which works very well for me.

Logging points every 10m without a time interval is not possible, because the app needs a location to determine you moved 10m and Android needs an interval. A workaround would be to decrease the interval to something like 3 sec and set the movement threshold to 10m. Then the app will request a new location every 3 seconds and checks if it is at least 10m apart from the last point. If it is it will be recorded, otherwise it will be discarded. That will use a lot more battery though.

You can read more about the tracking profiles in the docs: https://colota.app/docs/guides/tracking-profiles

For places where you stay frequently (home, work, etc.) geofences work better. The stationary profile is good for situations where you are somewhere temporarily for longer (restaurant, friends, etc.)

Edit: Small correction after doing the math and reformatting after writing that on the phone 😂

Lowering the movement threshold will not smooth out a driving track. 10m at a 5s interval works out to 7.2 km/h, so above that speed every fix is already more than 10m from the last one and the threshold throws nothing away. So the tracking interval is your lever here. 5s at 50 km/h is a point roughly every 70m and even at a realistic average of 30 km/h it is still one every 40m, which is what cuts the corners.

Out of the box Colota records every fix it gets by the device. So in case you haven't already I would suggest to enable the accuracy filter and set it e.g. to 25m. This way all points with accuracy worse than 25m get filtered out. Also the movement threshold helps with the stationary drift

Colota dev here 👋 What do you want the profiles to do?

Profiles are an optional thing to finetune your tracking settings based on certain conditions, e.g. speed above or below x km/h, phone charging, Android Auto connected or being stationary. So you could raise the interval while charging, since that usually means you are not moving. To start with you could also make a pause zone at home and at work and turn on the WiFi pause. GPS stops completely while you are there and the app will consume much less battery. Tracking resumes when the WiFi drops.

I would add one at a time and see if it behaves like you want. When you create like 10 different tracking profiles with different priorities they can interfere with each other, so less is often more.

Edit: Also the accuracy filter is off by default so you probably want to enable it to reduce the noise

you could only expose a webhook which is deployed public and then forward the locations from the webhook to the dawarich instance via wireguard or just use a vpn also on the client

🙋

I use it to track travel times for work and sometimes create maps of trips. Also I personally just like to see oh I was there a few days/weeks/years ago which brings up memories

Owntracks can do that but it has a limit of how much locations can be stored locally. I think it was 100k, so depending on your tracking interval during the month you may hit the limit. Also it still tries to sync every few minutes even though the server is down. Colota (https://github.com/dietrichmax/colota) supports the same without a limit and you can use it in a offline mode and then export e.g. a geojson and import it into Dawarich or you set it to only sync it on a imaginary SSID like "abc " and then change it to the correct one when you actually want to sync. So it never even tries to sync until you really want it to. Disclosure: I'm the dev of Colota.

Thank you, really appreciate it! Glad to hear Colota is working well with Dawarich for you so far. Feedback and criticism are always welcome. Most of it has led to real improvements in the app. I think a casual forum thread is probably just not the best setting for deep technical discussions, where context shifts quickly, everyone has a different background and nuance gets lost.