Getting started

How do I turn automatic tracking on?

Shown on Android

Before you start

Right after you sign in for the first time, OdoTax asks for the permissions it needs, one screen at a time, and the counter in the corner tells you which one you are on. On most Android phones there are five:

  1. Location, while you use the app — records the route a drive took
  2. Location, all the time — catches drives that start while OdoTax is closed
  3. Physical activity — notices a drive beginning without leaving GPS on all day
  4. Notifications — tells you a drive is logged and ready to classify
  5. Battery, unrestricted — stops Android pausing detection to save power

Any your phone has already given is skipped, and some older Android versions do not have them all. On Xiaomi, Huawei, Oppo and Vivo phones there is a sixth, Autostart. Every screen shows you the popup before the phone does, so nothing arrives unannounced; afterwards there is nothing to press before a drive.

In each picture below, OdoTax’s screen is on the left and the phone’s own popup is on the right — the hand marks the button to press.

Step 1. Allow location while you use the app

  1. Tap Continue
  2. On the popup, keep Precise selected
  3. Tap "While using the app"

This is ordinary location access, the same one a map app asks for, and it is what draws the route a drive took. Precise is the part that matters here: a log built from approximate positions is not accurate enough to claim.

You can turn tracking off at any time in OdoTax, and it stops collecting location at once.

Step 2. Upgrade location to "all the time"

  1. Tap Continue
  2. Pick "Allow all the time"
  3. Leave Use precise location switched on
  4. Go back to OdoTax

Android keeps background access on a screen of its own, and this is the step that matters: it is what lets OdoTax log a drive that starts while the app is closed and the phone is in your pocket. Pick "Keep only while using" instead and OdoTax records nothing unless the app is open on screen — which, on a drive, it never is. More on this choice: Do I have to set location to Always?

Step 3. Allow physical activity

  1. Tap Continue
  2. Tap Allow on the popup

The motion sensors are how OdoTax notices a drive starting without keeping GPS awake all day.

Detection still works without this one, but it leans on slower signals and can start a mile or two into the trip.

Step 4. Allow notifications

  1. Tap Continue
  2. Tap Allow on the popup

OdoTax sends one notification worth having: a drive was logged and is ready to classify.

Saying no changes nothing about tracking — the log is just easier to forget without the nudge.

Step 5. Set battery to unrestricted

  1. Tap Continue
  2. Tap Allow on the popup

Android pauses apps in the background to save power, and a paused OdoTax cannot notice a drive starting — this is the setting behind most missed drives. On some phones the popup never appears and Android opens a list instead: pick OdoTax, turn Allow background usage on, and choose Unrestricted.

If you said no to something

Nothing here is final — every permission can be granted later, and OdoTax shows the same path whenever it notices one is missing.

  1. Open the phone’s Settings and find OdoTax in the list of apps
  2. Permissions → Location → "Allow all the time"
  3. Permissions → Physical activity → Allow
  4. App battery usage → Unrestricted

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