Viewing a device's location history

Depending on your Absolute product licenses and the configuration of your account, the Location History page may not be available.

You can go to a device's Location History page to view the movement of a device over a particular period of time. This information may be particularly helpful if you want to investigate an at-risk device.

A device's location is updated on the Location History page only when a Device location updated event is logged for the device. You can view these events on the Events page in the History area of the console. By default, the page shows location changes over the last 7 days, but you can show the last 14 days or the last 30 days, or configure a custom date range.

  • If a device changes its location by less than 100 meters, no Device location updated event is logged and the device's location is not updated on the Location History page.
  • For stolen devices, Device location updated events are not logged while the theft investigation is open. After the investigation is closed, location information that was collected during the investigation is not included in the device's location history.

To learn more about tracking the location of your devices, visit the Learning Hub. To access the Learning Hub, click (Help and Support) on the quick access toolbar and then click Resources > The Learning Hub.

To collect information about a device's location, the Geolocation Tracking policy needs to be activated in the device's policy group.

To view a device's Location History page, your user role needs to be granted Address-level View permissions for Geolocation. All default roles (except the Guest User role) are granted this permission.

To view a device's recent location changes:

  1. On any page that shows linked device identifiers in the first column of the results grid, such as the All Devices page in the Devices area click the link for the device that you want to view. The device's Device Details page opens. The device's current (most recently reported) location shows under the Last connected field. If No Geolocation shows, the Geolocation Tracking policy is not activated.
  2. Click Location History. A new page opens to show a timeline and a map.

You can use the timeline to determine when a device moved from one location to another and the time spent in each location.

By default, the timeline shows a history of the device's location changes over the last 7 days, in descending chronological order, but you can change the date range. The device's most recently detected location shows below Last known location with the date and time when the most recent location scan ended on the device.

Depending on the device's location history, one or more of the following items may show on the timeline:

  • The full street address of the device's new location and the date and time when it was detected. Each location corresponds to a dot marker on the map.

    If a icon shows next to the address, it is based on the device's public IP address and location accuracy may be low. A marker is not shown on the map. Learn more

  • Checked in everyday for <#> days: indicates that the device regularly connected to the Absolute Monitoring Center during a particular time period, but its location didn't change.
  • Checked in <#> over <#> days: indicates how frequently the device connected to the Absolute Monitoring Center during a particular time period. The device's location didn't change.
  • No location change: indicates that the device connected to the Absolute Monitoring Center on that date, but its location didn't change.
  • Offline everyday for <#> days: indicates that the device was offline during a particular time period. Location information is not available when a device is offline.
  • Location not available: indicates that the device was offline and did not connect to the Absolute Monitoring Center on that date.

To see some of these items, you may need to expand the timeline.

The map shows the device's detected locations as a collection of dot markers, with connectors showing the movement of the device from one location to another. Each dot marker corresponds to a location in the timeline.

Timeline locations that show a icon do not show on the map. Learn more

The presentation of the markers depends on whether the map's zoom level is above or below city-level:

  • Above city-level: the city's dot marker shows the number of times the device's reported location was in that city. Note that if it was only once, no number shows.

    There are no connectors between the markers at this zoom level. Click a marker to zoom in to below city-level.

  • Below city-level: each dot marker shows the street level location of the device with a connector to the device's previous and next locations.

At higher zoom levels, each dot marker is surrounded by a halo indicating the estimated accuracy of the geotechnology used to detect the device's location; the smaller the halo, the greater the accuracy. If no halo is visible, the accuracy is very low or unavailable.

Note that changing the date range may change the zoom level of the map.

You can work with the map and timeline in the following ways:

Action Details
Show a timeline location on the map

On the timeline, do one of the following:

  • Click the location

  • Click the View on map button next to Last known location

    The marker is brought into focus on the map and a tooltip opens to show the following information:

    • Date and time when the device moved to the location
    • Street address, city, state/province
    • Geotechnology used to detect the location

    • Estimated accuracy of the geotechnology, in meters

      If a Low confidence warning shows at the top of the tooltip:

      • an accuracy value was not detected -or-
      • the geotechnology is OS Location and the accuracy value is greater than 500 meters

Timeline locations that show a icon do not show on the map. Learn more
Show a dot marker in the timeline On the map, hover over the dot marker. The corresponding location is highlighted in the timeline. The dot marker's tooltip also shows.
Hide IP locations

To show only Wi-Fi and OS locations, clear the Show IP location checkbox. All IP locations in the timeline are hidden. Note that

  • The checkbox is not shown if there are no IP locations in the timeline.

  • IP locations are always included when you export the page.
Expand the timeline If the icon shows between two date labels in the timeline, click it to see more information about the daily connection status of the device. Click to collapse the timeline again.
Change the date range You can change the date range of the data shown on the map and the timeline.

Zoom in

Do one of the following:

  • With the mouse pointer over the map, rotate the wheel button on your mouse upward.
  • Double-click the map location that you want to zoom in to.
  • Click the plus (+) symbol in the bottom right of the map.

To view a different area of the map after you've zoomed in, drag the map until the desired area is in view.

Zoom out

Do one of the following:

  • With the mouse pointer over the map, rotate the wheel button on your mouse downward.
  • Double right-click the map.
  • Click the minus (-) symbol in the bottom right of the map.
Switch between Map and Satellite view Click the applicable button on the Map | Satellite toggle.

You can change the page's date range using either the timeline or the date range field.

On the timeline, you can quickly move to the next 30-day date range without opening the date range field.

To move along the timeline, do the following:

  1. To move down the timeline, click Older data. The 30-day date range that precedes the current date range shows. You can keep clicking Older data to move to the next earliest date range.
  2. To move up the timeline, click Recent data. You can keep clicking Recent data until the most recent date range shows.

To select a new predefined date range, click the date range field above the timeline and select one of the following options:

  • Last 7 days
  • Last 14 days
  • Last 30 days

The current date is always included in the date range. For example, if you select Last 14 days, the page shows location changes that occurred today and in the 13 days prior.

You can view up to 365 days of historical location data, in 30 day increments. That is, the start date and end date of your date range can not span more than 30 days.

If you select a date range that precedes the activation date of the device's Geolocation Tracking policy, no location information is available.

To specify a date range:

  1. Click the date range field above the timeline and click Select.
  2. Click the calendar picker to open it.

  3. Select a start and an end date in the calendars.

    To pick a month, click the month name at the top of the calendar and select the applicable month. Alternatively, you can use the and icons to navigate to it.

    To pick a year, click the year at the top of the calendar and select the applicable year. Alternatively, you can use the and icons to navigate to it.

    Dates outside the 30 day span limit are grayed out.

The calendar picker closes and the selected dates show in the date range field.

You can export a report in CSV, Excel, or XML format that shows the device's last 7, 14, or 30 days of location changes. You can also specify a custom date range that spans up to 365 days.

If you select a date range that precedes the activation date of the device's Geolocation Tracking policy, the report will be empty.

The exported report includes columns that show the following information:

  • Device identifiers
  • Logged in username
  • Date and time when the location was uploaded

  • Latitude and longitude

    These columns are empty for IP locations.

  • Address

    This column is empty for IP locations.

  • Geotechnology and accuracy
  • IP addresses

To export the Location History page:

  1. Above the timeline, click Export to open the Export Location history dialog.

  2. Click the Format field and select one of the following options:

    Option Description
    CSV (.csv) with column names Exports the report (including column headers) in Comma Separated Values (.csv) file format
    CSV (.csv) without column names Exports the report (excluding column headers) in Comma Separated Values (.csv) file format
    Excel (.xlsx)

    Exports the report (including column headers) in Microsoft Excel Open XML Spreadsheet (.xlsx) file format

    If the report contains more than 1 million rows, select the CSV format. Reports of this size are not supported in Excel.
    XML (.xml) Exports the report in Extensible Markup Language (.xml) file format

  3. Click the Date range field and select one of the following options:

    • Last 7 days
    • Last 14 days
    • Last 30 days
    • Select…

    If you clicked Select:

    1. Click the calendar picker to open it.

    2. Select a start and an end date in the calendars. You can select any end date in the past that is up to 365 days from the start date.

      To pick a month, click the month name at the top of the calendar and select the applicable month. Alternatively, you can use the and icons to navigate to it.

      To pick a year, click the year at the top of the calendar and select the applicable year. Alternatively, you can use the and icons to navigate to it.

    The calendar picker closes and the selected dates show in the date range field.

  4. By default, the report includes location information for every date in the range. If the device didn't change its location on a particular date, No shows in the report's Location Change column. To exclude empty days from the report, select the checkbox next to Only export days with a location change.
  5. Click Export.

The report is generated and downloaded in your selected file format.