Dawarich for Android
The Dawarich app records your location on your Android phone or tablet and uploads it to Dawarich Cloud or to your own self-hosted instance. It keeps recording in the background and works offline.
Requirements: an Android phone or tablet, and either a Dawarich Cloud account or a self-hosted Dawarich instance.
Installation
Search for "Dawarich" in Google Play, or tap the badge below.
Connect to a server
On first launch the app shows a short intro, then the sign-in screen.
Dawarich Cloud
Tap Sign in with Google or Sign up with Email. If you already have a Cloud account, tap Already have an account? Sign in.
Self-hosted instance
Tap For self-hosters — Connect to your own Dawarich instance, then pick one of two methods:
- Scan QR Code — open your Dawarich instance in a browser, go to Account → API access, and scan the QR code shown there. The server URL and API key are filled in and validated for you.
- Manual Setup — enter your Server URL (for example
https://your-server.example.com) and the API key from the same Account → API access page. If your server sits behind an authenticating reverse proxy such as Pangolin or Cloudflare Access, add the required Custom headers here; they are stored per server and are never sent to Dawarich Cloud.
Use HTTPS. The app warns you when the URL is plain HTTP.
You can also tap Continue without signing in to look around first. Nothing is uploaded until you connect a server — do that later from Settings → Server Connection → Sign in.
Grant permissions
After connecting, the app walks you through the permissions it needs. Getting these right is what makes tracking reliable on Android.
- Location data — choose "While using the app" and leave Precise Location on, so your journeys come out accurate.
- Always-on tracking — set location access to "Allow all the time". Without it, tracking stops the moment you leave the app.
- Tracking notification (Android 13 and newer) — Dawarich shows a quiet, ongoing notification while it tracks. That notification is how Android knows to keep recording in the background, so leave it enabled.
- Keep Dawarich running — swiping Dawarich out of Recent Apps can stop tracking, and many phones close background apps to save battery.
You can review the current state and re-request anything later under Settings → App → Permissions.
For reliable recording, set battery usage to Unrestricted under Settings → Apps → Dawarich → Battery. On Samsung, Xiaomi, Huawei and OnePlus devices, also enable Auto-start. See dontkillmyapp.com for the settings your specific phone needs.
On Android 14 and newer, you can dismiss the ongoing tracking notification without stopping tracking — it stays dismissed for the rest of that tracking session.
Start tracking
- Open the Map tab.
- Expand the tracking card at the bottom of the screen.
- Turn Tracking on.
The card shows the time of the last sync and the current upload mode, and switches to a Synced state once your points have reached the server.
To have tracking resume by itself, turn on Start tracking automatically under Settings → Tracking → Tracking Settings — tracking then starts whenever you launch the app.
Uploading points
By default the app uploads points automatically while tracking, so there is nothing to do manually. The behaviour is configurable under Settings → Upload:
| Setting | What it does |
|---|---|
| Upload points automatically | Uploads while tracking. On by default. |
| Upload when tracking stops | Uploads all pending points when you turn tracking off. |
| Batch size | How many points each automatic upload sends. Default 100. |
| Re-upload points | Re-sends the points recorded in a date range you pick. |
You can also upload on demand: tap the sync button on the tracking card to upload pending points and refresh the selected history.
If an upload fails, an Upload failed banner appears on the map with a Retry action.
Offline tracking
The app records your location on your device, so tracking keeps working even without an internet connection — on a plane, underground, hiking off-grid, or travelling abroad without data. Your points are stored safely on the phone and uploaded to your Dawarich instance automatically once you're back online. Nothing is lost to a dropped connection.
Tracking settings
Settings → Tracking → Tracking Settings
Smart Tracking (experimental)
Smart Tracking uses motion detection to pause location updates after you have been still for a while and resume them once you move again or leave the area. Two settings control it:
- Stationary Duration — how long still motion must continue before tracking pauses.
- Geofence Radius — the radius used to resume tracking after leaving the stationary area.
An event log below the settings shows when it paused and resumed.
Smart Tracking may not pause or resume reliably. Tracking might remain active, stop unexpectedly, or fail to record some locations. Leave it off if you need complete tracks.
Fine-tuning
- Accuracy — higher accuracy uses more battery.
- Distance Filter — record a new location only if the device has moved at least this distance.
- Time Filter — record a new location only if at least this much time has passed since the last one.
- Track Breaking — start a new track if no location is received within this interval.
On the map
- Day ribbon — horizontal day cards with per-day point density, an hourly sparkline for the selected day, and a jump-to-date modal for picking a day or a multi-day range.
- Layers — toggle routes, points and the heatmap. Points source switches between Server + device and Device only.
- Replay — play back the selected day's movement from the timeline controls.
Insights
The Insights tab has three sub-tabs:
- Insights — year totals, year-over-year comparison, an activity heatmap, streaks and travel patterns.
- Stats — per-year stats with a monthly distance chart.
- Digests — browse, generate and delete yearly digests.
All of it is cached on device, so it still opens when you're offline.
Sync settings between devices
Once connected, Settings → Settings sync stores your tracking and upload preferences on your Dawarich server so your devices match. The Status row tells you whether settings are synced, pending, unsupported by your server, or failing, and Sync now retries and re-checks server support. A per-device switch lets one device keep its settings local.
Servers that are too old for the mobile settings API simply keep settings on the device.
Under Settings → Preferences you can switch the distance unit between kilometres and miles; the change applies across Stats, Insights and Digests immediately, including offline.
Automation
Quick Settings tiles
Dawarich provides two Quick Settings controls:
- Dawarich tracking — toggles location tracking and reflects its current state.
- Upload points — schedules all pending points for upload.
Open Quick Settings, enter edit mode, and drag either control into the active area. The device must be unlocked before either one runs, and Upload points stays dimmed until a server URL and API key are saved.
Tasker and other automation apps
Dawarich exposes three Locale/Tasker plug-in actions — Start tracking, Stop tracking and Upload track — which also work with compatible hosts such as MacroDroid and Automate.
They are off by default. Turn on Allow other apps to trigger Dawarich under Settings → Android automation first; until you do, every action returns an error and changes nothing.
Once the opt-in is on, any installed app can invoke these actions — the caller is not limited to Tasker. That is a consequence of the Locale plug-in protocol, which requires an exported receiver that no app-specific permission can restrict.
Troubleshooting
Tracking stops when the app is in the background. Check that location access is set to Allow all the time in Settings → App → Permissions, set battery usage to Unrestricted, and don't swipe Dawarich out of Recent Apps. See dontkillmyapp.com for manufacturer-specific settings.
Points aren't reaching the server. Open Settings → Server Connection and tap Test Connection. It shows the server URL and, when the connection succeeds, the server version. If you are behind a reverse proxy, check your custom headers under Self-hosted settings.
Something else is wrong. Settings → Debug → Debug logs collects logs you can share with the developers. Alerts about tracking, uploads and visits can be turned on or off individually under Settings → Notifications → Notification settings.