Auto unlock upon arrival
Hands full? Why not let your Danalock V3 smart lock help you?
The Danalock apps for Android and iOS can use the Auto Unlock feature to sense your arrival home and unlock the door for you.
Depending on your door type and the direction of your door, you might even have the option for the Danalock to pull back the door latch, and now all you have to do is push the door open.
*On Danalock V3 HomeKit you can't use this feature in the Danalock app. Instead, refer to your Home app for a similar feature. For features of Danalock V3 HomeKit, please read the table at the bottom of the product page for the V3 lock.
How does it work?
The Auto Unlock feature works by putting your lock in a home zone.
You can adjust the radius of this zone from a minimum of 200 meters up to 1000 meters.
Once you leave the zone your phone will wait until you enter your home zone again before trying to unlock your door.
Once your phone detects the lock (when getting within Bluetooth range of it) the app will unlock your lock. This will normally happen once you are within 2-10 meters of your lock.
You must leave your home zone again to trigger the next attempt to auto-unlock your lock.
How to turn on Auto Unlock
You will find the Auto Unlock feature in the lock settings in your Danalock app.
After turning it on, you can adjust the Geofence radius of your home zone.
! This guide only covers the official Danalock apps. If you are using a third-party app please refer to the manual of that app.
!! On HomeKit locks you'll need to enroll the lock in dual mode. In HomeKit mode you can't use the Danalock app to Auto unlock, but must use the similar feature that the iPhone Home app has. In Dual mode, you can use the HomeKit lock as a standard Danalock and therefore also use the Auto Unlock feature in the Danalock Apps.
Recommended phone setting
Depending on what brand of phone operating system you are using, iOS or Android and also in some cases depending on what brand of Android phone, we have here some setting that we recommend that you go through to optimize the Auto Unlock feature.
iOS recommendations for Auto Unlock
Important!
The following settings and recommendations are something you will need to set up on each phone that you would want to use the Auto unlock feature on. These settings are on the phone locally - not synchronized to your Danalock account!
Location permission set to "Always"
When setting up Auto Unlock, the phone will ask for location permissions. First time it asks, you will choose "Allow While Using App". But right after this, the app will ask to have location even when you are not using the app - here you need to choose "Change to Always Allow"
In the phone's "Settings" menu, under the Danalock app, you can always change this setting if needed.
The location data is only stored on the phone and Danalock will never collect or store your location data.
Precise Location (Default on)
In the phone's "Settings" menu, under the Danalock app, and under Location, you will find the setting "Precise Location" This also needs to be on for the Auto Unlock feature to work with high enough precision. If not turned on, unwanted unlocks might occur as the phone can think it's outside the home zone.
Low power mode
If you set the phone in Low Power Mode or the phone is low on battery and goes into Low Power Mode the phone reduces the activity on services running in the background. This includes the Danalock app and will thereby also have an impact on the Auto unlock feature. The solution is to re-charge the phone and then deactivate Low Power Mode.
Bluetooth
Needs to be turned on for the app and phone to detect and unlock your Danalock V3. If not turned on while entering your home zone the app will not be able to start the Auto Unlock process.
Notifications
We recommend that you also accept getting notifications from the Danalock app so that we can tell you once the feature starts the unlocking process and when the unlocking is completed.
Auto Unlock timeout
(Danalock Classic apponly)
The timeout function is default set to 10 minutes. This is how long the app will wait for the lock to get in range. If you get inside the zone but take longer than the time set here to get home the Auto unlock will not happen.
You can adjust this timeout to up to 30 minutes.
This feature is only available in the Danalock Classic app.
Auto Unlock timeout (Danalock app)
The Auto unlock will timeout on the Danalock app after 29 minutes if not successful. This can't be changed.
Geofence radius / Home zone (In-app Danalock setting)
The Geofence radius lets us set the home zone. If you normally are on foot or bike a low radius could be best. In this situation your phone will have time to update its location and then start the search for the lock to Auto unlock.
If you normally reach your home by car, a higher radius could be best. If you have a low radius you could experience the phone not having updated its location before you actually reach the lock. Here a higher radius would normally give your phone more time to updates its location.
Android recommendations for Auto Unlock
Important!
The following settings and recommendations are something you will need to set up on each phone that you would want to use the Auto unlock feature on. These settings are on the phone locally - not synchronized to your Danalock account!
Naming of settings is not always the same!
On Android phones, the specific brand manufacturers can choose to name the settings below in slightly different ways. We will here try to explain the basics of the function and settings but you might have to look for a slightly different word or phrase to find it.
We have tried to guide you to the correct place when setting up the app on your phone the first time, but we can't always get you to the exact spot on your specific phone model.
This is a limitation of the Android operating system.
Danalock Classic app
Location permission set to "Allow all the time"
When opening the Danalock Classic app the first time the app will ask for various permissions. One of them is the "Location permission".
You will be asked twice - once where you can choose "While using the app" and then where you should set the permission to "Always"
If you need to check this setting at later point, you have to go the the phone settings, apps and look for the Danalock Classic app. From here you go to "Permissions" and choose "Location" Make sure it is set to "Allow all the time" or similar.
The location data is only stored on the phone and Danalock will never collect or store your location data.
Danalock app
Location permission set to "While using the app"
When opening the Danalock app the first time you will be prompted about various permissions. One of them is the "Location permission" Here you should set it to "While using the app".
To check if the setting is correct at a later point, you can phone settings, go to apps and there find "Danalock". From here you go to "Permissions" and press on "Location" Make sure it is set to "While using the app".
The location data is only stored on the phone and Danalock will never collect or store your location data. We have no way of seeing what your location is.
Use Precise Location (Default on, if present at all)
Under the app location permissions mentioned in the section just above you will in some cases find a setting called "Use precise location". This is by default turned on and we recommend it stay this way.
Relative location of nearby devices (Not an option on all versions of Android)
During the initial setup of the Danalock app, this would have been set to "Allow". If turned off the app will prompt for this to be set to "Allow" again - this is needed for the app to communicate with the Danalock over Bluetooth.
Bluetooth
This needs to be turned on for the app and phone to detect and operate your Danalock V3.
If not turned on while entering your Auto unlock zone/home zone this will, on Android phones running Android 12 and older, try to activate Bluetooth and proceed with the Auto unlock, but un Android 13 and newer this will make the Auto unlock fail. A notification will let you know if this was the case.
Battery settings
Battery optimization on Android phones can be tricky.
We need to make sure, that the Danalock app services is not being killed in the background because Android phones are trying to preserve even more battery life.
For the Danalock app to be able to update in the background, you will need to turn off any battery saver/optimization, for the Danalock app.
This can be called any of the following or something like:
"Don't optimize", "No restrictions" etc.
Find the Danalock app icon on your phone, and long-press the app to get to a popup menu where you should be able to find "App info" or an "i" icon. Find either "Battery" or "Battery saver" or something like that and set this to "No optimization", "No restriction" or like.
Auto start
If your Android phone has the option to turn on "Autostart" for the Danalock app, then we recommend turning that on. Not all versions of Android have this feature.
You will find this under "App info" (long press on the Danalock icon on your and lock for the "i" or "App info or like).
Notifications
With notifications, you will get information from the Danalock app about the status of Auto unlock. You will see if the function is running and you will get notifications when leaving and entering the Auto unlock zone/home zone. Also, you will get a notification on how the auto unlock process went - if it was a success or if it failed.
On Android 12 and down, the app gets permission by default to show notifications. Android 13 and up the Danalock app will ask for permission. If that permission was denied during the initial setup of the app, you will have to go to the system setting of the app to grant permission.
Auto Unlock timeout
The timeout function is set to 29 minutes. This is how long the app will wait for the lock to get in range once you have entered the Auto unlock zone/home zone. If you get inside the zone but take longer than 29 minutes to get home the Auto unlock will not happen.
This cannot be adjusted in the Android app.
Geofence radius / Home zone radius (In-app Danalock setting)
By default, the radius of your home zone is set to 200/500 meters depending on what app version you are using. You can set this as low as 200 meters and up to 1000 meters.
If you set a high radius, you might not reach your lock before the Auto unlock timeout mentioned in the above section has parsed, especially if you are on foot or on a bike. Adjust this to your most used situation.
At the same time, a too-low radius and an approach by car could mean that the phones' locations service has not been updated and a delayed auto unlock could happen.
Find the best settings for you.
Guide Videos for Auto Unlock
Videos will be coming soon.