Troubleshooting when your device has stopped reporting
You may encounter times when some of your devices simply stop working, having previously been working fine.
We have seen customers do nothing, and the device reports on its own accord, other times the device simply does not come back online and needs further investigation
There are many reasons why a device may have stopped reporting, but if your other devices are working ok, the issue will be not be on our side
Here is a list of some of these reasons a device stops reporting
- The sim card has run out of credit
- The sim card company has blocked the sim
- The sim card company is having issues certain batches of sim card
- The cell towers are not working in the location of the device (sms and phone calls won't be possible to device)
- We have done a recent release and it is not compatible with the configuration you are using (if you are using a non supported config)
- Device malfunctioning
- Loss of settings - device crashed and reset to default (send sms to get the settings)
- Device wiring/fitting issues (power supply - the unit will have no lights on)
- Complete device failure (wont respond to sms/phoning)
- Someone has changed the device configuration/swapped a sim card to a different network (different APN settings)
- Device overheating (generally the device will hang and then come back to life again, then hang again)
- Data import issue on our side - all devices would stop working and we already been notified by the automated monitoring systems/all other customers
In our experience the most common issues are either Sim Card or GPS Signal, try the following steps to help troubleshoot the issue.
- Check the airtime/data to see if the sim has credit
- Call the Sim and it should ring, if it doesn't it could be power, cell tower issue or sim disconnected
- Sms the device to see if the unit replies, some device will reply with information regarding GPS signal strength, server, Apn etc, contact the manufacturer or refer to the manual for correct SMS message (some M2M sim cards can only be sent messages from the M2M platform)
- Call the sim card company or check the M2M platform to see if the sim is connected and is using data, also ask them to diagnose any issues with the sim
- Reboot the device with an SMS
- If the device is OBD or easily accessible, check there are lights on the unit, and check with the manufacturer if the lights are flashing in the correct sequence
If the device is not easily accessible you may want to leave the physical unit check as last resort. - Contact the hardware manufacturer for troubleshooting help
Have all your devices stopped reporting?
Contact us to find out if other customers devices with same make and model have stopped working too, please also let us know if you have previously changed any settings (different to our recommended configuration)