We have had several companies contact us very recently regarding problems with beacon detection on iOS 10. Problems include not detecting beacons when the app is not running and, when the app is running, beacons suddenly not being seen when they are in range. Another reported symptom is beacons not being detected for a very long time. These problems are all with apps that previously ‘just worked’ under iOS 9. The problems are erratic in that everything works ok on some people’s phones.
We have done some tests with our apps and have reproduced the background scenario of a beacon not being detected on a phone running iOS 10.0.1 that is detected, at the same time, by the same app on iOS 9. Strangely, once the power/screen is manually activated on the iOS 10 phone, the beacon gets detected. Updating to the latest 10.1.1 doesn’t fix the problem.
There are related posts on the ‘Beacon Ranging Problem in 10‘ and ‘Beacon Ranging in background on iOS10 is not working‘ on the Apple forums suggesting similar problems.
This is just a public service announcement that if beacon detection isn’t working for you at the moment the problem is not necessarily with your implementation or the product/app you are using. We believe the problem has been reported to Apple and you will need to wait for an iOS update with a fix.
UPDATE: See https://openradar.appspot.com/29509635
UPDATE March 2017: Troubleshooting iBeacon Background Triggering