Trouble with the tracker

[marcra]

Hi, has anyone else encountered issues with the tracker? I mean, I suspected for a long time that it does not record the time in an accurate manner, but was unable to actually have a confirmation, because I would rely on it and only had a feeling at the end of the tracking period that the time seemed too short. I have tried to verify it by timing it with an external tool, and it seemed pretty out there when stopped and restarted very often. However, on longer periods without stops, it loses accuracy very much.

It all culminated today when from a tracked meeting that lasted from 5:30 pm to 6:30 pm my time, the tracker only recorded 20 min?! As in not even half the time I spent?! Also, the last image captured by the tracker does not coincide with the last image present in the work diary. From the screen capture, it can be seen exactly when the tracker had been stopped in relation to the clock, and it is NOT at 3:40 pm (whomever that time zone actually belongs to, because it is not at all mine)...

How is this tracking actually supposed to work and how much money does it cost freelancers over the course of a month or a year?? I'm very confused....

[dbd18d50]

https://community.upwork.com/t5/New-to-Upwork-Working-on-Upwork/Time-tracking-best-practices/ta-p/12...  Hello try to read this article. Maybe you wiil find an answer here.

[marcra]

Hi Vladislav,

While I appreciate the trouble you took in providing an answer, for which I thank you, you have failed to read my question first. It is not that I don't also use external trackers and alarms to track small (1-hour) intervals, it's that the client does not take those into account as evidenced of time worked. They go by the official Upwork tracker, which in this particular instance, as proved by the screenshots, has cheated me out of two thirds of my worked time.

[759e32fa]

Hi Marilena,

Thank you for reaching out. There are instances when you may be logging time, but your Work Diary will have blank or empty segments. This happens, because the Desktop App stops tracking time when you've gone idle or recognizes that there is no trackable activity, such as keystrokes or clicks. If you were working during a period when the Desktop App recognized you were idle, you should discuss adding the time manually with your client.

You can take a look at your Work Diary and also can check the activity levels in segments directly preceding the non-tracked segments. 

You can check this article for support.

[marcra]

Thank you, that is most illuminating. Is this also the reason why the last image captured by the tracker didn't make it in the Work Diary?

[AndreaG]

Hi Marilena,

If a screenshot has no activity associated with it, it can't be logged into the Work Diary.