Mobile Clock-In Is Blocked
You tap Clock in and the app refuses, usually with a message that starts Clock-in blocked.
NepalHRM checks a mobile clock-in in a fixed order and stops at the first failure, so the message you get tells you exactly which check failed. Distance is only one of six reasons. The others are a fake-GPS flag, a weak GPS fix, a missing location permission, a required selfie, and a per-employee setting that says your attendance must come from the biometric device instead. Read the message, then use the matching row below. Nothing here needs a support ticket except the last one.
What the message on your screen means
These are the strings NepalHRM shows, word for word. Find yours and read across.
Clock-in blocked: you are 480m from Head Office.
- What it means
- You are outside the radius of the nearest office you are assigned to, by the distance shown.
- What to do
- Move closer and try again. If the number looks wrong indoors, step outside for a better fix. If you legitimately work away from the office, ask HR to mark you as field staff.
Clock-in blocked: GPS signal too weak (±350 m). Step outside or wait for a better fix.
- What it means
- The phone reported an accuracy worse than 200 metres, so the reading cannot decide whether you are inside the fence.
- What to do
- Step outside or near a window, wait a few seconds for the fix to tighten, then retry. Turning Wi-Fi on helps, because phones use nearby networks to improve accuracy.
Clock-in blocked: location not available. Enable GPS and try again.
- What it means
- The app got no coordinates at all, which is a permission or a hardware setting rather than a distance problem.
- What to do
- Turn on location services for the device, then grant the app location permission. On both Android and iOS the permission can be set to allow only while using the app, which is enough.
Clock-in blocked: fake GPS detected on this device.
- What it means
- The operating system reported the location as mocked. This is refused everywhere, including on workspaces that do not use geofencing at all.
- What to do
- Uninstall or disable any location-spoofing app, including developer options that set a mock location provider, then restart the phone.
Clock-in blocked: this office requires a selfie. Please retry with the camera step.
- What it means
- Your office is configured to require a photo with the punch, and none was captured.
- What to do
- Grant the camera permission and complete the camera step. If the camera opens and nothing is captured, close the app fully and reopen it.
Clock-in blocked: your attendance is recorded on the biometric device only. Please punch on the device.
- What it means
- HR has set your record to take attendance from the biometric device, so self-service punching is turned off for you specifically.
- What to do
- Punch on the device. If you genuinely need to clock in from your phone, this is an HR setting, so ask HR rather than support.
Work through these in order
Cheapest first. Each step says what you should see if it worked, so you can stop as soon as it does.
Read the whole message
The application names the reason and, where it is useful, the number behind it. Distance is only one of six checks, and the fixes have nothing in common.
You know which row above applies.
Grant location permission properly
While using the app is enough. If you previously chose Deny, the app cannot ask again, so it has to be changed in the phone's settings for the app.
The location message stops and you get a distance instead.
Get a better fix before blaming the fence
Indoor accuracy is poor. NepalHRM already adds half your reported accuracy back onto the office radius, up to 100 metres, so a good fix inside a fence is accepted even when it looks marginal. A bad fix is refused instead of guessed at.
The reported distance drops to something believable.
Ask your admin what radius your office uses
Radius is in metres, not blocks. Around 100 metres is roughly within the building. If the office covers a compound, the radius may simply be set too tight.
The admin widens the radius, or confirms you are genuinely outside it.
Ask HR about field staff if you work off-site
Someone visiting client sites all day should be marked as field staff rather than fighting the fence. Their location is still captured with each punch, so the audit record is unchanged. It just is not compared against an office.
Clock-in succeeds from anywhere, and still records where.
What the system does
- Weak-signal cutoff
- ±200 ma fix less accurate than this is refused rather than trusted
- Boundary tolerance
- half the reported accuracycapped at 100 m, added to the office radius
- Typical office radius
- 50 m to 300 mset per office by your admin
- Office Wi-Fi
- accepted as a fallbackonly when the phone reports the network name, which iPhones usually do not
- Field staff
- clock in from anywherethe location is still recorded, it just is not fenced
Still stuck? Send us this
Include all of it in the first message and the first reply back is usually a fix rather than a question.
- The exact message, including the number in it.
- Where you were standing, and roughly how far from the office you think that is.
- Your phone model and operating system version.
- Whether other people at the same office can clock in right now.
Asked most often
Your phone's own position estimate is wrong, which happens in dense buildings and basements. Step outside or near a window and retry. Turning Wi-Fi on also helps, because phones use nearby networks to sharpen the fix.
It is accepted as a fallback when the phone reports the network name, which is a strong real-world signal that you are on site. Most iPhones do not expose the network name to apps, so treat Wi-Fi as a bonus rather than something to rely on.
No. Clock-in selfies are kept encrypted and removed automatically after 30 days. They exist to investigate a disputed punch, not to be browsed.
Only on a workspace that has not turned geofencing on, where clock-in is accepted without a location check. Once your company enables it, a location is required, including for field staff, whose punch records where without fencing it.
Raise a regularisation for that date with the times and a reason, and your manager or HR approves it. Do not ask for the day to be typed over directly, because a later recompute would wipe that out and the regularisation survives it.
Screens, labels and limits change between releases. If something here does not match what you see, tell us and we will correct the page.
Related guides
- Attendance Is Missing or WrongA day is marked absent when the person was at work, or the in and out times do not match reality.
- Biometric Device Not Syncing PunchesThe device status reads offline, or it reads online but no attendance appears against your employees.
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