Change modes by location?

Is it possible to have ST know my phone is not in my home and change modes to arm the house? Similar to how it works in Blue Iris?

This is a standard feature of SmartThings. You establish a “geofence” surrounding your home (don’t make it too small), then trigger the mode change either via a Routne or Smartapp. The thing is, mode changes haven’t been very reliable lately.

If you want to give it a try, tap the overflow (3 vertical dots) icon in the mobile app, then My Locations, tap the gear icon, and establish the geofence circle.

I did that but nothing changes. That was why I was posing the question. I thought the mode would update when I am outside of the geofence area. Nothing happens though.

BI works fine so I know my location setting are correct.

Are your Routines (typically “Goodbye!” and “I’m Back!”) configured to change Mode?

Yes sir. FWIW I was a Vera user so trying to adjust to ST terminology.

Well then, I believe it’s one of three things, or perhaps a combination.

  1. Ensure your geofence isn’t too tight. There can be slight inaccuracies, especially with iPhones.
  2. Verify that your ‘Action delay time’ and ‘Minimum away time’ values are not set too high. I believe the default is 10 minutes, 2 to 3 minutes is fine for most uses.
  3. You might be experiencing the same issue I am, for which I have a pending support ticket. You can partially work around it by using a smartapp to trigger actions and mode changes, but TMK there is no way currently of changing Smart Home Monitor arm/disarm status via this method.

Regarding #3, above: You can verify whether this is your issue by checking logs in the IDE (either in Live Logging, or My Locations > Events). If this is the cause of your failure, be sure to open a Support ticket, and reference mine (#154180). The more people that complain about this, and the more data points they have, the sooner it will get fixed (I hope). Also. FYI: the Rule Machine app has been evolving rapidly, and SHM actions are on the developer’s short list I believe. Keep an eye on this thread:

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Thanks. That is all very helpful

Since I made that previous post, it is now possible to change SHM state (or do something based on SHM state) using the Rule Machine smartapp. GL!

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