I just converted from the SmartThings Classic app to the newer SmartThings app to get support for some newer devices (starting to regret it altogether). I’m really having a hard time getting the same behavior out of the Scenes+Automation vs the older Routines. I have 3 modes for my home. Home (someone’s home), Away (nobody is home), and Night (we’re home and it’s night time). I used to have a Good Morning routine that ran when things started happening (motion sensed inside the house). It would set the mode to “Home” and disarm the Monitor. However, it would only run if the house was in the “Night” mode. I don’t know how to do this in Automation. The “If” statements seem to be triggers rather than state (regardless of their contradicting text on the items). How do I configure an automation to say, “If the house is currently in Night mode and sensors start detecting motion, then do x, y, z?” I feel like there’s a concept to the Automation that i’m missing or maybe my understanding is tainted by my prior use of routines. Can someone who understand what’s going on help me out?
I would recommend doing this in Smart Lighting. When a motion sensor detects motion, it activates a scene, and under More Options, select only when mode is night.
The only thing with automation is that you can’t run a scene that has a mode change. You have to build the “then” with the mode change plus a scene. It makes no sense to be this way.
what’s wrong with doing it that way?
I was providing a choice of another way 
Thanks for the replies. I did discover the quirk with the mode in a scene. Very strange.
I’m still a bit confused. I read that automation as, “If motion is detected and the mode is changing to Night, then…” Maybe I’m further confused by the presence automation. For example, to do something like an “I’m back” automation, I am currently doing “If ‘Anyone is at Home’, then…”, which apparently means, “If anyone comes home, then…” What I wish it said was “If ‘Someone comes home’.” That would be more clear, but it doesn’t, which is confusing. Routines made this very clear. How do you differentiate a current state statement from a transition statement?
Please don’t take my response as not believing what anyone has said. I do believe you. I’m just seeing conflicting behavior and statements in the UI that is confusing and I’m hoping someone can make sense of it for me.
Yes, in webCoRE terms it is like having a piston with just Conditions. A location mode check is a particularly strange omission as that is a feature available to all Groovy SmartApps without really trying.
Automations do have the idea of restrictions, but it is limited to time ranges. Even that is unfortunate as it can be useful to have automations run at the beginning and end of time ranges.
I’d be interested to know what the results of using ST’s app migration tool is, as to me routines can’t adequately be replaced by automations and scenes without compromise.
Don’t mean to hijack this forum but I’m at a loss for how to run a simple I’m Back automation that was super easy in the classic app. I can do it in webcore, but I’m getting an error loading dashboard in wc. Looking to execute when someone arrives just like before.
Jeff
The webcore dashboard issue should be resolved now. Have you tried it in the past 1.5 hours?
Post on the webcore forum and see if they can assist with resolving his issue. The current issue does not appear to be the same issue others had over the past 24 hours.
I have webcore working except for the new smart home monitor is not responding to changes via webcore. Anybody have any ideas on how to make an I’m back routine like we used to have in the classic app? Doing it the way I’ve tried it continues to execute multiple times when people are home. It doesn’t have an arrive feature that I can see.