I have begun receiving low battery push messages for some of my devices. I think it happened after I got updated to the ST Classic app but might have been just before. When I click on the message it takes me to Messages in the app but there isn’t one to correlate. The devices are indeed low but I have device health turned off which I thought might have been related. I also use device viewer to send me SMS when battery is low, but the threshold is set lower than these devices as well as I have Push notifications turned off for the app. Any way to figure out what’s sending them? I would normally just replace the batteries but I am finding either they are mis reading or will go a long time with low batteries so am holding off. They are the Visonic contact sensors using the stock DH and I have one that has been at 1% (or -22 with custom DH) for 1-2 months so I want to let them all ride before replacing the batteries yet don’t want to keep getting the alerts.
I recently started getting a low battery alert from one of my arrival sensors too. Never used to happen before.
I get this too. It’s annoying to be notified, then click the notification, then go to the log, then to find NO CORRESPONDING LOG ENTRY for the notification.
make-work.
I submitted a help ticket. Will let you guys know what they have to say.
So I got the answer shown below. I have been unable to figure out how to delete my self so am going back and forth on that, but this seems to explain it.
“That alert is coming from a default SmartApp that gets built in when you first make your location. It’s listed as “low battery notification”, I can remove it for you if you would like. Or you can also delete it from within the IDE.”
When I asked how I could put it back I got this.
“Yes, it can be added back but I believe it would reset your Routines.”
So turns out we can’t do it ourselves.
“Sorry about that, I pulled up my personal account out of my support email and the option was not there for me either to delete it. I went ahead and removed it for you.”
Been getting this as well, and yup, annoying.
I WAS however able to uninstall it myself; we’ll see if I continue to get (undocumented) “helpful” reminder/warnings at 2/3/4 AM going forward.
J
If that’s the case, I wonder why this seems to be a new issue. Doesn’t totally add up.
Listed on https://status.smartthings.com/
_Identified - We have identified an issue causing errant “low battery” notifications to be sent to a small number of users. We’ve taken steps to ensure no further similar notifications are sent and are working to identify the root cause. _
Mar 18, 17:28 EDT
Hmm, I didn’t get an email about that even though it’s on the platform status page.
Thanks.
Hope having them delete the app doesn’t come back to bite me.
Me either. I was having Google Home integration issues and so checked the status and noticed it.
Thought I had posted the latest, but looks like not. The alerts stopped for about 2 days (assume tied to when reported in ST tracker) but once they marked resolved it resumed. Support is saying it’s caused by Device Viewer but I don’t believe that for two reasons. First because I have DV set to SMS only. Second, I haven’t updated the app in a long time and only just within the past few weeks did the issue start occuring.
yes my notifications are not SimpleDeviceViewer (SDV), I set no SDV notifications and checked the settings. So I just ignore the ST battery notifications.
So Support is now agreeing its not Simple Device Viewer and now instead blaming on Webcore. By my read on what I have built there is no way its related, but does anyone know if Webcore has some sort of built in battery push alerting? My assumption is no but figured I’d ask. Looks like I will have to break down and just change the batteries as my interaction with Support isn’t really getting anywhere. The interactions have also been PAINFULLY slow. I just realized I opened this thread at the same time (or maybe a couple days before) I contacted support which means its been about 2.5 weeks of going back and forth. There is at least a 2 business day delay between each interaction.
I’ve only got one warning so far and it was for my thermostat - which has a ‘C’ wire AND the battery is always at 100%. So, the warning is totally bogus. Personally, I’d rather that support would just say it doesn’t know rather than make things up. Not knowing is better than dishonest.
Really!? webCoRE!?
I’m surprised they didn’t blame rule machine.
Already done that! At least someone changed the script! 
Ok, they are back to thinking its Simple Device Viewer. I gave up and changed the batteries so will see what happens with the next set that get low. Last response from ST Support below. It does indeed use the contact book, but I have Push notifications turned off as well as only checked off my Mobile for notifications. On top of that the notifications from SDV vs the Push are hours apart. Oh well.
“I reached out to my engineering team just to have them verify where they think the notification was coming from and they also it has to be DVS. DVS uses Contact Book to send notifications so that might be part of it. I also asked about the issue you referred to and that would not have had any effect on what was going on with you. Let me know if you have any other questions. Have a good one!”
I have the Android ST app and also the Simple Device Viewer (SDV; thanks so much @krlaframboise! ) and have been using SmartThings for about 2 years, a couple dozen devices, ~100 datapoint streams if you include lesser ones like battery status. I also use Kevin’s Simple Event Logger (SEL).
I have a particular ST Multipurpose Sensor that has been saying it’s at 1% battery level, as a notification, about twice a day, for the past 8 days.
I don’t think my “1% battery” notifications come from SDV, because I have completely shut off all battery-level responses in SDV.
I am pretty sure these all result from the ST app having “Device Health” turned on, as follows (from Android app home screen):
- Settings hamburger (upper left)
- Device Health
- Turn Device Health On
To cut to the chase, I would like to petition SmartThings (ST) to revamp their battery-level readings/settings.
I think that a core problem here is that ST is trying to understand many devices (which they do not make), and meanwhile said devices are performing admirable battery magic in the sense that they adjust volt-amp output to 5 V (or whatever) for as long as they possibly can, until finally one day the battery gives up the ghost and the bottom drops out.
It’s something more complicated than a simple line graph over time, where digital electronic devices are trying to prop up their needs as best they can.
To make a long story short, the most popular smart-home devices can’t really give a reliable battery reading any more. (If a company adds a bunch more money to their device to reliably measure its battery status, their multipurpose sensor costs $15 more than $60, and few will then buy it, if all else is equal. It’s far simpler for circuit designers to just use the well-known simple routines that condition incoming power, nevermind what battery is connected to it.)
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As a result of all this, I personally just use Kevin’s SDV and get notified if something has not reported in 4 hours, or whatever. (This won’t include some devices like Presence, Switches, and bulbs, which don’t report regularly.) And I sure would like to turn off ST’s experimental “Device Health”. But I’m never sure if I might be missing anything.
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I would like to ask SmartThings to make it an option to stop uniformly reporting low battery levels in its “Device Health”, and instead, let users choose what they can set for each device.
- Some devices, like multipurpose sensors, normally report every 5-10 minutes. And so, let a user say “if it hasn’t reported in 4 hours, then send me an alert”. Somebody really concerned, or testing, could set it to far lower.
- Or let users opt to have “Device Health” mean, “Report battery status if below level [fill in blank]”. If they want. In my experience, this is something novices would fill in, until they learn better. Or maybe there are actually some devices that slowly fade over time… I don’t think I’ve seen one yet, but I really only know a half dozen types of devices.
- Some devices, like switches, bulbs, and presence, are irregular. They wouldn’t really be on this grid. But a few things fall outside of regular reporting and needing batteries, like the Aeon Labs “Minimote”, a remote with four buttons that you can define to control Z-wave devices. It uses a battery and does not report in regularly for any reason per se.
@farlicimo, you’re welcome to refer SmartThings staff to this message. Ask SmartThings staff to respond here with their plans for the “1% battery level” “Device Health” approach. To me, it’s easy to see how it’s pretty complex. But concepts like Kevin’s simplify things, for many people.
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Or it’s always possible I’ve missed something. We’re all here to help make smart home technology work better for us all.
Thanks SmartThings staff. And thanks, SmartThings community!
Mike