Hello,
SmartThings do not permit anymore modifications if you are not an Owner user of the gateway.
We have the same only Owners and Users but now, the Users do not have rights for modifications anymore. Which is a pain for implementers.
Bellow I tried just to rename a device and I receive this error.
There is a big need for Power Users.
Are any plans for implementing Power Users rights?
Can you give some very specific real examples of this need?
Most SmartThings consumers are small households. It is very rare that the Owner Account does not do all the Device (and Automation…) administration for all of their family members and guests.
SmartThings is a consumer platform. Commercial use is prohibited by the Terms of Use.
I haven’t looked at the TOS in a while. Is this still true? They are definitely moving into the commercial/apartment space.
Standard boilerplate terms of service for the US, at least:
https://www.smartthings.com/terms
You will only use the Services for your personal, non-commercial use, and only in a manner that complies with all laws that apply to you.
And for the app:
The Application is licensed to you on a limited, non-exclusive, non-transferrable, non-sublicensable basis, solely to be used in connection with the Services for your private, personal, non-commercial use, subject to all the terms and conditions of this Agreement as they are applicable to the Services;
That said, US law has been pretty clear on this that the end user can contract with someone else for installation and maintenance services on these types of products and it still counts as non-commercial. And people who do that type of installation work can recommend that their customers buy specific products that the installer will maintain without violating the license.
Normally (although you should check with a legal advisor) there’s no problem with a landlord using these products in a building that the landlord owns as long as they are not charging extra for the product. That would also be true for a hotel or an office building.
There have been both multiunit landlords and professional installers working with smartthings from the very beginning. (I can’t say whether it’s a good idea or not, but they certainly have existed.)
So again, check with a legal advisor for any specific cases, but in general, I can certainly imagine situations like the one described in the first post that would still fit the current terms of service, at least for the US. I don’t know if it’s different for Canada.
Back to the original question… I would think the best place to bring that up would be over on the developer portal.
Vendors like iQuue may simply ignore the Terms of Use or figure they have a legal loophole.
“backed by SmartThings” does not mean they are SmartThings Certified or have any sort of approval, whatsoever, for their commercial application of the platform.
I’d still very much like to understand @daniionescubrasov’s specific use cases (even if not commercial). While I’m jumping to conclusions, I believe that number of consumer use cases for what you’re trying to do is very rare, and so it is quite reasonable for SmartThings to behave as is.
But I can’t really give an informed opinion, nor offer a solution/workaround, without knowing the details.
I just ran into the same issue after having to replace a door lock. Previously, shared users had the ability to make device changes but now it has been limited to the owner only. It is even written in the app, at least in the Classic one, that there are no difference in term of access between an owner and a shared user. I don’t see the reason behind implementing this change on the Smartthings end unless they would have given a way to set user permission levels.
In terms of my use case, I have setup a Smartthings hub to control the front door lock of a 2-family unit condo. The owner account is linked to the condo email address, which is basically a distribution list, and shares access to my own account on which I do all the administration. The reason I am not using the owner account is: (1) I don’t want to spook my neighbor each time I log in the account as an email notification is generated; (2) I prefer having all the customized smart apps and device handlers under my account as I have another Smartthings hub for my personal usage that share some of the same code.
Has anyone found a way around this restriction? Also, out of curiosity, what happens if I set a DTH on the owner account and link the device to it and then load the same DTH on my account, make changes and publish the updates, will it update the original DTH? This is exactly why I didn’t want to start juggling between accounts in the first place to make config changes.
I have the same issue getting same error message : Device update error: Update not allowed, only location owners can modify device types.
But the issue is that I am location Owner and I try to add my own custom device, but the system act like I am not location owner?
Do any body know whats going wrong?
