Have Presence "join" current Mode?

I have setup 4 different Modes based on different times of the day, Morning, Day, Evening, and Night. I have different routines that run when the Mode is changed to one of those settings (the Modes are changed via a timed routine).

I also have our phones setup as Presence devices that set the Mode to Away if we all leave and to Home if one of use comes home. Both the Away and Home modes run other routines. The problem I’m running into is that when we come home and the Mode gets set to Home, it messes up the routines that would have ran with the Morning/Day/Evening/Night routines.

For example, today we were out and about (Away) and came home at 7:03pm and Presence set the Mode to Home like it should. However, my Evening routine would have ran at 6:30pm had we not been Away and I would like for Presence to know that it should change the Mode to Evening based on what time it is.

Is there a way to do that? I’ve found a “Set for specific mode(s)” in the Presence SmartApp, but I can’t figure out what that is supposed to do.

If you are not using core and you were just using the regular routines, then you have to have one routine for each combination that you want. And then you set each up to only run at specific times of day.

So you would have a routine for “I just got home during the day” and a different routine for “I just got home at night.”

Setting all of these up and keeping track of them can get pretty complicated, which is why a lot of people prefer core, where you can just put all the different combinations into one rule (Core calls a rule a “piston”) and they’re easier to keep track of.

But you can definitely do it with just the official routines, it’s just that you have to walk through every possible combination and make sure that the modes are getting set the way you want them to be. And that’s going to require a separate routine for each possible combination.

Thanks JD, I actually just started a search for the basic CoRE thread when your reply came in. We added quite a few different smart lights today and things have gotten more complicated! lol

I did add a Lightify Flex Strip that my wife just loves. I installed it under one of the kitchen cabinets and set it to her favorite color. When she asked how much it cost, I said $60 and she said “that’s not too bad”! I think all the neat mood colors has gotten her to buy into the whole HA thing now. lol

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