I agree that Life 360 was terribly problematic but at least it proved that it is possible to have reliable presence sensing using iphones in Smarthings. I dont understand why Smartthings cant see that this is a terrible problem that makes the ecosystem very challenging.
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See my notes in the first post in this thread: the Meross/SmartThings integration broke in early 2024, and both companies are saying it’s the fault of the other company. Sigh.
I am personally really frustrated by this. 
At our house, we have switched to using the very inexpensive Tapo smart plugs, as I mention in post one above, But this requires a socket for each plug, so I really prefer the power strip approach. But there aren’t any matter versions yet. And mostly, it’s just caused me to believe that Smartthings is never going to be reliable for presence, which is unsettling. 
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Thank you. I appreciate your response. Apologies, I missed your 2024 update post. It is beyond ridiculous that another Smartthings bug is now preventing us all from using this workaround which is only necessary because of a much worse Smartthings bug stops reliable presence sensing. Its almost like they want us all to migrate to something else. Its very frustrating.
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I have some on order and plan to remove the Meross strip from my integration and plug the Tapo plugs into outlets on the Meross strip to not use up any outlets I planned on using.
@JDRoberts this morning, after being away for a few days and in the mean time receiving my Tapo plugs but not yet having time to set them up, my ST/Meross routine fired normally as it should when I left the house without any intervention by me in the ST app, so maybe one of them fixed it on the down-low…
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Yep, looks like it’s working again. I have since purchased the matter Tapo plugs, but kept the Meross in place to see if/when it would be fixed. The matter ones have been working fine, but do prefer the one device vs three. I saw that Eve has a matter strip but it’s quite pricey.
+1 here. HK based Meross power bar presence automations working through March 20. I received a ST ticket response yesterday to start logging and just assumed they had reset something on my account.
I believe Eve’s strip is WiFi, but not yet Matter over WiFi.
I don’t think there’s a smartthings integration for that model yet. 
Just an FYI: The issue with Meross and SmartThings has been resolved, or at least it has been for me. The issue that I was experiencing was that when an outlet turned off on the Meross power strip, it wasn’t propagating to SmartThings for hours. When an outlet would turn on, it worked fine. Through testing, I found that this was only the case between the SmartThings and Meross integration as things worked fine in Amazon/Alexa. I opened a ticket with Meross about this back on 3/13 and they resolved it on 3/18. It’s been working fine ever since then. Can’t tell you how much this post has saved us with using our iPhones as presence sensors in SmartThings!
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Anyone know what distance from the Meross power strip should trigger a switch? Trying to get it to turn on one switch when my phone leaves the premises but it’s not doing it, so wondering if there’s a setting I’m missing. I did find the location setting in the Meross app and set that, so it should know when the phone leaves that location.
I use presence from the iPhone to Apple Home. Then create an automations in Apple Home to trigger the Meross switch based on presence. Then create routines in ST to fire based on the on/off state of that Meross switch, usually to virtual presence sensors.
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That’s what I’m doing but Apple Home presence never seems to trigger
If apple home does not work then I doubt Meross would either.
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What about Alexa presence?
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In iOS settings, make sure Meross has permissions to location and cellulr.
Also check location services… that it is enabled and turned in for any apps that need it.
As @jkp said, this whole topic is about situations where the iPhone presence in Apple home works for you, but the SmartThings presence is iffy.
You shouldn’t have to fool around with any settings in the Meross app. You’re just going to be using it in Apple home. The only reason I picked that particular brand to begin with is because it showed up simultaneously in both the SmartThings app and the Apple home app.
When the Meross integration to SmartThings had some problems earlier this year, I switched over to using a Tapo matter smart plug, which was then local to both Apple Home and SmartThings. But again, I’m depending on the iPhone presence working in Apple home to get the whole thing started.
So if you create a routine in the Apple home app to turn on the plug when your iPhone arrives home and that doesn’t work, it’s not going to work on the SmartThings side either.
For the method described in this topic, that won’t make any difference. Meross itself isn’t using location. It’s Apple home which is using location to then turn on the Meross device.
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True but I believe Meross has added presence for use with their automations now which is what was being referred to. I would not use them and mentioned that point. 
Just trying to get presence working on any app
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Open Apple Home, click on three dots in circle in upper right, choose Home settings and ensure location services are enabled.
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For the user, if they can’t get presence to work in Apple Home or Meross… chances may be slim to none
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