New App - Automation based on presence BROKEN

So I called SmartThings and I was told that presence can no longer trigger the SHM to arm/disarm. That feature is going away and shouldn’t work today. So I was told to remove that from the automation and it would work.

@Brad_ST Is this true?!?

@SquattingHen you just saved me from going crazy trying to understand why automations with the STHM didn’t work.

None of the presence automations work anymore.

This is stupid, why would they remove the trigger when the option is still in the UI, how do I know if it works or not? How does it know I want it disarmed from 7 to 21, armed (stay) from 21 to 7, and armed when no one is around? it makes no sense to me.

I cant find a single app update notice mentioning this, if true, it was a really bad communicated move.

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Well, ST customer service was wrong. I separated the 4 items in my welcome home presence automation based on my phone and none of the 4 triggered. So it’s not because of one bad “then” in my list. It’s that presence Automation is Broken in the new ST app. This is terrible and guess we are on our own. Yes I am frustrated.

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I’ve given up on Smartthings. I’ve tried just about every combination I can to get presence detection working and it’s just not. Automations with 1 item, WebCore pistons, tracking 1 phone, tracking multiple phones, increasing geofence, decreasing geofences, adding, deleting, reconfiguring… everything. They just don’t work. It goes back to whether a change in presence triggers any response in Smartthings, and it doesn’t. If some other action triggers an automation, like a light is switched on, button pressed, whatever, and that automation tells Smartthings to check the status of a presence device, it will accurately return the presence status. But, the system just isn’t ‘watching’ for a change in presence, so a change will not trigger anything.

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I have an automation set to run if any of our thee phones arrive home, but only if the location mode is away (precondition). It triggers a Welcome Home scene that I don’t want to run if any of us is already home.

That automation runs every time one of us arrives home, even when the others are already home and the location mode was Home, not Away.

Same issue here Using location mode in new Automations
It seems that when using a location mode precondition, and presence as a trigger, that the precondition is ignored. Support fails to understand that this is an issue. My workaround is to create a virtual switch that mirrors the a location mode, then use that switch as a condition. It’s a crummy workaround for a problem that should not exist.

Presence automations for us still won’t work even if we have no preconditions.

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Are you in Classic or have you migrated to the new app?

I’m in the new app. The old app worked great for me. I migrated to the new app a couple of weeks ago, and immediately noticed problems. I deleted everything that was migrated and recreated the scenes and automations from scratch, but the problems continued.

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Same. Worked perfectly in classic. Finally moved over to the new app and hasn’t worked since.

Ok, not knowing everything you have tried…

  1. disable “get location from this device” on your mobile device in menu > settings. Don’t worry about other family members at this time.
  2. Remove the Classic app for testing purposes. login to IDE and remove any presence sensors for your device… if any
  3. remove any automations that include presence.
  4. clear data cache if Android for the ST app and reboot your mobile device. Ensure correct permissions are set for app on phone.
  5. go back into the new ST app and enable “get location from this device” in settings.
  6. recreate an automation that includes your presence sensor only, forget other family members at this time. Make it simple…no preconditions , just if presence sensor arrives, do something. Test it when you are able.
  7. if successful, do the same for other family members (step 1-5) and add to your automations. Avoid preconditions for now.
  8. if not successful, then tell me I simply wasted your time :slight_smile:

This triggers the automation once. Won’t trigger again.

On iOS
I removed classic
Removed phones from IDE (this actually removes automations from the new app too)
Verified all automations were deleted.
Logged out of new app
Deleted new app
Soft Rebooted phone
Reinstalled new app
Added use phone location in settings
Made sure ST app setting in iOS was set to always allow location
Added a new automation to send me a message when I leave
Added a new automation to send a message when I return

Both will trigger once, but not again. Won’t trigger the same day, the next day, or the next.

IDE shows phone both present and away correctly.

At a complete loss here.

I’ve basically gone through the same process. I’ve come to the conclusion that the new ST is garbage, won’t get much better anytime soon, and that it’s time to switch to Hubitat.

I’m already disgruntled about EchoSpeaks… presence detection not working is the last straw. Too bad, I’ve been a fervent Smartthings advocate for years…

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Do you use any malware blocking such as adguard or have a pi-hole or perhaps custom dns server addresses you use?

Same thing here. I have been fighting with this for weeks and tried several different things deleting, resetting, restarting. Other Automations seem to work, but the presence is broken. Works one time and that’s it. No logical reason. Samsung are you listening?, Do you even care? Thinking hard about jumping ship for hubitat.

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Nothing like that at all. IPhone XS Max. The other on our ST is IPhone XS.

We do use Google/Nest Wifi.

I am at a loos too, but it’s not just me. I just don’t know where to turn next. Just want it working or to know that it is an acknowledged issue by ST.

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I’ve had ticket 1046818 opened on this issue for at least a month. I’ve confirmed via the IDE that presence is working just fine, but as everyone else has noticed automations with presence triggers almost never work. Support is totally useless.

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Deleted automation again, deleted phone from ide, and waited two days. Added phone back, added automation. Worked once, but won’t work again. Same result. Broken.

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Everyone with this issue please post your support ticket numbers so we can pile on in our individual conversations with support and substantiate that this is an issue and we are not just incompetent as implied by support.

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I’m not sure if the entire app is broken or if the automation is broken. I have about 6 automations… all are based on my presence at or away from my house. I noticed some inconsistencies. For example, when I arrive home… the Home Monitor should disable… I should get a message saying the automation has been triggered, but when I looked at the app, nothing changed. No Notification. BUT then I noticed my devices were functioning correctly. It’s weird. My Arlo cameras are supposed to shut off when I arrive home. They didn’t according to the Arlo app… but at the same time, they stop detecting any motion. So it was like it was working properly even though the apps said something different. Another thing… My afternoon automation worked properly. My Night automation triggered, but did not work properly. Because of this my morning automation did not trigger, but once I fix the Night automation, the Morning automation triggered correctly.

I still have the classic app because I can see the status of my phone presence. The new app doesn’t have this. The new app also does not have the automation log that was very helpful. With the classic app, I was able to check the notifications, and I could determine which routine was triggered, and what the routine actually did. The app should also indicate what location mode you are currently in.

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