Phone presence not accurately detected

[Xingye_Huang (MiaF)]

I have my phone connected to ST as presence sensor, and I also have Tado which uses my phone for location too. I have integrated Tado into my ST, so now I can see two presence sensors which are effectively the same (my phone).

I have noticed that the one for Tado is far more accurate than the one for ST - I left for work around 9 this morning, Tado phone shows the correct time, and ST phone didn’t pick it up until about 12…

This is not the first time that I noticed ST is not very accurate about my presence. It is worse with my partner’s phone, that he had to use a ST presence sensor otherwise his location status on ST never gets updated properly.

I’ve set my phone up so that battery optimisation off for ST, all permissions given, an Tado picks up my location just fine so my phone is sending correct signals.

Anyone knows what could be the reason for this please? I read it elsewhere that mobile phones are supposed to be rather reliable presence sensors. It is certainly not the case for me…

Many thanks

Mia

[RBoy (www.rboyapps.com - Making SmartThings Easy!)]

Lots of reasons, see these topics for some insight on how presence works:

Phone presence sensor gone rogue?

Calling Rogue One for assistance. Sorry couldn’t resist that Coming back to your Rogue issue, let’s understand how location works so it’ll help you figure out how to fix your issue. Location is determined by a couple of methods: GPS - Most of the time devices do NOT use active GPS due to the fact that’s it drains the battery. So this only works while the app is open. AGPS - Assisted GPS, this done with the help of mobile network towers. Most cellphones are aware of the network towers within a certain radius and their distance from them using the signal strength from the towers. Since the mobile network is always active this is the primary way for a cellphone to “guesstimate” its position. (Each towers location is transmitted to the phone). This is one source of a problem. Often i…

FAQ: The Many Ways of Detecting Presence

Presence, regardless of the device you use, is one of those features that works great for some people, not at all for other people, and is randomly flaky for still others. It’s very much affected by local conditions. So some people will find that phone presence works much better than the SmartThings-branded presence sensor. Other people will find the reverse. Still other people, myself included, find that they have to use a combination of two devices in order to get reliable presence indication. So if this feature tends to work differently for different people, where do you start? Using a Smart Phone as a Presence Indicator [image] Well, since most people who have SmartThings have a smart phone, it’s worth starting there. The following FAQ runs through the the usual troubleshooting…

[Xingye_Huang (MiaF)]

Many thanks - will have a good read!