Been using ST for over a year, with my phone as my presence device. My “phone” has always been wifi-only. I have a hotspot (free minimal monthly data) I take with me when I go out.
This used to work PERFECTLY. Just leave the house and it executed “goodbye” mode. In the evenings, I could see my house lights turn on when I was 5 or 6 houses away and “I’m back” mode would execute. PERFECT. Then recently it started to take a long time to identify me when i got home, way beyond the time it would take to enter my house.
After having no luck troubleshooting, I decided to remove the “presence app” and reinstall it. NOW it says that the phone must have cellular service in order to be used as a presence device. So I guess this is what caused the problem. And now I can’t even reinstall the app, but since it doesn’t work anymore, it doesn’t matter.
Why was this changed? It worked just fine the way it was. I’m not going to start paying for cell data just to make this work. So the only other alternative is a presence fob, which is way slower to respond, only connects when I’m already at my door (my wife uses one) and another damn thing to carry. Please put it back the way it was.