Please add a Disable for Routines

I would like a pause for routines. For example I want to pause daily routines when we have guess over or something like that.

It’s already in the new app for automations. But no routines there yet.

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Create a guest mode, and restrict your routines from running while in guest mode.

Yeah, if you want to pause all automations, create a mode called guest, automations off, etc and set your routines and rules to not run in that mode.

Why would you want to pause a routine? Maybe I’m using them wrong but routines should mostly be a one “execution” situation, you don’t continuously run “I’m back” for example, it runs once and everything that it does stays that way until another routine or something else runs and changes things.

Are you talking about automations maybe? Like a Smart Lighting automation?

I have a virtual switch called Guest Switch.

When creating automations, I add that Guest Switch as a condition to determine whether or not it will proceed. Activating the Guest Switch is done via Alexa, a SharpTools button on my phone home screen, or via ActionTiles.

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I second this! When I have guests staying at my house it always freaks them out when I leave and all the lights turn off and my front door locks.

Another option is to add a virtual presence sensor named guest/babysitter/etc and add it to your goodbye routine. Then activate it when guests are visiting.

Here is a good example: Holidays! I have a routine that turns on lights, changes the temp, and turns off bedroom fans. Some times I would like to pause these routines. I actually wish we could set up Holidays to Core and routines.

In my case I have separate lighting scenes created: normal, Christmas, Halloween, etc. the. At the appropriate season, I swap the scene from my smart lighting rule that turns on my outside lights.

But what is the trigger for that routine?

It is not actually pausing the automation while it is running that is trying to be achieved. OP is looking for a way to turn the automation off temporarily. For instance, my family is in town. I have multiple automations setup so that when my wife and I leave the house, the alarm is set to arm, and multiple other things happen (cameras, lights, sirens etc.). The issue is, in laws don’t always leave when we do, so the alarm is activated automatically and everytime they move my alarm goes off as well as my arlo siren. It would be nice to just be able to hit a “pause” button to turn off the automation while they are in town. The mode option works fine but it would be much easier to just pause it.

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Right, but those aren’t routines you want to pause, you want to pause automations which is easy:

  1. Create a new mode called “DISABLED” or “MAINTENANCE” or something.
  2. Create a way of changing to that mode, routines are the easiest.
  3. Configure your automations so that they CANNOT run when mode is “DISABLED”
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I understand that there is a workaround but there should be a better way. Especially considering that you can not create a mode from within the UI. Obviously you can from the IDE but that is not really a good solution when considering user experience. This capability exists in stringify and IFTTT. It should be simple to add an on off switch for any routine. Seems like a fairly simple concept in usability.