Just an idea… You could have the mode change when the garage door is triggered to open. Don’t know if that would fix it, but it might be worth a try.
The garage door is opened thru car home links… Just modified the code to trigger mode change as soon as mobile presence is detected along with the regular “I am back” as a backup plan. Looks like it worked. Will keep a watch. Thanks a lot.
I feel your pain @smart, if she is not happy neither are you.
What if you set the garage trigger to not sound an alarm but just pushbullet a message so you so you know when it may be working and when it’s not, temporarily.
I’ve had SmartAlarm setup for a while now but all it does right now is push a message to my phone. That one false alarm when my wife gets home may make or break my SmartThings existence 
Once I get it working perfectly I will add an siren.
You could setup a separate copy of SA just for the garage.
Just a thought but it looks like you might already have it figured out.
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Sorry, just re-read your last message. So the delay came between the hello home action firing the mode change? That’s interesting.
Yeap… An unhappy missus or mister (whichever case applies) can kill all home automation. 
whatever you do we are at their mercy.:. And if the other half happens to be a teacher… God save us! Sirens are bad… Ron, let’s get more alarms… Ron, let’s get more cameras… I am scared… There is some imaginary sound always at night… Couple of failures… Ron, choose between me and ST and get rid of everything… And it is a cycle… 18 yrs and I still can’t figure this out.
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Last week or so we’ve experienced similar problems. Alarm goes off even though presence has been detected. It finally sets the mode correctly, but the delay is a problem
I had asked ST about a way to not have alarms trigger unless their were two simultaneous trigger events from the save device, but that’s not really possible.
We’ve had a few “false” alarms from the presence not changing mode fast enough…and even some spurious temperature readings (room went to 153 degrees for one blip).
Exactly what we are facing right now with mobile presence…
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The various “Alarm” related SmartApps could (in some, but not all cases) be written to wait for multiple events before triggering the alarm alert or alarm device.
This does involve using custom SmartApps instead of the built-in Dashboard Solution Apps, but it may be worthwhile until the built-in apps improve.
I think it is worth continuing the exploration on this thread and brainstorming various ways to handle Presence, Mode and/or the various alarm triggers to find the simplest, but reliable, SmartApp based solution. The use of “Virtual Presence” is discussed in other Topics, for example, but that is, indeed, the type of creative thinking that may help a lot of people out.
Optimistically,
…Terry.
This is how I’m using two devices together to verify occupancy:
BTW, as it happens, a friend of mine is helping me this coming week with an experiment where we are going to use an Ibeacon as a second device for the occupancy scenario. He’s got several that he’s bringing over and we’re using ifttt as a “man in the middle” to flip a SmartThings virtual switch. Although we’re also going to experiment with the app from Beacon sandwich.
Anyway, if this works, it won’t need a contact or motion sensor.
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@JDRoberts but the question is what exactly changed that’s causing iPhone presence detection laggy or not happening “all of a sudden” and the time it is taking to change the mode within which period things (unwanted) start happening which you would expect in Away mode only the last few days… This delay… It’s taking 18 seconds or so for the app to settle down (meaning wheel to disappear). The mobile presence was rock solid till then except for the sunny field screen period. Force close the app and it is fast till the next few minutes.
Another weird thing is my mobile device events in the IDE shows events in EST and my wife’s in UTC. For some reason are they on different servers? Coz my phone presence only is ok but hers is not. Slowness is on both the phones.
Yeah, The time zone thing is really weird. I would definitely report that to support.
BTW, I have similar flakiness with the zigbee fob. Screenshots in the occupancy topic.
That’s why I’m really curious to see if the iBeacon is more reliable.
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Opened a ticket to let them know.
HI
This is exactly what I want to do.
If either of us arrives disarm system. If BOTH of us are gone, ARM the system
can u point me to an applet that does exactly that using android smart phones ?
thanks,