Presence Sensor not working

Devices & Integrations
1

I am unable to get presence sensor to work reliably with one android smartphone.
Pixel 2XL with Smartthings Classic app
Samsung A5 with Smartthings Classic app

Pixel 2XL works well (not immediate but it does track going in/out.
Samsung A5 only showed status the first time it was setup. No updates after that regardless of leaving/coming in. Phone left the home yesterday at 5am and 27 hours later still shows “Present”. Location is on, Smartthings is not dozed. I have removed and readded the phone but it doesnt make a difference. I also ensured A5 is on the same “Location” and Also is associated to the Hub (in the IDE)

Any suggestions?

2

Assorted thoughts:

  • For the Pixel (assume Android 10) be sure the app is allowed to get location while in the background.

  • I was mostly successful using Presence in the classic app on Pixel 2 for a year but it got very flakey recently. I changed to using Presence via the new app. It has worked fine for a couple of weeks now.

Setup for presence is different in new app, Samsung support link below. Probably goes without saying but don’t use presence in both apps on one device

3

Pixel 2XL works “reasonably” well. There may be a delay but if appropriately shows when I left/come back
Samsung A5 doesnt work at all (only worked when I setup first time)

4

Try the new app. Many (most? all?) Samsung devices preload it and won’t let you remove it

It’s fine to run both apps on one device, I’ve got both on my Pixel 2 and Samsung Tab S5e.

Just don’t enable presence in both apps on one device. You may need to do some finagling to get your “away” and “home” actions to do the same thing from both.

And if you use SmartThings Home Monitor, I think the one for the new app is different from, possibly completely separate from, the one in the classic app.

5

On the A5, go into the ST settings for Geolocation and make sure the circle is over your address. Then hit done. This seems to give it the kick it needs when mine stops updating.

6

With today’s release, this is easy to do now.

Edit: the location mode (away, Home and night) has always been in sync between the apps. It was the SHM and STHM that did not sync (armed and disarmed) but easier to sync up now.

1 Like
7

Ok some observations:

  1. I think i found the problem. I have set my wife phone to “Data Saver” since she blew up her data allocation. Today, i went into device settings > apps > Mobile data and set enable to “allow data while data saver is on” looks like it is working now
  2. The new smartthings app has no way to create a presence sensor so that is not the solution
8

Yes, you can use your phone as a presence sensor from the new app. It is the location services in settings. It does not create a device like the Classic app that shows in the list but it can be used in custom automations.
https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/200292279-How-do-I-use-my-phone-as-a-presence-sensor-

9

I never got this to work well so gave up. Not consistent or timely.

1 Like