Presence sensors: Just stopped working [Platform issue now fixed!]

I have two presence sensors which form the basis for much of my use of SmartThings at the moment. They have been working fine since I bought them, but today they have completely stopped working. Both sensors are showing ‘present’ even while I was away in work all day and my wife was in and out of the house all day on the school run etc.
This has worked pretty well up until now (other than some false readings during the night for some reason) but today they are totally non-functional.

Has anyone else experienced this or able to advise what I can do to rectify it?

Thanks

I have suffered the same problem today! I only have one presence sensor and then an android version on my phone. The android works fine but the actual presence sensor just showed away even though it was home.

I deleted it, thinking I could re add it, now it’s not being detected.

It’s not battery as I only started using it about 3 days ago :frowning:

Out of curiosity, how far away are the sensors from the hub? Also, how close is the hub to your wireless router?

Sensor to hub - 5 meters (floor bellow)

Hub to router - 2 meters

@deano12, Before we proceed any further, have you reset the actual motion sensor as described here?

Smart Things Support: Samsung SmartThings Motion Sensor

Its not the motion sensor I have a problem with?

Sorry, have you reset the actual presence sensor or just deleted it from the app? If you only deleted from the app then it also needs resetting before you can add it back, see below link:

SmartThings Support: Samsung SmartThings Presence Sensor

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This is a must read for all of us and has helped many.

A Guide to Wireless Range & Repeaters

out of curiosity how damaging is it having your wireless router near the ST HUB . . . as mine are side by side all in one media cabinet style cupboard . . . where all my hubs and devices and entertainment etc is :slight_smile:

but the reason i ask been is i have very unreliable presence tags . . .

issue two been i cant really move the hub anywhere else
.

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How about stacking them all on top of a microwave? :wink: I have burnt my fingers by keeping everything right next to each other early on and again I too didn’t have a choice.

Back to the intent. Of course using a zigbee repeater has helped several members with the presence sensors.

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This is one of those fiddly things that just depends on the exact details. The direction the antennas are pointing, if there’s any reflective or blocking material nearby, the exact zigbee channel that the hub is set to, whether the Wi-Fi is boosted, etc.

Ideally, your Wi-Fi router should be a minimum of 3 m from SmartThings hub.

Worst possible setup is usually to have them both in a metal cabinet with doors, one right above the other.

You can just experiment.

One classic network engineering exam that just about every professor uses is to start with an empty house wired for sale, everything works great. The family moves in, nothing works. Now identify all the possible sources of interference.

The one that everyone misses (including me) is a cast-iron skillet in the kitchen. When placed on the left side of the cupboard, everything works great. When placed on the right side, a whole sector goes out. :scream:. (But I did note the insulated drapes being open or closed.)

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Continuing the discussion from Presence sensors: Just stopped working:

Man, just check that friggin battery. Mine sensors drain like rain.

The sensors are on key chains hung about 3m from the hub and the hub is about 10cm from the router. Nothing has changed in terms of distance to stop them working…

Battery is showing 50%, which isn’t great considering they’re only a month or two old, but still shouldn’t be the cause.

WiFi and zigbee bands (the presence sensor is zigbee) are in the same range, and consequently can interfere with each other. Therefore the optimal placement for your SmartThings hub is at least 3 m from your Wi-Fi router. Distance is better in this case.

Otherwise, it’s kind of like when the microwave goes on and Netflix starts to buffer.

That said, an interference problem would result in the connection between the presence sensor and the hub being lost, so it would look like your presence sensor was away from home. Looking like it’s always home is a very strange problem, and sounds more like database corruption on the back end.

I would definitely report It to support so they can take a look at it from their side.

My Android phone has a habit of ‘leaving’ and ‘arriving’ quite regularly. No idea why. It’s not like I’m miles away from the hub:

[URL=http://imgbox.com/bmRhlYAs][/URL]

My ST hub was in a cupboard along with my router when I first bought the ST kit. Everything was working absolutely fine for the first 2-3 weeks and then out of the blue, my multi-sensor started playing up like your presence sensor. e.g.

My multi-sensor would trigger acceleration (motion) and it could be several hours later before it finally reported that the motion has stopped… or the door could be opened/closed several times throughout the day and I will get no notification of this at all.

Delete sensor from hub. Open plastic casing. Push and hold tactile button 6 seconds until LED turn off. Discover and add back.

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The presence sensor in my car has stopped working too (well, it hasn’t detected my car leaving and arriving at the house since Monday). Before now it’s worked fine.

Try a reset, re-pair using the following steps:

1.Remove the white cover
2. Select the “three white dots” on the top right of the Home Screen
3. Connect New Device
4. + Connect Now
5. Hold down the white button for six seconds, until the green light goes out
6. Press the white button for two seconds, repeat this six times. The continuously forces the presence tag into pairing mode

It may take several minutes to pair, if it doesn’t pair, there is chance it has already paired in the back ground. Press the top left back arrow, next to “Connect Now” At the top of the new menu it may say “1 device unconfirmed” click this tab, then name the presence tag, then save. The device should then appear under your things tab and should hopefully start working again

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