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

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:

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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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It seems odd to me that at least three people on this thread have had one or more of these sensors stop working at the same time. Surely that can’t be coincidence and suggests its something server side as suggested elsewhere in this thread?

Spoke to Tom Lane at UK support about this and it was evidently trending. The engineers are investigating but the method I wrote above worked for me.

I had previously uninstalled and re-paired without the 6 button presses but it made no difference btw

In my case, I started investigating my other (less used) zigbee devices e.g. motion sensor & power outlet, and noticed that they were having problems as well… However, funnily enough, my presence sensor didn’t seem to be having problems?

Anyway, like I said before, they were all working solidly for the first few weeks before these problems.

Also, my hub location hadn’t changed in that time either so like you said @leedjones, it is rather odd that a fair number of us are all now having problems…

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Few things about the presence devices.

  1. mobile presence uses cloud integration. Presence tags use ZigBee to communicate directly with the Hub. The results of the failures might seem similar (ie presence events not reporting), but the underlying causes are very different. Contact support on both.
  1. We saw a rush of reports about presence tag failures and are trying to get to the bottom. I’m leaning towards incidental timing but I could be wrong and we are investigating.
  2. The tags are super subject to interference. Keeping them near WiFi routers or cordless phones can kill their connection. Pairing them near interference sources can cause bad handshakes with the Hub, and it won’t report states. Check out the range and interfernce article above.
  3. I just found some sensors came with dead batteries. The battery tabs are super fragile. The best way to change the battery is with a small flathead screwdriver.
  4. The plastic around the sensor was refreshed, but the chip inside of essentially the same as the original version. The reset process for the sensor is the same as the old version (ie doesn’t involve removing the battery like with the motion and multi). Try a reset before popping out the battery.
  5. Contact support because the team is awesome, good looking, and ready to provide a gif if needed.
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So I re-paired both sensors and they’re working fine again now. However, it isn’t that simple as to delete a Tag you first need to delete all Smart Apps that its being used on so theres a whole lot of un-configuring and re-configuring after they’ve been re-paired. Not a massive, deal, but if its something ST/Server side, then I’d be happy to find out so it can be prevented from happening again…

I did the same and it worked for me.

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Well I’m not impressed to say that despite moving the hub as far away from my router as the supplied ethernet cable would permit, both sensors have stopped working again.:frowning:

If this keeps happening, the system is unusable for me…

Have you tried a soft reset by (gently) removing and readding the battery? Also, can you try tapping the button on the circuit board (rather than a full press/hold to reset)?

I’ve had the same problem… Softreset the sensor and also pressed the button once to reset - It then updates, but a day later its stopped again. I’ve had to do this 2 days in a row now… :frowning:

Big problems trying to pair the presence sensor

Thought it had done it yesterday, but never returned a battery status (I have tested with a meter , its 2.95 volts) and said ‘present’ regardless of whether I was or not.

The web API report no status or data, and the iOS app doesn’t show any battery voltage either.

I deleted, and rebooted and took the battery out then it did finally appear to pair as per instructions, I went through the ‘next’ options and then the iOS app crashed leaving a half complete device.

Deleted this and its - its currently stuck at ‘identifying a device’.

Am hoping its the coin battery, so out to buy a new one - but 2.95v seems fairly healthy to me.

Any clues not his one ?

S

No, I haven’t. I’ll try that if it happens again. However, I’m having other problems with the setup now and I’m starting to lose patience to be honest. I’ve bought £250 worth of hassle at the moment as NONE of my installed smartapps are working correctly now. It was all working fine until the presence sensors started to fail…

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Update - new battery makes no difference.

Tried in another part of the house, away from the wifi router and no difference.

All the other things in the starter pack seem to be okay, feeding back temp, motion etc…

Looks like a software fault to me…

Im beginning to wonder if its a software or platform fault too. Neither of my sensors are working now - they’re both showing as present all the time, even when I’m away.

Mine stopped functioning again on Friday. Reset and re paired but always shows present and no battery reading either.

Can’t be a coincidence.
Maybe a duff batch given to some on the insiders trial.