Smarttings Hub thinks my iPhone is "Home" but it is not

[cstory777]

Has anyone every seen this happen? I’m currently at work, with my iPhone, but my SmartThings Hub thinks my iPhone is at home.

I left for work this morning and about 10/15 minutes into my drive to work I get a notice saying “I’m Back” ran because my phone came home. I’m looking at the recent activity for my phone and the last entry is from Saturday (7/22) and it’s my me coming home that night. Nothing since 7/22.

Any suggestions?

[jkp]

read through these two threads

FAQ: The Many Ways of Detecting Presence (2020)

Presence, regardless of the device you use, is one of those features that works great for some people, not at all for other people, and is randomly flaky for still others. It’s very much affected by local conditions. So some people will find that phone presence works much better than the SmartThings-branded presence sensor. Other people will find the reverse. Still other people, myself included, find that they have to use a combination of two devices in order to get reliable presence indication. So if this feature tends to work differently for different people, where do you start? 1. Using a Smart Phone as a Presence Indicator [image] Well, since most people who have SmartThings have a smart phone, it’s worth starting there. This method has changed significantly in the change fro…

FAQ: How to troubleshoot mobile phone presence issues

I don’t know if this has been covered already or if it has been all put in one place. But, as an IT Director, I feel the need to build an FAQ! Does your phone know where it is? This is how you test to find out! So, you have a fancy smart phone in your pocket/purse. Does that piece of metal and plastic truly know where it is? Are your locks and lights not coming on when you get home? Is your house going into away mode when you are still home? Here is a quick test to see if your phone can read a map! Set a Reminder for when you arrive at home (obviously make sure your phone knows where you live!). If you have issues with SmartThings thinking you are leaving home but you are still there, set a reminder for when you leave as well. Did it work? If you get home and your rem…

[cstory777]

I appreciate you taking the time to reply but neither posts resolve the issue. This has been working just fine for months and just stopped. I was hoping more for suggestions on how to fix the issue, not posts basically saying “tough luck”.

[Smartphi]

you can fix it but the fix is never permanent. smartphone presence just isn’t as reliable as smartthings would like us to believe.

the "fix"es are in the links but it isn’t a one fix and you’re done, there are multiple things that you have to try to get presence working again.

try rebooting your hub and see if that works and if not try other ‘fixes’

the “fixes” are littered in the forum…that’s the way the cookie crumbles…
never ever let phone get below 20% at home or away lol this turns battery save mode and your presence will be all over the place…godspeed

I gave up on smartphone presense, I now use an arrival sensor with battery mod and leave it in my glove compartment.
Presence Sensor battery upgrade <—this has made a bigly difference.

[Barkis (John C)]

@cstory777

I appreciate you taking the time to reply but neither posts resolve the issue. This has been working just fine for months and just stopped. I was hoping more for suggestions on how to fix the issue, not posts basically saying “tough luck”.

Judging from your comment, perhaps you would feel better calling or emailing SmartThings Support. The folks here tried to help by providing a couple of resources that explain the history of the problem and suggested fixes based on community experience. YMMV

Stuff Happens! For example, ST is reporting one of three doors in my second home is open – and it isn’t. I can’t just “go there” and fix it. The sensor state came up as “open” while I was checking the temperature & humidity there. No detected motion from two sensors & my “home watch” folks report all is secure. The contact sensor is regularly reporting “battery OK,” yet ST thinks it is open…

Give those two references a fair shake, if you will! Or just call Support and see if they can help you through your issue. I’ve found them quite helpful in the past

[jkp]

iOS 10.3.3 was released 6 days ago… did you update? wondering if that may have caused an issue with the presence sensor on your iPhone. Perhaps try uninstalling the presence sensor and reinstalling to see if that fixes your issue. Hope this helps!

And contact ST support.

[cstory777]

I rebooted the hub, no joy.

I’m not running iOS 10, I’m running iOS 11 Beta and it has been working since I went to iOS 11 Beta. It just stopped on 7/22. My last iOS update was many days prior to that.

[cstory777]

@Barkis

@cstory777

I appreciate you taking the time to reply but neither posts resolve the issue. This has been working just fine for months and just stopped. I was hoping more for suggestions on how to fix the issue, not posts basically saying “tough luck”.

Judging from your comment, perhaps you would feel better calling or emailing SmartThings Support. The folks here tried to help by providing a couple of resources that explain the history of the problem and suggested fixes based on community experience. YMMV

Stuff Happens! For example, ST is reporting one of three doors in my second home is open – and it isn’t. I can’t just “go there” and fix it. The sensor state came up as “open” while I was checking the temperature & humidity there. No detected motion from two sensors & my “home watch” folks report all is secure. The contact sensor is regularly reporting “battery OK,” yet ST thinks it is open…

Give those two references a fair shake, if you will! Or just call Support and see if they can help you through your issue. I’ve found them quite helpful in the past

There are no fixes listed in the 2 posts that were quoted previously. Both of those posts were basically just “if it works, great and if it doesn’t, tough luck”. They didn’t explain any history of the problem, they just explained that it may or may not work and left it at that. For something to work flawlessly for months on end and then just suddenly stop working I find it hard to believe the answer is “stuff happens”.

[Smartphi]

and so it* begins…

try what @jkp suggested and if not what @Barkis suggested to contact support via chat…
adding another possible fix…hard reset smartthings app (ios procedure for any app) while st app is loaded/logged in: hold power button and wait until ‘slide to shutdown’ screen shows then hold home button until slider screen goes away, disclaimer this may or may not fix presence issue…if not move to next possible fix

*fixes galore to get smartphone presence working again

[bomes50502001 (Tom)]

This happened to my wife’s phone, it turned out she got logged out of the app on her phone and used my account info to log in, so it always showed her phone as home. Worth checking. For presence to work you need to use a separate account for each phone.

[smart (Ron S)]

Posted this nearly 3 yrs back but still holds good mostly.

Setting up multiple iPhones (separate linked accounts) as presence sensors for dummies

This is a how-to for newbies like me to set up a second linked iPhone (your wife’s/husband’s/partner’s/kid’s/mistress’s). Some of the steps are redundant and may not be required but no there is no harm in double checking. Follow these steps: Double check wifi is enabled. No brainer. Double check your wife/husband/partner/kid/mistress is set up with correct location(address) with the correct phone number on iPhone including Home, Mobile and iPhone numbers. Confirm with Siri by asking. Enable Location Services for most gps apps you trust. As per some thread, this helps in geofencing. (How?) Launch Map app on iPhone. It should bring up the correct location/address. Install SmartThings app from App Store on the second device. Register with the second email address (the perso…

[raidflex]

@bomes50502001

This happened to my wife’s phone, it turned out she got logged out of the app on her phone and used my account info to log in, so it always showed her phone as home. Worth checking. For presence to work you need to use a separate account for each phone.

I have seen this happen also. Basically you want to make sure that the Smartthings apps is always running in the background and has full access to location services. My wife used to close down running apps on her S7 and sometimes I would find the app logged out. I never closed my Smartthings app also on an S7, and if I did I would open it right back up and never had any issues with presence.

[jkp]

App Update V2.4.1 - Presence Sensor

Since the latest app update, version 2.4.1, smartthings has been reeking havoc with the presence sensors. For some reason smartthings is running programs triggered by the lack of a presence sensor, even while all sensors are still home. Example being that smartthings will show I am home, however launch a goodbye routine that should only be triggered when no one is home, arming the house and turning off lights. However when I look at my mobile device under the family tab it will have show me at home the entire time. Almost as if it thinks I left, even though it acknowledges I never left. Being that none of my routines have changed and this problem just started happening I have to contribute this to the updated app. Note that I have reset my hub and the phones, yet the issues still remain. …

[cstory777]

@Smartphi

and so it* begins…

try what @jkp suggested and if not what @Barkis suggested to contact support via chat…
adding another possible fix…hard reset smartthings app (ios procedure for any app) while st app is loaded/logged in: hold power button and wait until ‘slide to shutdown’ screen shows then hold home button until slider screen goes away, disclaimer this may or may not fix presence issue…if not move to next possible fix

*fixes galore to get smartphone presence working again

wow, you seriously think I don’t know how to, or haven’t already, rebooted my iPhone? LOL Do you talk down to everyone like that?

[cstory777]

@bomes50502001

This happened to my wife’s phone, it turned out she got logged out of the app on her phone and used my account info to log in, so it always showed her phone as home. Worth checking. For presence to work you need to use a separate account for each phone.

I think this is onto something but not exactly my issue since I’m the only one on the system. The reason I say it’s onto something is because when I got home last night and brought up the app I had to sign in again, even though I was signed in when I left yesterday morning and hadn’t signed out. Once I signed in it was as if my whole system played “catch up” and ran every automation it should have run from the time I left to the time I got home.

Thanks for pointing me in this direction instead of treating me like a moron. Apparently others here think that’s the cool thing to do.

My .02… The hub shouldn’t rely on the app running on your phone to carry out its tasks based on times you’ve given it.

[cstory777]

@raidflex

@bomes50502001

This happened to my wife’s phone, it turned out she got logged out of the app on her phone and used my account info to log in, so it always showed her phone as home. Worth checking. For presence to work you need to use a separate account for each phone.

I have seen this happen also. Basically you want to make sure that the Smartthings apps is always running in the background and has full access to location services. My wife used to close down running apps on her S7 and sometimes I would find the app logged out. I never closed my Smartthings app also on an S7, and if I did I would open it right back up and never had any issues with presence.

Yeah, seems like the app running is the key here. Why I got logged out, who knows. Like I said previously this shouldn’t be the case. The Hub should run the automations regardless of you having the app running or not.

That being the case, as stupid as it is, I guess I’ll leave the app running on my iPad at home at all times. lol

Thanks for the info!

[Smartphi]

Not sure why you have a chip on your shoulder. Is not how to reboot your iPhone. It’show to reset just the Smartthings app without having to shutdown your iPhone.

But you already knew that and now im talking down to you lol

good story bro fun times

[Smartphi]

[ogiewon]

@cstory777

The Hub should run the automations regardless of you having the app running or not.

Just to make sure things are clear to everyone…

• Smart Phone Presence has nothing to do with your hub. The phone communicates directly to the SmartThings cloud via your home WiFi or Cellular data network. Rebooting the hub should have zero impact on SmartPhone Presence. (Note: If using a ST Zigbee Presence Key Fob, the hub is used.)
• Almost every SmartThings “Automation” runs in the ST Cloud with the exception of some Smart Lighting routines and a small portion of Smart Home Monitor. ST appears to no longer value local processing, as they have never opened up the local processing platform to any other SmartApps aside from the two listed above. And those will ONLY run locally if all of the devices used in the automation are all local devices. Smart Phone Presence is not local.
• No automations actually run on your phone/tablet. It is just a client used to configure ST and display information. It also runs in the background on your phone for presence detection using Geofence technology.
• If you use a Smart Phone or Tablet for presence, make sure it is logged in with a unique SmartThings account linked to your main account. If your tablet stays home and is NOT configure as a presence sensor, you can use the same ST account on both your tablet and your phone (which is used for presence). Never use the same account on two devices that are both configured for presence detection.

Your phone never directly communicates with your ST hub. The phone app always communicates to the ST Cloud servers, which in turn communicate with your hub.

Hope this helps to clear things up.

[JDRoberts]

Everything @ogiewon said with one tiny addition…

It’s definitely true that almost everything runs in the cloud, not on the phone and not on the hub. The hub is basically a box of radios just used to communicate with the local devices. But the hub sends those communications based on logic in the cloud. And when it receives those communications it send them on up to the cloud for processing.

It does sometimes happen that the cloud account and the hub get out of sync on the status of some devices. It shouldn’t happen, but it does. So rebooting the hub will cause it to resync the current status of everything from the cloud account. That does sometimes “unstick” the presence indication for the phone being used as presence.

So rebooting the hub can sometimes, but rarely, help when the problem is the phone showing as away when it’s home or showing as Home when it’s away. If it’s not disruptive, it’s one of those “can’t hurt, might help” things.

But it’s not helping for the reason you might typically think, which is that you’re clearing the cache for something that runs on the hub. Because hardly anything runs on the hub. But it will re-sync the hub and the cloud account, and sometimes that’s useful.