[SOLVED] Android reporting incorrect presence after wireless router or home location change

Apps & Clients Android
22

I am now almost convienced that my problem is not smartthings and it is android location. I got 1 false alarm yesterday and IFTTT also triggered at the same time. Also I checked my life360 history and see that couple of time over the last 3 days it reported wrong locations around 5 to 25 miles away from my home.

The below post on google forums suggest that google takes some time to fix the location on the wifi. As I just installed a new router and reset my IP address, I think I have to use it for a couple of weeks before google fixes the location properly.
https://productforums.google.com/forum/#!topic/maps/tRs9WNAWt_4

Thanks everyone, especially @WB70 for helping me find out the root cause. I will update the thread how it goes in the next couple of weeks.

Interesting article here which says changing the Wifi SSID may help. I will give this a try in the weekend.

5 Likes
23

FYI @sapstar.

I had passed this thread information over to another guy who just recently moved 5 miles away (he didnā€™t buy a new router tho) and he was having what looked like to be a very similar issue to yours. He went ahead and modified the SSID(s) and that appears to have resolved the issue. Hereā€™s the thread:

2 Likes
24

This to me is one of those types of issues that should be in an official FAQ or Troubleshooting guide for Android Mobile Presence. Looking at the cross referencing of all the other types of Presence issues in and around SmartThings and the time people spend chasing their tails in trying to resolve something that in the end turns out to be something so simple and in this case, not a SmartThings issue at all, I look at the ROI that could have been saved or greatly minimized as far as the 400 things that a person has to try and isolate this problem. Now I know there are other scenarios where ST is involved or has something to do with the issue: ie: Mobile Presence with multiple ST locations, and IOS Presence reporting. But when you mix those issues, although they might be similar in nature to the overall issue that someone is complaining about and the community trys to help by giving them 500 solutions or tests to try that cover the scope of ALL the issues it gets pretty frustrating as an end user.

ST Mobile Presence with Android - Inconsistent / Incorrect reporting of Present and Away Status for a single location:

  1. Are you using an Android Mobile device for Presence within ST?
  2. Is your ST setup to use only a single Location?
  3. Did you verify these permissions?
  4. Did you check App Optimization?
  5. Did you recently move or change location?
  6. If you moved or changed location, are the SSIDs the same as what you used before?

List of specific symptoms:

  1. xxxxx
  2. xxxxx
  3. xxxxx

Solution steps:

  1. Modify permissions
  2. Modify xxxxxx
  3. Change the names of all your Router SSIDs

Is there an official place where a complete and detailed document is published that defines a specific solution for known and repeated reported issues so that someone could reference that before searching endlessly through all these threads to maybe resolve an issue in 1 / 100th of the time?

JD chime in here.

1 Like
25

Thanks very much for the update. I will be back home tomorrow night. Will try to sort mine out on Friday. Its a hassle changing all the SSIDā€™s as I have to change them in around 20 devices.

May be i will just change the 5Ghz netwrok on which the laptops and mobiles connect. That way only a few devices need to change.

26

I havenā€™t tried this, so Iā€™m just throwing it out there. If changing the SSID fools the hub into thinking its at a new location and if the hub doesnā€™t cache past router settings, can you just connect to a different router temporarily? Once the hub sets up to the new location, then change back to the original. You can use your phoneā€™s hotspot for a temporary router.

It wouldnā€™t be difficult to try and a lot easier than changing your SSID if it worked.

27

From the article above, itā€™s not the ST Hub that is the issue or having to try and fool it. Itā€™s how your SSID / MAC is being stored within Google Location. Now how long that takes to update is another question. For it not to happen in the future, the opt out in Google is to add _nomap to the end of your SSID. Gotta love that.

It only takes a few minutes to change the SSID, even if you have a router with multiple bands. My Nighthawk has one 2.4ghz, two 5ghz and a Guest. It takes more time reconnecting all your devices back to the router under the new names given.

28

My location issues seem to be fixed now. Havenā€™t happened after Wednesday. I havenā€™t changed my SSID yet.

29

You fixed the issue with patience?

30

Actually I work away from home Monday to Thursday. It was my wifeā€™s patience :wink:. Also it didnā€™t seem to happen at night.