Wife's iPhone does not show up in ST app on her phone or mine

[Etoimos (Keith)]

I installed the ST app on the wife’s iPhone and started going through the process of creating her an account. When it got to the device ID portion, it said the device was not valid (because I had already set it up on my phone initially). I then noticed that I could add her via my phone’s app and did this. She can now log into the ST app on her phone, but her phone does not show up in her app or mine. Any thoughts on what to do?

[oldcomputerwiz (Steve)]

Did you go to the market place and add her phone as a presence device? You have to tell smartthings to use it. It’s not automatic. If you need further help, just ask.

[Etoimos (Keith)]

Thanks, that did the trick.

[oldcomputerwiz (Steve)]

Your welcome. Sometimes this HA stuff isn’t very intuitive.

[Etoimos (Keith)]

Or automated

[Etoimos (Keith)]

Okay, her phone shows up now and it is working as a presence device… but mine is not. It always shows me as home (I think even before adding hers). Where to I start troubleshooting that??

[jkp]

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…

FAQ: The Many Ways of Detecting Presence

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? 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. The following FAQ runs through the the usual troubleshooting…

[oldcomputerwiz (Steve)]

The guides are very helpful. Honestly, for me, when I’ve run into this issue I’ve had the most success removing my phone completely from ST and re-adding it. Other “fixes” usually didn’t work. The remove and re-add has never failed me but, both our phones work very, very well 99.9% of the time. I have an android, Galaxy S5, and my wife had a iPhone 4s and now has an IPhone SE since Christmas. I did make my geofence larger than the default though.

If your phones have never worked well, then you probably need to figure that out first. Because mine work, when issues do arise, it’s just easier to remove and re-add. Even though I have to remove the phone from all it’s smartapp.

I also use Life 360. It gives us location backup as well as allows me to see where my wife is at when exercising alone away from the house.

Best of luck.

[Etoimos (Keith)]

Thanks guys. I’ll be doing the location test on my phone today just to make sure the phone knows where it is. I’m suspecting that the phone will pass this test since it knows where it is at when I use Google Maps away from the home (and shows me at home on the map when I am).

I’ll also remove and add it back to ST.

[Etoimos (Keith)]

Removing my phone and adding it back worked, so thanks for that tip. As many of you already know, the cellphone fencing is too large though. Looks like I’ll be looking into some of the other options out there… perhaps WiFi connection.