iOS App - Duplicate presence devices

I'll take a look at Speaker Central. Would be great if you can share your app / driver as well.

BTW I found your Lights On Motion Plus app very useful, especially as a launch point to writing my own custom lighting automations. Thanks for posting it!

Here it is! You'll need both parts:

The documentation at the link to the app code should explain installation and usage, but basically, you create a virtual device using the notification proxy driver, then use the notification proxy app to "link" that virtual/proxy device to one or more "real" notification devices. For apps/automations, you'd then use the proxy device in lieu of the "real" devices, and you can swap out the "real" devices without needing to change automations that use the proxy. (Unlike Speaker Central, I have no way to restrict when notifications go to which "real" devices, so I'd use that instead if you need that; I just wanted something I could use instead of one or more "real" devices all the time in case I switched anything out or changed my mind.)

Great! I'll give these a test drive tonight.

I certainly understand this viewpoint, but a user can already do this to themself by changing the device type (for a random device) to a driver that implements different capabilities. Obviously, anyone who does this should know what they're doing, but you could say the same for either "feature," and the outcome would be the same: likely not hub-stoppingly disastrous, but certainly likely to have a bunch of errors thrown if any automations rely on specific commands or attributes from certain capabilities.

"Replace" is actually a feature that's required for Z-Wave certification. I'm assuming this is one of the reasons Hubitat isn't certified (that plus S2, probably some cost, and who knows how much hassle on top of everything else). SmartThings implements it, and...I can't say it works well more than I could about anything on ST, but I think it works like it's supposed to if you don't intentionally sabotage yourself. :slight_smile:

Iā€™m now running into this issue too.

Was anyone able to resolve it without having to add their newest (and functional) presence device to all the automations and rules that referenced an older (and no longer functional) mobile presence device?

I could do that and delete the old device, but thatā€™s gonna be a bit tedious. In other words, I wonder if the mobile app can re-establish a link with a virtual presence sensor once itā€™s bern lost?

Usually when you log into the mobile app, you first have to select a hub (if you have multiple). Then, you should be presented with a list of 'mobile devices' on that hub. By selecting the original one for your phone, the link between your mobile phone and the mobile presence/notification device on your hub is reestablished. Hubitat designed it this way to allow users to easily change phones, but still link back to the original device on their hub.

Is this not working for you? Are you on the latest iOS Hubitat Mobile App Beta? It has been running pretty well for me on my iPhone 7, iOS 12.4.1.

I've actually been seeing behavior like what the OP describes for months, through several app versions. Tonight was the first time I ended up with a duplicate device though. I'm running the most recent ios beta app, on ios 13.

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Gotcha! I think I have had that happen once or twice as well. I think I killed the app and tried again. Maybe I even rebooted my phone? Or maybe I deleted the app and reinstalled it? Can't recall. Definitely some room for improvement!

I am a little leery of iOS 13.0 at this time. I may wait until 13.1 is released... :thinking:

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I figured out a way to get to the "select devices" after the app loads. By going to the "select hub" page from settings, I can choose my (only) hub, then choose a mobile device. The app doesn't hang, and now it's back to the original virtual device, so I can delete the duplicate.

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Nice workaround! Thanks for sharing.

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Iā€™m running into a similar issue again, this time with a twist.

My mobile presence device somehow became unlinked with my phone last night, resulting in duplicate presence devices in hubitat. But this time when I try to switch to the correct presence device in the mobile app, I get this screen instead of the list of mobile devices associated with my hub:

So now the workaround I described above doesnā€™t help. I can create new (duplicate) presence devices, but I canā€™t select any previously created devices in the Mobile app because it thinks my hub has no presence devices...

Iā€™m using the latest mobile app beta on my iPhone XS running iOS 13.1.2. Deleting the app and reinstalling through TestFlight doesnā€™t seem to have made a difference.

@patrick or @chuck.schwer any suggestions about how I can get the mobile app to re-populate the list of presence devices associated with my hub?

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I had this happen recently... IIRC, I was able to get the list of devices to populate by turning off WiFi on my phone while at home, and used the cellular LTE data connection. This allowed the list of devices to populate, and then select the correct one.

I also noticed recently that I cannot get the list of existing devices to show up when using my iPAD. I have not tried connecting my iPAD on a different network yet.

@chuck.schwer, any idea if there is a bug when trying to connect the Mobile App to a hub that is on the same network?

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That's what it sounds like. I'll pass this along to our mobile app developer.

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Argh, that seemed like a good plan, but Iā€™m still seeing the ā€œwe couldnā€™t find any mobile presence devicesā€ message even when Iā€™m connecting through 4G.

@chuck.schwer do you know what else I can try to get the app to ā€œseeā€ my mobile presence devices so that it doesnā€™t keep creating a new one?

I've been experiencing these issues for a while now... IN addition, there appears to be a bug in the app that keeps repeating notifications and messing up presence status... For the last several days, I keep getting multiple messages that I or another phone in my family has arrived, only to be followed by that person has left a few minutes later... I got so annoyed last night, I logged out of the app, deleted it and tried re-installing... Of course, I was presented with the "hanging" loading mobile devices message which eventually just stopped and created a new device...

Then I had to go through all my rules and such to replace my old device with the new one...

I do think this could have something to do with IOS 13... No proof of that, just a hunch.

I'm having a similar problem as SMR06. If I log out of the IOS app on my iPhone XR and then log back in, another device with the same name is created in the Hubitat device list. If I log out and then log in again, no third iPhone device is created. I can delete both of these iPhone devices and "start over" as you suggested, but then all of my notification apps have to be re-coded because the phone disappears from the device notification list.

Logging out of an IOS app is a common procedure on an iPhone. I don't understand why the problem exists.

Don

I've posted previously that I am seeing the same iPhone issue as you. I've done some more research and here's what I have found.

I have a Motorola Moto G6 phone running Android and I'm not seeing ANY problems with duplicate devices. Also, notification seems to working working fine on the Moto, but has started working sporadically on my iPhone. When I log out and log back in with the Moto, I am given a choice to choose an existing mobile app device or create a new one. I'm not offered that choice on the iPhone.

I have a newer iPad mini. I don't create a duplicate device when I log out and log back into the app. But I also do not get to choose an existing mobile device. Both the iPad and iPhone are running IOS 13.1.3. But the iPad is showing slightly different behavior ( no duplicate device).

This sure looks like an IOS related BUG.

Don

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@ogiewon and @chuck.schwer Iā€™m not sure what changed, but I tried disconnecting from WiFi again, and when I logged back into the hubitat app, I was able to see the list of mobile devices. Now the appā€™s connection to the correct mobile presence device has been restored, and I deleted the duplicates.

Thanks for the suggestion, Dan!

Tonight my iPad was able to display a list of existing Mobile App devices from my hub with no issue.

However, my iPhone is unable to display the list of existing Mobile App devices from my hub, whether connected to WiFi or LTE networks.