Made a simple rule to do a refresh on Life360. I notice in the logs sometimes it says refresh and sometimes it says push.
What is the difference and which should I be using to refresh my life360 status?
Push is life 360 updating your phone, refresh is your phone polling life 360 for an update.
OK, I think I understand. What I want is HE hub to get an update from Life360.
What I am seeing is Life360 on my phone is ok, but the hub is not always getting the info.
On your phone, make sure background app refresh is on (if it's an iphone) and location is set to always. The background app refresh should help, but a lot of times phones go to sleep. If you're using an android, there should be similar options to prevent your phone from going to sleep. This should more readily refresh HE. (I'm sure more experienced life 360 users than me will have additional input)
All the phone settings are correct. But I should use the REFRESH not PUSH then?
Refresh should be fine
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You can use either one, as they both do the exact same thing - cause the Hubitat Life360 integration to reach out to the Life360 cloud and get everything back in sync.
I assume you are referring to the "Life360 Refresh" device, as shown below. The "Refresh()" command is easily called from RuleMachine, but it was not so easy to be executed from the Hubitat Dashboard. Thus, the reason the Hubitat Team added the "Push()" command to this device. This makes it simple to be added to a Hubitat Dashboard as a Tile.
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Both buttons do the same for me... They set status for me and my wife as "departed" no matter where either of us are. We can be both home and pushing either button then changes the states for both of use as "departed" Is there a way to troubleshoot these buttons?
What “buttons” are you referring to, exactly? More details of what your setup is would be helpful.
The picture you posted just above my comment... that! The "Life 360 Refresh" from 'devices' page. If I push either of those buttons Push or Refresh... it turns both (myself and wife) to departed no matter where we are. Home, not home, one of us home and the another not, etc... it will simply set our presense as "departed". Pushing either of those buttons for me anyway is useless. Life360 has been generally very good... but not so tonight.
If Life360 is having issues tonight, then the Life360 Refresh device may not be able to correctly ascertain the status of your family’s presence sensors. I wonder if it just defaults to “not present” in that case? 
Update: I just tried using the Refresh() command and all of our Life360 presence sensors maintained their proper status.
I agree... I think Life360 is having trouble today. When my wife and I returned home, my hubitat panel (actual my ActionTiles for Hubitat panel) was showing my wife was home but not me. But on our phones, it showed both of use at the train station where we drove home. In any case though, even when the service is working fine (vast majority of the time)... pushing either of those buttons at least for me ... it always sets our presence as "departed".
Assuming I understand your description above… If Life360 is showing both phones still at the train station, then it sounds like the Refresh properly updated Hubitat’s status.
Life360 needs to properly reflect your status before Hubitat can.
Yea... except a couple of things.
- the life 360 phone app showed both of us at the train station but yet my wife presence was correctly set as "arrived"... well, that was until I hit "Refresh" button.
- even when Life-360 is working properly and both our presence is properly set. We could both be away or just one of us. And if the refresh button is pressed at that point... it will set both of use as departed no matter what.
I was hoping to use that "refresh" button with a couple of my WebCore scripts but... it really does not work for me. When I was on ST... i was able to send text messages and my car receives text messages. It was nice as I was driving a way to receive a text message that the automations that I set including security mode turned on. Since I use Verizon service, I can send an email to XXXXXXX@vtext.com and that in turns converts the email to text but it takes several minutes later... I thought the "refresh" command would help in making it quicker but no-joy.
Hi, could you share the rule you made to do a refresh? I'm looking to create the same thing.
In any rule in Rule Machine, you can add a Life 360 refresh command... Just use the "Capture/Restore, Device Refresh or Polling" option in the Action menu, then select the "Refresh devices" option.
Then select "Life 360 Refresh" as the Device to refresh. Bingo, bango, done!
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I’ll give that a shot! Thank you!
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Do i need to define a trigger with this refresh such as my "presence" when i arrive or depart? or do i only have to define the "refresh" action and select Life 360 Refresh?
When you're adding the refresh as part of a rule, you just need to refresh the "Life360 Refresh" device (once set up, you can watch the logs to verify the command is sent).
I add that refresh step in my various rules related to monitoring my garage door, since that door opening/closing is most commonly associated with us coming & going.
I put one refresh early in the rule to capture the correct "right now" status, and then one a couple minutes later, since that should give enough time to exit our "home" fence bubble.
The refreshes are just added insurance that Life360 updates in a timely manner. It's not perfect, but Life360 works well for us overall -- I'm simply not motivated enough to set up a more redundant and more complicated presence-monitoring system.
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Thanks!
