Tried all that. Just doesn't work unless phone unlocked or in Maps routing.
There may be fewer choices for customization with Apple than Android.
I think I may be onto something, although driving up and down the road repeatedly may look weird. So, long term, we'll see.
Anyway, I reset all three hubs, HomePod Minis, and turned off/on the phone for good measure.
It seems to work now.
Taking the phone out of my pocket and putting it on the dash for better gps signal also helps, but wasn't a factor in the original issue.
We'll see.
Inconvenient to take out of pocket.
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Tried it once. Phone on dash. It almost seems as if it waits 'til it's in WiFi range (vs cellular) before registering present. The gate is on the bleeding edge of my WiFi.
edit: Yes, my current thinking is that WiFi is what's being used. I have a 2000' geofence diameter and the phone on the dash.
We are currently using Apple Home for geofence-based presence detection on my wife's iPhone 13 and my iPhone 14Pro. I simply shared a "Virtual Presence with Switch" (built-in driver) from Hubitat to Apple Home via HomeKit (I am actually still using HomeBridge for this as I have never found a reason to change it.)
I have two Apple Home Automations on each phone, one for arriving and one for departing the default Apple Home "Home Geofence". The automations are run on my Apple Home "Hub" which is one of multiple Apple TV media streaming boxes in the house. The automations simply turn on/off the appropriate virtual switch device, which in turn updates Hubitat with both the switch and presence status.
This has been 100% reliable for us over the past 3+ years now. No special settings on either phone, however we do have other apps on our phone that also might be doing a good job of keeping the geofence up to date. We have used Life360 for about 7 years, back when it was the go-to choice for reliable presence on Hubitat, and before Hubitat had a mobile app at all. We still like the convenience of Life360 to quickly see in real-time the location of one another. However, it is not used for home automation any longer after Life360 changed their API to prevent 3rd parties from using it.
Not sure that this helps at all, but just another data point that hopefully assists in some way.
Interestingly, when I went into the app just now, it was still set at 500'!
I think, to be safe, for me anyway, I have to delete an automation and add one with the new diameter.
So, still inconclusive, lol.
Just an FYI - there is no way to change the default size of the built-in “Home” geofence, IIRC. So, to make it larger, one must create of new geofence location, centered on your home, with the larger size. Then use this new geofence in your Apple Home Automations.
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True. But I had used 'address', not home, unchecking it, and set the diameter to 500' on both Arrive and Leave automations. They seemed to 'take' initially, but then today I noticed, that they reverted to the previous value of 500', which was again, based on 'address' not 'home'. It's probably got something to do with the cloud, the MacPro, synchronizing, whatever. I just have to tell myself to delete the automation first when changing the geofence. Although, I wonder if a change in automation logic could also be affected? I don't plan on doing much in that area.
Well, it worked like a charm!
2000' diameter, I was probably, maybe, possibly, 1000' away when the Pushover 'ding' went off and the gate was open by the time I got there!
Resetting the HomePod minis did it!
I'll leave the phone in my pocket and see what happens.
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Don't lean over the WC ...
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I'd comment on laugh tracks, but I'm trying to stay on topic.
Oh, wait....
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I guess I'm an optimist.
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Is your geofencing still working?
No. Home is now gone. Reverting. The voice scene wasn't me anyway, lol.
edit: As an aside, the weekly cloud backup saved the day. I could just go back in time enough to recover. The daily locals would have done no good. I might re-evaluate intervals.
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