Hi,
I installed the mobile app today. But I could not find how to use the geofence feature as a presence sensor.
Should I create a virtual presence sensor ?
but then how shall I bind it with my phone ?
In the mobile app settings, use "Send Geo Event." That should cause your phone to show up as a device on your hub. You can then use your phone to determine presence.
Here's the documentation for the mobile app:
https://docs.hubitat.com/index.php?title=Mobile_App
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thanks
Geofence feature does not work good on my wife's Samsung Note 9.
Most of the time, I see the event (arrived/departed) corrected on Hub a few hours later than the actual event.
I know that geofence feature is not reliable and I actually have zigbee presence sensors but geofence is working fine on my Smartthings setup. That's why I want to understand what is wrong.
On the phone I see the following lines in debug:
On phone's location settings I don't see such options. On the Hubitat app , there is no such setting.
So what is this ?
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I’m not an android user, but I gather from a recent discussion in another thread that it’s a setting in android location services.
I’m sure it’s possible that depending on your wife’s exact phone and android os version, it might be labeled differently, unavailable, etc.
I would consult the phone’s manual re: location services and how to enable all settings for maximum accuracy (which may come at the expense of battery life).
actually phone settings are identical with my phone. And it has Android 10, not an old version...
But I really did not understand the log from Hubitat app.
Can any Hubitat support person or developer tell us what this log actually means ?
Admittedly, this is a document re: the google nexus, but it suggests that the instructions hubitat gives you actually refer to an older version of Android (scroll to the end).
https://support.google.com/nexus/answer/3467281?hl=en
I said it could have something to do with android versions, not necessarily that yours is out of date. Maybe the debugging instructions in the app are. The best way to get a response directly from staff is probably to open a support ticket.
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Exactly. Highly fragmented OS. And some manufacturers, like Samsung, have made many customized changes to the OS settings on their phones.
I am an Android user - the fragmentation in the OS has driven me to exclusively use Google phones since the release of the Nexus One (exactly 10 years now).
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Ours had been working fine for a couple weeks but suddenly HE does not see us until we open the dashboard after we leave. It registers as soon as the app open on our Samsung S10's. Still fiddling to find the glitch but thought I would post to this thread.
same here...
did you upgrade your S10 to Android 10 recently ?
Yes we did! An "aha" moment! Have there been reports problems?
actually I have the same problem on my wife's note 9 after Android 10 update.
But my Note 10 is already updated to Android 10 and I don'T see the same problem on it. (well, at least not frequently)
Did you open a ticket with support to see if they could help?
Not yet, double checking the settings to see if I've missed something. Just a question on the forum to see if anyone else had seen a change.
usually, "phone as a presence sensor" is not accepted as a stable solution and most probably support will tell us that "this is a phone issue" rather than a problem on their software.
however, I don't have the problem on my Smartthings app.
Actually, Hubitat's mobile app is terrible. It even does not have nice tiles to show multiple information from a device.
They should hire a mobile app developer...
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Not sure what to tell you. @aaiyar is right that android is a fragmented OS, and that just makes it more difficult for app developers to guarantee that everything works across every combination of devices and OS versions.
You can try to report your issue to support, or not. Never a guarantee there’s an easy fix, but if you’re not even willing to open a ticket, it’s hard to expect them to identify and prioritize trends/underlying problems to fix their apps.
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You should multiplex presence detection. There are several apps that will let you do that, including: Combined Presence, Presence Governor, Presence Plus, and Presence Central.
Using any of the apps, along with HubConnect, you could even use the ST app for geofencing/presence on the HE app.
On my phone, the ST app is not very reliable, so I don't use it; rather I set my presence based on input from the Hubitat app, the Alexa app, the Life360 app, my car's geofencing, my phone connecting to my WiFi router, and the use of specific keycodes ......
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well, actually I am developing apps for Android myself. It is correct that Android is a fragmented OS. But with correct permissions I can easily make my apps stay alive in background and collect location information. It is not a very difficult task.
Besides, me and my wife , we are using Samsung phones. Samsung adds features over Android OS but mostly does not break anything in the core. As a mainline Android brand , I would expect from a company like Hubitat to test the mobile app on some Samsung phones and make the app work on these as stable as possible.
However, Hubitat team does not prioritize the mobile app. As we all know, for a long time, they didn't even publish a mobile application for the platform.
That's why I don't have any confidence in Hubitat team to be aggressive about fixing an issue on this app. Besides, this is not just my problem. It is a well-known issue as far as I read on the forums.
@aaiyar
In fact, I have a most stable solution for presence. All my family members have zwave presence sensors. So I really don't need the "software" presence sensing solution. Besides, if I decide to migrate all my automations from ST to HE hub, I will use one of the multiplex presence detection mechanisms as you suggested.
But I didn't decide to migrate yet. I have other issues with HE that needs to be fixed. (my hub is crashing every few days , and support is saying that "it should be something with the custom apps that are installed")
so, if I have physical presence sensors, and if I am willing to use an additional multiplex presence detection mechanism, why am I trying to solve this phone presence issue ?
because it is an issue and it really requires to be fixed. If HE wants to be an option to ST owners, these issues need to be fixed.
and to admit; I am a little bit obsessive about this kind of problems.
When I check the logs on my phone, I see that presence information is not updated because my phone could not reach the address "cloud,hubitat.cm"
This is either , "from my network it is not being resolved - DNS" , or when it tries to update location, my phone data connection is closed (I close it sometimes by night) and the app does not retry when connection becomes available.
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btw, I just submitted the issue to support. (Although I don't believe they will take it as a prioritized issue)
