[RELEASE] OwnTracks for Hubitat Presence Detection

Ahh. let me recheck how iOS gets handled. I might have not dealt with it not returning that information correctly.

If you are on iOS, ignore that warning -- it is meant for the Android users.

Ok, if you pull the latest update (1.8.1) that will address that false positive warning on iPhones.

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I'm very new to Owntracks (installed it today) and I'm looking for advice on whether to switch from the default "Significant" location reporting mode to the "Move" mode.

I had been successfully using both the Hubitat app and Google Assistant routines for presence sensing and it was working well until a few weeks ago when both my phone and my wife's phone stopped updating regularly. It's been as bad as the Google Home "departed" routine running several hours after I left home.

I've noticed that when they do update, both the Hubitat app and Google Home will update at the same time, so it seems like something deeper in the OS is preventing both of them from seeing location changes.

I'm wondering if whatever glitch caused the other apps to have delayed reports is also causing Owntracks to have issues, because I'm not seeing good results with the default settings. I have "Use GPS for high accuracy locations" enabled. Both phones are Google Pixels (8 and 6a). All of the location and battery optimizations settings are correct.

When my wife left home a while ago, Owntracks didn't update her presence or location for about 10 minutes after she left. When she returned home her location updated once about a block from where she had been. It then didn't update over about a 10 minute period as she drove home. When she got home, a ping sensor I have set up on my hub picked her up before Owntracks updated her presence a minute or two later.

Should the 'significant' setting have tracked this better? How bad a battery hit should I expect to take if I switch the phones to "move"? Will it help if I cut the "Move" reporting rate down to 60 seconds or more?

Just wanted to say again, I love this integration. Thanks, Lyle, for a really great toy. :slight_smile:

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You don't want to use move mode (really). That will just spam locations continuously regardless of movement.

The settings in the HE app needs to be sent to the phones in order for them to have decent operation. Out of the box, the Play Store of the OwnTracks app is pretty relaxed on when it detects movement.

If you open the Owntracks App -> preferences -> configuration management, can you scroll down and see what "locatorDisplacement" and "locatorInterval" are set to?

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Displacement: 50
Interval: 60

Ok that looks good. When you look at the Member Status in the HE app, does it highlight anything in red for the users?

No, nothing highlighted.

Is this a good or a bad thing?

Does that mean that location has not changed and that's why location is 201minutes old? Or should owntracks update location more often.
I'm not seeing this kind of pauses in any other device exept this one.

For example I'm at home and I still get a location fix according owntracks. For that particular device last location fix was 201 minutes ago.
That first line:

What that means is the location fix was created in the phone 201 minutes ago, so it's being discarded as stale. If the phone never moves, it that can happen on iOS. Android is set to ping the phone every 30-minutes, and should request a fresh location.

Is that an Android phone or iOS?

Can you check in the "configuration management" of the app that "locatorPriority" is "HighAccuracy"? That gets set when the GPS slider is set. Otherwise it defaults to "BalancedPowerAccuracy" that seems to be having issues after the latest Sept 5 Pixel security update (still checking this).

That's Android. Samsung phone.

Mine is set to Balanced even though I have the GPS slider set. I just manually edited it in the app.

EDIT: I just toggled it off, synced the app, and confirmed it went back to Balanced. Then I toggled it back on, synced the app, and confirmed it went back to High Accuracy. So maybe a case of 'turn it off and on again'

Mine only needed to be changed one time to "take" so seems also may be a YMMV issue. Which always makes it more "fun" to use/support. (S21)

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Let me know if you are still having issues. I was seeing that Android on the latest feature drop was allowing the app to deep sleep when in balanced power mode (new regression on their side).

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It seems to be working as expected now.

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Which version of the Android app are you using that was causing this issue? The Play Store one, or the one on the second post?

@oldcomputerwiz @DGBQ

Ok, got an answer on the backed up locations in the app. When you go to your OwnTracks app, preferences -> connection, you need HTTP to call home to Hubitat. But, if you toggle it to MQTT that will flush out those backed up queue entries. You can then toggle it back to HTTP, and then it will be fine.

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Interesting...I will give it a try. Thanks @lpakula !

@lpakula
Quick question.
I show the GoogleFriendsLocation tile on my tablets.
I've noticed that when I scroll down to see that tile it's always blue until I touch the tile and which time it updates.
If I open the Dashboard in the HE app it seems to populate right away.
I have a regualr OT tile for my wife and it's always populated; no blue tile.

Running all the current software.