Device tracker (specifically mobile phones) not working

HassOS 2.12, Hassio Supervisor 166, V0.94.0

Not sure when this stopped working but, all phones showing as “Away” even when actually in the house. The status never changes.
All phones in known_devices.yaml and have not changed since they last worked.
Not sure where to start looking for this issue, any help greatly appreciated.

Read the release notes for v0.94.0

Modernizing the device tracker

This release also introduces a long overdue overhaul of how the device tracker works. We are introducing this overhaul piece by piece, focusing first on device tracker platforms that push their updates to Home Assistant: mobile app, OwnTracks, GeoFency, GPSLogger and Locative.

These integrations will no longer use known_devices.yaml but instead use entities, like all other integrations in Home Assistant. You can change the name and entity ID via the UI. It is no longer posible to merge the devices with other device tracker entities. This was flaky at best. You should now use the new person integration for this.

You may need to add person: to your configuration.yaml if it isn’t there already.

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Might be helpful to know which device_tracker platform(s) you’re using.

The person component is not required for device_tracker’s to work, but rather adds functionality “on top of” device_tracker’s, so to speak.

I have it setup purely on the Mac address of each phone being on the local WiFi network. No mobile apps loaded or working as location trackers.
Hope this helps and sorry if it is scant info but I have HA deployed pretty lite using only items that are useful to me.

Yes, I merely track the Mac of each phone, name them each and use a photo for additional graphic ID. I have not used or know much about the person component.

So adding the person component is now an additional required/suggested setup?

Adding person allows you to attribute multiple devices/entities to that person. Then use person.whoever as the entity to track.

Ah, so phones, laptops etc. and will it still enable me to have a Lovelace card showing the status of the phone being either “Home” or “Away”?

Yes, that’s just a matter of choosing the person.whoever entity for whatever card you are using.

Well, that’s still not very specific. Which of these 64 options are you using?

Hi,
i have tado as Device Tracker.

With 0.94.0 the People are not_home

Person:

is insert at configuration.yaml.

Please help

I use the HA device tracker option

Sorry, but that’s the device_tracker component, which manages all device_tracker platforms. In order to help we really need to know which platform you’re using. (In the new terminology, we need to know which integration you’re using.)

Do you have an entry under device_tracker: somewhere in your configuration? Or did you add a presence detection integration via the UI? (I.e., what’s listed on the Integrations page?)

Platform is Netgear as follows:
device_tracker:

  • platform: netgear
    username: admin
    password: ########
    host: 192.#.#.#
# Tado

tado:
username: [email protected]
password: xxxx

device_tracker:

I have no presence detection component on the Integrations page.

I would assume you’ve read the doc page for Netgear, but if not you might want to. There’s a note towards the top of the page that might be important.

But in general I know cell phones are notorious for not cooperating well with “local network presence” type trackers. On the other hand, I have no personal experience using the Netgear tracker. Maybe someone who does can chime in here.

You might want to set logger to debug for pynetgear and homeassistant.components.netgear and look in home-assistant.log. Although the logging for this code is minimal, it might provide some clues.

Have you read the tado doc page and followed the instructions there? Did this used to work for you before 0.94.0?

Again, I have no direct experience with tado, but I’d suggest the same – set logger to debug for homeassistant.components.tado and check home-assistant.log for clues.

This is useful info thank you.

What would your recommendation be for a tracker setup but, I’d like to not load any tracking software on my family’s phone?