False location updates triggering automations

Configuration
1

Hey everyone, been racking my brain on this for some time now and I can’t quite get it to work.

Basically what’s happening is my iPhone is (for whatever reason) generating false location data (from cell towers, background refresh, whatever), and randomly saying I’m “not_home” when I’m “home”. This happens even when my phone is stationary, charging.

This then leads to my “arriving home” automations triggering and stuff like my garage door opening randomly in the middle of the night. Not ideal.

Currently my automation are simple, just me going from “not_home” to “home” (the 15 seconds opens the door right as I pull into the driveway):

alias: Arriving - Garage Door - Open (Kyle)
description: ''
trigger:
  - platform: state
    entity_id:
      - person.kyle
    from: not_home
    to: home
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 0
      seconds: 15
condition:
  - condition: device
    device_id: x60306cc8y46398be8hef4273f91f641
    domain: cover
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    type: is_closed
action:
  - device_id: x60306cc8y46398be8hef4273f91f641
    domain: cover
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    type: open
  - service: notify.mobile_app_iphone_13_pro
    data:
      message: The garage door has been ‘Opened’
      title: Garage Door
mode: single

I tried messing around with a condition like this, thinking “Okay, only run the automation if I’ve been “not_home” for one minute. That way when my phone randomly updates the location, it’s a second or two and then the automation won’t run.” But it’s still not working. I think it’s because the condition is saying I have to be not_home for 1 minute and not have just been not_home for 1 minute? I don’t know. Any help would be greatly apprecaited.:

condition:
  - condition: device
    device_id: x60306cc8y46398be8hef4273f91f641
    domain: cover
    entity_id: cover.garage_door
    type: is_closed
  - condition: state
    entity_id: person.kyle
    state: not_home
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 1
      seconds: 0
2

If not already done, check this
Home Assistant Companion Docs | Home Assistant Companion Docs (home-assistant.io)

Option is to add a check whether you are/not connected with the local network

3

Thank you for sharing.

I could do that but in my case it wouldn’t really help as it’s pinging incorrect location data. So my phone stays connected to my home network the entire time, but for whatever reason it randomly shows: “Geographic Region: Exited” and then seconds later “Geographic Region: Entered”

I’m also considering testing turning off “Background fetch” in my Companion app settings to see if that helps, but I was hoping to just fine-tune my automation to permanently eliminate any false triggers.

4

Part of the issue too, I think, comes from the overlapping geographic zones. Before (whatever update) where I set my home location and radius and it was just that, things worked fine, but since I now have those three overlapping orange radius circles, my phone says “Geographic Region: Entered” each time it senses me in any one of those circles. For example, when I got to work this morning, my phone said I entered the zone 6 separate times.

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5

Read through this post:

Updated my zones to 100m radius’.

Will see if this helps to eliminate any issues.

6

There was recently a request to add gps_accuracy to iOS.

1 Like
7

Interesting…Would love to see that option added. I know a lot has to do with iOS in general. Hoping, in my case at least, that the 100m radius will help, for now. Definitely sucks waking up in the morning and realizing your garage door has been open all night because your phone said you were “not home” -_-

8

I find Life360 abhorrent and invasive, but you could always try that.

9

I played around with it before. Not a fan of A) pricing, B) data collection and C) the fact that it’s another third-party integration. Trying to keep as much “offline” as possible

1 Like
10

Yep, totally agree.