Map: person not visible when Home - how to show anyway?

Configuration Frontend
1

Some person entity depends on a few device_tracker entities (“router” & “gps” sources).
When a person is Home then it is not shown on the map.

As for devices - it is specified in docs:
image

For persons - in some cases it is confusing.
Is it possible to show it anyway?
Should I create a FR for this?

It was also mentioned in the docs that only devices with latitude & longitude are displayed on the map.
When a person at home then it does not have these attributes currently:
image
These data are present only when the person is not home and data from a “gps” device_tracker are used.
Why not to keep showing latitude & longitude for the persons even if they are home?

1 Like
2

The priority for which device determine the location of “person” is described here. There is no need to show icon of the person at home on map because it same location as the home icon on the map. The home location is set in the general setting.

3

Yes, I do understand the logic.
But imho this should be a kind of HA settings - “hide persons who are at home”.
When I do not see a person on the map - I need some MORE time to check “if this person at home?”, “if this person is beyond the currently scaled map”. It is confusing!

4 Likes
4

Ahh yes i got what you mean, also the map is auto scale, if there is a person outside then it will zoom out to include that (all) person. So when you open map, it is appropriately zoom to see all person. I just add badges to show who is home on overview

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1 Like
5

Correct, but a person (suppose a rather old person) may scale a map up/down and may be confused when they cannot see someone. And this may happen if “person is Home” or “person’s entity does not have geo coordinates because of some errors”.
For me the case “no person on the map” is about some emergency situation (no data for coordinates due to HA failure, Life360 failure etc).
That is why I think that the person MUST be displayed always even when home. And this may be changed by HA settings like “do not show a person when Home”.

1 Like
6

I would not use HA for emergency tracking purpose. You can create seperate persons only include GPS source. Then add Map card and add person to that map, then it will always shows on that map card.

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7

Absolutely.
Currently I display device_tracker entities (source=gps) on the map instead of person entities.
These trackers contain coordinates and are shown on the map.

1 Like
8

Add a new view and put in a map card to include those.

Screenshot (10)
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Screenshot (11)
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9

as suggested above you can create a new dashboard and tell it to open in the sidebar.

here is how mine is done thru yaml mode:

lovelace:
  mode: yaml
  resources: !include ui_lovelace_resources.yaml
  dashboards:
    lovelace-map:
      mode: yaml
      filename: lovelace_map_dash.yaml
      title: Map
      icon: mdi:map
      show_in_sidebar: true
      require_admin: false

lovelace_map_dash:

title: Map
views:
  - title: Map
    panel: true
    cards:
      - type: map
        dark_mode: false
        default_zoom: 15
        entities:
          - entity: person.me
          - entity: person.her
1 Like
10

Yes, thank you very much for suggestions. Surely there are workarounds. But I think the person entity MUST keep containing coordinates if Home (like a gps-based device tracker).

3 Likes
12

I just wanted to chime in and say I really hate this default behavior. I can understand the intended logic (if people are at home, they don’t need to be shown and clutter the UI), but this just ends up being so anti-user.

If I don’t see an entity on the map, then I don’t know where they are. Do I need to scroll around? Zoom out? Did their device drop off and is no longer tracking? I don’t know, because there’s zero information to differentiate “entity at home” from “entity is anywhere else in the world other than what is currently on your screen.”

13 Likes
13

i agree. this decision should be left on user. I would be okay multiple icons showing up in home zone.

14

Another upvote for deciding whether to show persons on the default map. Current behaviour just makes no sense… One is allowed to see where people are anywhere in the world, except if they are at home.

:woman_shrugging:

I’m very curious as to the reasoning on this one - I must be missing something obvious.

15

One more vote in support from me. Hiding people from the map makes no sense to me regardless of where they are.

1 Like
16

Yet another upvote for at least having the option to always show, even when at home. Several reasons:

  1. It is confusing because you can’t tell if the tracker at home or not working at all. Those are two pretty extreme opposites that could be represented by the same thing. There is not way to tell the different at a glance.
  2. It makes the auto-zoom less useful for me (and probably others), because I care about where everybody is at, whether they are away or at home.
  3. It makes the auto-zoom less useful for me (and probably others), because I not only care about where everybody is at, I also care about where they are at relative to home.
  4. My home is on 25 acres of land, so the “home” area (as opposed to the “house” area) for automation purposes has a radius of 250m and the area of invisibility is quite large. I have legitimate uses for wanting to see where trackers are at within the “home” zone (are the kids out in the woods, out by the pond, out in the shop? Etc.).
2 Likes
17

The 1st reason is imho quite enough to change the current confusing (for me - silly) functionality.
Btw, I do not use this:

person:
  - name: Ada
    id: ada6789
    device_trackers:
      - device_tracker.ada_router
      - device_tracker.ada_gps

because when Ada is at home - the entity does not have latitude and longitude since the last tracker is router-based - and Ada is not shown in a Map.
Have to use an alternative solution which DOES provide latitude and longitude always.

18

I came upon htis thread because I’ve only recently noticed that I can’t see entities at home. I have always been able to see myself and my spouse at home until a recent update. I have now spent about two hours trying to figure out what I broke… It looks like I didn’t break anything after all. Maybe this “feature” was added in a recent update?

Add me to the list of letting the user choose, and it should show all devices with location services on the map by default.

19

Recently, I encountered the same issue that persons are not displayed on the map when they are at home. It truly surprised me that it works this way. I believe it would be better to submit a feature request so we can vote for it.

20

Check FRs. May be it is already there. If not - then please create.

21

You are fast, I just found out that there is a FR indeed.
I think this FR need some votes…

4 Likes