I’m using the Ping integration in Home Assistant to track the presence of an iOS device. However, I’ve noticed that as soon as the device is locked (screen off), it disconnects from the network, and Ping reports it as unavailable. This makes it unreliable for presence detection.
Is there a way to prevent iOS from disconnecting?
Thanks in advance for any help.
I suggest making use of the iOS companion app. It lets you do some really cool things, including presence detection based on your iOS device’s location. Ping is stone-age compared to what you can do this way.
Yes, you’re probably right that the Home Assistant Companion App provides more options for presence detection. However, I would still like to find a solution to my described issue that works independently of the Companion App.
If anyone has insights or alternative approaches, I’d really appreciate the help!
If you just want to rely on iOS without any HA enhancements, I think you’d have to ask Apple, but my assumption is that their answer would be, “no, there is no way to prevent iOS from disconnecting.” Listening for ping requests consumes power and one of the main selling points of mobile devices, Apple or otherwise, is battery life…
If you can’t use the iOS app, consider whether your WiFi router has an integration with HA. If so, perhaps you could use that integration to check whether your iOS device is on your home WiFi network.
I have also described a related issue regarding Wi-Fi connectivity and how devices appear (or don’t appear) in my FRITZ!Box setup. You can find that discussion under the topic “Presence detection issues with fritzbox mesh and home assistant”
Thanks for the link.
Use iphonedetect
It works great, is fast, and never has false data and uses negligible battery.