Time_pattern not firing at all

Configuration
1

This is a bit long but there is a lot of detail here so please stay with me.

I wrote code in yaml to fire every 30 minutes to evaluate the quality of the daylight outside and then update a sensor to reflect the results. The time pattern did not fire at all but when clicking on the automation and running manually, everything worked as designed.

- id: "House - Update Daylight Status"
  alias: "House - Update Daylight Status"
  description: "House - Update Daylight Status"
  triggers:
    - trigger: time_pattern
      minutes: "/5"
  conditions:
    - "{{ is_state('input_boolean.house_auto_mode', 'on') }}"
    - "{{ is_state('input_boolean.house_auto_outside', 'on') }}"
    - "{{ is_state('input_select.house_status_dropdown', not 'Vacation') }}"
    - condition:
        - or:
            #        - "{{ states('weather.great_ecobee', 'condition') == 'partlycloudy' }}"
            - "{{ states('weather.great_ecobee', 'condition') == 'cloudy' }}"
            - "{{ states('weather.forecast_home', 'cloud_coverage') | int(0) > 78}}"
            - "{{ states('sun.sun', 'below_horizon')}}"
  actions: 
    - action: input_select.select_option
      target:
        entity_id: input_select.daylight_status
      data:
        option: Dark
  mode: single

I then thought that since I already had one automation that was working with time_pattern, I would go back and change the automation to the old way - replacing trigger with platform and actions with action. The exact same script also did not trigger automatically (every 5 mins in this example) but also worked when ran manually.

Finally, I broke down and went to the UI (I know, don’t hate me :slight_smile: )_

The UI wrote the code in what I feel is more verbose way but what the hell, had it had worked, I would have been fine with it, but it also did not fire automatically! However, when I ran it manually, it ran fine. The UI automation below:

- id: "1734547033948"
  alias: House test Every 30
  description: HTest Every 30
  triggers:
    - trigger: time_pattern
      minutes: "/5"
  conditions:
    - condition: state
      entity_id: input_boolean.house_auto_mode
      state: "on"
    - condition: state
      entity_id: input_boolean.house_auto_outside
      state: "on"
    - condition: state
      entity_id: input_select.house_status_dropdown
      state: not 'Vacation'
    - condition: or
      conditions:
        - condition: state
          entity_id: weather.great_ecobee
          state: cloudy
        - condition: state
          entity_id: weather.forecast_home
          state: cloudy
        - condition: state
          entity_id: sun.sun
          state: below_horizon
  actions:
    - action: input_select.select_option
      target:
        entity_id: input_select.daylight_status
      data:
        option: Dark
  mode: single

So now I have three different automatons that work when run manually but will not fire every X mins. In fact, to be clear, they do not fire at all unless manually told to do so.

System Info:

  • Core2024.12.4
  • Supervisor2024.12.0
  • Operating System14.1
  • Frontend20241127.8

The other automation that runs fine starts like the below:

- id: "House - Auto Set Sleep"
  alias: "House - Auto Set Sleep"
  description: "House - Auto Set Sleep"
  triggers:
    - trigger: time
      at: "22:30:00"
    - trigger: time_pattern
      minutes: "/10"
  condition:

I know this worked as of last Sunday as I hosted a party and the shutdown did not happen until 1:30AM which means, it was the time_pattern part of the automation that handled the shutdown as it was was past 22:30.

I have spent a lot of time on this and do not understand why a simple time pattern will not fire when told to do so. Any help will be most appreciated. This is a relatively new install from a few months ago so it is not like it has been running for years like some of my previous installations which underwent many upgrades. This is clean.

Many thanks

Craig

2

As described in the docs, the Run command skips all the triggers and conditions. Since your automation’s issues are in the Conditions block, they had no effect on the results from a Run command.

Neither the YAML nor Jinja shown above are valid. The states() function does not take attributes as arguments, you need to use state_attr() or is_state_attr() as shown below.

   - condition: or
     conditions:
       # - "{{ is_state_attr('weather.great_ecobee', 'condition', 'partlycloudy') }}"
       - "{{ is_state_attr('weather.great_ecobee', 'condition', 'cloudy') }}"
Another option 
   - or:
       # - "{{ is_state_attr('weather.great_ecobee', 'condition', 'partlycloudy') }}"
       - "{{ is_state_attr('weather.great_ecobee', 'condition', 'cloudy') }}"

Nor is the above valid… I think what you are going for is:

{{ not is_state('input_select.house_status_dropdown', 'Vacation') }}

Or maybe you actually do have an option “not ‘Vacation’”…? If you do not the condition above should be:

    - not:
        - condition: state
          entity_id: input_select.house_status_dropdown
          state: Vacation
3

The latter, except vacation. So, thanks for pointing out the real issue and the fix. It is working now.

I have two questions that you may or may not be able to help with:

1- Why no errors in the logs for the code that I wrote in yaml that was clearly wrong
2 - Why did the GUI not work at all - and why no errors there either?

Much appreciate the fast response and the correct identification of the solution.

Cheers.