Geofencing- wife's phone not causing mode changes which is causing mood changes

Community Playground General Discussions
1

Recently new VeraSecure user. Set up several locks and a motion Sensor working well.

Geofencing works on my phone, but wife’s phone does not activate mode changes.
Both iOS, mine 7 plus, hers 6s, both running latest iOS.

Noticed my phone gets a notification saying “Cabin exit” when I leave (controller installed at my cabin) and “Cabin arrive”. Mode changes when I get these if wife’s phone is not still there. Wife does NOT get these notifications. She is set up as a basic user.

Any ideas?

2

According to my knowledge (from support) any second user has to define home location in his/hers mobile app. This can be done if user has at least advanced rights.
If you go to the geofencing sections of your wife’s mobile app you’ll see that she doesn’t see any of geofenes set by you. And with basic rights she can’t set her own.

3

I’m having similar problems on Android…
It was working fine on my GF’s old Lumia. When she switched to Android, I deleted the geofence and created it again, but still not working. Any idea how to fix it is greatly appreciated :slight_smile:

4

I can’t get geofencing working at all on Android. It will only work with the app in the foreground (which is next to useless).

How are others using this feature or is it just not an option anymore?

5

Geofencing in vera now uses google location services. PLUS, I believe android 8.0 limits how apps allowed to work in the background function. Without modifications to the vera app, it will be drastically limited on how many requests for location it can make in a given time period. I have no idea what the limitations are but I do know it has made geofencing with the Vera app on a device with android 8.0 useless…unworkable and frankly annoying. Nothing like coming home at having a scene kick in 10 minutes after breaching the geofence.

I have spent hours trying to tweak the vera app and how it works on my S7. I have given up. I believe Vera has to re-write the app to regain reliable/native geofencing.

6

[quote=“Inzax, post:5, topic:197005”]Geofencing in vera now uses google location services. PLUS, I believe android 8.0 limits how apps allowed to work in the background function. Without modifications to the vera app, it will be drastically limited on how many requests for location it can make in a given time period. I have no idea what the limitations are but I do know it has made geofencing with the Vera app on a device with android 8.0 useless…unworkable and frankly annoying. Nothing like coming home at having a scene kick in 10 minutes after breaching the geofence.

I have spent hours trying to tweak the vera app and how it works on my S7. I have given up. I believe Vera has to re-write the app to regain reliable/native geofencing.[/quote]

Just take a search/look through the forums. Vera Geofencing has never worked correctly and especially not for multiple users.

7

I have…and it worked for me great with multiple users for about two years. I did have the occasional hicup with geofencing, but no show stoppers.

8

Never worked well for me with Android.

9

@jeubanks. Clearly geo-fencing was a huge issue for many over the years. I always considered myself lucky that it worked. I do run a very basic system; trying to stay as native as possible with the vera OS. That may have helped my situation.

10

[quote=“Inzax, post:5, topic:197005”]Geofencing in vera now uses google location services. PLUS, I believe android 8.0 limits how apps allowed to work in the background function. Without modifications to the vera app, it will be drastically limited on how many requests for location it can make in a given time period. I have no idea what the limitations are but I do know it has made geofencing with the Vera app on a device with android 8.0 useless…unworkable and frankly annoying. Nothing like coming home at having a scene kick in 10 minutes after breaching the geofence.

I have spent hours trying to tweak the vera app and how it works on my S7. I have given up. I believe Vera has to re-write the app to regain reliable/native geofencing.[/quote]

Hello,

I am new on this forum and in addition I do not master English, I translate doc by Google translate. Please excuse me.

When it comes to geofencing you’re absolutely right, Vera uses Google’s location services.

I am under Android 7.0 and since this version, Google has introduced a battery saving system and since the location is a large consumer of energy the location is done in a wider area.
As a result, if I put a 500-meter turning radius in my moving car, outside> nothing happens. Arriving at the supermarket car park, which is 10 kilometers away and the car is stopped, the geolocation system reacts.
Like the return he reacts after 10 minutes, so, like you, completely useless.

Personally I activate my Vera Secure starting from my house with the Minimote when I come back and I also deactivate with the Minimote.
The system is seriously to review.

Have a good day
11

I don’t think the geo-fencing issue is Vera specific myself. I’ve had the same or similar issues with all phone based geo-fence solutions with the exception of 1 (egigeofence always worked great…RIP).

What I mean by having the same issues is it’s the same story on every system I’ve used. SmartThings, Hubitat, Home Assistant, HomeSeer. The problems with geofencing always points down to the phone/app/geo-service combinations. Any of the pieces have a problem and the geofence is useless. In testing I’ve found that some phone/app/service combinations work a lot better than others. So it’s always a hit or miss.

I’ve been developing a solution for this. Currently working on partnering with a commercial fleet tracking company to provide vehicle and personal GPS based tracking that we are integrating into plugins/apps for different systems. Currently we are working on a HomeSeer based plugin. If there’s interest we may considering putting development effort towards Vera as well.

12

@jeubanks Agreed. Although I had a Samsung S7 that was flawless until android 8.0. Then the bottom fell out.

I believe there is a google sanctioned work around for app developers. Vera has not done this yet.

Anyone who comes up with something more reliable will be a hero in my book.

I have not tried the other app based solutions partly because I hate piling on stuff to my vera and my phone. I am considering moving on from the native geofencing in vera given how crappy/unreliable it is.

13

[quote=“Inzax, post:12, topic:197005”]@jeubanks Agreed. Although I had a Samsung S7 that was flawless until android 8.0. Then the bottom fell out.

I believe there is a google sanctioned work around for app developers. Vera has not done this yet.

Anyone who comes up with something more reliable will be a hero in my book.

I have not tried the other app based solutions partly because I hate piling on stuff to my vera and my phone. I am considering moving on from the native geofencing in vera given how crappy/unreliable it is.[/quote]

I’ll keep you updated on the progress we make with HomeSeer and if Vera still has local processing and plugins by the time we are done I’ll look into an app for Vera. The apps and development for Vera may be slowed due to the acquisition announcement and gathering more details on what changes are coming.