topic Re: Presence sensing not working in Nest Thermostats

Presence sensing not working

Drewbacca — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 14:40:13 GMT

First, some background: I have a 3rd generation Nest Learning Thermostat with an account that has been migrated to Google. I also have multiple Kasa smart plugs. I wasn’t satisfied with the home/away assist in the Nest app so I’ve always used the Presence Sensing in the Google Home app. I have an iPhone 13 Pro and my wife has an iPhone 12 Pro. We also have some Nest Protects setup in the house.

Recently the Presence Sensing has not been working consistently with Google Home. I get to work and my devices at home still think I’m there, and my device at work thinks I’m away. It’s random when it works and when it doesn’t. I noticed it happening more often after updating to the latest iOS version, which had a new feature called Focus, that lets you customize automatic toggling of the Do Not Disturb function on the phone. I was worried the Driving focus that switches on when I connect to my car was interfering with it. I made sure Nest, Google Home, and IFTTT all were permitted in every DND focus, but that didn’t seem to help. I then removed all the focuses, but it still isn’t working consistently. I checked both of our phones, and location is toggled to Always on with both of them. I’m getting really frustrated as my heating unit is running all day long at a time when the weather is getting colder. Is this a bug in the latest update to the Google Home app? Is anyone else having new issues with it?

Re: Presence sensing not working

Stranix — Wed, 08 Dec 2021 18:07:25 GMT

I've the same issue with presence sensing. Yesterday my phone "came home" but never left. Today after I updated to iOS 15.1 (from 14) it won't trigger any home/away at all.

I tried to restart my iPhone, force update when I'm away, reset presence sensing and nothing worked.

Re: Presence sensing not working

Drewbacca — Wed, 15 Dec 2021 00:37:51 GMT

I continue to have the issue despite calling support, reinstalling the app on both phones, and deleting presence history. Again, this has been a recent change as the app has worked perfectly for the last couple years. However, the errors are starting to cost me money and requiring me to manually change things nearly every day, defeating the purpose of a “smart” system. My only hope right now is that the “bug fixes” in the 2.47.111 update to the app that came out today specifically address this.

Re: Presence sensing not working

hy961201 — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 03:47:37 GMT

Was this fixed for you? I’m still experiencing inconsistencies, and it was working fine until early December.

Re: Presence sensing not working

Drewbacca — Tue, 25 Jan 2022 05:31:48 GMT

No, it is still not fixed. I tried stopping using Presence Sensing in the Google Home app and went back to Home/Away Assist with the Nest app. The problem with getting help with Presence Sensing is that Google does not have dedicated support for the Google Home app. Yes, they have support for Google Home (the device) and Google Nest, but not for the app. At one point support had sent me to both customer supports for those, and also to the support for the Google Play store. Every one of them said that they don't cover the app and to try one of the others. It was very frustrating. The Home/Away Assist in the Nest app doesn't work either. It works on some days, but not on others, just like the Presence Sensing.

To be honest, I'd rather control the Home and Away functions for either app with whether our phones are connected. It should be possible to just see up it to say we're Home if one our phones is connected to the network and away if none of them are. Who cares about using GPS? I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

Re: Presence sensing not working

Simjack — Sat, 05 Feb 2022 01:27:12 GMT

My presence aware keeps turning my phone location off every hour or so and affects Google home app and Nest app.
What’s up with this crap?

Re: Presence sensing not working

scotchman — Tue, 08 Feb 2022 18:59:29 GMT

I was experiencing the same issue, and believe it was due to a Nest App / Home App conflict. To resolve I set presence sensing & home away routines in the Home App. Then turned off presence sensing in the Nest App, & completely signed out of the Nest App. Once I did everything started to work properly.

Re: Presence sensing not working

McG-Katonah — Fri, 11 Feb 2022 18:57:54 GMT

I've been having the same problem lately with my Nest 3rd gen thermo. Total PITA. Waste of fuel.

Re: Presence sensing not working

CJSnet — Wed, 16 Feb 2022 21:05:08 GMT

This is utterly ridiculous. Google please get your act together. you have two apps for one thing and they’re both fighting against each other for this feature. It even says I’m using presence sensing on a different iPhone when I only have one iPhone, it means a different app.

Everyone please send feedback from the Google Home app.

Google is too big for their own good and completely fragmented as always. Sigh.

Re: Presence sensing not working

Simjack — Thu, 17 Feb 2022 09:13:51 GMT

Google should fix this, absolutely. Signing out of Nest got the Google app presence sensing working. I can use the Google app to control what I need but I am retired and disabled so I am home most all the time. The Nest app seems to be for people that work and want their Nest app to turn the thermostat to the Eco mode while they are away.

The frustrating thing for me is that there is no operating manual for the system so you are on your own except for the user forum.

I have a doorbell, another camera and the little tv plus the thermostat so it is an expensive system to not have an instruction book 😡

Re: Presence sensing not working

gabriel3590 — Wed, 23 Feb 2022 00:53:01 GMT

I don't have the nest app. Just Google home but presence sensing never works. My routine just keeps running as if I'm home all day

Re: Presence sensing not working

portlando — Fri, 25 Feb 2022 22:44:13 GMT

@scotchman I agree that this is what may be happening. For me, when i confirm the linked phones in the Nest app, it unlinks them in the Home app - and vise versa. I will try to lout out of the Nest app as you did and see if that works.

Re: Presence sensing not working

Tgallag — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 00:11:20 GMT

Quit working for me too. Signing out of the nest app did no good☹️

Re: Presence sensing not working

gabriel3590 — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 00:18:26 GMT

I've done everything. Deleting presence sensing history, resetting the app, reinstalling, clearing cache, toggling the presence setting button on and off, tried controlling using Samsung Smart devices but even that does not sync well with the thermostat so can't use it to control it either, even went ahead to replace the hardware. Nothing works and worse off google don't see to have a fix. They keep offering solutions that don't work. I've seen a good number of people with the same issue. Unfortunately can't find a fix anywhere.

Re: Presence sensing not working

Simjack — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 01:40:33 GMT

I don’t use the Nest App. Only Google app. I also turn off my thermostat home aware. I set my thermostat to 70 for heat and 78 for cool.

The presence aware shows my location at the location of my phone as it should.

What I have done is take routine out of the equation which means I am only using half of the supposed system capability.

Crap is an understatement.

Re: Presence sensing not working

portlando — Tue, 12 Apr 2022 01:55:01 GMT

here is what finally worked for me. I reset my Nest Thermostat. You have to do this on the actual thermostat settings. After doing so, I went through the set up again, added the device to my Google Home app, and set up the presence settings. cc @Simjack @gabriel3590

Re: Presence sensing not working

ShelleF — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 18:04:07 GMT

Tried that in suggestion a couple months ago and it did nothing. This has been an off and on problem over the last 2 years.

Re: Presence sensing not working

Tgallag — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 18:30:57 GMT

I was able to get it going, at least for now, by toggling "use phone location" in Home /Away Assist in the nest app. I stumbled there by accident and there was a warning stating that it had not heard from my phone for a few days.

Re: Presence sensing not working

jaychis — Sun, 17 Apr 2022 20:09:43 GMT

I was having the same issue. Presence detection wasn't working despite everything I tried. I turned it off and on, I reset Presence detection, restarted my Google Home, restarted my wifi, etc. I didn't even think about Nest. I'm not sure if it was because of an update, but my "use phone location" was turned off. I turned it on and everything was back to normal.

Re: Presence sensing not working

atalukdar — Tue, 19 Apr 2022 21:42:12 GMT

I just started having the same problem about three weeks ago. Presence sensing used to throw a notification every time I either left home or returned home. No more. Now there is no notification and the Home/Away status does not change based on my phone location. I read some of these posts and signed out of and deleted my Nest App - no dice. And it is not that Google doesn't know where I am. When I go into Settings to configure the "Home" in the Home App, on the map it does show the correct location. So, there is clearly something in the Google backend that has changed and Presence Sensing is now broken. And now that they largely and successfully elbowed IFTTT out of the automation landscape, they have no competition for this feature in the Google echo system to really care. So I am not hopeful for a fix soon.