Remove one light from a light group

[pbutterworth]

My daughter has several smart lights in her room. 

One is a star projector light that I would like to control seperately from the others,

When she says OK google, turn off the lights I want all except the star light to go off. How can I enable this as Google Home seems to automatically assign any light type device automatically?

Many thanks

Paul

[MotoringMariah]

Paul,   I'm new to Google Home Automation and I too have been frustrated how all Lights in a Room get grouped together as "<Roomname> Lights".     Having all the lights grouped together is helpful if you want to turn them all on or all off but in your case you want to turn most of them off and have a nightlight on that goes off at a later time.   From what I can see/determine you have to use a Routine for something like that.   Name the Routine or use a trigger word  like "Goodnight <your daughters name>" which then turns off each light except the star light.   You can use a time based trigger to automatically turn the start light off after a couple of hours OR at sunrise.   I've been experimenting w/Routines and like the way you can put a short cut on your home screen to trigger frequent Routines.   IDK if your daughter has a smart phone but I believe if she does AND has a Google Email account you can make her a member of your GHA family and she could have the trigger as an icon on her phone.

Somebody posted a similar question about Lights and at first I was frustrated that all my Lights for a room were ending up in a group called Lights.   BUT I learned if you name them individually they do get broken out like the picture below shows.   My outdoor patio has a ceiling fan with a built in light.  I have Govee LED light strips on the East and West ends of the Pergola.   Initially I had Patio Lights (3) with the 3 all controlled just as Lights.   By renaming the Govee LED light strips in their app GHA then pulled in the new names as East and West....admittedly you can't see it all the way the text is truncated.    So I can say all Patio lights off or on and get that.  OR I can say Pergola Lights East or Pergola Lights West on/off.   I'm trying to figure out how to collapse East and West as just one light group because I rarely turn on/off just one side.

Supposedly only available for Android app users today is the Add Shortcut link the yellow circle in the pic below:

     I use a series of Routines to turn lights on in my house based on time before and after sunset.   Then as I go to bed other Routines turn lights off.    What you see above is a catch all to ensure all lights are off by 1:45AM OR I use the shortcut to turn everything off IF I go to bed early.....

Hope that helps Scott in Sunny FL

[GarrettDS]

Hey there,

I understand that issues with setting up Home Automation within the app can be confusing, but I wanted to see how I could help. Just wanted to double check to see if you were still needing help on this? If so, what troubleshooting steps have you tried? 

Please let me know.

Best regards, 

Garrett DS

[Ben_Liebrand]

Hi, Paul,

I am assuming your daughter has a Google Nest smart speaker or Display in her bedroom.

I am also assuming all the smart lights in her room are assigned to her bedroom.

When she gives the command to turn off all the lights it instructs all lights assigned to the bedroom are to be turned off. This is because the smart speaker or Smart Display is also assigned to her bedroom. Therefore the Google Assistant knows about those smart lights and turns them off.

What I would recommend is to select the star projector light in the Home App and select the setup gear to open the Device settings. You will see the room it is assigned to. Tap on that room and it will open the Choose room options. Scroll all the way down to the bottom and select Add a custom room ...

Type in an imaginary room that will not be confused with other rooms in your home. Just for laughs, call it Heaven and tap SAVE to assign the star projector light to that. It should now show the star projector light is located in Heaven.

Now if your daughter says "Turn off the bedroom lights" the star projector light will stay on.

Of course, I don't know how your home, in general, is set up on Google Home automation. Maybe your daughter only has Google Home in her bedroom and you don't have any other rooms set up.

If you have other rooms also set up then using the command "Turn off all lights" will turn all lights in your home. So if you do have Google Home set up in other rooms as well it is important to say "Turn off all the Bedroom lights" or "Turn off the Bedroom lights". Because the star projector light is now assigned to "Heaven" they will not turn off.

Another option you can use if you don't want to assign the star projector light to another location is to create a routine that will trigger with a voice command. From my experience, I have learnt not to use obvious voice commands. What I mean by this is that without creating a routine there are commands Google Assistant will use an obvious. So for example, when creating the routine, don't use "turn off the bedroom lights" as it will be assumed as the obvious and not trigger the routine. So what you want to do is think of another phrase that still feels natural to say and easy to remember. So use something like "Turn off the lights MY bedroom". You can play around with examples like that if you get my meaning.

Then select the "Adjust lights, plugs, and more" and choose which lights in the bedroom are to be turned off. In this case, you would leave the star projector light as "Don't change"

This gives you two methods you can use.

I hope this makes sense and helps,

Ben Liebrand

[GarrettDS]

Hey there, 

Just wanted to jump in here to check to make sure that you saw the previous responses. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours. 

Have a great day. 

Garrett DS

[MotoringMariah]

Garrett,

     I think the ask is how do you remove devices, in this case from default groups like "Lights" and assign them to different groups while still being in the same room?  Example I pasted higher up I have a ceiling fan made by BigAss Fan's that includes a light.  I don't use the light very often/if at all but when I configured GHA to connect to my BAF account I suddenly had a new device in my Patio of type Light.    So now I have Govee LED lights, and that ceiling fan light all categorized/identify as Lights.   I was trying to help by suggesting naming the lights differently can help you find them vs generic name "Lights".  

Ben's comments about incorrectly identifying or categorizing lights to be in imaginary rooms to make them behave differently is a pretty good idea given the limitations of GHA but why not fix the problem.    I'll give you another example in my Living room I have a BAF light in my ceiling fan.  I also so have two Gosund plug in switches to control background lighting in my entertainment center.   Then I also have a Tuya wall switch to control an outside light.  So 4 control points in one room that are not all considered to be Lights.   How do you group them so some can be lights and others can be ignored?  My BAF lights are a joke and I never use them.  I'd like to delete them from my rooms but can't, and I can't group them with other devices, or hide it so it's just an artifact called "Light" that I have to live with.  IF I were to tell Google to turn off my lights in my living room it would send a signal to the only light device I don't use in that room.  I'd like to categorize the two Gosun plugin modules as Lights and my wall switch as a Light.    So now OK Google turn off my lights turns off those devices.....today I can only do that with a custom routine.   I think you should allow light/device/categories not just 2B rooms but more broad to apply to roles those devices play in a home which then determines when devices are triggered/controlled/turned on/off.   

[GarrettDS]

Hi MotoringMariah, 

Thanks so much for the clarification, that makes sense now and I'm happy to take the feedback about the routines and pass it on to the appropriate team. We are always looking to improve our products and services and are constantly looking for ideas from our customers to be able to help. 

If you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to let me know. 

Best regards, 
Garrett DS

[pbutterworth]

Thanks for the numerous replies. There are some great suggestions. I looked at routines and at splitting the room, and decided to 'move' the offending light into an imaginary room, so now it isn't affected when we say 'turn off the lights. It can be addressed individually.

I do think overall it would be neater if the app enabled you to ungroup the lights. If you have a bedside ligt for example, you likely want that on when the others are turned off.

thanks

Paul

[GarrettDS]

Hey there, 

I appreciate all the feedback that everyone has given. Please let us know if you have any other questions or concerns as I will be locking this in 24 hours. 

Have a great day. 

Garrett DS

[GarrettDS]

Hey folks, 

It looks like we haven't heard back from the OP so I'm going to go ahead and lock the thread. If you have any further questions or concerns, feel free to create a new thread. 

Have a great day,

Garrett DS

[Ben_Liebrand]

Hi, Paul,

That is what I recommend initially. That will work just fine.

Ben_Liebrand