Home/Away Assist Problems

[junalmeida]

The home/away assist is not working as expected. It often thinks I'm away when I am home, and turns it to Eco mode. Today I am not home, and it thinks it is, heating the house for no one. 

Everything seems to be set correctly, and yet the support team suggestion is to "buy another phone". 

[JeffLerner]

I don’t have any successful fixes for this problem but I did want to add my post to the list of users complaining about this home/away problem.

I’ve had to turn off all the features and I’m just using the thermostat in dumb mode…waste of my money ..

does anyone know what the current release of the app is and when does Google send out updates !

[SiobhanT]

Nope. My 'case' was elevated to the senior team (!) 2 months ago. It's not being resolved because there is no solution. It's now warmer so I won't be using it as much. I can only suggest we bombard with twitter. I'm going to charge them for my gas heating bill too which has gone up massively due to the Away not switching to ECO mode effectively. 

[junalmeida]

I totally agree with you. Twitter and facebook bombarding seem to be the way to go. 

[LifeonMars]

The Samsung Smart Things app works for me on iPhone with the Nest learning thermostat. You must set routines up, in the SST app for when your away Keep always allow  location in settings 

[SiobhanT]

I tried SST I couldn't get it to work.

[LifeonMars]

@SiobhamT  did you set up routines on SST ? 

If

Away from Home

Then

Nest Thermostat Mode. Eco

Change this locations mode  to Away

Send notification to members

Nest Eco Mode

At Home

If

At my Home

Then 

Nest Thermostat

Mode: Heat.

And always allow location, also mobile data on.

[SiobhanT]

I tried all of that a while ago - will give it another go, many thanks .

[LifeonMars]

@ SiobhanT

In the Nest app (Home)

I have Use mobile phone location

People   (me) iPhone

With the Activity sensors on Thermostat switch off. 

In Nest App Away 

Living Room Eco

With Location Always and Mobile Data

I only have the Nest Thermostat but find that SST makes it work like it used to by switching to Eco Mode when I leave home and am a little way away, SST also sends me a notification that it has switched to Eco.  On returning it will switch when nearly home , but I have not set up a routine for it to send me a notification for this.

Obviously you can vary the distance when setting up SST App

[SiobhanT]

I followed all instructions but my thermostat still remains low and hasn't changed. (I'm sitting in the front room having been out, and the thermostat hasn't resounded). So I'm running out of ideas! SST too complicated for me clearly

[LifeonMars]

@siobhan have you seen this 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEACSyyEYFk&ab_channel=HomeTech

After setting up SST on your device  you must set up Routines on the SST app  as my post above.,

If

Away from Home

Then

Nest Thermostat Mode. Eco

Change this locations mode  to Away

Send notification to members

Nest Eco Mode

At Home

If

At my Home

Then 

Nest Thermostat

Mode: Heat.

And always allow location, also mobile data on.

In The Nest App

In the Nest app (Home)

I have Use mobile phone location

People   (me) iPhone

With the Activity sensors on Thermostat switch off. 

In Nest App Away 

Living Room Eco

With Location Always and Mobile Data

[SiobhanT]

Yes.  it doesn't work - maybe doesn't work with iOS.

[LifeonMars]

I use IOS  15.4 

[SiobhanT]

well then i'm doing something wrong! I can't get it to work at all

[LifeonMars]

Obviously,  The two routines you need in the SST app  after adding the Nest Thermostat are 

If

Away from Home

Then

Nest Thermostat Mode. Eco

Change this locations mode  to Away

Send notification to members

Nest Eco Mode

At Home

If

At my Home

Then 

Nest Thermostat

Mode: Heat.

And always allow location, also mobile data on in Phone/app settings

Follow below  the you tube tutorial  to connect SST to your Nest, Then add routines

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cEACSyyEYFk&ab_channel=HomeTech

[SiobhanT]

I honestly appreciate all your time and help. I have literally  set it up exactly like this - nothing changes. The thermostat isn't recognising SST at all.

[SiobhanT]

The

The thermostat is reading 16 degrees and I'm right by it - despite the routine set up to switch to 18 when Home.

[LifeonMars]

My set up is for eco to apply when I leave home and for Heat to apply when returning.

I do not have radiator thermostats, only using the Nest App for schedule. If I want more heat I either ask my Google home or turn it up on the nest app or SST app on my phone.,

[SiobhanT]

See my post above: I set it up (as per pic)  It doesn't work. Out of ideas now....

[LifeonMars]

Is your schedule set to 18 ? 

[SiobhanT]

My routines? It is set to 18 degrees yes

[LifeonMars]

• Why not just set  it to heat then,  for the routine , like I have ? 

[SiobhanT]

I'm sorry, I'm not making myself clear. The heating is not coming on at all. It is not responding to the routines/SST I have set up in the above picture. I can turn the heating up/down etc using SST but nothing happens automatically according to the routines I have set up. Much like Home Away assist - it's not working.

[LifeonMars]

• You must be doing some thing wrong, !  May be worth re setting it up to what I have, as I said mine works fine with SST .

[SiobhanT]

I Have set it up to what you have!! Literally exactly the same. It obviously doesn't work at the same time as the Nest. No idea, but I've set it up - as you see by the screen shot.

[LifeonMars]

No screen shot ?

If you have linked the SST to Google Chrome as per the You tube Video,  Have correct phone showing , set location as always in Phone settings and allow mobile data.  Have Correct Routines shown in SST .  In the Nest app Home/Away assist,  have use mobile phone location,  What decides if your Home, You your phone, set to yes.  In Nest app for away,  When you are out  set to Eco and have a sensible Eco setting, mine is set to default.

I have the thermometer Activity sensors switched to off 

Then it should work. 

[SiobhanT]

I set the Away to Eco.

when I try to set if Home, the only options I get are Notify Someone and  change this location's mode. Control devices etc are not highlighted. No idea how to set it up

[JeffLerner]

I’ve sent Google Nest Support a Tweet on this problem…see if they respond ..

[JeffLerner]

Thought I’d provide an update. I got a response to my Tweet on this  problem from Google Nest Support. 

They had me try a variety of things ….I sent them several screenshots of my settings …eventually they had me start communicating with them via Twitter DM’s…Guess they wanted to get my noise off of their Twitter account …tried a few more things they suggested but Home/Away still isn’t working properly.

They’ve now created. A problem ticket and told me further discussion will take place via email. 
They said they would contact me with updates. 

Im not holding my breath. I do recommend that anyone interested go the Twitter route to get their attention. 

I will post any updates I get but who knows when that will be 

[SiobhanT]

I did the same back in Feb. Still getting the same DM response "your enquiry is with our senior team". Meanwhile Home/Away Assist still not working.....

[LifeonMars]

Likewise still have a case open via twitter, but gave up to be honest, all they did was read from a script and appeared uninterested , as I found using Samsung Smart Things app worked for me as I only have the thermostat. 

[junalmeida]

I'm kinda giving up too. I'm using it connected to Home Assistant and set to eco/not eco with HA Automations. 

[ICECOLD]

I have a one next in my apt which works and another one in my parents home which doesn’t work. I set up both and have no idea why the home away won’t work for my moms thermostat. I have tried everything but it simply won’t detect she or her phone is at home. Never buying another Google hardware device again. 

[SiobhanT]

it's crazy! It won't work with Nest, Google or SST. 

[LifeonMars]

it may be worth deleting  the Nest App, Google Home App and SST  from phone, rebooting phone and reinstalling the apps again , allowing Location,set  as always  with all tabs set to on.  I am using iPhone with Nest and Google Home together with SST ,  with regards to Google Home I have set to allow presence locations but kept phones to being used  on a different phone  and not switched . ( if that makes sense, I have not let Google Home change my phone)  I have kept Nest app to use my mobile phone location and also the SST app to  get my location from  this phone ( set for all locations)   Also set routines to switch to away when  away from home , switch to eco and  send notification to me.  And when  at home to switch to heat.  It all works perfectly thanks to SST app and my set up.

[SiobhanT]

Thanks - as I've said, I've already done all of this.

(I don't see send notifications.) I get pop-ups saying SST etc has used my location X amount of times during the day, however, It's not changing my Nest from it's status.  It doesn't work.

[kristiankat]

I noticed that, both phones (my wife's and mine) were actually showing "Not Here" when I checked them in Home Away Assist in the Nest App. So, why the AWAY MODE is not going on? I dont know. I tried a lot of possible solutions as you all mentioned, nothing worked. So, my wife came with the idea of propably the Thermostat Sensor is detecting movement in the house and it thinks that there is people in there. Actually, we have a set of curtains right in front of the thermostat that keep moving all day. Next thing I did: Turned off the Thermostat Sensor in the Home /Away Assist, I just have the Phone Location as an indicator of people in the house. So far, it has been working alright. IF it stops working, I will come again and report.

[JeffLerner]

Not sure exactly what you mean by “Turned off the Thermostat Sensor in the Home /Away Assist”.??..do you mean on the Thermostat itself in the Settings, (Photo attached) or in the App.??(photo attached).

I’ve always used the phones location vs. Thermostat activity sensors…

still doesn’t work.

[kristiankat]

In the second picture you showed, the second setting is off. That is the one I referenced to. I had it ON. Since I turned it off, it has been detecting both phones when leaving the house but it takes a little time to detect the phones when we arrive. Probably the time is the same, but when we leave we dont really feel it since we are in the road instead of dealing with the temperatures in the house.

Before this, what I was doing to make my life easier was: I created two Routines in Amazon Alexa "Alexa, I'm home" and "Alexa, I'm out". The first one, turns the AC to the temperature I want when I'm home and the second one turns my ac to the ECO temperature I need it to. I know it is a little annoying, because you still have to "manually" set the thermostat to a determined temperature, but it was easier this way than going on the app or on the Thermostat itself to modify this.

Hope this helps.

Side Note: something I noticed, as a extra note, is that every time I used Alexa Routines to control the AC, the Apps (Nest and Google Home) showed the Thermostat as disconnected for a short period of time, let's say like 45 seconds. That was weird.

[JeffLerner]

My Nest never detects my iPhone when I’m home…in fact I can literally dance in front of the Thermostat for minutes saying “I’m here !!!” And it still doesn’t recognize that I’m home..

the Alexa hack is a good one, but for now the “easiest” thing for me is to tell my Alexa to set my Nest Thermostat to whatever temperature I want when im home or away..

[LifeonMars]

On the picture of your iPhone you have a warning Showing  (Yellow triangle), if you tap on it it should advise.