[Install Instructions] webCoRE Presence Sensor on your Android (beta)

#185

As has been noted in multiple posts in this thread, including the one directly above yours, the webCoRE Presence sensor app does not work with Android Oreo and above. It has been effectively abandoned and appears unlikely to be revived.

#186

Too Bad Thanks @bthrock!

Diego

#187

I know this thread is old, but I just noticed today that I can no longer add places in Settings > Places. The ‘PLUS’ sign tile is no longer there.

#188

Never mind. I see we are limited to 10 places. :frowning:

#189

Reading through this thread because I accidentally deleted the wrong presence sensor for my wife’s new phone instead of her old phone. I see a lot of people talking how the presence sensor no longer works on versions of Android newer than Oreo. I’ve been using the presence sensor with no issues on both Oreo and now Android Pie.

The problem stems from the newer battery management in the recent versions of Android. But this can be overridden on an app by app basis.

On my current Pie device, the settings are under settings/battery/app launch. This may vary slightly from device to device, but find your battery settings and there should be some reference to apps.
This gives a list of apps that are managed automatically, and you can switch the toggle over to “manage manually” which will then allow you to have the app launch on startup or in the background, as well as to keep the app running in the background.

By doing this, the presence sensor updates reliably and I haven’t seen any noticeable affect on overall battery life (although I’m sure there is a minor difference)

#190

Is this still an issue? I tried to remove my phone sensor because it wouldn’t update and now I can’t get it to show me the setup button again. Do I need to make a new instance again for it show up a second time? The only way it would update was if I forced it to go no present or present, automatic did nothing and I turned off battery optimization and made sure webcore had it “available” to it. Very frustrating!

#191

Also I guess I should ask, you dont need to enter the beta anymore right?

#192

Beta is long over… though technically the app is still the Beta version, just opened up to all.

#193

ok thats what i thought, do you still need a new instance if you want to resetup the presence sensor? I removed it today due to it never updating unless forced and I cant get the setup button back now

#194

You don’t need a separate instance for presence, that was solved a long time ago.

The setup button will only appear when accessing the dashboard through the mobile app, if it isn’t there try logging out and back in, failing that remove and re-add the app.

Unfortunately the android version of the app has been buggy and is no longer being maintained, seems to work for some but not others.

#195

Yeah I guess it might just be a bug, I did all that and nothing seemed to help but making a new instance worked. If I can get the sensor working I will attempt to integrate it back into the first (main) instance but it really doesn’t matter if it doesn’t update properly. I am guessing that this is due to the bugs you mentioned. I know the creator got hired by samsung, just surprising they didn’t want him to maintain this after hiring.

#196

So yesterday when I left the house both the ST and WC presence sensors updated to ‘away’ (the WC version took like 8 mins more than the ST version to update but it did update) but now when I got back this after noon only the ST version went back to HOME the WC still says AWAY. Any ideas why?

#197

Make sure you have all battery saving options disabled for the webcore app. Android will force close the app, preventing it from running it in the background and draining battery, which then causes it not to update it’s location.

Also, if you’re still having issues getting the setup button back, log out, force close the app, clear the cache and data and then log back in.

#198

I assume not much has changed on the WC Presence Sensor but I thought I would give it a go anyway to see what happened as the ST PS is not reliable at all and I have not taken the time to do the Tasker thing or tasker/sharptools (and i had bought ActionTiles before I found the tasker/sharptools option.

For me geo-fencing is still the best option living in a country with limited public wifi so connecting to schools, shopping malls, movie theaters, etc is not always possible. And even where it is available, then we have to make a trip there to do the initial connection on both our phones.

And not a fan of Life360 and all the data it collects and having to pay for another app.

So far…my wife’s Xiaomi (android 8) seems to be working the best but it has only been running a day and I only had 1 location to test because of where we are at the moment.

For my Huawei running Android 9, I have not had a single update since it’s initial connection yesterday to our current location.

All the battery optimization on both phones has been turned off as much as possible for webCoRE/ST new/ST Classic

Anyone with any recent experience in getting this to work on Android 8 or 9?

#199

With the Huawei you need to disable power genie. It involves hooking it up to a computer and running a few shell commands. Once that’s disabled then the phone will actually listen to your battery optimization settings. When it runs, even if you disable all optimization, power genie will still force close apps running in the background.

#200

ok thanks…I will figure out how to do that. Using WC Presence would be so much better than creating another set of Profiles and tasks in Tasker every time I want to monitor another location…and adding them to everyone else’s phone.

#201

Came back to work on this again. I deleted webCoRE app from my phone after clearing cache and Data. Did the same thing with Smartthings New and Classic. I reinstalled webCoRE app and it immediately registered and signed in. How is this possible? I should have had to register the browser again to get it working. So just slightly concerned about security and where it is storing this info on my phone.

Also, this means I am unable to re-create the presence sensor in the settings of the app.

What’s up?

It is still working very well on my wife’s Xiaomi after about 10 days but still no luck with getting it to even register a single location on my Huawei Honor phone…and I have disabled PowerGenie also on my phone.

#202

Have you tried clearing the cache of your browser before loading the webcore app?

#203

I assume you mean the browser on my phone? Either way…no.

Also…1 more question. Since I have ST on my phone and also the webCoRE Smartapp within Smarththings, was it even necessary to install the separate webCoRE app on my phone to do this?

#204

I am getting close to giving up, at least with my phone, and setting up the tasker route instead. The reason I would prefer to use this is because I can manage multiple locations whereas with the ST Presense or Simulated Presence, I can only manage Presence at home.

@MRobi…I did manage to disable powerGenie on my Huawei Honor (version 9 android) but that seems to have made no difference. I also turned off battery management for every single gps related app on my phone to try to force it. I ended up deleting both ST apps and webCoRE from my phone, clearing Chrome Browser cache, restarting my phone, etc. I was able to finally re-create the Presence Sensor again but it connected to home and stayed there. I did manage to get it to jump to a new location this morning by manually opening webCoRe but since I have come home it is now still showing me at the old location and killing/opening webcore does not help.

Any last minute thoughts before I officially give up? @RobinWinbourne ?

Thanks all…