HomeKit Apple Watch Presence Detection

[c0nt4x]

Hi. I have an Apple Watch and iPhone both connected to Apple Home but I am trying to set up an automation to turn off various smart devices when I leave home. The problem I have is I want HomeKit to recognise when I have left when EITHER my iPhone or Watch has left home to trigger the automation, not just the iPhone. Otherwise I have to take my phone with me even if I don’t want to, just to trigger the automation.

Is there a way of achieving this?

 

[waw74]

it already does this, but you must have a cellular watch.
Without cellular, the watch has no way to let the home know that it's somewhere else

just monitoring to see if a device has left your network is problematic, because if your phone runs out of battery, it would register you as "not home" even though you are.

on the phone -> settings app -> privacy -> location services -> share my location
it should say "this device, and cellular apple watches"

you should also be able to use the "find my" app on the phone to see if it knows where you watch is.

If you have a cell watch, and it's still not triggering...
Try rebooting all your home hubs (homepods and appleTVs) as well as your router and networking gear.
location based events seem to be problematic.

Make sure location services is turned on.
on the watch -> settings app -> Privacy -> Location services


If you try all of that, and still have no luck, then try unpairing and re-pairing your watch

 

[c0nt4x]

Thanks for the reply. My watch is a cellular version and all the location services settings are already set up as you mention.

Home hub (ipad) has been rebooted just yesterday along with my router but, as a test, I went for a walk today, wearing my watch and leaving my iPhone at home. When I got home the devices (heating, tv and sky box) set up in the automation to turn off were all still on (I don’t have an automation to turn them on when I return home).

I’m at a loss.

 

[pup]

I don't think Apple does a good job of parsing where you are with more than one device. You'd think it would default to the watch, or whichever one is moving, or something. But I know that when I'm out on a run, my wife can check Find My, and it often shows me at home, despite having a workout running on the watch, playing music over cellular, etc.

 

[c0nt4x]

I don't think Apple does a good job of parsing where you are with more than one device. You'd think it would default to the watch, or whichever one is moving, or something. But I know that when I'm out on a run, my wife can check Find My, and it often shows me at home, despite having a workout running on the watch, playing music over cellular, etc.

I agree. I even re-paired my watch last night and I tested it again today. Still the automation didn’t work so it must have thought I was still home because my phone was.
Looks like I will have to manage that via Home Assistant instead of Apple Home.
I would have thought leaving the phone at home was an expected eventuality for people with cellular watches because that is part of the reason for buying that version of the watch.
Apple dropped the ball again.