Unreliable presence detection is usually an identity or timing problem, not proof that someone left home. First identify whether the state comes from a router connection tracker, an ICMP ping, or a phone-location app. Then inspect the exact entity and its history, verify that the router and Home Assistant see the same client, account for private Wi‑Fi addresses and sleeping phones, and test transitions after the integration’s normal delay.
What “Wi‑Fi presence” is actually measuring
Presence systems do not all answer the same question. A connection tracker asks whether a device is connected to a fixed network device such as a Wi‑Fi router. A position tracker reports a geographic location. A ping tracker asks whether an address responds to an ICMP echo request. Home Assistant can associate several trackers with one person, so a person’s state may combine different kinds of evidence rather than reflect one definitive sensor.
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That distinction determines the fix. A phone can be in the house while its Wi‑Fi radio is idle, its private address has changed, its app has stopped reporting in the background, or a router table still contains an old record. Treat “home” and “not_home” as the output of a particular tracker, not as a direct measurement of physical presence.
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1. Identify the tracker that is making the wrong decision
Open the person and device entities
In Home Assistant, open the person and inspect the device trackers assigned to it. Home Assistant recommends linking device trackers to people for presence automations, and a person can have multiple associated trackers. Open the suspect tracker’s history and note the exact transition time, its state, and whether it became unavailable or unknown. The relevant documentation is in Home Assistant’s presence-detection guide and the device-tracker integration documentation.
Classify the source before changing settings
- Router or access-point tracker: reports whether the network infrastructure sees a client. It depends on client identity, router integration access and polling or table timeouts.
- Ping (ICMP) tracker: sends echo requests to a hostname or IP address. It depends on a stable address and the phone answering while it is idle.
- Companion app location tracker: reports phone location. It depends on location permission, background execution and the app’s ability to publish updates.
Record one real false transition before troubleshooting. Write down the tracker entity, previous and new state, phone Wi‑Fi status, SSID, and the time shown by the router. This separates a bad identity from a delayed update and prevents you from “fixing” a working tracker while the actual failure is elsewhere.
2. Verify that the network can see the expected client
Use Home Assistant’s DHCP Browser
Go to Settings > System > Network > DHCP Browser. Home Assistant says this view can display devices discovered through DHCP, ARP/PTR lookups and router-based device trackers. Look for the phone’s observed name, IP address and client identity, then compare them with the phone’s current Wi‑Fi details. The feature and its discovery methods are documented at Home Assistant’s DHCP discovery page.
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A free scan shows the junk files, broken settings and background clutter dragging Windows down - then fixes them in one click.Free scan · Windows 10 & 11A missing entry is a visibility clue, not proof that the person is away. DHCP Browser may not have a current record, the router integration may not expose the relevant network, or the phone may be connected somewhere else. Check the router’s own connected-client screen and answer these questions:
- Is the phone connected to the expected home SSID rather than cellular data, a guest SSID or a neighboring access point?
- Does the router show the client on a different VLAN, mesh node or network segment?
- Does the router list a different name or address than the tracker entity uses?
- Does the integration have permission to read client data from that router?
Router menus and the amount of client information shared with Home Assistant depend on the router model and integration. Do not copy a menu path from another vendor’s instructions; establish first what your hardware actually reports.
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Check the address and reservation
If the tracker uses an IP address, compare that address with the phone’s current lease. A DHCP reservation gives a ping-based tracker a stable target, while an ordinary lease can change after reconnecting. Reserve the address only after confirming that it belongs to the intended phone; reserving the wrong client simply makes the wrong presence signal more consistent.
3. Check private and randomized Wi‑Fi addresses
Why the same phone can look like a new device
Modern phones can use a per-network private Wi‑Fi address instead of exposing their hardware MAC address. The router and Home Assistant integration identify the client by the address they receive, so a change can create a second client record or make an existing tracker appear to disappear. Apple describes this feature in Use private Wi‑Fi addresses on Apple devices.
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Match the current identity rather than exposing the hardware address
- On the phone, open the Wi‑Fi details for the home network and record the current private address shown for that network.
- In the router’s client list and Home Assistant’s DHCP Browser, find the client using that address.
- Update the tracker or integration’s selected client if it is still pointing at an old record.
- Check again after reconnecting to Wi‑Fi so you know which identity persists on this network.
Forgetting the network, resetting network settings or installing an operating-system update can also result in a newly recorded per-network identity. The practical goal is to make the integration recognize the current address on the home network, not to reveal the phone’s hardware address everywhere.
Do not disable privacy addressing as a first reaction
Apple recommends installing current software and retrying before disabling private addressing for a network, and recommends keeping the feature enabled on networks that support it. If a Home Assistant UniFi integration is involved, its documentation includes an option to ignore clients with private or randomized MAC addresses. It also notes that presence detection depends on accurate time configuration between Home Assistant and the network controller. Review those integration-specific settings and synchronize clocks before weakening the phone’s privacy protection. See the UniFi integration documentation for the applicable options.
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4. Troubleshoot a Ping (ICMP) tracker
Confirm the target and address
Home Assistant’s Ping integration checks a configured hostname or IP address with ICMP echo requests and can expose the result as a device tracker. Its documentation recommends using a static IP or DHCP reservation for the target; see Ping (ICMP). Verify that the configured address is the phone’s current reserved address and not an old lease or a different household device.
Also check whether the network permits the relevant reachability test. A phone may be associated with Wi‑Fi while the operating system, access point isolation or firewall prevents an ICMP reply. An absent reply therefore proves only that the configured test failed at that moment.
Account for sleeping phones
Home Assistant explicitly warns: “Phones may turn off Wi-Fi when they are idle.” A phone can be physically at home and still fail a ping while its screen is off or it is conserving power. If the false-away events occur after periods of inactivity and resolve when the phone is used, this behavior is a strong suspect.
Use ping as a supporting signal rather than the sole presence source for a person when idle behavior produces false negatives. Home Assistant’s guidance gives Companion and router trackers as examples to combine with Ping. A ping result can be useful for a continuously powered device, but it is a poor physical-presence guarantee for a sleeping handset.
5. Troubleshoot a Companion app location tracker
Check permission and reporting history
A Companion app tracker is a position signal, not a Wi‑Fi association record. Confirm that location tracking was enabled during setup and that the app has the required location permission. In the entity history, look for a gap beginning when the app was backgrounded, the phone entered a power-saving mode or the operating system stopped the app.
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The Home Assistant Companion troubleshooting FAQs identify limited background access and Android stopping the app as possible causes of missing location history. Correct the phone’s permission or battery-management setting according to its operating system, then observe whether new location updates appear. Do not infer a broken GPS or a broken Wi‑Fi tracker from the same symptom: the two trackers have different permissions, transport paths and failure modes.
Separate location policy from network policy
Location reporting may continue when a phone is not associated with the home Wi‑Fi, while a router tracker cannot report a client that is on cellular data. Conversely, a router can show a phone connected while the app has no recent location update. Decide which question your automation needs—“is this client on the home network?” or “is this person in the zone?”—and choose the tracker accordingly.
6. Allow for stale router tables and polling delays
Understand why departure can lag
Router client tables are not always live lists. Home Assistant’s SNMP documentation says that some devices remain in internal MAC tables until a timeout, typically 5–15 minutes after their last network activity, with the exact behavior determined by the manufacturer. This describes a possible table-retention period, not a universal presence-detection latency or accuracy measurement. See Home Assistant’s SNMP integration documentation.
A just-departed phone may therefore remain “home” until the router ages out its entry, while an integration that polls on a schedule may add another delay. A newly arrived phone may also need time to associate, obtain DHCP information and appear in the integration’s next update.
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Run a controlled transition test
- Start with the phone connected to the expected SSID and note the tracker state and timestamp.
- Leave the network in a repeatable way, such as disabling Wi‑Fi or walking beyond coverage, and record the router’s client state.
- Wait through the router and integration’s observed update interval instead of judging the result immediately.
- Reconnect, record when the router sees the client, and compare that with the Home Assistant state change.
- Repeat once with the phone idle and once while it is actively in use; the difference helps separate sleeping-phone behavior from router timing.
Use the measured cadence of your own integration for automation design. There is no evidence here for one timing value that suits every router.
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7. Combine independent signals when one has a blind spot
Choose signals by failure mode
| Signal | What it establishes | Typical blind spot to test | Useful check |
|---|---|---|---|
| Router/device tracker | The network infrastructure currently identifies a client | Private-address identity changes, stale MAC tables, polling delay | Router client list, DHCP Browser, entity history |
| Ping (ICMP) | The configured address answered an echo request | Sleeping phones, changed addresses, blocked ICMP | Reserved address and repeat test with the phone awake and idle |
| Companion location | The phone app reported a geographic position | Missing permission, background limits, operating-system app suspension | Location permission and history gaps |
Home Assistant supports associating multiple trackers with a person. Pairing a router or Companion tracker with Ping can reduce dependence on any one failure mode, but it does not magically make every update instantaneous. Decide how the person state should behave when trackers disagree, then verify that behavior with real arrival and departure tests.
Design safer automations
Do not make one transient tracker update the sole trigger for an irreversible action such as unlocking a door, disabling an alarm or discarding security footage. A short confirmation window, a second independent signal or an explicit manual condition may be appropriate, but choose it from the integration’s actual reporting cadence and the household’s routine rather than copying a universal delay.
Test at least these cases:
- Arrive with the phone awake and actively using Wi‑Fi.
- Arrive with the phone locked and idle.
- Leave after the phone has been idle for several minutes.
- Move between the primary and guest SSIDs or between mesh access points.
- Change the phone’s private-address setting for the home network, then restore the intended privacy mode.
- Restart Home Assistant or the router and observe recovery to a known state.
A fault-isolation matrix
Use the symptom that occurs most consistently to choose the next check. The matrix is a starting point; confirm the entity history before changing configuration.
| Observed symptom | Most useful next check | Likely interpretation |
|---|---|---|
| False “away” only when the phone is idle | Compare Ping history with Wi‑Fi association and screen-on activity | The handset may be suspending Wi‑Fi or not answering ICMP |
| Two client records appear for one phone | Compare the current per-network private address with both records | The integration may be tracking an obsolete identity |
| Router shows the phone but Home Assistant does not | Inspect DHCP Browser, integration permissions and the next polling cycle | Discovery or integration visibility is failing |
| Home Assistant stays “home” after departure | Measure the router’s MAC-table timeout and integration polling interval | The record may be stale rather than physically current |
| Location history stops while Wi‑Fi presence continues | Review Companion permissions and background restrictions | The position tracker has stopped reporting independently of Wi‑Fi |
| State changes after a network reset or OS update | Re-identify the client in the router and DHCP Browser | The phone may have received a new per-network identity |
What to record before escalating an integration issue
Collect evidence from one failure rather than screenshots of unrelated settings. Include:
- The exact entity ID and tracker type.
- The old state, new state and timestamps, including any
unknownorunavailableinterval. - The phone’s SSID, current private Wi‑Fi address and IP address at the time.
- The router’s client-list entry and whether it was on a guest network, mesh node or separate segment.
- Whether the phone was locked, idle, actively used or running a battery-saving mode.
- The Home Assistant integration and its polling or update behavior, if documented.
This record lets you distinguish an incorrect client identity from a delayed table update, a blocked ping and a stopped location reporter. It also avoids exposing the phone’s hardware address unnecessarily when a per-network private address is sufficient.
Practical checklist
- Identify the exact person/device tracker entity and inspect its history.
- Classify it as router-based, Ping/ICMP or Companion location.
- Check Home Assistant’s DHCP Browser at Settings > System > Network > DHCP Browser and compare the client with the router’s own list.
- Verify the phone is on the expected SSID and network segment.
- Match the current private Wi‑Fi address to the client identity; do not disable privacy addressing reflexively.
- For Ping, verify a static or reserved address and test with the phone awake and idle.
- For Companion, verify location permission and investigate background-history gaps.
- Wait through the observed router-table and polling interval before calling a transition stuck.
- Combine independent trackers when one source’s blind spot affects the automation.
- Test arrival, departure, idle, network-segment and recovery scenarios before relying on the state for a consequential action.
The reliable fix is the one that makes the observed client identity, tracker type and timing agree with the behavior you need. Presence detection becomes predictable when you diagnose the signal that actually failed instead of treating every “away” state as proof of absence.
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