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Home Assistant can show a person as home after they leave because a tracker assigned to that person—often a router or Bluetooth tracker—still reports a connection at home. A person’s state is calculated from all of its assigned device trackers, not necessarily copied from the phone’s GPS tracker. Check every tracker assigned to the person to find the one keeping the state at home.
How Home Assistant decides whether a person is home
A person entity can have multiple device trackers. Home Assistant gives connected connection trackers priority over position trackers. If one or more connection trackers report connected, Home Assistant uses the most recently updated connected tracker. If none is connected, it uses the most recently updated position tracker; if neither type provides a state, it uses the latest tracker reporting not_home. See the Person integration documentation.
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A connection tracker reports whether a device is connected to something fixed, such as a router or Bluetooth beacon. By default, Home Assistant treats the device as being in the tracker’s associated zone while connected; that zone is usually Home. A position tracker, such as phone GPS, reports a location that Home Assistant can map to a zone. Details are in the Device tracker documentation.
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For example, your phone’s GPS tracker may change to not_home as you leave, while a router tracker still reports home. Because the connected router tracker takes precedence, the person stays home until that tracker updates. Home Assistant’s Person documentation describes this kind of departure delay.
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Find the tracker keeping the person at home
- Open the person’s settings and review the device trackers assigned to that person. Confirm that each belongs to someone who carries it; an old phone or an unrelated device can affect the result. The Person integration supports assigning multiple trackers to one person.
- Check each tracker’s state and history, not just the phone’s GPS state. Look for a tracker that still says
home, when it last updated, and whether its state matches the person. Home Assistant’s presence detection guide recommends using device tracker entities and their history when diagnosing setup. - Investigate any connection tracker that remains home. Check the router or Bluetooth integration’s connection state and departure behavior, including any
consider_homesetting it uses. A stationary tracker may simply not have updated yet when GPS reportsnot_home. - Check for extra trackers or account-linked devices if none of the expected trackers explains the state. A device left at home that is logged into the associated Home Assistant user account is another possibility raised in a Home Assistant Community troubleshooting discussion. Verify whether that applies to your setup rather than assuming it is the cause.
- Verify phone location tracking if you rely on GPS. The Home Assistant Companion app needs location access to provide phone location updates and create a phone
device_tracker. The presence detection guide explains the setup.
What common mismatches mean
| What you see | What to check |
|---|---|
Phone tracker is not_home, but the person is home. |
Look for another assigned connection tracker still reporting home. Connected connection trackers take priority over position trackers. |
A tracker stays home after the phone disconnects. |
Check what the integration actually observes and when it last updated. A device becoming unreachable or ceasing to update is not itself a fresh location report placing it away. |
The person changes from home directly to a named zone. |
A position update may arrive later and place the person in that zone. Connection trackers generally indicate presence in their associated zone rather than reporting a precise location. |
| Ping gives inconsistent results. | Ping is a connection tracker, and a phone may turn off Wi-Fi while idle. Home Assistant cautions that a single ping tracker may not reliably track phones; consider using it alongside other trackers assigned to the person. |
Choose trackers based on the signal you need
Home Assistant documents phone location through the Companion app and network connection detection through supported router integrations as common presence approaches. Bluetooth beacons can also provide a fixed connection signal. The right combination depends on whether you need a location or only a home connection signal, how promptly it updates when someone leaves, and whether it can distinguish named zones away from home.
| Tracker type | What it reports | Trade-off to consider |
|---|---|---|
| Phone GPS / position tracker | Location that Home Assistant can map to zones. | Useful for named zones, but depends on the phone providing location updates. |
| Router or Bluetooth connection tracker | Whether a device is connected to a fixed device or beacon, usually indicating presence in its associated zone. | Can keep a person at home until the connection tracker updates after departure. |
| Ping (ICMP) connection tracker | Whether a device responds to ICMP reachability checks. | Phones may sleep their Wi-Fi connection, so Home Assistant advises against relying on a single ping tracker for phone presence. |
Combining different signals can make presence detection more useful, but the Person integration’s priority rules matter: a connection tracker still reporting home can delay the away state even after GPS reports not_home.
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When you use Ping for phone presence
Home Assistant classifies Ping (ICMP) as a connection tracker. Its Ping integration documentation cautions that phones may turn off Wi-Fi while idle, making one ping tracker unreliable by itself. If you use Ping, assign other suitable trackers to the person as well and inspect their states when the result looks wrong.
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