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Reviewing and Adjusting HomeKit Time Based Automations When In A Time Zone Different from Home

I am having a bit of hard time with reviewing and adjusting HomeKit based lights time-based automations while in a different time zone than my Home. (Of course all this wasn't helped with last night's time change either.)


First, before leaving my home, I changed one automation (on Eve Home Switch) from starting at sunset to starting at 5pm (to allow me to easily figure out when to turn off the front lights on Halloween since I was not there to give out candy).


Afterwards, while in a different time zone, in the Apple Home App, I changed the automation to start at sunset, and that seemed to work right -- the light turned on at sunset at my home location. But I only knew that by viewing my cameras at home. Somehow it did not seem to show it as ON, on the Apple Home App status.


It also looked like a bunch of my time based automations did not appear to be indicating right. Some two hours off some three hours (the actual time zone time difference). Things did not seem consistent.


Last night (Saturday) I ended up deleting all my automations in the Apple Home App and returned to the Eve Home App and re-established them there. In the Eve Home App, I found I had to have the automation "start time" on Sunday (repeating daily) be set for a time two hours earlier than the time at my home to make it work (and the 2 hours corresponds to the time difference between where I am (Arizona which had no time change last night), and my home location (which did)). For example, I called one automation Lights On at 6am. To make it turn on at 6am at my home, I had to start it at 4am at my location. (For the lights on at Sunset I set it up as a rule based automation in Eve rather than a Timer based. That is just the way it works in Eve.)

I checked it last night on both the Eve Home App and Apple Home App. They were aligned. I believe that the Apple Home App indicated Lights On at 6am automation was to start at 4am (which is 4am in the time zone I am in vs 6am at the location of my home).


But today, when viewed still here in Arizona, in the Eve Home App it says start at 4am today and in the Apple Home App it says the automation is daily at 6am.


I am not sure if, when setting up time based automations (for my home location when I am not in my home's time zone) in the device Apps (such as Eve Home), if I should say times based on the location I am currently in or not?


If I set up time based automations for devices in the Apple Home App, I am not sure if I should use times based on where my Home is or times adjusted based on where I am.


Overall, I would have liked it to be such that as I am setting automations for devices at my home, I use the time at my home for the automations for set up and for reviewing no matter where I go myself (and view on iPhone). I am happy that it seems to use sunset at my home location when setting up a sunset based automation from a different time zone. But I am now confused about the time based ones and do not know what to expect as I continue to monitor things at home remotely.

Appreciate any good guidance on this and how it is set up. And possibly if the device Apps (e.g., Eve Home) may do things time-wise differently than Apple Home. That would not be good, but again, I am not quite sure at this time.


Thanks for any insights.


I looked at the automati

MacBook Air 13″, macOS 14.7

Posted on Nov 3, 2024 10:13 AM

Reply
1 reply

Nov 3, 2024 2:42 PM in response to Ontario1

Update: Now, when I go to the Apple Home App, my automations are showing including the two hour differences.

For example, the Lights On at 6am automation name indicates it will turn Lights On at 4am. So it is back to what I saw last evening.


Wouldn't it just be best for it to indicate something like: Times Shown are Times at Home Location where devices are situated? That would make it a whole lot easier for folks. Certainly when it says "Sunset", it means sunset at the home location, so this would make it all consistent.


Reviewing and Adjusting HomeKit Time Based Automations When In A Time Zone Different from Home

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