Smart Actions isn't working right...

kevin79

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I have some Smart Actions set up. One is my "default" action which is active 24x7. It disables my wifi and sets my ringer volume. I also have one for home, which is enabled when my GPS location is at my house. This Smart Action enables my wifi so my phone will connect to my wireless network. If I check Smart Actions, both rules are enabled and it says that my wifi is turn on by my "home" rule. The problem is, when I look at the wireless status in System Settings, it says my wifi is off. Why would Smart Actions not be enabling it?
 

FoxKat

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Smart Actions can not be used with "location" based settings unless WIFI is ON. Since you have one Smart Action that is turning off WIFI, the Smart Action for Home never actually becomes "Active" because it has no way of knowing where you are.

Try this instead. Download Verizon WIFI Auto-On from the Play Store. Install it and set your Home location as a location for WIFI to be turned on. Then change your Home Smart Action to remove the WIFI Enable command, and the other Smart Action should be changed to remove the WIFI Disable command.

Now instead of Smart Actions turning WIFI on and off, the Verizon WIFI Auto-On application will do it for you. As you near your home, the Verizon WIFI Auto-On application will turn on WIFI within a reasonable distance from your home, and once you leave, it will turn it back off once you've reached a reasonable distance away from your home.

You should never use Smart Actions for location based actions unless WIFI is on or it will not work, since Smart Actions uses WIFI as one of the methods to determine your location. It is NOT GPS based.

If you want the Smart Actions to have other location based triggers, set the Verizon WIFI Auto-On to trigger WIFI On in those locations as well, then the Smart Action will perform as you would expect.

Good luck! :biggrin:
 

Raw Dodge

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I found smart actions anything but... It lacks the basics you can get in other free apps.. Needing wifi on to perform location based triggers is ridiculous.. That is why you have a a data plan.

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kevin79

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If it needs wifi turned on to check location, why does it give me the option to turn the wifi off?
 

TisMyDroid

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Whoa, thanks FoxKat! I have been using a toggle to turn my wifi on and off when I leave home or work because I knew not to rely on Smart Actions. I used to use Juice Defender but it was a little slow in activating my wifi everytime I turned my screen back on. SA seems to be much more automatic and immediate for that. The only SA I currently use is Battery Extender and Nighttime Battery Saver. And why would SA use wifi for location... that makes no sense at all?
 

FoxKat

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Whoa, thanks FoxKat! I have been using a toggle to turn my wifi on and off when I leave home or work because I knew not to rely on Smart Actions. I used to use Juice Defender but it was a little slow in activating my wifi everytime I turned my screen back on. SA seems to be much more automatic and immediate for that. The only SA I currently use is Battery Extender and Nighttime Battery Saver. And why would SA use wifi for location... that makes no sense at all?

I have the Verizon WIFI Auto-On set to turn on WIFI at home and at work, and it works perfectly. WIFI turns on when I am within 5 minutes of my front door, and turns off about the same distance away. When I arrive down town at work, it's on when I hit our parking lot, and off when I jump on the I-95 ramp to go home (both about 2 blocks away).

If you want to use Location based triggers in other areas, even if there is NO WIFI in those locations, you set the locations as a WIFI Auto-On location anyway. Say for instance, you want the ringtones to be reduced to 20% at the facility where your family member is staying for Rehabilitation (such as my father-in-law is now), you set the WIFI Auto-On for that facility as though it actually had WIFI, then set the Smart Actions location based trigger for that physical location, and set the Action to reduce volume to 20%. It works perfectly.

I know it doesn't make much sense to have WIFI on for a location trigger, but GPS actually uses far more power than WIFI, so Verizon/Motorola chose WIFI as the 2nd best option. It uses WIFI in conjunction with the Cellular Towers to more accurately pinpoint your location, because WIFI hotspots are so prevalent now that at any given time you may have half a dozen WIFI hotspots within various ranges, and even if they are locked down, they still send out signal with their IDs included. By using the varying signal levels and the IDs of those hotspots, the phone can more accurately determine where you are. Cellular, although fairly accurate (within 500 - 1,000 feet or so), isn't nearly as accurate as either WIFI (within 50 - 200 feet) or GPS, with GPS being the most accurate, at as little as 6 feet.

Edit; So essentially, it uses the less accurate cell towers to tell the phone it's nearing the targeted WIFI Auto-On location, then that in turn signals the WIFI Auto-On to activate. Then Smart Actions uses the more accurate WIFI signal levels to more accurately pinpoint your physical location and by combining the two sets of location data it makes the determination whether or not to activate the Smart Action and when. It's really quite brilliant, IMHO.
 

FoxKat

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If it needs wifi turned on to check location, why does it give me the option to turn the wifi off?

That's a great question. The answer is that it figures you would use it to turn WIFI off in areas where you have OTHER triggers to assure you don't need WIFI, such as perhaps while at the Gym on the 40th floor of your company's office building. You're not going to be surfing the web while running on the treadmill, for instance, so why have WIFI wasting power. You would use the TIME that you are scheduled to be at the Gym as the trigger, and then WIFI Off as the Action. Then when you are returning to work, you'd use the time you are back at your desk as the trigger to turn WIFI On again. You see, Location doesn't ALWAYS have to be the trigger.

The list of triggers is LONG and covers quite a range of scenarios, and by combining more than one trigger, you can cover nearly all scenarios. Adding WIFI Auto-On allows you to fill in the missing pieces for location triggers.

Triggers:

Location
Motion Detector
Timeframe
Battery Level
Charging (which is NOT the same as plugged into a charger)
Display
Dock
Headphones
Missed Calls
WI-FI connection
Bluetooth device
Calendar events

Action:

Brightness
Cellular Data
Background Sync
Sent text message
Reminder
Play a playlist
Ringer volume
Ringtone
Wallpaper
Voice announce
Launch application
Launch website
Screen timeout
GPS
WI-FI
Bluetooth
Airplane mode
Auto reply text
VIP caller mode
 

hamidt

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Smart action does not find playlist

i have some smart actions set up. One is my "default" action which is active 24x7. It disables my wifi and sets my ringer volume. I also have one for home, which is enabled when my gps location is at my house. This smart action enables my wifi so my phone will connect to my wireless network. If i check smart actions, both rules are enabled and it says that my wifi is turn on by my "home" rule. The problem is, when i look at the wireless status in system settings, it says my wifi is off. Why would smart actions not be enabling it?

thank you foxcat. I have my wifi on all the time and still smart action can not find my playlist (to play music at specifed time). Verizon folks could not fix it either even after i downloaded another player app
hamid
 

toddbecker

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App not available on Play store

I cannot find the Verizon WiFi Auto-On app on the Google Play store??? I use an app called Smart WiFi Toggler, but would be interested in the Verizion version.
 

FoxKat

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I may have it in an old backup. Let me check.

Edit:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vzw.wificonnect

Is still there, don't know why it doesn't come up on search but a Google Web search turned up a site with a link.

You may be disappointed however as it's been said it stopped working for all phones after ICS upgrade. Give it a try and let us know your results. :cool::D


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treachery84

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I found it on aptoid..... doesnt work since the new ics update i found a diff one tht seems to b working tho

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treachery84

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Keeps giving me an error saying its only for verizon wireless subscribers and i am verizon

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FoxKat

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