Reports WiFi client as disconnected when switching between access points

[phred73]

Hi
Sometimes my device (iPhone 6S) gets reported as disconnected when it changes/roams AP in my home. At almost the same time it gets reported as connected but to the new AP. A bit annoying. Any config I can do on my side?

Unifi App: 2.0.3
Homey: 1.5.12

[mnederlof]

The problem i have with this is that i do not really understand what is going on. I get similar behaviour, but not all the time, so that makes it really hard to debug.
Also, i am assuming that in unifi, one AP sends a disconnect event (rather than a roam event) causing this behaviour), so that would imply some timeout before actually considering a device offline, making the disconnected event less useful..

If you discover what is exactly going on and some way to prevent it, i'd love to hear it.

[Veldkornet]

On HomeAssistant, I used to have the same problem. Then they introduced a “detection time” setting which sets how long since the last seen time before the device is marked away, specified in seconds. Default being 300.

Is it possible to get a similar setting into this UniFi app that users can change themselves? I believe that should fix the problem.

[phred73]

Found my way around this issue with a flow in Homey. The flow includes a variable that saves disconnected client's name and a delayed check verifying if the just connected (roamed) client was the one that just was disconnected.

[MrXCuci]

This also seems to be the case when switching from 2.4ghz to 5ghz and the other way around. My wife's phone has no problems 2.4Ghz only. I only have one uac-lite. EDIT 100% confirmed this is the issue using the unifi app. You can monitor the clients behavior this way. I made a flow to set my status away when disconnected. Hope you can fix it.

[Veldkornet]

It’s not a problem with the app itself, what I described above is a workaround for it.

The problem is that the recent versions of the UniFi controller are reporting disconnected/reconnected when the devices are actually roaming. This is just a visual issue in the controller (Ubiquiti already confirmed this as a known issue). Since the app just reads the info from the controller, it now has this problem.

Since the issue has been present for some time, it would probably be better to use the workaround.

[MrXCuci]

Hello @Veldkornet where can I find the setting you talk about in the controller? I don't see the setting you talk about.

[Veldkornet]

It’s not a controller setting, someone needs to implement it as a setting in the Homey app. @mnederlof ?

Alternatively, you can implement some flows as mentioned above to work around it with the countdown app. Something like this:

Check presence based on WiFi connection (repeat for each device needed per person)
- Flow 1: When “Dude’s iPhone“ is connected
And “Dude” is not Home
Then Mark “Dude“ as Home
And Stop “Timer Dude”
- Flow 2: When “Dude’s iPhone” is disconnected
Then Start “Timer Dude” Timer for 300 Seconds
- Flow 3: When “Timer Dude” reaches zero
And “Dude’s iPhone” is Disconnected
Then Mark “Dude” as Away

Announce When People Arrive / Leave
- Flow 4: When “Someone” came Home
Then Announce “name” has arrived
- Flow 5: When “Someone” left home
Then Announce ”name” left home

See here as well for another example

[MrXCuci]

Can't you just use the if "roam to another ap" function and just stop the flow that is being triggered? In my case not possible. I will try your suggested setting with countdown timer.

[Bascht74]

Please check, if the new firmware, that just came out fixes this. After the update, I don't have seen that behaivior any more

[petski]

Please check, if the new firmware, that just came out fixes this. After the update, I don't have seen that behaivior any more

Indeed part of their changelog:

https://community.ui.com/releases/UAP-USW-Firmware-4-3-20-11298/dc127981-4b29-46be-aca0-9272d89ec2ad

"[UAP-MTK] Send roam events instead of disconnect events when clients roam."