Google Home Presence Sensing not working (FIX)

Google Home Presence Sensing is a feature that uses on-phone location and user interactions (e.g. proximity to a display) with Google smart devices to determine if you are home or away. The concept is quite useful but it seems that Google Home Presence Sensing is not working for many users. Today, we brought you some solutions that should help you sort out this problem.

Table of contents:

1. Make sure Presence Sensing is enabled
2. Set up Home and Away routines and enable Location on your phone
3. Grant the Location permission
4. Reinstall the Google Home app
5. Remove Home and Away routines and set them up again
6. Remove and re-link the smart devices in use

How do I turn on Presence Sensing on Google Home?

You can turn on Presence Sensing on Google Home if you enable Home & Away Routines. With it, you’ll have a geofence functionality and trigger device actions via routines without spoken input. If Presence Sensing isn’t working, check the instructions we provided below.

1. Make sure Presence Sensing is enabled

The first thing to do is disable and re-enable the Presence Sensing feature in Google Home and test it again. That will, hopefully, kickstart the feature and you’ll be able to use your phone location and smart device interactions again. You can also turn off and back on devices that are not performing automatic routines.

Here’s how to disable and re-enable Presence Sensing:

1. Open Google Home.
2. Tap Settings.
3. Select Presence Sensing under Home features.
4. Disable ”Allow this home to use phone locations” and other supported devices.
5. Restart your device and repeat the steps. Just, this time, enable everything under Presence Sensing.

2. Set up Home and Away routines and enable Location on your phone

If you can’t find Presence Sensing in Google Home, make sure to configure Home and Away routines and the option will appear in Settings. Once you set up Home and Away Household routines, you should see “Use presence sensing” as a secondary routine starter. To disable Home and Away routines in Google Home, you should just remove the Actions (devices).

Another important thing considering Presence Sensing is to keep Location Services enabled on your device. That way, Google Home will understand when you’re near your home. Good utilization of geofence but it requires constant Location Services. Also, make sure that your Home address is properly set when configuring Home & Away Routines.

3. Grant the Location permission

With the latest few Android iterations, users got better app permissions management and this includes Location permissions. Now, you might’ve granted Google Home access to Location Services, but on Android 11 and later, you’ll have to choose to Allow it all the time. That way, Google Home might utilize Presence Sensing even if you’re not actively using the app.

Here’s how to grant location permission to Google Home on your Android:

1. Open Settings.
2. Choose Apps.
3. Select Google Home.
4. Tap Permissions.
5. Select Location.
6. Set Allow all the time.
7. In addition, in the App Info screen, open Battery and disable Battery optimization for Google Home.

And here’s how to grant Location Services permission to Google Home on iOS:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Privacy & Security.
3. Select Location Services. Make sure that Location Services are enabled.
4. Open Google Home from the list of available apps.
5. Select Always and make sure that Precise Location is enabled.
6. Now, open the Google Home app and then open Settings.
7. Select Precision Sensing.
8. Make sure that your iPhone is enrolled under Your location.

4. Reinstall the Google Home app

The next thing you can try if the issues persist is clearing the local data from Google Home. Or you can simply go and reinstall the app. Based on reports, many iOS users who had issues with Presence Sensing, fix the problem by reinstalling the app.

On Android, you can first clear the local data. If that does nothing, reinstall the app in Play Store. Here’s how to clear local data from Google Home on Android:

1. Open Settings.
2. Tap Apps.
3. Select Google Home.
4. Tap Storage.
5. Tap Clear data.
6. Open the app again, confirm your home, and test if Google Home Presence Sensing is still not working.

To reinstall Google Home on your iPhone, tap and hold on the app shortcut on your Home Screen or in App Library. Then select Remove App and tap Delete App. After a quick restart, install Google Home from the App Store.

5. Remove Home and Away routines and set them up again

Once you set up Home & Away Household routines, you won’t be able to completely delete them. However, you can reset them, as mentioned, by removing the devices and adding them again. Removing devices (Actions) virtually disables the option, although you’ll still see Home and Away under Routines, in Google Home.

To disable Home and Away routines, follow these instructions:

1. Open Google Home.
2. Select Routines (or Automation). You should see Home and Away at the top, under Household Routines.
3. Select Home and then select actions one by one. Once you expand an action (device) just disable it.
4. Do the same for Away Routine.
5. Restart your device and enable actions again. (e.g. smart bulb to turn off after you leave the house).
6. Then check Presence Settings again.

If Google Home Presence Sensing is still not working, move to the next step.

6. Remove and re-link the smart devices in use

Finally, you can try removing the smart devices that utilize Home and Away routines and, by extension, Presence Sensing. Once you remove and link the devices again, be that a smart thermostat, smart light (lamp, bulb, or strip), or a smart plug/switch — you can unlink it and link it again. For Google products, especially 1st gen ones, you’ll need to use the Nest app to set things up anew.

Here’s how to remove and re-link a smart device in Google Home:

1. Open Google Home.
2. Expand the device (tap and hold) and then open Settings (cog/gear icon).
3. Tap Unlink.
4. Now, tap the plus icon in the top left corner (or Add, under Devices) and select Set up device.
5. Choose Works with Google.
6. Search for the OEM and link the device again.

And, on that note, we can call it a wrap. Make sure to provide your feedback in Google Home, under Account > Help & feedback. Thank you for reading and feel free to share your thoughts with us. Are you satisfied with Google Home devices and features? Tell us in the comments below.