Help Smart Actions - Best Practices

Agrajag · Nov 16, 2011

For me the whole point of this sort of thing is lost if I have to rigidly limit it to times. I don't know when or what days I go to the theater. I don't know exactly when I have to be at my office (I do a lot of traveling and meetings so I'm rarely there).

budwizer · Nov 16, 2011

Martimus said:
One of these days I may invest the $6 in Tasker but, for the moment, Smart Actions works OK for me. For a version 1 app, Smart Actions does a pretty decent job!

Agree that Smart Actions is good for a v1 of the app. If you are looking at alternatives the app "Setting Profiles" is another one that is good and worth a look. They have a lite version which is free.

Gags1892 · Nov 16, 2011

I also agree with OP -- WiFi being a requirement is a big turn-off for me. What if your work place doesn't have it's own wi-fi network? I'm a teacher, and my school isn't fully wifi accessible yet. I'd rather rely on GPS to change settings...

Time frame has been working, but i thought i'd ultimately love to not have to worry about EVER changing profiles on my own...guess not!

Also: for all of those who shut off data when they're home on wi-fi -- why? You're home, a charger is nearby and accessible if needed...you'd think it'd be a setting more productive when NOT by a charger, no? And also, does this disable email coming through?

Just curious!

vry5 · Nov 16, 2011

Smart actions seem to be working great, but suddenly I'm having some problems with Data not syncing on Wi-Fi only... might be my home (guest) wi-fi, because I'm getting email push at work.

However, I just had the phone dialer turn off on me... calls went direct to VM even though bars were full... and TXT didn't go through. I dialed out, and the spell was broken. wierd.

That said, going to investigate the settings some more, before I trust the smart actions fully... I'm near a charger at work and home to be ok.

Yankees368 · Nov 16, 2011

I toyed around a bit with Smart Actions, and here is my conclusion. This was basically developed to help save battery life. However, one of the key functions, location based triggers, needs to have wifi active to function. I tried this out today and set it to put my phone on silent when it detects my works WiFi. Great, it worked. However, the battery drain during the time the phone is actively searching for wifi is very high. Probably 30-40% more than without it. I don't understand why location based triggers cannot be done via Cell ID location, much like Google Maps.
Currently, location based actions will murder your battery.

jmt9779 · Nov 16, 2011

Gags1892 said:
I also agree with OP -- WiFi being a requirement is a big turn-off for me. What if your work place doesn't have it's own wi-fi network? I'm a teacher, and my school isn't fully wifi accessible yet. I'd rather rely on GPS to change settings...

Time frame has been working, but i thought i'd ultimately love to not have to worry about EVER changing profiles on my own...guess not!

Also: for all of those who shut off data when they're home on wi-fi -- why? You're home, a charger is nearby and accessible if needed...you'd think it'd be a setting more productive when NOT by a charger, no? And also, does this disable email coming through?

Just curious!

i have my home wifi connection as my trigger. once it connects, it disables "cellular data" which is my 3G/4G connection to VZW's network. since i'm connected to wifi, i have the other one shut off to conserve battery power. i prefer the wifi connection because it's faster and more power efficient (though, i'm sure others may disagree). even though i'm at home and near a charger, that doesn't mean that i want to keep the phone plugged in all the time.

turning off "cellular data" does not diasable email from coming through (assuming you're connected to wifi). shutting off "background sync" or "background data" (i forget which it's formally called) is what will disable emails from coming through, even if you're connected to 4G/3G or wifi.

OlManRivah · Nov 16, 2011

steakneggs said:
I can't find or understand why there is no trigger for the car dock or multimedia dock??!??!?

I would like to disable GPS unless my phone is in it's dock and unfortunately BT isn't an option..

Also, why can't you use an App as a trigger? Big oversight.

Agrajag · Nov 17, 2011

Had my first issue that I suspect might be tied to Smart Actions.

Yesterday I left my house and that should have caused Smart Actions to go off but instead what happened is that 3G and cellular just kept continually cycling on and off with 4G nowhere to be seen. I finally had to reboot to get it back.

jmt9779 · Nov 17, 2011

Agrajag said:
Had my first issue that I suspect might be tied to Smart Actions.

Yesterday I left my house and that should have caused Smart Actions to go off but instead what happened is that 3G and cellular just kept continually cycling on and off with 4G nowhere to be seen. I finally had to reboot to get it back.

i had an issue too. when i go into my apartment and the phone connects to my wifi, it should also turn on bluetooth. when i left this morning, it lost the wifi connection but didn't shut off bluetooth. had to do it manually.

pm1066 · Nov 17, 2011

I've had cases of it not restarting data connections automatically when SA shut things down. When I hit the gym, it shuts off cell data and wifi when I connect headphones. When I disconnect, data stays off.

Martimus · Nov 17, 2011

Well I've decided to do some experimenting with Tasker.

Since I needed a tasker-like app for my Xoom (and I wasn't impressed with Timerific or Easy Profiles), I ponied up, grumbled about the cost, and ultimately purchased a copy of Tasker from the market. As we know the advantage of purchasing from the market (Android or Amazon) is that the one license will work on all registered devices. Cool!

It took me a short while to configure tasker on my Xoom. And, so far, it seems to be working quite well!

Since I now have a copy I've decided that I am going to perform an experiment. I'm going to temporarily disable the rules in Smart Actions, install Tasker, and configure it to perform similar functions. Hopefully I'll get this done over the weekend. And then use next week to put Tasker through it's paces. I figure that it's worth trying since I essentially have a free copy to play with on the Razr.

Tasker is a much more mature product and should have a few more bells and whistles than Smart Actions. That said... I don't think the improvements I'll see will warrant leaving Tasker running on the Razr. In any case configuring it on the Xoom was a breeze so hopefully this experiment shouldn't be terribly time consuming on my part.

jrowlings · Nov 18, 2011

If memory serves... this is why I like Juice Defender. It would turn wifi on to poll and see if it found a known wifi. If not, it shut off again.

JD has not worked for my droids since the GB update. It won't load the AOSP file (not sure I know what that is... but JD locks up frequently and I can't load ultimate settings).

dmaxfan · Nov 18, 2011

I am trying to turn off data when not plugged in.

OlManRivah · Nov 18, 2011

Martimus said:
Well I've decided to do some experimenting with Tasker.

Since I needed a tasker-like app for my Xoom (and I wasn't impressed with Timerific or Easy Profiles), I ponied up, grumbled about the cost, and ultimately purchased a copy of Tasker from the market. As we know the advantage of purchasing from the market (Android or Amazon) is that the one license will work on all registered devices. Cool!

It took me a short while to configure tasker on my Xoom. And, so far, it seems to be working quite well!

Since I now have a copy I've decided that I am going to perform an experiment. I'm going to temporarily disable the rules in Smart Actions, install Tasker, and configure it to perform similar functions. Hopefully I'll get this done over the weekend. And then use next week to put Tasker through it's paces. I figure that it's worth trying since I essentially have a free copy to play with on the Razr.

Tasker is a much more mature product and should have a few more bells and whistles than Smart Actions. That said... I don't think the improvements I'll see will warrant leaving Tasker running on the Razr. In any case configuring it on the Xoom was a breeze so hopefully this experiment shouldn't be terribly time consuming on my part.

Let us know how this App does on the Razr........ :cool:

fuzio1963 · Nov 18, 2011

I read some post, but cannot figure it out - whatever i have set for my Home, and Work locations, worked just fine. But what if i have to leave for a while, in example, have to walk my dog, or have to go to the other office building for 10 minutes?? I wanted my phone to turn on GPS, data, etc..... when i am leaving "my set location", and get "on schedule" when i got back. I don't know if this make any sense to you friends, but what trigger i should use?

rushmore · Nov 18, 2011

"Best practices"..... That sounds like a work term

, but falls down some due to the subjective nature of no standard for reference.

One person's best practice with device use may be another's worst practice. Seems too many combinations of variability to peg a common solution.

unccman · Nov 18, 2011

SFBayArea said:
I have two smart settings that I want to set up on this phone and still can't figure out how.

1. I have a rule to set to the home location based on the GPS input. However, I want the phone to turn on my WiFi once it is determines that I am at home. For some reason the WiFi is grayed out in the rules and I have to turn it up manually every time I am home.

2. Is there a way to set up rule to turn Bluetooth when I am in the car?

2. Here's what I do: As a basis, I have a 24/7 profile that has BlueTooth on, WiFi on, GPS off. For my home profile (based on connection to home WiFi), BlueTooth is turned off. When I leave my house to get in my car, it obviously disconnects the WiFi, which in turn, turns on BlueTooth automatically and then automatically connects to my car. I have a "Car" profile that says when connected to BlueTooth in car, turn on GPS, turn off WiFi. WiFi will remain off until you disconnect from the BlueTooth in your car (when it auto turns on because of the 24/7 profile). So, when I turn my car off to walk inside, BlueTooth turns back off because of the Home profile I have setup. I literally just did all this after reading these posts so I haven't tested battery life on it.

For the "visual" person, here are my profiles.

24/7 all on
Triggers

24/7 (custom profile I made with "all day event" and "every day")

Actions

Cellular Data: Enable
Background Sync: On
Wi-Fi: On
Brightness: Automatic Brightness
Bluetooth: On
Ringer Volume: Vibrate and 100%

Home Sweet Home
Triggers

Wi-Fi Connection: CasaBonita (or your SSID)

Actions

Cellular Data: Disable
Bluetooth: Off
GPS: Off

Equinox (car profile)
Triggers

Bluetooth Connection: Equinox (your car connection name)

Actions

Cellular Data: Enable
Wi-Fi: Off
GPS: On

Hope that makes sense and helps.

Agrajag · Nov 19, 2011

Martimus said:
Well I've decided to do some experimenting with Tasker.

I took have just took the plunge for Tasker as it seems to offer a lot of options Smart Actions will likely never get to. Motorola is very unlikely to spend a lot of effort on updating this beyond what it is now but maybe they will.

Tasker sounds like Mount Everest to deal with but that's okay. I'll take it slowly and see what happens.

OlManRivah · Nov 19, 2011

Battery saving consensus:

Triggers
Display off

Actions
Cellular data-disable
GPS-off
Background sync-off

edstewbob · Nov 21, 2011

Anyone know what happens when an Active rule's status goes to Ready? For example if Wifi is off and I have a rule when activated turns Wifi on does Wifi go back to off when the rule goes back to ready status? It makes sense that whatever the old status is would be restored once the rule becomes inactive or ready. In some cases it means there would be no change if the item being acted upon was already in the same state as the rule's setting.

jmt9779 · Nov 22, 2011

edstewbob said:
Anyone know what happens when an Active rule's status goes to Ready? For example if Wifi is off and I have a rule when activated turns Wifi on does Wifi go back to off when the rule goes back to ready status? It makes sense that whatever the old status is would be restored once the rule becomes inactive or ready. In some cases it means there would be no change if the item being acted upon was already in the same state as the rule's setting.

hmm, not sure if i understand the question exactly as you mean it but here's what my phone does...

i turn wifi radio on on the phone. phone connects to home network. bunch of actions go into, um, action

when i take the phone out of range of the home network, the wifi connection is broken, but the phone's wifi radio stays on.

hope that helps!

edstewbob · Nov 22, 2011

jmt9779 said:
hmm, not sure if i understand the question exactly as you mean it but here's what my phone does...

i turn wifi radio on on the phone. phone connects to home network. bunch of actions go into, um, action when i take the phone out of range of the home network, the wifi connection is broken, but the phone's wifi radio stays on.

hope that helps!

What I was trying to ask in a convoluted way is whether something like wifi reverts back to it's prior state once the triggered event such as location is no longer active. Sounds like the answer is no although turning off wifi in this case would help conserve power.

sycor · Nov 22, 2011

edstewbob said:
What I was trying to ask in a convoluted way is whether something like wifi reverts back to it's prior state once the triggered event such as location is no longer active. Sounds like the answer is no although turning off wifi in this case would help conserve power.

I haven't played to much with the Smart Actions yet but the one I set up was to turn on WiFi and turn off Cell Data in a certain time frame. Once the times expired Wifi Stayed on and Cell Data stayed off if I remember correctly. (It was last night so I was half asleep while testing it.)

pm1066 · Nov 23, 2011

edstewbob said:
What I was trying to ask in a convoluted way is whether something like wifi reverts back to it's prior state once the triggered event such as location is no longer active. Sounds like the answer is no although turning off wifi in this case would help conserve power.

There are certain things that will happen. For example, if you lose wifi connectivity, and the rule says "I'm wifi connected to my home, so turn off cell data", then cell data usually will turn back on, even if the wifi radio is still on.

I have a rule that does just that--when wifi detects my router, it shuts off cell data. When I leave my house, wifi loses the home router, the rule shuts off. The phone, at least with wifi and cell data, doesn't like both off. So, unless I have another rule active keeping cell data off, it comes back on. But, as noted, the wifi radio stays on the whiole time.

I have also set "inverse" rules for cases that don't involve an auto switch. When I go to the gym, I have one rule that shuts everything off when I plug in headphones. The inverse rule yruns everything back on when I unplug the headphones. Since I only want data off when I'm at the gym, I further refined the rule with a time band. If I plug in my headset in the morning, the gym and anti gym rules turn on. If I do it later in the day, no effect.

Ultimately, play with it and see what you get.

Agrajag · Nov 23, 2011

What I did was to set a Default rule that was set to 24/7 (All Day) that had the settings the way I wanted for most of the day. Then I'd have subset rules. At night? Turn off everything to conserve battery. Then when "night" expired I believe the core rule kicked back in and turned everything back on.

I didn't stick with Smart Actions long enough to verify that but I believe it should work that way. For now I'm messing with Tasker but it's slow going.

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