---
layout: page
title: "Device Tracker"
description: "Instructions on how to setup device tracking within Home Assistant."
date: 2015-01-20 22:36
sidebar: true
comments: false
sharing: true
footer: true
---
Home Assistant can get information from your wireless router or third party services like iCloud or OwnTracks to track which devices are connected and considered "in home". Please check the sidebar for a list of brands of supported wireless routers and services.
There are also trackers available which use different technologies like [MQTT](/components/mqtt/) or [Nmap](/components/device_tracker.nmap_tracker/) to scan the network for devices.
An [event](/getting-started/automation-trigger/#event-trigger) (`device_tracker_new_device`) will be fired when a device is discovered for the first time.
## {% linkable_title Configuring a `device_tracker` platform %}
To get started add the following lines to your `configuration.yaml` (example for Netgear):
```yaml
# Example configuration.yaml entry for Netgear device
device_tracker:
- platform: netgear
host: 192.168.1.1
username: admin
password: YOUR_PASSWORD
new_device_defaults:
track_new_devices: True
hide_if_away: False
```
The following optional parameters can be used with any platform. However device tracker will only look for global settings under the configuration of the first configured platform:
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|----------------------|---------|-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `interval_seconds` | 12 | Seconds between each scan for new devices |
| `consider_home` | 180 | Seconds to wait till marking someone as not home after not being seen. This parameter is most useful for households with Apple iOS devices that go into sleep mode while still at home to conserve battery life. iPhones will occasionally drop off the network and then re-appear. `consider_home` helps prevent false alarms in presence detection when using IP scanners such as Nmap. `consider_home` accepts various time representations, (e.g., the following all represents 3 minutes: `180`, `0:03`, `0:03:00`) |
| `new_device_defaults`| | Default values for new discovered devices. Available options `track_new_devices` (default: `True`), `hide_if_away` (default: `False`) |
Note that setting `track_new_devices: False` will still result in new devices being recorded in `known_devices.yaml`, but they won't be tracked (`track: no`).
The extended example from above would look like the following sample:
```yaml
# Example configuration.yaml entry for Netgear device
device_tracker:
- platform: netgear
host: 192.168.1.1
username: admin
interval_seconds: 10
consider_home: 180
track_new_devices: yes
```
Multiple device trackers can be used in parallel, such as [Owntracks](/components/device_tracker.owntracks/#using-owntracks-with-other-device-trackers) and [Nmap](/components/device_tracker.nmap_tracker/). The state of the device will be determined by the source that reported last.
## {% linkable_title `known_devices.yaml` %}
Once `device_tracker` is enabled, a file will be created in your config dir named `known_devices.yaml`. Edit this file to adjust which devices to be tracked.
Here's an example configuration for a single device:
```yaml
devicename:
name: Friendly Name
mac: EA:AA:55:E7:C6:94
picture: https://www.home-assistant.io/images/favicon-192x192.png
track: yes
hide_if_away: no
```
In the example above, `devicename` refers to the detected name of the device. For instance, `my_iphone`.
| Parameter | Default | Description |
|----------------|-------------------------------|---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------|
| `name` | Host name or "Unnamed Device" | The friendly name of the device. |
| `mac` | None | The MAC address of the device. Add this if you are using a network device tracker like Nmap or SNMP. |
| `picture` | None | A picture that you can use to easily identify the person or device. You can also save the image file in a folder "www" in the same location (can be obtained from developer tools) where you have your configuration.yaml file and just use `picture: /local/favicon-192x192.png`. |
| `icon` | mdi:account | An icon for this device (use as an alternative to `picture`). |
| `gravatar` | None | An email address for the device's owner. If provided, it will override `picture`. |
| `track` | [uses platform setting] | If `yes`/`on`/`true` then the device will be tracked. Otherwise its location and state will not update. |
| `hide_if_away` | False | If `yes`/`on`/`true` then the device will be hidden if it is not at home. |
| `consider_home` | [uses platform setting] | Seconds to wait till marking someone as not home after not being seen. Allows you to override the global `consider_home` setting from the platform configuration on a per device level. |
## {% linkable_title Using GPS device trackers with local network device trackers %}
GPS based device trackers (like [OwnTracks](/components/device_tracker.owntracks/), [GPSLogger](/components/device_tracker.gpslogger) and others) can also be used with local network device trackers, such as [Nmap](/components/device_tracker.nmap_tracker/) or [Netgear](/components/device_tracker.netgear/). To do this, fill in the `mac` field to the entry in `known_devices.yaml` with the MAC address of the device you want to track. This way the state of the device will be determined by *the source that reported last*. The naming convention for known device list is `_` and could be set in the app configuration.
An example showing the inclusion of the `mac` field for multiple platform tracking. The `mac` field was added to the GPS based device tracker entry and will enable tracking by all platforms that track via the `mac` address.
```yaml
USERNAME_DEVICE_ID:
name: Friendly Name
mac: EA:AA:55:E7:C6:94
picture: https://www.home-assistant.io/images/favicon-192x192.png
gravatar: test@example.com
track: yes
hide_if_away: no
```
If you want to track whether either your GPS based tracker or your local network tracker, identify you as being at home, use [a group](/components/group/) instead.
## {% linkable_title Device states %}
The state of your tracked device will be `'home'` if it is in the [home zone](/components/zone#home-zone), detected by your network or Bluetooth based presence detection. If you're using a presence detection method that includes coordinates then when it's in a zone the state will be the name of the zone (in lower case). When a device isn't at home and isn't in any zone, the state will be `'not_home'`.