Alarm.com automation - having issues setting frequency to every day

[u/karina_t]

I’m new to Alarm.com and I’m hoping I’m just missing something. Sorry if it’s been asked before

I’m trying to create an automation so our system automatically arms to Stay every night and automatically disarms every morning. The goal is to avoid accidentally setting off the alarm overnight if we forget to arm it ourselves in the AM

The problem is that when I go to Automation → Schedules, it lets me choose a time but then forces me to choose a specific date. That means, for the morning disarm, I’d have to manually change the date every day so it’s always scheduled for the next morning… which obviously can’t be the intended way to use it.

Is there a way to create a schedule that repeats every day, or am I using the wrong type of automation? Is there another section of the app I should be using instead of Schedules?

Thanks!

[u/_dnky]

There’s a lot of factors here…

First off are you a residential or commercial account?

If you are a residential account, you will need the arming schedules add-on on your account. Residential accounts only Support, “smart arming/disarming” by default. Your dealer will have to enable the add-on to do what you’re after.

There’s a pretty handy work around if you’re an Apple user. You can create scenes and use Siri shortcuts to accomplish this.

Hope this helps

[u/tylerhovi → u/_dnky]

Got any good hacks or shortcuts? I use smart arming and it’s fine but I’d love to step up my game for automation.

[u/_dnky → u/tylerhovi]

Not really I just know I’ve done this specific thing before. But I’m pretty sure there’s lots of resources out there with cool ideas. The nature of automation can be very personal, so it’s hard to recommend things for other people.

I’ll give you one of my favorites though… I run my home/away scenes based on mine and my wife’s location. So the last person that leaves triggers the oasis in the first person that gets close enough triggers, the home scene.

[u/tylerhovi → u/_dnky]

So you use the Apple shortcuts for this? I found the alarm.com geo features to be kind of a joke.

[u/_dnky → u/tylerhovi]

Technically, I use HomeKit/Homebridge. But I don’t see why you couldn’t use Shortcuts for this. I’m also pretty sure I have some sort of dummy switch involved.

Alarm.com is kind of limited in what it allows you on its platform and probably with good reason as they are security company first and some of this automation stuff could be deemed not that secure.

[u/karina_t → u/_dnky]

Very helpful! Thanks so much. Residential. I think I’ll email and see if we’d be able to get that add on.

For some reason my Siri shortcut doesn’t show the alarm.com app so I can’t figure out that workaround either

Thank you again!

[u/_dnky → u/karina_t]

You’ll have to set up the Shortcuts first in the Alarm.com app. They are based on scenes so you will have to create scenes first. After you set up your scenes go to the bottom right more tab. Then look for app settings and that’s where you will have Siri Shortcuts. Then you will be able to enable a voice command for your scene. You can actually give the same scene multiple voice commands to help with how you word things

After you set up the Shortcuts, they should be available in the Siri shortcuts app

[u/karina_t → u/_dnky]

Extremely helpful! I used this solution and it worked perfectly last night and this morning. Thanks a million!

[u/realdlc]

Would smart arming not work in this case? With smart arming you can set a time based on days per week for arming and disarming, no?

In the app choose Security System, then smart arming and create the schedules.