Two separate issues, not sure whether to address here or with alarm.com…
In the past week, when I’ve logged on to change/add users, I’ve found (virtually every time), that a secondary user has split into two entries. The first entry has the name of the person, but no permissions. The second entry has the name “Panel User 2 (or 3 or whatever)” and it has their 4 digit code and panel permission, but no door lock permission, and the time limits have been deleted. This is hugely troublesome because I’m going to have my petsitter show up and not be able to get in if this keeps happening. What is wrong with the system?
I had my smoke detectors go off at 4:30AM the other day (not fun), and my Encore Firefighter alerted central monitoring as it should. They contacted me through the panel to ask if everything was ok, and they asked for my verbal password to deactivate the alarm. I gave it to them, but it made me realize that there is no way to assign verbal passwords to my secondary users. What will happen if a secondary user accidentally sets off the system and they are asked for a verbal password? Why is there no place to assign one for them?
The first entry has the name of the person, but no permissions. The second entry has the name “Panel User 2 (or 3 or whatever)” ...
Are you creating the user at the panel and through Alarm.com?
You’ll want to delete the unnecessary Panel User 3 through Alarm.com. To do so navigate to Security->users and click the trashcan icon. Then edit the user, in this example your pet sitter. Same navigation as above but click on the user name. Then under access control, click on the door lock and/or panel icons to grant that user access. Be sure to save, this should push the desired codes to the lock and/or panel.
. What will happen if a secondary user accidentally sets off the system and they are asked for a verbal password? Why is there no place to assign one for them?
Central Station contacts are separate from Alarm.com users.
If you assigned a location password when you filled out your survey for service, then anyone can use that password in case of false alarm etc. when Central station contacts during an alarm event.
According to our records, it appears that you did choose a location password
If you only assigned individual passwords to individual contacts, then those contacts can only use their assigned password.
Should you need to update your Central Station passwords, or add a new contact to your central station account, please send the updated password (or in the case of a new contact their Name, Number and Password) to our customer service team by using our Secure Message Tool. Alternatively, you can send your changes/updates to customerservice@suretyDIY.com. Please include your Verbal Admin Passcode, for verification purposes, when sending these changes via email.
Thanks, I am only ever creating users through the alarm.com website. I use the android app, but have not created users on it.
I’ve been doing what you say to delete the extra user, but it keeps coming back. In fact, I deleted the extra user and updated the permissions/time allowed on the messed up user just before posting my first message, and I just logged in again and it is already screwed up again.
Please see the attached picture, Panel User 3 and Partners Petsitting are the same person. Parters Petsitting was the original name of the user, but now this entry has no permissions whatsoever. Panel User 3 is a new user, but has Partners Petsitting’s 4 digit code, and has access to the panel (with no time limitations), but no access to the locks.
I’m going to delete both entries and start over, but have seen this happen repeatedly so I am not confident in it not happening again. I am going out of town tomorrow and need this fixed!
Also, it was Panel User 2 doing this before I added a new user, seems to only happen to the last user added.
Try creating a new user with just panel access and not lock access. Does this create the same effect? The issue may be related to the lock itself rather than the panel.
So far my new user has not been messed up, so I do not want to play with it. I think I’m going to add a new test user though - since it only seems to do this to the last user created (so far), hopefully by adding a new test user, that would be the one that gets messed up and my petsitter will be ok.
Not sure how a lock would interfere with users in the alarm.com system, seems like it would just fail to work instead of breaking users, but I’m happy to continue testing.
Just got back from my trip, my pet sitter had lock access while I was gone so it went smoothly, but their user is again screwed up on alarm.com. Further, even though their lock access was to expire Sunday, their code still works.
Even if it is a potential communication problem between the lock and the panel, alarm.com does not seem to be handling it very well. If it sends a command to the lock that the lock does not respond to properly, alarm.com should not corrupt their database entry. In the end, this is their backend database, it has nothing to do with the lock, they should not be getting corrupt entries, regardless of what is going on with the lock.
But to that point, this lock is 5 ft from my panel and is on the list of compatible locks. What do I need to do to get this fixed?
The quickest way to the solution is through ruling out possibilities. Have you created a new test user without lock access to see if the same user-split occurs? If so did the test user see the same issue?
If it sends a command to the lock that the lock does not respond to properly, alarm.com should not corrupt their database entry.
Alarm.com syncs the codes based on the Alarm panel. They do not communicate directly with the lock. We’d like to confirm that the lock access must be selected in order for this issue to occur. If that is the case, we can go from there to investigate the panel and lock interaction.
If I had to guess, I would say it sounds like the lock and panel are mismatching access code slots and the panel is not locally rectifying this, reporting to Alarm.com upon a routine status check that a different code slot has the code you assigned to the Pet Sitter.
Alarm.com then revokes access from the Pet Sitter user as the same code cannot be applied twice, and the user slot reported by the panel populates in your ADC list. This is in fact how it should operate on the back-end, syncing codes with local changes. And I do see uploads from the panel including a user pins status request moments before the “panel user 3” was enabled and given access in Alarm.com.
My guess is the panel and lock have an error going on, and it may be new with firmware 1.6.2. This is a guess, so we would want to check some things.
When you are at the panel, if you go to Settings - User Management, how many users are shown and what are the ID #'s listed in the first left-hand column?
Ok, I’ll go through and try to work through this troubleshooting when I get back next week. In the meantime, I just checked the panel, and the only two users on the panel are me and my installer code - is that right? It does not show the users that I created through Alarm.com, including my cleaning lady or what was my pet sitter and is now panel user 3. Shouldn’t they show up on the panel? I created a test user with a new code on the panel and opened the door with that code, and got an email notification that my cleaning lady opened the door, so alarm.com seems to be somehow linking that test user with the existing alarm.com user. I’ve since deleted the test user. Seems like the panel and alarm.com should be in sync so this doesn’t seem right to me.
Only users with panel access should show up on the panel itself. If they only have lock access they will not be present.
I see two slot numbers used for panel access users on the back end. Slot 1 is the primary code (associated with your name) Slot 2 is the other name in your Alarm.com users list which has panel access.
Are you saying you do not see the second user in the panel user’s list?
That would explain what is going on with slot 2. The panel is not populating panel access users, whenever you are sending a code from Alarm.com, it is attempting to apply to slot 2, likely, which technically already has a code associated.
I’m pushing a command to attempt to restore user codes at the panel based on what is in Alarm.com. Please allow about 20 minutes, then check back to see if the second user with panel access shows up.
I created a test user with a new code on the panel and opened the door with that code, and got an email notification that my cleaning lady opened the door, so alarm.com seems to be somehow linking that test user with the existing alarm.com user. I’ve since deleted the test user. Seems like the panel and alarm.com should be in sync so this doesn’t seem right to me.
Correct, this would be a symptom of the slot number mismatch we expected. The codes are assigned Slot numbers. If the panel is not registering a remotely created user as the appropriate slot number, but is acknowledging the codes being sent as though all is well, Alarm.com would receive any code used at the panel that was manually created as an incorrect slot number. This looks like it is exactly what is going on.
After about 20 minutes you should see an additional panel user code on the panel. Please do not make changes to any codes before then so we can verify if this resolves the issue.
Something else which would be telling: If you check and the cleaning lady code does not show up on the panel, does it still work to disarm the system? If so that sounds like something we should be able to try to replicate on 1.6.2.
Sorry I’ve been tied up with work. I have not gone through all of the things we have discussed yet, should be able to get to it tomorrow or this weekend. But…
There is no user added on the panel after whatever commands you sent, still just the installer code and the main user.
My house cleaner came today, her door code did work, but I tried her code on the panel and it did not work. However, I’m just now realizing that I have her code only valid until 5PM on Thursdays and I think I tried it after 5PM. So, never mind
I had to leave for spring break and needed to get a solution in place quick. I deleted out all the users from alarm.com and created users on the panel. I waited for them to show up on alarm.com and put the correct permissions on them (door locks). It seems to have taken this way with correct sync between alarm.com and panel. I’ll try to remember to create new users on the panel when possible.
Is there a way to disable a user without deleting them? I only use my pet sitters every few months, but I would prefer to not have to recreate the user each time, just disable it. For now, I’ve just given them a 30 minute window each week.
Is there a way to disable a user without deleting them? I only use my pet sitters every few months, but I would prefer to not have to recreate the user each time, just disable it. For now, I’ve just given them a 30 minute window each week.
In Alarm.com under the Users page, select the user who you wish to revoke access. Near the bottom of the user’s settings you can select to turn on or off Lock or panel access.
