Smart lock temporary access codes: who gets one, and when

A cleaner lets herself in every other Tuesday. A dog walker shows up at noon most weekdays. Your parents have a code for when you are traveling. A plumber needs one afternoon in March and never again. None of them should carry the same key, and none of them should still be able to open your door a year after the job is done. Smart lock temporary access codes are built for exactly this: a code that works for the visit it was made for, then stops on its own.

Most smart locks offer three or four code types: an always-on code for someone who effectively lives there, a recurring code that repeats on a weekly schedule, a date-ranged code that opens only between a start and an end time, and a one-time code that works once and is gone. Picking the right type for each visitor, and actually removing it when the reason for it ends, is most of the job.

Why one shared code stops working after a month

The easy move when you first set up a keypad is to make one code and hand it to whoever needs the door. It works for about a month. Then the cleaner’s schedule changes, a new dog walker takes over the route, and the old code is still sitting in the lock’s memory because nobody wrote down that it needed to be deleted.

A shared code also flattens the one piece of information a smart lock actually gives you over a mechanical one: who opened the door and when. If everyone uses the same four digits, the access log just says “code 4 used at 2:14 p.m.” with no way to tell the cleaner from a former dog walker who never gave the code back. Separate codes turn that log into something you can actually read.

If you are only now looking at a lock for a door you rent rather than own, start with what you are allowed to fit at all. The renter-friendly options and the permission question are covered separately, and they come before any of the code strategy below.

The three kinds of temporary code, and which visitor each one fits

Brand names for these differ. August’s own explanation of its entry codes describes an always-on code that “works all the time until the Owner disables the entry-code,” a weekly recurring code, and a temporary code that is “time-bound” and “automatically expires.” Philips Home Access lays out its own version slightly differently, offering a permanent code with no expiration, a recurring code tied to specific days and times, a duration code with a start and end date, and a one-time code generated for a single use. The vocabulary moves around, but the underlying choice is always the same three or four buckets.

Always-on codes

An always-on code behaves like a spare key: it works until someone actively removes it. Reserve it for people who are effectively part of the household, such as an adult child who checks on the house weekly or a long-term partner who does not live there full time. It is the wrong choice for anyone whose relationship with the property has an end date, because an always-on code is also the type most likely to be forgotten.

Recurring codes

A recurring code repeats on a schedule you set and stays dormant outside it. August’s own documentation gives a clean example: a dog walker assigned access “every Thursday between 1 and 3 pm” gets a code that will only work during that window, week after week, with nothing to reissue. This is the right shape for a cleaner, a dog walker, or anyone else who visits on a predictable weekly pattern.

Date-ranged and one-time codes

A date-ranged code opens between a start date and time and an end date and time, then simply stops working, which is the right fit for a house sitter covering a week of travel or a family member staying over a holiday. A one-time code works exactly once, which suits a delivery, a single showing, or a repair visit where you do not want a code to outlive the appointment.

Setting a recurring code for a cleaner or dog walker

Someone who visits weekly is the clearest case for a recurring code, and it is worth setting the window a little wider than the visit itself. If the cleaner is due between 10 a.m. and noon, a code that opens from 9:30 to 1 p.m. absorbs the days traffic makes her early or a job runs long, without leaving the door open around the clock.

Give the cleaner and the dog walker separate codes even if they never overlap. It costs nothing and it means that if one code needs to change, because the person quit or the schedule moved, you are not resetting a code that someone else also depends on. Name each code in the app with something you will still recognize in six months. “Cleaner” and “Code 4” do not read the same way after two more people have been added.

Put the code’s start date a day or two before the first visit rather than the same morning. Testing a code the day before, with nobody standing at the door, catches a typo before it turns into a phone call.

Giving a contractor or repair tech a one-time code

A plumber, an appliance tech, or a delivery that needs the garage door is a one-time job, and a one-time code matches that exactly. Set it to expire the same day even if the code itself only fires once, since a code that has not been used yet is still an open door until it either fires or expires.

If the visit could run long or the contractor might need to step out for parts and come back, a short date-ranged code covering the whole day is more forgiving than a one-time code that gets used up on the first trip to the truck. Either way, the code should not still exist by the following week. A contractor who did one job has no ongoing reason to hold a working code to your door.

If you are the one hosting rather than living in the property, the code math changes: a short-term rental can run through a dozen codes a month, and the checklist for that situation, including how bookings map onto date ranges, is different enough to cover on its own in the guide to setting up a lock for an Airbnb listing.

Codes for family members who do not live there

A sibling who waters the plants twice a year, a parent who checks in while you travel, an adult child home from college for a few weeks: none of these fit neatly into recurring or one-time, and it is tempting to just hand out an always-on code because it is the least fuss. Resist that a little. An always-on code for someone who visits three times a year is the code most likely to still be active five years later, long after anyone remembers issuing it.

A date-ranged code that covers the actual trip, extended by a day on either end, does the job without leaving a permanent credential in the system. If a family member genuinely needs standing access, an always-on code is fine, but pair it with a calendar reminder to review it once a year rather than assuming it will come up on its own.

If the property is a rental and you are the one asking a landlord whether you can add codes for family at all, that is a permission question first. The lease and what it actually allows around changing or adding access to the door should be settled before the lock strategy.

What happens when you forget to remove a code

Nothing breaks the day a code outlives its reason. The lock keeps working, the door keeps locking, and the only sign anything is wrong is a line in the access log that nobody is checking. That is what makes leftover codes different from most other smart lock problems: there is no beep, no error, no prompt telling you to clean up.

The realistic risk is not a stranger studying your access log for an old code. It is a relationship that ended less cleanly than a landscaper simply finishing a job: an ex who moved out, a roommate who left owing rent, a dog walker let go for missing visits. A code from a routine service call is a small, quiet risk. A code left active for someone you had a falling out with is not.

A full factory reset is the blunt fix and it works, since it clears every code the lock holds at once, but it also means reprogramming everyone from scratch, including people whose access you meant to keep. The difference between a reset, a re-pair, and simply deleting one code matters here, because most of the time deleting the single code you no longer trust is faster and leaves everything else untouched.

Reading the access log without over-trusting it

An access log tells you which code opened the door and when. That is useful and also narrower than it sounds. It does not tell you who was holding the phone or standing at the keypad, only which credential was used. If two people know the same code, the log cannot tell them apart, which is one more reason separate codes per person are worth the small extra setup.

Check the log after anything unusual rather than on a fixed schedule you will eventually stop keeping. A missed delivery, a pet that got out, a cleaner who says she came Tuesday when you thought the visit was Thursday: these are the moments the log actually earns its keep, confirming or correcting what you already suspect rather than being read cold.

Revoking access the moment the job or visit ends

Date-ranged and one-time codes remove themselves, which is most of why they are worth using instead of defaulting everyone to always-on. But even a code that expires on its own is worth deleting outright once you know it will not be needed again, rather than letting it sit expired in the list. An expired code is inert, but a list of a dozen expired codes named “cleaner,” “cleaner 2,” and “old dog walker” is exactly the clutter that makes the real, active ones harder to spot.

Revoke on the day a relationship changes, not at the end of the month. If a cleaner tells you she is stopping, remove her code before you forget rather than after. The five minutes it takes is the entire point of using temporary codes in the first place; skip that step and a temporary code quietly becomes a permanent one.

Common questions

How many temporary codes can a smart lock hold at once?

It varies by model rather than by brand alone. Philips Home Access states that most of its smart locks support up to 100 active temporary codes at once, depending on the model, while plenty of budget consumer deadbolts top out closer to twenty or thirty slots total. Check the manual for your specific lock rather than assuming, since two locks from the same maker can differ.

Can I set a code that only works on certain days of the week?

Yes, this is what a recurring code is for. You set the days and the time window once, and the lock or the app enforces it every week without you reissuing anything. It is the right choice for a cleaner or dog walker who comes on the same day each week rather than a one-off visitor.

Does deleting a code affect anyone else’s access?

No, not if each person has their own code. Deleting one entry in the code list removes only that credential, which is the main reason to avoid sharing a single code between several people in the first place. If everyone shares one code, removing it locks out everyone at once.

What if the lock is offline when a code is supposed to expire?

It depends on where the schedule lives. On locks that write the expiration into their own memory, the code dies on the lock’s own clock whether or not the network is up. On locks that rely on the maker’s cloud to push a delete command, an outage can leave an expired code working a little longer than it should. If that distinction matters to you, it is worth asking the manufacturer directly rather than assuming.

The short version

Match the code type to the visitor rather than handing out one shared code for everyone. Recurring codes suit a cleaner or dog walker on a weekly pattern, date-ranged codes suit a house sitter or a visiting family member, and one-time codes suit a single contractor or delivery. Reserve always-on codes for people who are effectively part of the household, and put a reminder on the calendar to review them, since they are the type most likely to be forgotten. Check the access log when something looks off rather than on a fixed schedule, and delete a code the day a relationship ends instead of waiting for it to expire on its own.