Broken Features [Feb 2021]

Apps & Clients Features & Feedback
#1

Since we were told there would be parity with the features in the classic app before it was removed, but it has now been removed and there are still multiple items that don’t work in the new app, and things have changed many times, I wanted to go ahead and create a new thread that would round up the current missing pieces. Please feel free to add to this.

  1. smartLighting is region locked and now not available in several countries where it used to be available. This includes some of the Nordic countries. There does not seem to be an official list anywhere of which countries do get smart lighting.

  2. virtual presence sensors cannot be used as trigger conditions for automations. You can enter the information but it doesn’t save. Even worse, there are reports that it gets swapped out for the UI device’s presence feature, which could be dangerous.

  3. Multi button devices, both zigbee and Z wave, frequently lack support for all but one button. There are some DTH changes that can help with this, but there doesn’t seem to be an official writeup anywhere of what the required changes are.

  4. some Smart Home Monitor (SHM) features operated locally in the classic app. It now appears that all of the equivalent smartthings home monitor (STHM) features are cloud-based.

  5. “After things quiet down“ or “after no motion” automations appear to work differently in the new app and not all use cases can be solved.

  6. if you are using smart lighting with all local devices and you use a delay, the devices may be triggered Serially rather than in parallel.

  7. there is now a limit of a maximum of 200 devices. You will get an error message if you try and add a 201st device. This was not true in the classic app. (As @prjct92eh2 noted below, this still works in some places in the new app, so whether you run into it or not depends in part just how you use the app.)

  8. several Fibaro devices do not appear to work correctly with the new app.

  9. in the old app you could specify which devices you wanted exposed to Alexa. That is no longer true. @iridris adds this is also true for Google.

  10. automations with multiple presence checks in the If statement do not appear to work. People are ending up creating one automation for each person, which doesn’t always have the same result.

  11. momentary buttons using the stock DTH no longer work. They frequently create execution loops, probably because they are stateless.

  12. speaking of state… If a device, including a scene from some of the cloud to cloud integrations, doesn’t have an initial state it shows as off-line in the new app and can’t be added to an automation. The workaround for this is to use web core or sharptools to turn the device on for the first time.

  13. Fan speed can’t be used in a scene

  14. Voice accessibility is a problem in many places in the app

  15. If automations are created from the device page, then The main page will take a very long time loading.

  16. there are still reports of the app using huge amounts of storage but I’m not 100% sure of the details of that.

  17. widgets and watch apps are missing relative to what was available with the classic app

  18. “left open” (as opposed to “if open”) functionality is missing from the new app

  19. multiple reports in the forum that scenes from the new app are not working with Google assistant, but I don’t know all the details on that

  20. quite a few individual client devices (phones/tablets/watches) that worked with the classic app do not work with the new V3 app. Even some from Samsung itself.

  21. cannot change the icons for Devices

  22. for a multi capability device, cannot specify which capability is highlighted on the tile.

  23. Smartlocks is now region locked, and apparently Canada is one of the countries that no longer has this functionality?

  24. custom DTHs can go “stale” causing multiple issues for the device.

  25. everyone on the account has to live in the same country. This did not used to be true and has caused problems for some members in Europe.

  26. (from @nezmo below)
    No way to see a complete list of apps and automations any one device is being used in.

  27. (from @nezmo)
    No zwave replace utility

  28. offsets/delays of more than 60 minutes. In the classic app, a number of members had routines that had delays or offsets of 90 minutes or more. I remember one where if the mode was away for more than 12 hours it would change to vacation mode. Also some relative to sunset. In the new V3 app, these sort of offsets can only go up to 60 minutes. One staff member posted that this was an intentional UI change, but it did remove functionality that existed under the classic app. I’m going to go ahead and link to this one because it’s hard to find with a search.

Sunrise/sunset setting now only has max 60 minutes, used to let you choose HOURS - #6 by mrsmartypants

  1. (from @rontalley )
    No way to reset kWh Meter using stock Power Monitor Plug

  2. (from @rontalley )
    Lost the ability to see if other members are home or not because their phones no longer show as devices. There are workarounds with custom code, but this was base functionality in classic.

  1. (From @Shinedown78 )
    Device activity history doesn’t show what automation triggered the device (i.e. webcore piston, smartlighting automation etc), making troubleshooting a nightmare…

  2. (From @saosinx88 )
    setting an automation with period of time can’t have a set time and sunset/sunrise, such as an automation that is triggered between sunset and 11 pm. You either have to use one or the other. This is a change from classic.

  3. (From @PaulmacUK )
    Device History (android app) Listed history for sleepy end devices does not show reports of battery status / level, even though the device is reporting the battery level correctly.

———————
Each of the issues above has been discussed in some detail in the forums if you want to look for those conversations.

Each of these falls into the “worked for months/years, I didn’t change anything except going to the new app, now it doesn’t work” category.

Again, please feel free to add more if you know of them. Also if you want to add a link to a discussion thread, that’s good too.

@blake.arnold

28 Likes
#2

No way to see a complete list of apps and automations any one device is being used in.

No Z-Wave replace function.

7 Likes
#3
  1. Yeah, annoyingly the new app seems to treat “no motion for X minutes” as “no motion, wait and check again in X minutes”.
  2. Is Android only
  3. Can’t say i’ve had this problem
  4. is still true for some countries, but it works in Canada now
5 Likes
#4

For 9., That is also the case for Google as well as Alexa.

2 Likes
#5

Great post, very clear and constructive.

2 Likes
#6

The new app is not available for installation on many of even Samsung’s own entry level phones/tablets rendering the platform unusable. Either correct, or develop a less restricted app so that all who buy Samsung products can utilize SmattThings.

#7
  1. cannot change the icons for Devices
  2. for a multi capability device, cannot specify which capability is highlighted on the tile.

Both of these can be accomplished easily for custom devices using ocfDeviceType and the CLI to edit the json. It’s built in device handlers that cannot be customized in this way

  1. Multi button devices, both zigbee and Z wave, frequently lack support for all but one button. There are some DTH changes that can help with this, but there doesn’t seem to be an official writeup anywhere of what the required changes are.

Each button has to be a child device.

#8

There is more to it than that, though, as many of the existing DTHs already do have a child device for each button, but they don’t work in the new app.

There are multiple threads discussing this issue in the forum already, so I’d rather not go into the details here.

Here is just one example of one DTH that was eventually updated to work.

However, I have seen at least two different methods for updating these, and again, nothing official to explain what updates are required. Just lots of community members trying to figure it out.

#9

Assigning multiple values to one button is in my opinion not the correct way to do it. If you do it this way, I believe it will only work correctly with apps like smart lighting, webcore, or ABC.

This is the correct way to do it. Four buttons with two values. It will allow you to set the actions for each via the detail view.

1 Like
#10

I just wish the Smartlighting app would allow choosing the colour temp to whatever the bulb can actually be set to , the same way automations allow, and not the preselected few choices that smartlighting presently allows.

1 Like
#11

Inability to use temperatures below -20C or above +50C in automations.

#12

This isn’t specific to the new app though

1 Like
#13

Ah, okay. I didn’t try it on old app. So in this regard, old app was crippled too.

#14

FTFY
(doing that isn’t the easiest of things)

#15

Once you have the CLI setup it can be done very quickly. The issue for me was getting it set up properly.

#16

Phone as Presence Sensor does not show as a Device.
No way to reset kWh Meter using stock Power Monitor Plug
No way to send to specific “Members” without using Text (Contacts)
Linked Places only work on Samsung Phones

3 Likes
#17

I think the concept of “present“ has changed. Is there any functionality lost because the phone doesn’t show as a device?

No way to send to specific “Members” without using Text (Contacts)

I’m sorry, I don’t understand this one. how is it different from the functionality in classic? :thinking:

Locations only work on Samsung Phones

Can you be more detailed on this?

#18

Currently, you can not see when a person is home, away, time stamps, etc. Of course there is a work around for this by adding a Virtual Presence and using webCoRE to mimic behavior. But, then there’s the issue of using that in rules as well…

Contacts (I know, I know that it was no longer in the Classic App when retired but was still very, very, very useful and should be included in New App) allowed the ability to select specific users that would get notifications. Now you have to use text if you wanted to send notifications to specific people only.

Locations, I meant “Linked Places” which only works with Samsung Phones

2 Likes
#19

The mobile presence devices do appear in the API so their state and history are freely available. Also they can be used in the Rules API. It just seems to be in the app that they are being wrapped up as Member Locations.

I feel there must be more to come from the whole ‘Member’ thing, but I’ve been saying that for a year or so now.

1 Like
#20

This I know but still, in the Classic App, their was a “Family Tab” once upon a time that was very useful to get a glimpse of who was home or not at a glance. Even had a cool, “This person arrived at blah blah” or “This person left at blah blah”…now, you have to go through multiple steps to get the same info. So, IMHO, it’s broken.

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