I purchased 4 C Life lightbulbs and they are not being seen by my hub. Any suggestions as to how to connect them?
Seeing as how GE C-Life bulbs are Bluetooth-based, and the BT radio in your ST Hub is not functional…what exactly makes you think the bulbs should be seen by your hub?
The GE zigbee light bulbs will work with the Smartthings hub. The Bluetooth ones are also smart bulbs, but they will not work with SmartThings. Unfortunately, the C life bulbs are Bluetooth. 
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Presumably the OP didn’t know that. A simple explanation like @JDRoberts provided might have sufficed.
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Perhaps I was trying to make a point about the advisability of ensuring compatibility before purchasing.
Perhaps, but it came off as kind of sarcastic and patronizing towards a new forum member. This is supposed to be a community after all.
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I suppose I was mostly hoping to reassure new members like the OP not to be discouraged from asking newbie questions by being made to feel small by community members with more experience/knowledge. I think that has value, even if you don’t.
Feel free to get the last word in, that seems to be important to you. I’m going to mute this topic.
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I just saw a bunch of these bulbs in my local Lowes. They do everything they can to hide the fact that they are incompatible with Iris, SmartThings, etc. They should probably go as far as to mention on the box they are not zig bee or Z wave compatible. Way too muddy the waters, General Electric .
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Not declaring “Not compatible with X system/standard” on the box is not even close to “doing everything they can to hide” those incompatibilities. There’s absolutely nothing on the package implying that the product implements those standards or is compatible SmartThings or Iris, so why in the world would you assume that they are?
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Why would you assume that I am not totally aware of all compatibility issues associated with this item? I was merely sympathizing with the newbie whom you had previously dissed. You need to work on your people skills.
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No, you were accusing GE of intentionally misleading consumers by failing to proclaim on the box that the switch wasn’t compatible with ST…the implication being that it’s somehow expected that people will assume that it IS compatible in the absence of such an explicit statement to the contrary. And you resurrected a 2 year-old thread to do it in.
You need to work on your regard for honesty.
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I also recently bought these light bulbs online and becase I have had GE lightbulbs I in my home networkwd rheough the ST hub I made the assumption that they would work with Smartthings as well. I have had zero problem getting them to be networked and recognized by the “C by GE” app but have so far not been successful in getting Smartthings to recognize them. I came here hoping for help but this is the first time I’ve ever seen a snarky unhelpful reply from someone that seems like they are a moderator in this forum. So much for getting help here!
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This forum was set up several years ago for customers helping other customers. Unless someone has a badge indicating that they work for smartthings, they’re just another user. Some people are cheerful, some people are prickly, everybody has good and bad days. (I myself am not feeling very well today, and have skipped a lot of topics I would usually find interesting.) But we do all try to help each other. 
Unfortunately, as far as the C by GE bulbs, they are Bluetooth, and do not work with SmartThings. 
Completely different model line, I believe even made by a different development team than the one that does the zigbee bulbs that do work with SmartThings.
This is exactly the kind of situation that leads to the “first rule of home automation”: the model number matters. Even when you are buying a device from the same manufacturer, you can’t be certain that it will work with any specific other device without checking the model numbers. You can even get two smart bulbs from the same company and find that, for example, one of them will work with google home and one will not. I know it’s frustrating for consumers: it’s just the state of the industry right now.
The good news is that the C by GE do have an integration with echo, and so you can use Alexa as a “man in the middle” and get some integration that way, at least for on and off. It’s not much, but it may be better than nothing if it’s too late to return the bulbs. But if you can still return the bulbs, that might be the best choice.
If you are interested in the echo method, here’s the FAQ on that. (The topic title is a clickable link)
Unfortunately, as yet there’s no comparable method for Google assistant. Hopefully there will be soon, as Google and Amazon are pretty much leapfrogging each other when it comes to new features. But of course no guarantees.
The safest way to be sure that a new device will work with SmartThings is to check the official compatibility list:
It’s a little more work upfront, but it can save you a lot of frustration down the road.
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Use a simulated contact sensor in (https://account.smartthings.com) as a virtual device. Then use that virtual device to run routines in Alexa. Alexa can see your C-Life bulbs if you have a C-Reach bridge on the same 2.4Ghz wireless network as your smartthings Hub. Now you can control your C-Life bulbs in smartthings Hub by just opening or closing the simulated contact sensor.
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That method was already listed in the post above yours from last week. It’s discussed in detail in the FAQ linked to there, including the exact steps you have to complete to make it work.
Sorry to “Zombie” this thread, but it’s the most logical place to put this follow-on question.
C by GE is a suite of products today (2019) beyond just the Bluetooth bulbs. I recently purchased the WiFi toggle switches and they joined to to my network. That said, I’m looking for an integration to the C by GE cloud service (there is one, as I log into it, and I can control these toggles over the Internet).
These toggle switches are a super-convenient way to:
- Not have to replace your existing face plates
- Have two separate circuits of lights controlled as a group
- Not, technically, require any hub, integration, or automation to work
That makes them very “other people in the house” proof, because they “just work”. I haven’t tested this yet, but I suspect they have bluetooth as well, so they’ll even work when the WiFi is down (supposedly).
The only way I know of right now is to use Alexa as a “man in the middle.“ But that’s not two way Communication. You could set up smartthings automations to turn your C by GE bulbs on and off using that method , but if you turn them on in any other way smartthings won’t be notified of the state change.
Details in the following FAQ:
Thanks @JDRoberts, just to clarify, this isn’t the GE bulbs, but their C by GE WiFi-enabled switches: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07NWB7S86/
I’m going to keep poking around with an integration and see if I can get them working. I like the idea of using Alexa as a MIM, but it’s clunky and as you point out isn’t two-way.
-Rob
Right, it’s the same issue and the same FAQ. The only available integration at the present time is through echo, and that’s only partial.
Interestingly, I am currently STANDING in Lowe’s in front of a display for this very bulb. I agree with your assessment regarding GE (intentionally?) being “clear as mud” regarding their compatibilities on various products. That’s how I ended up here! Researching this bulb’s comparability with ST.
As for Dan Parker’s snarky comment about Bluetooth connection only, etc. , I am studying the box right now and it mentions NOTHING about BT. The box only says “made for Google” and “works with Google assistant”. So uh DP, you need to take your “Holier Than Though” attitude down two notches! That’s not helpful to anybody and only serves to make you look like a horse’s hind end.
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