DISAPPOINTED WITH SUPPORT - was requesting Support help in getting a firmware update for my SmartThings V2 Hub

Devices & Integrations Connected Things
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UPDATE:

I am generally overwhelmingly disappointed with Samsung and their complete lack of support on the V2 Hub issue below.

1) SUPPORT: NO ONE from the Samsung support team ever replied to my inquiry. I spent HOURS reading through this forum and tried many previously Samsung suggested options to no avail. Nothing that I did or tried was with Samsung’s support team assisting. If someone is getting paid to watch, read and respond to these forums, they should be fired.

As a former consulting SE with Cisco, I was extremely specific in describing the problem, and the steps I took in attempting to address THEIR firmware not updating. And Samsung’s response? Their assistance? Their expressed concern?

NOTHING.

2) PRODUCT: I am shocked that Samsung is abandoning customers on a still supported product. This is due to THEIR poorly done firmware upgrade planning which leave NO option for their customers to recover from Samsung creating a dead end for existing customers. Reading through other threads the general response form Samsung is: We made a firmware update, you can no longer get one. You are SOL, it won’t work, buy a different product.

No apologies, no download-the-firmware-and-you-can-apply-it-locally, no return-it- and-we-will-send-you-a-new-one, no discount-toward-a-new-product, .

Nothing. Again, just nothing. Just throw that Samsung product in the trash because we already have your money.

This entire thread has been a COMPLETE WASTE OF TIME.

I will remember this stunning lack of support from Samsung.

This experience will be first in my thoughts the next time that I will be making a several thousand dollar decision when I need a phone, watch ,or big-ticket appliance. Because after all… why in the sake of all that is good would I even consider spending money on a company that abandons their customers and products like this.

:skull:

…

Hello.

I am requesting assistance in updating up an older V2 SmartThings hub.

Why: I would like it to control ONE smart outlet that would then control the on/off function of a PC via a Logitech Remote with hub. (in the future, maybe geofencing would be nice… but one battle at a time.)

I understand that the V2 Hub will support Matter via a firmware upgrade. I am considering a low cost matter capable outlet from Cync.

So, al that should be good… however:

  1. I can power up the hub
  2. I can add it (and have added it) to the SmartThings app on my phone.
  3. I can see it on SmartThings Advanced, but it displays that the firmware is: 000.031.00004

Of course, it is not connecting to whatever server likely has the latest firmware as this device has missed likely many many firmware updates.

A request to change to auto update fails, a request to do a remote reboot fails. No MAC or IP address is shown in SmartThings advanced.

There is ONE blue light displayed on the front of the device.

Please let me know the specific next steps that I need to take to have you push a firmware update to this device, and I will execute them with great care.

Thank you,

Vincent

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Steps I am taking based on previous feedback provided by support to other users:

  1. Removed the hub from my SmartThings app.

  2. Attempt to disable disable UDP port 123 (NTP) on my home router … and I cannot as it is a Linksys Velop Mesh and it does not include custom outbound firewall rules or native toggles to selectively block individual outbound ports.

  3. Blocking NTP via access control doesn’t make enough sense to me as I am unsure what exactly I should block. There are MANY NTP server names listed at pool.ntp.org: NTP Servers in Global, pool.ntp.org

I am open to suggestions on how I might make that work.

One other thing to consider: My Velop home router is connected to a T-Mobile Router (5G wireless) that provides my internet connection. As that is a locked-down router, I have little control over what can be done on that device.

  1. I have tried the reset instruction provided by a different user, twice.

Thomas Train

Aug 2025

I’ve recovered three v2 hubs with the below procedure:

a) If you are able to factory reset it, remove the batteries, and Unplug Ethernet and leave it unplugged. Perform the factory reset (press and hold reset button while plugging in power, keep holding until flashing yellow LED goes yellow solid, then release the reset button)

b) Let the hub reboot and go through the motions and LED cycle allowing to boot and stay up for about 5 minutes (continue to keep Ethernet unplugged). You’ll see the led cycle red to magenta to flashing blue, etc.

c) after 5 minutes on flashing blue, power cycle the hub one more time by unplugging the hub and then plugging it back in (again, keep Ethernet unplugged) and allow the hub to boot.

d) then let it sit for 5 minutes without Ethernet. The LED will either be a flashing blue or solid blue at this point but after 5 minutes, now plug in Ethernet.

e) within about 1-2 minutes after finally plugging in Ethernet , you should see the LED go green and then it should pretty quickly go magenta to indicate it is download the firmware… don’t touch the hub at this point, just let it cook as it will do this cycle one more time before it finally gets upgraded to 57.x.

All seems to go well for steps a - d, but in step e the LED never goes green. so likely it is not accessing any firmware.

After all this, the light is solid blue.

I will leave it powered up, as there are comments that say it takes a while for update to happen.

I have added the hub back into the SmartThings app, and can see it again in Smartthings advanced.

However, still the same firmware version… and no MAC or IP address.

When I attempt to change the update to automatic in Smarttings Advanced, the response is: “Error changing Zigbee OTA updates to “Allow”. 408 Request timed out”

(opinion: this device not having a USB firmware update method is really surprising and disappointing)

I continue to wait for guidance in resolving this issue.

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Might as well jump in here with a V2 hub that will onboard - visible on advanced view but with the firmware field empty. Maybe the recovery steps will be similar to @Zebraitis problem. Mine does have a MAC and IP on the advanced view though. This is one of those ebay “new old stock” STH-ETH-250 models. I don’t have any luck with ever seeing a yellow light when attempting a reset, only red on boot, then blue, then green when onboarded with the welcome code originally included. The reset button seems to only reboot the device. Trying to collect logs to a FAT32 formatted thumbdrive does not work either (upon hitting reset with drive attached - just reboots). Once onboarded, no radios are functional via the smartthings-cli output. I contacted Samsung Apps and Services and got a response from Wilmhar suggesting 1. to keep it attached in case support pushes firmware to it, 2. Perform a Long Hold power cycle (basically remove from all power for over 10 minutes and try the reset procedure this time holding the button in, plugging it in, holding it for 60 seconds no matter what the LED states are) - this did not reset anything for me since it just reconnected once booted up, and 3. check to see if there is a hardware version listed in the advanced web view. Mine has a hardware version of “000F”. It was suggested that if this isn’t shown there may be a hardware issue vs. just firmware.

So far nothing has worked to get the device factory reset - never see any yellow blinking or steady LED states. I am also capturing traffic from/to the device and it never sends any NTP queries when booting (or ever during 5 hours of capturing). I can block NTP via my router which is an Ubiquity EdgeX that has full firewall capabilities although this never has blocked any traffic since my box isn’t sending NTP queries (probably because I can’t actually factory reset it).

Seems that the only solution for a V2 hub that can’t be reset but can actually onboard is to have support push updated firmware to it. If this is not the case please let me know what other steps to try. Thanks!

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Best advice - if you have a friend or family who has the ability to block ports - temporarily use their network so you can update the security certificate of your hub. While using that instance of leaving Ethernet disconnected - I recommend leaving Ethernet connected.

For v2 hub:

  • remove batteries
  • Leave Ethernet cable connected between hub and network.
  • Block port 123 udp
  • Remove power cord
  • Press reset slow and insert power cord.
  • Continue holding for 30 seconds until you see solid yellow and release
  • Onboard hub into app
  • if you see a file downloading, remove the block of the port
  • If it has a really old firmware version, be patient, it can take time as it needs to apply every single firmware version.

More details on how others were able to resolve the issue

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Not a good sign. If the hub is unused and was never connected to any other user’s account…. There were changes made to the platform in 2018. Existing hubs received updates that allowed hubs to switch over to these changes. Hubs that were sitting in stock somewhere would not have received these updates. After a period of time, the old servers were shut down. Now, when users try to use them, they are basically useless and will never connect. Best advice advice, return it nd get your money back. If you do buy another v2 hub, do not look for new or unused - it basically means they will not connect.

ST staff can confirm if this is the case with your hub. With several things you mentioned indicates it is a possibility. @nayelyz @Itati

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Maybe this info can help to tell if this is the case - when booting the device makes a DNS call to resolve “SmartThings” no doman associated - it does that 4 times. I assume this would be for some type of install where there are local servers (test or standalone maybe)? But from there it looks for dc.connect.smartthings.com which resolves as does the next DNS query for dc-na02-useast1.connect.smartthings.com. My hub is able to make a connection to the first server but eventually closes it and establishes a connection to the second server. I don’t see any other DNS queries, and it doesn’t attempt any TCP connections to an IP without a DNS query first. I would think I’d see unresolved DNS queries or TCP connections attempted to firmware-based IP addresses but I don’t. Is it possible that there were additional configuration steps for a user’s network to be able to resolve “SmartThings”? I could setup my DNS server to resolve that name to any address that would work if that’s the issue…

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I did post a review on the hub on ebay explaining that a “New old stock” may not be a viable option and a recently used one would be much better whatever that is worth :slight_smile:

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In that case, I’d just buy a V3 or V4 right away.

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From what I can see V3 is the only option since I have a lot of ZWAVE stuff and V4 drops that support. @jkp do I need to do anything first to have the hub checked? I have my account open to support. I’ll get a V3 hub if this one cannot be updated. Thanks.

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no way to check it beforehand

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I mean do I need to have anything setup on my side so staff can check it besides having access to my account?

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you don’t need to do anything. once it is added sucessfully… you are good to go.

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OK - that’s the only thing I can get this hub to do :slight_smile: It’s been online for a few days now.

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a problem you may face here is the status of ST staff monitoring the forum. They were not online this past week and one’s profile pic has been removed so it leads me to think one or both are no longer available. Only time will tell. So currently, you need to go through the app to find any assistance.

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OK - thanks. If I get assistance I will update here. Thanks!

Update: after a few emails asking me to try to onboard the hub again, reset it etc. it got escalated. They asked me to onboard the hub one more time. I followed the Thomas Train method which I tried before and it never worked since my LED never shows yellow - only blue, red, and green depending on state. I did however let the device sit for extended periods of time without network connectivity, then power off/on, etc. This time the device establishes a long term (permanent) connection as it did previously with dc.connect.smartthings.com which seems to be a server associated with the hub being visible online or not. What happened after onboarding with the welcome code this time is the hub attempts to connect to usher.connect.smartthings.com (different IP addresses than the dc.connect.x.x server). It connects via TCP but once it tries to establish a TLS session, after the server passes its certificate and key exchange, the hub responds with a TLS error - unknown Certificate Authority. To me this means the hub has an old security profile loaded - old certs etc. It does not trust the server’s certificate so drops the connection and tries again over and over. Eventually (overnight at some point), it just stopped trying to connect to usher.x.x.x. After this the staff responded with the following:

We have reviewed the findings from our escalation team. Based on the information provided and the troubleshooting already completed, the Zigbee and Z-Wave radio information is still not appearing on the hub even after the hub was removed and onboarded again.

The absence of the Zigbee and Z-Wave radio information indicates that the hub was unable to complete its initialization properly. Since you have already completed the recommended re-onboarding process and the radios continue to be missing, this points to the hub itself as the source of the concern rather than the SmartThings app or network environment.

Because the Zigbee and Z-Wave radios are essential components of the SmartThings Hub, their continued absence after re-onboarding indicates that the hub is not functioning as expected. At this point, additional SmartThings troubleshooting is unlikely to resolve the issue.

As a last resort, the hub will require replacement. We highly recommend contacting the store or seller from whom the hub was purchased to inquire about a replacement or exchange.

We appreciate the time and effort you have devoted to diagnosing this concern and sharing your findings with us.

We are committed to ensuring your experience is smooth and seamless. Have a great day ahead!

Kind regards,

Joseph

Samsung SmartThings Support

I doubt if it is actually hardware related and more that the device has an old cert for a CA that has been changed and even if that could be remedied, the device may not be able to update to a later firmware based on whatever firmware is currently loaded. Basically support verified that it isn’t the app and it isn’t the network and never specifically was able to tell me the hub has firmware or certs that were too old to function in the current SmartThings environment.

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Final Update:

This is more for those fellow users that may be struggling to resolve their issue with the V2 Hub

As Samsung support has apparently abandoned customers on V2 hubs that missed firmware updates, I was able to purchase a replacement on eBay for sub $20.

I asked that the seller verify a “green” LED when connected to power.

On receipt of the hub, I did a reset of the hub, and then a reboot. I was able to connect the Hub to the SmartThings app on my phone. Once connected, I verified via SmartThings Advanced that the Hub was on the latest firmware (61.6) and that I could ping the hub.

Because I want my Logitech Harmony Ultimate to power on and off a PC, I need the SmartThings hub to control an inexpensive smart plug. I chose GE Cync (around $13). It is a “Matter” plug. The SmartThings V2 hub connected to the Cync smart plug successfully.

As the rest of my integration will be between SmartThings Hub and Harmony Hub, this is a different integration and I will likely not post on this thread again.

I wish you fellow users well.

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Yikes, it does appear that @nayelyz may no longer be around. That would be a great loss to the forum. She provided invaluable help.

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Or on annual leave?

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Why would her profile picture be gone if that was the case?

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The lack of communication is a recurring theme throughout the community. Very professional. Are we on our own now?