Disconnecting

General Discussion
1

Okay… Getting frustrated. I suppose frustrated because I don’t have good information on how this system works. I play it by ear. I’m just a regular homeowner with regular homeowner computer skills who bought Smartthings because it seemed simple enough and should just work. I bought mid December 2018 and am about to toss it in the trash March 2019.

Question. Why does ST constantly show disconnected in the app?

Sometimes the device is truly disconnected and I bring a bulb or some other device back to the hub and it reconnects. Most of the time the device only shows disconnected in the app because all scheduling still happens. The hub never shows disconnected.

What is going on?

Status of my little setup today:

ST hub (The newest one) connected
Sengled bulb porch disconnected
Sengled bulb family room disconnected
Sengled mud room bulb disconnected, but works on ST motion sensor
ST water sensor (1 of 3) disconnected
ST outlet, near disconnected bulbs, disconnected

It’s not a big system. I want more. But, keeping up with monitoring ST and all the fiddling should not be this time consuming. Screwing in a lightbulb 40 ft away from the hub on the other side of a wall, with a Zigbee repeater in the room that also goes out…, should not be difficult or this frustrating. Every few days I am dealing with something that is disconnected.

Does anyone have some advice? I am not doing anything fancy or out of the ordinary. All right out of the box. The issue is truly the constant disconnecting from my app or the hub.

In advance, I appreciate any help. -Thanks

2

This has been a frequent problem for the last 18 months and there are many threads in the forum about it. Just Tap on the tag “offlinebug” Under this topic’s title and you will see many of those discussions.

There are several different things that can cause it. Some are fixable, like improving the mesh in your own house and avoiding the use of most brands of directly connected zigbee smart bulbs. (Tradfri and Sengled are OK, And Cree seem to be OK as long as you have nine or fewer. Otherwise, it’s safest to go with bulbs that connect through a Hue bridge.)

If it’s the hub that’s dropping on and off, it can actually be a problem with your ethernet connection, which again you may be able to fix.

Also, there are no issues with the new app showing things as disconnected, which are just fine in the classic app. So some people find a lot of the problems go away if they use the classic app as much as possible.

But if it’s just a random selection of devices and protocols, it seems to be a platform instability that affects quite a few people at different times. There are a lot of things you can try to fix it, and sometimes they will fix it for a week or two, but then the problem will come back. :disappointed_relieved: (Whenever someone posts in the forum that they found the fix for their disconnected devices problem and they detail it, I always suggest that they come back in a week and let us know if the problem has recurred or not. Because for many people it’s just an intermittent issue.)

Since everything you described is zigbee and 40 feet away is pushing the boundaries of a single zigbee hop, I would probably start by adding a zigbee repeater halfway between the hub and the room with the disconnected devices, force a zigbee heal, and then see If the problem goes away after a week or so.

But trying to fix this issue is always just trial and error, and you have to give it a few days before you can really be sure whether you are seeing improvement or not.

I know that’s frustrating. It’s one of the main reasons that people will go to a “do it for me“ solution rather than a “DIY“ solution for a Home Automation – – the pro installers have a lot of tools to evaluate the health of a network that smartthings does not provide.

3

Are you using the new app, or Classic?

If you’re using the new Samsung SmartThings app, try installing and using the SmartThings Classic app.

If you’re using Classic, do you have Device Health turned on? Turn it off if you do.

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4

Very helpful. Thank you!

I will read up on the Offlinebug

The ST outlet was installed just yesterday because I read about creating a Zigbee mesh. I installed the ST outlet in the room near the disconnecting bulbs. But, if you think I need more, I’ll buy a couple and place them around.

Maybe I’ll buy a Sengled hub as well. They suggest it, but not required if I have a ST hub. I understand the type of bulb I have is not a Zigbee repeater.

I think I’ll stick with the newer app. It was the upgrade and a bit of a pain to set it up.

Do you have a suggestion on a Zigbee repeater? My guess is the outlets are enough. I suppose that new Samsung WiFi has no benefit for my issue now that I have a ST hub.

Thank you again for writing.

5

Hi.

I’m using the new app. I was converted from the classic app. It’s very different, but you think classic is better?

6

I use several Iris wall plugs, but I’m not sure where you’ll find them now. ST’s are also good. You can always replace wall switches with GE’s Zigbee wall switch. I have many of those, and they are really good devices.

It’s your account that was converted, but you can still use Classic for now. The new app and Classic are different, and have different built in apps like Smart Home Monitor, and others, so catch up here:

The new app is still very buggy, and they can now make changes in the background without letting you know, or sending you any notification of what’s changing. That’s actually going on right now with new features they added to devices that have rendered most of my devices useless in the new app.

I still use Classic, and try to use the new app; but it’s not going well.

EDIT: perfect example is right at this moment. I can’t open the new app without it crashing on my phone.

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7

You can’t use the Sengled gateway if you are also using the smartthings hub. It’s one or the other.

As far as a good zigbee repeater, right now I am recommending the IKEA Tradfri. It’s just a simple single socket on/off device, but it’s a good Zigbee repeater and better than most if you want to also use the inexpensive Xioami sensors. And at a price of less than $10, it’s hard to beat. :sunglasses: The bulbs and the plug-in pocket socket work well with SmartThings. There is only partial integration with the handheld buttons and remotes, so I would skip those for now.

https://m2.ikea.com/us/en/p/tradfri-wireless-control-outlet-30356169/

8

Wow, thanks for all of this help! Lots of reading ahead. I’m fascinated about all of this and find it helpful in what smartening things up can do. I wish it was a bit more stable. Or there were more instructions, better than random YouTube videos. At least I’m not climbing ladders to reset a bulb.

My devices are now all set, again.

Thank you very much for the help.

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9

Did you do a zigbee heal after you added the plug? If not, it may just have taken some time before all the network address tables were updated. See the following:

10

Yes. I knew nothing about a mesh network/backbone before a few days ago. Before yesterday I didn’t have anything meshable so I’ll look up how to heal Zigbee.

All of the different terminology is very confusing.

My ST hub is on the main floor of the house, but on one end. It is directly connected 2 ft from the router. I thought about trying to move it to a central location, but I can’t find any direction on how to make the change.

Fascinating about the app changes.

I’ll also look into the IKEA outlet.

Amazing help here!! :blush:

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11

I’m very surprised about the lack of help or guidance from Samsung ST. Without people like you through this community I’d truly be in the dark.

12

The link I just posted tells you how to force a zigbee heal. It’s super easy. Just unplug the hub (and remove batteries if it has any) while leaving everything else on power. Leave the hub off power for at least 20 minutes. During that time, the other devices will go into “panic mode” because they can’t find the hub. Then when you put the hub back on power, all the devices will rebuild their individual neighbor tables. That way everybody has the most updated neighbor list and your network will run the most efficiently. So the bulbs which were not communicating will realize that you added the new repeater and try using it.

13

I was a network engineer before ever buying smartthings, so I tend to get involved in those conversations. But lots of other people help on topics like the new app or webcore or cameras or other stuff that I know nothing about. We all help each other here. :sunglasses:

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14

The article is great! Thanks!!

Off now to buy a couple of those Swedish outlets… I mean pocketsockets? To give them a try. I can see where it is helpful to have a mesh in my house.

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15

I’m feeling better about all of this. Thank you again for all the fantastic help today!!!

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16

Is anyone having problems tonight?

17

@ both JDRoberts and JohnConstantelo.

I want to thank you both for the helpful suggestions yesterday… Thank you!

Okay, I know its only one day, but I think adding the pocket socket (trying to use the proper terminology) and preforming the Zigbee heal did the trick. Since yesterday…

  • Nothing has dropped/disconnected in 24 hours. A record!
  • Everything seems to work faster. Nothing is sluggish when asked to do something.
  • One bulb that works off of a motion detector is now actually working properly. It has never worked correctly since the day I installed it last December.
  • The app shows everything connected and operating in the proper state. On is on and off is off and all is controllable.

The reason I say fixing or actually creating the Zigbee mesh worked is because of the bulb on the motion sensor. It always showed disconnected or the opposite of what it was doing. If the bulb was on, the app showed off or disconnected. The bulb was sluggish. Like, I could almost walk through the hall to the garage before the light came on. The bulb was not able to be controlled from the app, ever. Today, the bulb has worked perfectly! Now, one foot in the doorway and the light pops on! I turn it on and off with the app. I always thought the issue was the bulb being on a 3-way switch confused it and the bulb being in a metal can recessed in the ceiling interfered. I’m guessing not.

The pocket socket is installed about 15 ft away. I installed the new outlet the previous day, but I didn’t know about disconnecting the hub to fix the mesh. Heck, I never knew/understood what the mesh was all about. The reason for my negative first post was because I hoped the new outlet was going to help, but the opposite occurred. Never in one day had so many devices disconnect.

I’m like a kid with this stuff and I’m now excited all of this is actually working!

Last night I purchased three TRÅDFRI outlets from IKEA to spread the Zigbee mesh into other areas of the house and into the basement where I have three water sensors. Sounds fun to get those connected.

I bet after a few more days I’ll be trying something else. Yesterday, I wanted the ST system in the trash as an experiment gone bad. Not today.

So, I wanted to give an update and that I think all of your help was spot on!

Thanks again!! :slightly_smiling_face:

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18

Glad to hear your news! It’s an addiction with this stuff. I now have 270 devices (less than I use to have!), and it is exciting when devices and automations work like you want.

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