For the past month (maybe longer), I’ve had an issue with extreme lag (3+ minutes) with anything Smartthings does online - whether it’s using the app or sending voice commands over Alexa. I submitted a help ticket and I think it closed while I was out of the country on holiday. Sometimes the commands work immediately, but most the time it will take 3 minutes or longer, if it completes the command at all. I’m at a loss for how to even troubleshoot the issue. Any ideas?
Alexa and many other integrations were broken all over the Internet today, nothing to do with smartthings, so anything you noticed today complicates any other troubleshooting. But that was just something that happened today and was then fixed by Amazon.
Amazon Web Services Outage affecting many integrations 13 June 2023 [FIXED]
For problems prior to today, we need to know a few more things to get started…
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do you have a smartthings/Aeotec hub, and if so, which model?
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brand and model of one or two of the devices that are specifically having the problem question
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if you do have a hub, do you know how many edge drivers you have on it?
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did any of the lag involve Alexa routines with virtual devices? (There have been some recent changes to these, which broke some functionality.)
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what country are you in? There have been some regional issues lately.
There are just so many changes going on with the transition to the new platform, that the specifics will help.
I saw the Amazon thing, but this started about a month ago. Answers to your question are below:
- do you have a smartthings/Aeotec hub, and if so, which model? SmartThings v2 Hub
- brand and model of one or two of the devices that are specifically having the problem question
*** UltraPro Z-Wave Plus Light Dimmer 39351**
*** Enbrighten Z-Wave Smart Rocker Light Switch**
*** GE Wireless Plug-In Outdoor EZ Z-Wave Smart Switch 12720**
- if you do have a hub, do you know how many edge drivers you have on it? I do not, but if you can point me in the direction to check, I will.
- did any of the lag involve Alexa routines with virtual devices? (There have been some recent changes to these, which broke some functionality.) No.
- what country are you in? There have been some regional issues lately. United States (Florida, if it matters)
Ok, that helps.
There has been a known issue with zwave devices for a couple of months where if you have too many edge drivers, the hub keeps rebooting itself or recycling and you can get a lot of lag. I don’t know a lot more details than that, but if I recall, the only solution is to remove some of the edge Drivers That you aren’t using and see if that helps.
Here’s the community FAQ, with lots of details on edge drivers:
FAQ: I have no idea what Edge is. Is that a new developer tool? (2022)
This is also probably a good time to start getting familiar with the new community-created replacement for the IDE:
SmartThings API Browser+ ... Now Available to All
As for the specific method for finding out how many edge Drivers you have, I’ll leave that to other people to discuss.
Tagging @jkp
If you don’t think it has to do with the number of edge drivers you have, then the next step would be to run a zwave repair and see what error messages you get. But don’t try that until you’ve confirmed that you have a dozen or fewer edge drivers because the repair itself can get hung up otherwise.
start with the API Browser+ and determine what drivers are assigned to your devices. It may also be you can change them to more appropriate drivers (in regards to those using Edge drivers). in the API Browser, locate your device, tap on Details and capture an image of that small screen as it can provide details to point the community to what is happening.
@phil30 Edge drivers may work for you… channel invite
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Thank you for your help and quick responses! Here’s an image of one of the switches just so I can get my bearings. I’m still clicking around to find out how to see which Edge drivers I have installed, but I wanted to at least share the image you asked for.
When I click on Drivers, it shows 0 drivers, whichI can only assume that can’t be right.
in the ST app, find your hub and open it, then tap on the 3 dots and select Driver. That will list them for you.
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siwtch it over to the GE dimmer switch in the link I posted above. Open that link and enroll the driver to install it on your hub. then go to the ST app, find your ge dimmer, open it and tap on 3 dots and select Driver. Change the existing Edge driver to the one you enrolled.
Okay, I have about 20 drivers on my hub, but I’m not sure how to tell if they are Edge drivers or not, they are all simply just “Zigbee Switch,” “Z-Wave Sitch,” “GE Zigbee Switch,” etc. I click on details and it doesn’t say “Edge” anywhere, but the developer on most of them is SmartThings.
I had apparently already enrolled in those GE drivers before (I did try some troubleshooting about a month ago), so I just now added that driver to my Dining Room light. I tried turning on the light with my phone just now and it still hasn’t actually turned the light on.
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anything listed in the Driver section is Edge drivers
API browser+ is a good way to identify which devices are using legacy DTH or Edge. Anything that shows DTH is only legacy groovy DTH. All devices that do not display DTH are Edge or the new architecture.
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Okay, thanks. I don’t see any devices that say DTH.
I think this will be my stopping point for tonight. Tomorrow, I’ll go through my devices and do an inventory of which devices are using which drivers and then go through and see which drivers I can remove.
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switch the Edge drivers for your devices you noted above to @phil30 Edge drivers, run z-wave repair and reboot your hub.
if still experiencing a lag, identify if there any unused Edge drivers on your hub that you can remove.
There are also other community members who can offer further assistance.
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Okay, I know I said I was done for the night, but I did one more thing, I clicked through all the devices and:
- Devices listed as GE, I switched the switched the driver
- I found there were actually a few devices where type was “DTH,” so tomorrow I will force remove those and re-add them (many of them are offline, which was a problem I was going to tackle after the lag, but I’m guessing that’s the problem now)
yep… exclude them and pair them again… Add Device > by brand > z-wave
offline devices will cause havoc
In the API Browser+, go to Locations->Hubs-> Installed Drivers. This will show you all the drivers installed to your hub. Then highlight a driver and click on List Devices. This will show you all devices, if any, that are utilizing that driver.
Devices-> Drivers is a list of any drivers you have created.
In addition to Z-Wave and Zigbee Edge drivers, there are LAN Edge drivers for devices like Sonos and that have been used to create virtual devices that run on your hub instead of the cloud. There are also Matter Edge drivers that support both Wi-Fi and Thread devices. Cloud to Cloud device integrations are identified as Viper devices. Samsung appliances and TVs are OCF devices.
The filter feature in the Devices list is a quick way to see how many devices of the various types you have in your ST setup.
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Okay, so a huge thank you for your help so far. I’ve cleared up unused devices, deleted some old virtual switches that I forgot were, in fact virtual, restarted my hub, ran the Zwave repair (with a few error messages, screenshot below), cleared up old routines and now every device listed in ST is online.
However, I’m still getting the same lag. After more clicking, I found the filter in the API to see my 19 DTH devices. A few of them are switches that I’m not sure if they’re GE or not, so later I’ll remove the switch plate to check the brand. But many or random sensors and scene controllers. I tried to “Change Driver,” but I get a message that it’s an “Ineligible Device.”
Is my best approach here to one-by-one remove those devices and re-add them?
Are all devices experiencing the lag including both Edge driver devices and DTH devices?
Either from the API Browser+ or the legacy IDE, you should be able to see the fingerprint of the devices using DTHs and we can probably figure out what they are without you having to physically inspect them. Even if you don’t know what manufacturer they are, if you remove and re-add them to your network, they should pick up a stock ST Edge driver, barring any custom DTHs installed in the legacy IDE.
You can only use the Change Driver function in the API Browser+ once a device is on an Edge driver. To convert from a DTH to Edge, you have exclude the device from your network, delete any custom DTHs from the IDE if present for that device, and then re-install the device. The only other way is to wait for ST to migrate them at some point in time.
Unknown device during the Z-Wave repair seems troublesome to me. The app doesn’t give you a lot of info, but I think the hub log in the legacy IDE may show you more info such as Z-Wave network ID that could help you track down what devices are the issue.
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Just an update to let everyone know where I’m at…the short version is - apparently the state of my Smart Home is a mess!
I started with 18 DTH devices, I’ve been going through and removing/re-adding them one by one. In doing so, I also discovered that two of the switches aren’t working and the Lighting Automation SmartApp I was using was deprecated alongside Groovy.
I’ve still got another 7 devices to go through and then an Amazon order to replace old stuff. Everything is running slow still, but many of the devices I’ve re-added are giving a message that “all the statuses haven’t updated, check back later,” so I’m assuming it’s like updating all your apps on a factory reset phone and my poor hub is struggling to keep up with all the updates.
Thanks to everyone who has helped guide my way. I guess now it’s time to research Matter switches so I can start the transition with the stuff that needs to be replaced.
which smartapp was it?
once you get rid of all offline z-wave devices and those Unknown from z-wave repair, I expect you would see an improvement. may be a tough road getting there.
keep us informed.
ask the community for advice before purchasing. Several community members have purchased Matter devices and can provide you with helpful info.