GE Smart switch install issues. PLEASE HELP!

I made a YouTube video outlining my issues… hoping someone can help!

Load wires shouldn’t be connected between the first two switches. Sometimes switches will share a line, but shouldn’t share a load. You need to get a multimeter and probe all of your wires and make sure you have your load/line/neutral wires correctly identified rather than guessing.

After looking at your video carefully, I’m 99% confident you have your line wire (the one that’s piggybacked between the two switches) hooked up to the load terminal on the GE switch. A multimeter will tell you for sure.

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Yes, I’m pretty sure you have the LINE (power source) connected to the LOAD terminal of the first switch but you need to meter everything to be sure.

You also said ‘power source and load’ in a sentence in the first video making me think you meant LINE.

To keep the right terminology…

Load - wire that goes from the switch to the light
Line - wire that goes from the breaker to the switch.
Neutral - goes to the breaker box as well, but has zero volts on it
Ground - solid copper with no insulation… Usually.

With all wires disconnected, and the breaker on, returning should read zero volts, except the line. That should be around 115 vac.

My advice is to lose the piggy back. Branch two jumper wires off of the incoming line, one branch to each switch.

Thanks guys… I had an electrician out in an unrelated job and pulled him in so he could take a look. As I expected, something very simple… I pulled out a neutral wire and connected it to the switch instead of adding the pig tail to all the neutral lines in the box. This basically made a closed end loop of power and load to the two switched which carried the piggy back line wire.
So in a way, all of you were correct. My electrician told me to cut the piggy bag and run independent line wires to each. He did mention that I could also piggy back the line wire and it would still work.
Hope this helps anyone reading this and having problems! Thank you for those that replied and sent out some help!

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Ah! That’s a pretty common mistake actually.

Glad you got it resolved.