Something is strange. It has been 3-4 months since this transition to new stuff has started.
Since then we have been promised fixes on pretty much all of them, but changes and fixes seem to be delayed for too long.
Alexa integration (Doesn’t work right)
Google integration (Doesn’t work right)
Automations are a hit or miss
Location is a hit or miss
The new app has display bugs
The new custom commands CLI is still full of bugs
Smartthings staff who are using the community site have said that bugs and issues have been reported multiple times and that fixes are just around the corner. Fixes though have been promised since 3-4 months ago and still have not been resolved.
The way i see it, is that something major has happened that has hampered development big time. There is no way, that progress is so slow. This probably also means that staff is very limited for this project. Smartthings looks to be the best of its competitors in the long term, but is also the most problematic at the moment and we don’t really know why.
If a staff member has an idea of what is going on, please tell us. I don’t care about the old app, it was never great anyway and never had the integrations i was looking for. The new app is much better, but i can’t recommend Smartthings to anyone right now as it is essentially broken.
Most of the developers and passionate users have fled Smartthings for something else, most probably Hubitat or Home Assistant.
I don’t mind waiting some more for Smartthings to be fixed, but i need to know when. If it will take 2 months, i will stick around, if not, i need to weigh in my alternatives.
Blockquote If a staff member has an idea of what is going on, please tell us
Highly unlikely. There are plenty of people who know what is going on, but it’s reasonable to assume the vast number of them are not at liberty to say. At the very least, it would be a career limiting move. Nobody wants to show up for work and be escorted out of the building. And no current or former Samsung employee wants to be on the wrong side of a team of Samsung lawyers for violating the terms of their employment contract or confidentiality agreement.
The developers and people in the trenches probably are just as frustrated as we are. Doesn’t necessarily mean they have the ability to do anything about it though.
In most cases this is because the device is using a DTH (usually a self-installed or not-approved) that has custom capabilities that have not been updated to work in the new app. For Ecobee, specifically, it should have the same functionality that the approved DTH had in Classic. I was part of the group that personally tested devices with custom capabilities and made sure they were at functional parity. What does “functional parity” mean? It means that you can do the same things and see the same key information on the device, but it may be displayed in different ways. Here’s what I see when I look at ecobee in Classic:
So while they look very different, they have all the same controls and functionality. The only buttons not replicated in the new app are refresh (because entering the device details page already prompts a refresh) and resume (which was a UX decision to simplify things, it can still be done through automation).
They are targeted emails based on whether you’ve gone through the app migration module. If you migrated things manually without going through the app migration prompts, you will still receive the emails. We can’t assume that just because you’re using both apps means you’ve already migrated.
@blake.arnold Thank you kindly for taking the time to reply. If entering the device details page is supposed to force a refresh, please open a ticket with your development team. It does not. Neither does pulling down on the page.
The ecobee device has always refreshed on a 5 minute schedule.
Steps to reproduce:
Go into Ecobee app and change the current heat/cooling temperature
Go into SmartThings new app (or Classic) open the device page
Wait until the device changes to reflect the new value (start the 5 minute timer)
Go into ecobee and resume the thermostat reverting the change
Note that the temperature has not changed in the SmartThings app
Exit the page, and go back into the thermostat page, Note that the change has not been recorded in the device page
Pull down and refresh, note that the change has not been recorded in the device page
Go into Webcore and issue a Refresh. Note that the temperature changes
If you just do this without waiting for the 5 minute refresh, you can be fooled into thinking the app has suddenly developed a feature that it has never had in its history.
Really? If you are referring to ST automation, then in newApp the only functions supported are setting heating/cooling temperature - you can’t even change the mode of the thermostat (!!). If you are referring to Webcore, then I agree – but since when has ST officially started relying on Webcore to pick up the pieces of its failed migration strategy?
Again I truly appreciate your reaching out, and clearly spending a good amount of time to do so comprehensively to your thinking. However, please be aware this is a power user community and not easily glossed over by weak attempts to explain away an absolute failure to properly product manage the @SmartThings product to meet the needs of its user base.
My concerns about the continued functionality of ecobee thermostats in the new ST app remain unaddressed.
Migration completely failed. No info or summary displayed. It fails within a few seconds of running tool.
Here’s the things I’ve tried to no avail:
Reinstalled classic app
Removed Smart Home Monitor from Classic
Viewed IDE status for SmartApps to see any history on migration issues - NONE listed
Called SmartThings Support - they show that everything migrated properly but I have ZERO automations, no new app Home Monitor and no additional scenes.
Obviously, something is causing it to fail and I don’t mind selectively removing things if they could be the culprit (like I did when I removed smart home monitor). I really don’t want to rebuild 20-25 routines in the new app manually but perhaps that’s what I’ve got to do!?!
Here are some of the custom things I have installed:
I went thru the app migration module shortly after it came out, and when I go into Classic app the banner states “This location has migrated to the new SmartThings”, yet I still get all the emails.
My gut tells me that something on backend is not migrated properly, hence why I still get emails. I’ve filed bugs to address region issues that Samsung refuses to fix and I believe they are related and only way to fix is to create whole new account and re-setup my 75+ devices.
So warning if your getting the emails and migrated thru app you may be in same boat as myself.
Happy to tell. As we’ve said in a number of previous posts, we’re trying to support a dual app architecture which needs to evolve. Two main reasons it needs to change: syncing everything between two distinct architectures results in excessive failure points (talking to those of you who see a delay in some devices showing up in the new app or a new location being created) and it diverts development resources, which leads to slow fixes and feature launches.
This is why we’re asking you all to work with us and transition to the new app. I understand that’s a tough ask for our users who have invested a lot in very customized setups. But we need your help in making this happen.
A lot have asked about why we’re moving forward without being “at parity”. The answer is that we are at parity for the vast majority of our users and we have tested for that extensively. We’re trying to provide the best experience possible to the largest number of users, but given how much customization our platform allows, that means there are going to be edge cases. Here’s an interesting example: can anybody guess how many unique SmartApps are only installed in a single (1) location? 92% of them. What percent of total locations with installed Smartapps do those locations represent? 0.2%. And of total users? Roughly 0.05%. The point being, while we really want to support every single use case (because many of them are really cool and add a lot of value to you all), we can’t do that.
So the overall message I want to get across is that we didn’t bury our heads in the sand on this process and we understand what everyone is going through right now - we’re all users as well. But the faster we can sunset Classic, the faster we can resolve a number of issues and give everyone an even better experience with SmartThings. It’s going to be a different experience for sure, but it will definitely be better.
Hello Blake and thank you for answering. If that isbthe case then i am looking forward for the old apps sunsetting which is i think today. Tbh i feel that changes to the platform right now feel very slow, if the old app is to blame, then it is time go.
Also does that mean that the bug fixes and issues worked on need the old app to sunset in order for those to be resolved?
Great question…perhaps these bugs require the Classic app to be sunset before they can be released? Would be great if someone could confirm, as this is the only logical answer that makes sense in why no app updates since 8/21/2020. Yes, almost 2 months with no app bug fixes.
When is Samsung going to release update for new app with bug fixes? When? I do not believe that magically things like "delay in some devices showing up " will just go away when Classic app is retired…we will see in 24 hours I guess.
Additional accessibility support comes out in the next release. We’ve made allowances for this and anyone who is running into issues with accessibility functionality should contact support and mention this directly.
Early next month. Keep in mind that anything that is only cloud-side may come out faster, but fixes that require changes in the mobile client will need to be developed and go through QA, hence having to wait for the next release.
Smartapps are not involved in the migration tool so they are not the issue in your case.
Usually it is related to a routine or shm custom rule that can not be converted to an automation/scene. Another big issue is the region you are in. For example, smart lock guest access can not be migrated for those outside the US. I can’t remember if that applies to STHM in certain countries.
