I’ve had a happy ST Hub and Hue bridge integration for years, but after changing ISP router I can no longer discover the Hue bridge.
Straight after swapping the router the Hue devices did remain online, but after rebooting the hubs the Hue bridge and all bulbs and sensors remained offline. I’d forgotten to first ensure the new router allocated the previous bridge LAN IP address.
Re-scanning or offline diagnostics didn’t help. Again forgetting to simply change the bridge IP address back to previous I went ahead with removing the bridge from ST. But add Hue device, or scan nearby, or add by Matter ID, methods still wouldn’t find the bridge.
Luckily the account link method does work - the Hue app has no issues finding the bridge - but the devices are added as new devices so routines had to be updated - and I’d prefer a LAN integration.
The Hue Essentials app also wouldn’t discover but that has the option to specify adding by bridge IP address and that immediately worked.
The ISP router (not a named brand router but a fairly new WIFI 7 design) has UPNP enabled. The hub and bridge are LAN connected just as before - only the router has changed.
Sadly there’s still no option to specify IP address when adding Hue to ST. One option is to swap back the old ISP router and see if discovery works again.
So - is there another ST option to re-connect the Hue bridge given the possibility that the new ISP router is somehow affecting how discovery works?
Thanks for the reply. To be clear will this help with bridge discovery?
Unfortunately I removed the bridge from ST hoping that would ease re-discovery - rather than the better idea in hindsight of trying more ways to recover an offline bridge.
There are mentions about linking rather than discovery - although there is confusion in different sources about whether the physical button on the bridge needs to be pressed for discovery or - as I remember - just to confirm linking once ST sees a bridge
open the Hue app, go to Settings. and select Smart Home. If your SmartThings hub is listed, click on it and unlink from SmartThings. Then try adding as Matter to ST again in that section of the Hue app.
Maybe someone knows whether loading the beta driver adds to / replaces the built-in ST add-device options or is limited to an alternate driver chosen after the bridge is discovered and linked. Exactly what the process is for detecting devices on a LAN and what part the router plays is unclear.
Smarthings does now appear under Smart Home in Hue - but as a Hue bridge not a ST hub - after using the add by Hue account linking option as all else fails. Just like when I unwisely removed the offline Hue hub device from ST, removing things impacts routines. Cloud and LAN integrations can co-exist - with different devices added to ST. The cloud integration does work - bulbs can be controlled and Hue motion sensors work in routines - but temp and Lux are absent. The Hue bridge doesn’t appear as an ST device with cloud. It doesn’t show noticeable latency but there’s the question of robustness vs. local execution.
I’d hoped the matter paring code might incorporate the device IP address but maybe not. The faux user friendliness of LAN scanning or QR code scanning options now seems less helpful than the simple option of specifying a device IP address that helped with reconnecting the Hue Essentials app.
I was finally able to re-connect to the Hue bridge - by pressing the Hue bridge link button some random minutes after starting discovery.
As with many problems there are multiple aspects.
Assuming the bridge IP address changed on restart (as I’d forgotten to fix it in the new router) with the Hue bridge and devices showing offline, none of the ST app methods such as offline diagnostics succeeded - I forgot to try changing back the IP address.
After removing the bridge in ST and trying to re-add I couldn’t see any sign in the ST app of the bridge being discovered. It’s possible with the new router that discovery - whether done by SSDP or mDNS - is now taking longer than I’ve experienced before. The option of using discovery.meethue.com to return the bridge IP address or manual IP address entry aren’t available.
Although the ST app hadn’t changed screen to confirm bridge discovery and to request the user presses the Hue bridge link button, pressing it anyway after some time spent searching instantly linked and added the Hue devices.
So for anyone encountering the same issue, disregard any, as best confusing, ST app text suggesting the link button be pressed immediately as if to initiate discovery, and wait a little time and then try the bridge link button regardless.
