Latest Smartthings app from Playstore: Network Configuration Grayed Out? (Q90R sound bar)

Trying to use this clunky app to control a new Q90R sound bar for a product review.

Latest SmartThings app from Google Play (store) has Network Configuration option grayed out so essentially I cannot change the WiFi connection as part of my testing.

Doesn’t seem all that ‘smart’ to me …

Which hub(s) are you working with? I notice that the option to “Update WiFi Information” in the SmartThings app is greyed out for me, but I’m using the WiFi Home Hubs and you change that information in the Plume software. (Probably because the WiFi Home Hubs generate their own WiFi.)

Not using any ‘Hub’ product. This is strictly the Q90R sound bar connected to my home network. Not being able to change the initial wireless settings looks like a serious goof-up by the app developers and a major product hindrance.

Btw - SmartThings is required to set up the sound bar.

Looking through the manual, it appears that you can connect the speakers together, to a TV, and even to a phone/tablet (via BlueTooth) without any additional software. According to Samsung’s web site, “SmartThings lets you add your speakers to your network, giving you greater control over your audio throughout your smart home.” It would appear that it adds functionality, but isn’t required for setup or operation.
SmartThings requires a hub. It’s what all the hardware connects to.

Nice ‘try’ but no, you’re wrong, you need the app to set up the sound bar beyond any of the rudimentary functions of inputs/outs & the physical remote control and that’s what a TOTL sound bar is all about -
not whatever baseline functionality you can try to justify for not needing the app.

The sound bar needs to be connected to the internet to update it’s own firmware.
You need the app to enter WiFi credentials to enable that along with other ‘linking’.

As a product reviewer, I was also directed to setup it up with SmartThings.
And having already read through the FULL English manual, it’s clear how many times the app is pointed to throughout. Nowhere in the manual does Samsung declare you need to rely on one of their Smart Hub products (or another brand’s…) to operate or interact with SmartThings.

The bottom line is this: If SmartThings is the path to connecting the sound bar to your existing wireless network - thereby providing the path to enter SSID & unique password - then this app should also give you the ability to ‘update’ those credentials down the road, for a myriad of reasons.

So move along pal …

Did you try holding ID SET for 30 seconds? That is what the instructions say in the manual. Otherwise you could try deleting the device in SmartThings and re-add under the new network, that is how most devices work in a Smart Home (light bulbs, switches, etc.). Also, the firmware can be updated via USB. Network settings are usually disabled unless you are directly connected to the device for security reasons, direct access to the device is required to change network settings (wouldn’t want your soundbar to get highjacked).

ID set is primarily for adding devices to the ‘ecosystem’ and linking the subwoofer & rear satellites into the local hardware ‘system’. Not really relevant with respect to network credentials.

Yes I am aware you can update the firmware via USB … also not relevant.

When you open SmartThings and begin communicating with the sound bar, it automatically enables BT connection - so one is actually communicating directly and in close proximity to the sound bar in this regard.

I’ve already tried deleting the ‘device’ in SmartThings. That’s another area of concern as after going through that step - which you would think would be going back to square one - you can go all the way through the discovery & setup steps again… but (not)SmartThings doesn’t ask for credentials during this process unlike the very first time you set things up. Perhaps uninstalling SmartThings altogether would wipe out the credentials memorized, but then this goes wholly against anything truly developed as plug-and-play. This is just a case of bad app engineering IME and will result in a reduced merit review…

Thanks for trying …

(I’ve posted here in the hope that Samsung would chime in. But I’ve also opened a support ticket via the more customary path…)

This forum was started and is used by individuals that are using the SmartThings hub(s). That is why most of the answers you will get here are going to be related to the hub.

It happens often as this forum is usually at the top of searches and it’s also confusing now that Samsung has grouped many things under the “Smartthings” umbrella instead of just the hub.

EDIT:. This is also not an official support channel. The Samsung staff that are here are hub related.

SmartThings/Mobile App/Android …

“These forums are a place for learning, helping, and sharing experiences with
SmartThings, SmartApps, the Internet of Things, and home automation.”

And whoever stated it was an ‘official’ support channel ?

It’s was an informative post as to the general nature of this forum but, being as rude as you have been to EVERYONE that has replied to you, I doubt that anyone else will reply.

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Why ask for help, then dismiss everyone’s assistance and attack everyone. If you knew it all, you wouldn’t be here. As a tech reviewer, you should have been able to read the instructions and understand them. At this point, your reviews would seem to lack credibility.

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SET ID for 30 seconds is the reset. You obviously chose not to follow the directions. 5 seconds is to add devices.

Unlike you Anton, I’ve been in this community since April of 2015 so I think I am well well aware of what product this forum was started for and continues to be it’s main focus today. In fact, this forum was here long before Samsung acquired The Smartthings hub and thus, the SmartThings name. Being a “tech writer” who seems to know everything, I would think that you would have known this little bit of history.

Anyway, my skin is just the right thickness thank you and I’ve said my peace. I’m out of here.

Good riddance to you and your review.

That used to be true in the past, but is no longer true with the release of the newest V3 app.

Since that app combined a number of Samsung‘s product lines, including their smart televisions and smart appliances, all into one app, they now no longer assume that customers have a hub or need a hub.

For example, someone could have one of their $6000 smart televisions and a bunch of LIFX Wi-Fi lights and want to create some scenes with those, and they can just use The new V3 app without ever having a hub at all.

Or the only thing the customer has is the Samsung robot vacuum. This is now the only app that works with that.

There are other similar fairly common integrations, but of course they can’t include the zigbee or Z wave devices which do need a hub. But as long as it’s an official integration, many Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and cloud to cloud integrations work just fine with the new app without a hub.

This is a fairly recent change, and people are still getting used to it. :sunglasses:

Here is the official support-base article where they explain that you can add the smart appliances without having a hub:

https://support.smartthings.com/hc/en-us/articles/115002084986-Locations-in-the-SmartThings-app

You can create a Location and add compatible Samsung IoT devices without SmartThings Hub capability. (If you haven’t added a Location, adding your first device will automatically create a Location with the default name Home.) You can always add a SmartThings Hub (or compatible device with SmartThings Hub functionality) to the Location later

So it’s now a “hub optional“ platform, which it did not used to be.

SuperLAN Connect

There is one weird thing which I believe will eventually be considered a bug and get fixed, but right now doesn’t seem to be a priority.

There are some Wi-Fi devices which have an official integration but integrate at the LAN level using “super LAN connect.” These devices will tell you that you need a hub, even though you should be able to do it via a cloud to cloud integration. But because it’s the hub that monitors the local network for superLAN connect, they won’t let you add those without a hub. And even weirder, they seem to have included a few Bluetooth devices in that category, which really makes no sense. That’s all quite frustrating, and as I said, I hope they change that in the future.

I don’t think that’s what the OP has run into, I think instead they may have the issue I explain a couple of posts down where the WiFi has to be disconnected before it will let you change the settings. But I just wanted to mention it in case someone else finds this thread in the future.

The V3 app is still in a phase of rapid development and there’s a lot of changes every few weeks with it, and a lot of features which are still pretty glitchy. :disappointed_relieved:

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As others have mentioned, this forum was started a number of years ago before the Samsung acquisition and is peer to peer support, mostly for the hub-based features.

Samsung does have an entirely separate community site which is officially operated as part of their support channel, and does have employee experts. That’s used for all the other Samsung devices, including the smart appliances, televisions, and soundbars, even if they use the same app as the hub does.

You might try asking your question there, and see if you can get an employee to help. No promises, and it may be that someone in this community does happen to have an answer for you, but it’s an additional resource anyway. They have a “home theater” help forum there which would probably be the place to start.

https://us.community.samsung.com/t5/Get-Help/ct-p/get-help

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Also, I’m not feeling very well today, so I’m not 100% sure if this is relevant to your problem or not, but there is a known issue that grays out that field. But I think that may only affect people who do have a hub.

If you do have a hub and are looking for an answer to this problem, Check the following thread and see if it helps any. Apparently you have to have the hub disconnected before it will let you change the settings in the app. Or something like that.

Again, I’m sorry I’m not feeling very well and I have some vision impairment and I have to mostly rely on my memory. Since I don’t have this particular model hub, I haven’t followed things super closely.

But to be honest, this may not apply to the OP in this thread, it’s just the only other time I can remember someone talking about that field being unavailable.

For the OP, I would definitely ask in the Samsung home theater help forum I mentioned, they should have a better answer for you. Again, I mostly just added this one in case someone else finds this thread in the future who does have a hub.

Sorry to be so useless on this, I wish I had a better answer. I did add the sound bar model number to the thread title, so maybe if somebody has that same device they’ll have something more helpful to add.

Again, I don’t think the following thread is going to apply to your situation, but it does discuss the network configuration option being greyed out so maybe it will help someone else in the future.

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Hey JD, thanks for all the comments - especially considering you’re not feeling well today. Much appreciated. And as much as I can appreciate what SmartThings forum once was - it clearly is one umbrella now and other folks should recognize that important change. But then again, their motives are pretty clear.

The beauty of the review process is we’re not only encouraged but directed to provide feedback on ALL aspects of the product experience - not just on the actual product but also through the official support channels & in the community forum realm. So this review go-around is going to be a lively one!

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If you get an answer from the official home theater forum, definitely let us know. As you say, this community is now serving the needs of many different people with many different devices, and my guess is within a year or so those with the hub will be in a minority. (Samsung sells a lot of televisions. :wink:) So I expect this is going to come up for other people in the future also. They’ve just done something really whack with that configure option.

I was thinking a little further about it, and it might be that the equivalent in your case is to unplug your Wi-Fi and then see if the feature is no longer grayed out. ( that is, Wi-Fi being unreachable allows you to reconfigure the Wi-Fi settings in the app.) But I have no idea if that will work, it just would be pretty easy to try while you’re waiting for an official answer. ( Field tech thinking. LOL! :stuck_out_tongue_winking_eye:)

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Thanks again JD. You’re an asset to this community.

I thought the same thing - forcing a ‘known network’ disappearance. I’ve gone through all the obvious and hinted to ‘paths’ via the manual & my own tech experience with no luck thus far. It’s looking more and more like an overlooked function for a newly introduced product that the app isn’t ‘tuned’ for. “Whack” wasn’t my first adjective but it applies…:grin: God forbid if I had used anything remotely more colorful… especially around the easily threatened and triggered.

Since network connectivity and the app experience are smaller facets to the overall review, I’ll be tackling the network dynamics further in the coming days. I’m actually going to do an IP block and router unplug as two additional steps. I’m also contemplating doing an extended power loss simulation on the bar itself to see if it ‘forgets’ settings and known connections. But all in due time. Spending time with the DSP is priority one, atm.

Contrary to what someone else suggested - as a troll-like drive by event - the Set ID function isn’t a hard reset function nor is it a ‘forget learned connections’ function. On the Q90R it’s a simple On/Off toggle for both the BT and WiFi ports - for those that are spooked by the IoT’s. :grin:

I’m essentially working for Samsung on this effort, so I’ll update my findings as they become appropriate & relevant.

Cheers!

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Yeah, in a sense we’re all beta testers for Samsung. :wink:

I wouldn’t assign any motive to anybody other than trying to be helpful, though. This is a really creative community, and people have come up with all kinds of workarounds for all kinds of platform issues. Lots of interest in problem-solving, and lots of people really generous with their time. :heart_eyes:

We often say that smartThings is “very powerful, but not very discoverable“ and that goes triple for the app. :scream:

But the community is great. It’s just that right now smartthings is in the middle of this huge transition: new app, new hub, new cloud platform. A lot of the stuff we used to know for certain just isn’t the same anymore.

And with two versions of the app and about six versions of the hub and seven or eight new countries, Plus a bunch of unannounced platform changes every week or two, It’s impossible to keep up and it’s driving everybody crazy. But it will all come together eventually. Meanwhile, we just keep rowing and try to help each other as best we can. :sunglasses:

Any followup reports would be very much appreciated. Thanks!

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