My First Automation -- Didn't work as planned

I would suspect something went wrong when the automation was created.
You can try to go in and edit (the pencil by the name), click next, then done, and it will save it again. (You might also try changing the time to something like 5 minutes from now and see if it continues to have problems.)

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I skimmed the responses and didn’t see anyone suggest this, but if both bulbs are the same one thing to try is swap the bulbs and see if the problem follows the bulb or stays with the location. It could be the signal, but it seems unlikely if it always turns on, but never turns off. It’s more likely that somehow there is another issue like an unmet condition or another automation.

Have you looked at the device history for the bulb in the app? It will show you every time the device is turned on/off or dimmer setting changed. This may shed some (pardon the pun) light on what is happening.

Is it one rule turning both bulbs on/off or two rules (one for each bulb)?

Do you have any other automations that may be affecting this?

Is the Family Room Lamp on a switch? Most smart bulbs will turn on after a loss of power, so if it’s on a switch and someone turns the switch off and then on it will turn the bulb on regardless of the schedule you have.

Hope this points you in the right direction.
Good Luck!

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Tony, I will try that tonight. I’m at work right now, so I can’t do any real troubleshooting.

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Hi John,

Yes, I actually suggested that myself just this morning. I thought it would be a good idea to swap the Cree LEDs to see if the problem follows the bulb.

I have looked at the history and nothing jumps out at me. It just shows the expected on and off times, with the exception of the expected off at midnight.

My automation was created to turn off both bulbs at midnight, so just one rule for both devices. There are no other automations that could be affecting this situation.

The Family Room Lamp is not on a switch.

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Okay, I just wrote two new automations to see if I can troubleshoot this while I’m at work. First automation was Foyer Lamp and Family Room lamp on at 9:15am. Second automation was Foyer Lamp and Family Room Lamp off at 9:16am.

Both automations appear to have worked perfectly. History shows both turned on at 9:15am and both turned off at 9:16am. Since I’m at work, I can’t see if the lights turned on and off, but according to the history, it looks like everything worked perfectly.

EDIT: I repeated my test again, this time I watched the app and I could see both bulbs turn on in the app and then turn off in the app one minute later. So I think I’m going to delete my original automation and rewrite it to see if something went wrong when I created the original automation as someone suggested earlier.

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I’m also having problems with automations (see What is up with timed automations?) and have a ticket in to SmartThings Support who are looking into it. Everything worked well for months and then things started playing up about three weeks ago. The bulbs that do not go off at midnight with my automation are able to be switched off manually through the app.

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So it happened again :frowning:

I deleted my “off at midnight” automation and then created and saved a new identical automation. When the clock struck midnight, the Foyer Lamp turned off and the Family Room Lamp stayed on.

This really doesn’t make any sense. Yesterday when I got home from work, I tested this again by creating an automation to turn on both lamps and then turn them both off one minute later. It worked perfectly. I cannot figure out why the Family Room Lamp refuses to turn off at midnight.

Can you post a screenshot of the complete automation?

That’s it. Simple, but the Family Room Lamp will never turn off at midnight. Yet if I write new automations right now to turn those lights on and then off a minute later, they will work perfectly. At least that’s what I’ve seen while trying to figure this out.

It’s probably some obscure quirk in the code. At least you figured it out.

But I haven’t figured it out. I still can’t get it to work.

What if you instead use 11.59 pm?

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Yes, I was thinking the same thing. I also thought of separating the two bulbs into two different automations, just one minute apart to see what happens.

But I think my next step is to just swap the bulbs between the two lights and see if the problem follows the bulb or not without changing anything else.

If anyone is interested, I’ll continue to post my troubleshooting steps and the results. I’m really curious to understand why this is happening.

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I was going to say creating 2 automations. Very clunky but it might work. Maybe one that goes off at 1200 and the other at 1201 if they have any issue executing at the same time, though I doubt it. I would first try it in smart lighting. It might work as intended. Or you could create a scene that the automation triggers every night at 1200.

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This may be grasping, but try this… In the “If” statement, add 2 conditions - one for each light that they must be “on”.

If that doesn’t work, I’d next suggest splitting this into 2 separate Automations (one for each light, but I’d recommend keeping the “On” condition in each “If” statement - that oughtta cover your bases with greater certainty).

Try editing the automation, choose the second light and select delay this action, enable delay this action, choose custom and select 5 seconds and save everything.

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Chris, I like that idea…but I might run into a problem if someone were to turn one light off and leave the other one on since BOTH conditions must be met in order to trigger the “then” portion of the automation. I think it might be a better idea to create two separate automations as you suggested if I add the “must be on” condition.

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jkp, I am going to try the delay tonight to see if that helps. Thanks for the idea.

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I misunderstood, but trying the 11:59 or 12:01 idea might work.

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