New ST app is not working properly with Classic, it breaks my devices

Hi everyone, I have used SmartThings for about 2 years now in three of my homes. I have of course always used the Classic app and really liked it and found it very full featured too. I just upgraded my phone to the Samsung Galaxy S9+ and got the Gear S3. It seems like my phone prefers using the new app, as if I try to use Bixby to control lighting it only opens the new app. If I uninstall that one she never opens the old one and instead says she doesn’t know what I’m asking.

I realize you need to use both at the moment because the new app doesn’t show history of devices or let you change door lock codes and so on, but I’m having some issues. If I use the Classic app everything seems to work as expected, my thermostat shows the temperature and lets me change it from heat to cool and change the temperature settings. If I go into the new app though it shows the current temperature but all of the options to change the mode or the temperature are blank and when you click them a pop-up appears that just says fan mode and it is blank. It worked for the first day I got it but it hasn’t since. The problem is that anytime I open the new app now because the thermostat is messed up in it, it turns off the heat. So I’m out of town right now and I just open the Classic app to check the status of my house and it shows my thermostat is set to cool and to 60 degrees and it is 63 degrees in my house when it was set to heat 72° last night. I’m in Toronto so definitely don’t need the AC on now. Because I opened the new app it screwed up the thermostat.

I have this issue with other devices also, for example I will use the Classic app and it will show all my door locks as locked. I will then go into the new app and try to unlock a door and it just spins forever and does nothing. When you then go back into the Classic app it will show the door lock as status unknown. It stays as unknown until I call my neighbor and have him physically go over and unlock the door then lock it again. Then it returns the normal status.

The last issue I have is that many devices just say error cannot retrieve status. So if I click on any door sensors they just give an error message. I can’t recall what it says as I don’t want to open the app right now and have the thermostat get messed up, but it says something generic about device doesn’t support status even though it is a door sensor. In Classic if I select a sensor it shows if it is open or closed plus history but in the new app it just shows up as a device that does nothing.

Should I factory reset and set everything up just from the new app and just use Classic to control locks and view history? Vs setting it all up as it is in the Classic app then trying to use the new one?

I could just use Classic but was hoping to use Bixby to control things by voice, even though it actually never seems to work. If I hold the button and say turn on the living room lamp, she opens SmartThings and then says okay tap the device you want to turn on. You select the lamp then she says okay I turned it on.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Classic is still the goto app for now for all custom stuff.

May help to post on this thread:

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I believe the official recommendation from ST is that those of us that have been using the classic app, should continue using the classic app until further notice.

Same as above poster. From what i have seen and tested there are still allot of gaps in the new app. It does seem to be coming along though, but there are noticeable gaps. The size of the gaps becomes considerably obvious if you use custom device handlers, and configurations that aren’t part of the standard setup. Basically if at all possible stick with the Classic app.

To that end i would suggest google assistant or alexa to control the lights if you really need audio control.