Oddities after Power Outage (Sylvania bulbs joined to battery operated Sylvania switch on their own)

So I’m trying to track down a weird issue and watching the notifications log has been less than helpful. I’m sure there’s a better way to check.

After multiple power outages during a storm, I’ve run into a weird issue. My paramedic battery powered switch in the living room, somehow also turns on/off a few lights in my kid’s room and the under cabinet lights in the kitchen now? Regular living room light setup continues to work fine. It just adds these new unwanted items to the list.

My kids aren’t happy with me when I go to turn the living room lights on for work at 5am and end up turning their lights on too.

Going through the smart apps list, I can’t find anything that should do this. Notifications just shows what’s turning on, not what’s actually happening.

Ideas? I haven’t run into any big problems before so I’m kind of green.

Brand and model of the devices that are involved?

Also, which model of the smartthings hub do you have and which version of the SmartThings app are you using?

Well that would be helpful information for me to provide wouldn’t it? :man_facepalming:

SYLVANIA SMART+ RT 5/6" Recessed Lighting Kit, Color Changing and Dimmable LED, 65-Watt

Sylvania Smart Home 73743 Lightify Smart Dimming Switch, Dimmer, White

Sylvania Osram Lightify Flex Light Strips

Using Hub 2 and Classic app.

If the 73743 Is the “paramedic light switch” mentioned in your first post, then it’s simple.

That device, like the Hue dimmer switch, Is capable of joining with its lights even when no hub is present.

When the power went out, the hub went off-line. The lightbulbs started to panic trying to find the hub. The dimmer switch, as a battery operated device, continue to operate, and the bulbs grabbed onto it. So now they are paying attention to it and probably not paying attention to the hub. In any case, that switch can operate them without any automations at all, which is likely what you are seeing.

The fix is easy if tedious. You have to remove all of the affected devices, the lights and the switch. Reset them, and add them back The same way you did originally . Then everything should be fine for now.

But to avoid this problem recurring with another power outage, you should use a different device for your paramedic switch.

What DTH are you using for the Sylvania switch?

EDIT I actually have the extra two hold down options to make it 4 button so I guess it’s that, and I just named it poorly.


Currently it’s just using the default zigbee button.

I didn’t really understand what you were saying above, but it doesn’t make any difference. All of the Sylvania handheld battery operated devices can act the same way with all of the Sylvania smart bulbs. So the battery operated device got itself Set up as a controller for the bulbs during the power outage When the hub was not available and now whenever you press the battery operated device it’s sending a message directly to the bulbs, not going through the hub (which is why you’re not seeing it in any of the logs).

The fix is the same, straightforward but tedious. You have to remove all the devices from your account and then add them back in.

There’s a small possibility that there might be another way to do it, but I would need to know the DTH you are using for the switch.

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BTW, congratulations on having the most interesting problem I’ve seen reported in about a year. :sunglasses: And nothing to do with SmartThings itself, the same issue could happen with most hubs. It’s one of the possibilities that can occur when we start using complex devices in a real world environment.

There are a few battery operated switches that don’t require a hub to control certain kinds of lights. When you have a self healing mesh, that leads to some interesting possibilities when the hub goes off-line.

I know it wasn’t much fun for your family, but it’s definitely one I’m going to mention to some field engineer friends over the next couple of weeks. I’m sure you run into the same situation as a paramedic when you see “an interesting case.“

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That actually makes a lot of sense. Thanks for the help. Since it looks to be a big ordeal, I just took the button down for now. Probably get around to resetting it over the weekend. I think getting everything reacquainted with all the apps and routines will be most of the tedium.

Sorry about the DH misunderstanding. Under device type in IDE I just have the stock Zigbee Button selected but one of the links you posted made it seem like some of the features I currently enjoy were only possible when using their custom DH. I might have been mistaken.

It’s an interesting problem for sure. With all the storms we’re having in TX lately, I really hope I don’t come across it again though. New problems are always welcome, it’s old problems I don’t enjoy as much.

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Old field tech saying:

experience is what enables you to recognize a mistake when you make it again. :rofl:

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