I think a lot of us that have been around for a while just admit that things are “quirky” (ha!) but the potential is there for some great things. When everything is working then the system is great. Things happen and you don’t care so much about the problems.
But then things go sideways and you start thinking that maybe you shouldn’t put too many eggs in this one particular basket.
All you gotta do is look around though… products disappear overnight even though they have a decent userbase and developer community. Next month makes 2 years of me personally putting up with ST and their funkiness, and I can tell you that things are much, MUCH better now than they were before, and I have no immediate plans to put everything into a pile and burn it.
I do however realize that things are not 100%, so ST gets relegated to the “nice to have” automation stuff that can make my life easier, without being into any sort of critical space.
"I think a lot of us that have been around for a while just admit that things are “quirky” (ha!) but the potential is there for some great things. When everything is working then the system is great. Things happen and you don’t care so much about the problems.
But then things go sideways and you start thinking that maybe you shouldn’t put too many eggs in this one particular basket."
I agree with this 100%. The potential is there, I’m hesitate to continue expanding my system though I’d like to. But I’ve been at the point now that I’m done playing with it as a hobby, I want to finish up, screw it back together and put it back on the shelf running like new again (so to speak).
The rest is a rant so feel free to ignore:
This is a perpetual project which means you always need a backup plan which defeats the purpose especially when it’s supposed to be a very pervasive system and replace a lot of things. I walked away for a while and came back and just as I was going to accept that they did a turn around and got it together, the system goes down for a night and things are back to being finicky. I mean, even something as simple as the mailbox app is just awful. I use a ST multi sensor but can’t choose to use the open close sensor, which means when the wind shakes my mailbox at night I get a mail delivered alert. And another 6 times a day since i can’t choose a time frame. And if all goes well I still get one when I retrieve the mail. This is such a basic app it should be refined and I shouldn’t have to learn to code to make my own. I suppose I could try rule machine if they didn’t sabotage it leading to the project being scrapped. It’s always something is my point, and now it’s been confirmed that there will never be HomeKit support? I understand why but it’s just another pothole that won’t be paved over.
I would suggest the NYCE tilt monitor they sell at lowes. Under $30. Put it on the door face inside and you know when its opened. Of course if the box is too far away…
I’m sort of on the same boat, and I repeat the same scenario every few weeks. Things are getting better then something happens and ST shoots itself in the foot, so it never gets the foothold it could have in the house.
Right now I have a few lights that I can control, my garage doors and a Schlage lock, and that’s it. It’s all “things” though… no routines, nothing fancy, and it’s a shame because I have the disposable income and the technical expertise, I just don’t feel like being bothered.
I have only three apps… SharpTools, the laundry monitor and pollster. That should give you an indication as to what ST has been relegated in the house, even though I know that it has the potential to do a ton more.
A little bit ago, I started getting network error messages from the app while trying to edit a rule in RM.
Now, when I open the app on my Android, it just keeps spinning, on the SHM/Home page.
Is anyone else experiencing this?
EDIT: I just force-closed the mobile app (i.e. just simply closing it ‘normally’ didn’t help. So, I went into System Settings/Apps/All/SmartThings and forced it from there), went back in and it all seems fine now.
So, glitch on my phone I guess. (?)
My iphone app is stuck loading on the opening screen . eventually it displays a “failed to retrieve your account” error message, the one i’ve been getting for a week now but usually shows up much quicker.
Pressing the button will turn it off, but considering that ST wasn’t entirely down, it may have kept turning back on. As a last resort, holding that button for 20 seconds will do a factory reset. Having to pair it again will be a pain, but it’s better than having the wife give it a bath.
Hey, thnx for the Ferrari, but the car won’t start, and I can’t remotely connect to their diagnostics network because their cloud is down
1 Like
bamarayne
(Jason "The Enabler" as deemed so by @Smart)
133
Lucky you! Every time I so much as look at mine the doors lock and the alarm goes off. The only time it will crank is at 2 am and I’m asleep… It does it by itself.
I did manage to drive it one time, sort of… The steering didn’t work and it took me to the desert. It finally ran out of gas and when I got out the car drive itself home.
I am proud to say that the geo presence works for the car… So at least I know when it leaves in the middle of the night…
Just do like I do, every time cloud hits the fence, I go out and buy more crap so I can be less and less dependent on the cloud and more on local processing. The problem I have is when things are going well with the cloud and I go out and buy crap dependent on it. Darn SmartThing addiction. I enjoy it too much but I cannot win! I should buy lottery tickets instead, shouldn’t I?
Ha, I’m actually still on v1. I can’t bring myself to upgrade a system that still doesn’t work. I’ve barely been able to use my app all day - it’s been taking 30-60 seconds to load each screen if it loads at all and for the past week I get a failed to access account error. I feel dumb enough for buying into the system, I just can’t buy back into it when I know it’s still bad.
The conclusion is, there isn’t anything much better without going to custom installed 10k+ systems. Or at least there isn’t anything much more mature that ST, so going there will result in just as many headaches. Immature market is immature.
Frankly, none of the options are outstanding.
I adopted ST as it appeared to have a edge and a following, knowing I was still relatively early into IoT HA. I didn’t realize how early… but here I am. I will stay here until: 1) I am too frustrated. 2) A competitor does it right. Best Case is ST turns this around, which is what the hopeful, positive, option-less side of me says.
Like JH1 just said, nobody has made a solid unit. I thought about it and was very close to buying the veralite before buying ST but if you check amazon, they’re all rated the same. Nobody has a system that reviews better than 3.5/5 stars. So no I wouldn’t jump to vera for different headaches.
Was there any word from ST about this outage - cause, remediation, etc? Did I miss a post? I’ve been away for a bit and it has been very busy here, so I assume I overlooked it?
