I have a Fibaro wall plug. The problem is that if I press the physical button on the plug smartthings does mot recognize that the state has changed from e.g off to on. Shouldn’t this work? However, If I refresh the device in the smart things app, it shows correct state. I experience similar problems with other devices. Basically that if it’s not the smartthings hub that automates something, but an external device, smartthings does not get the state of the device without a manual refresh on the device (in the smartthings app).
Another example is that I would like lights to turn on as the state on the Sonos player goes to play. I don’t get this to work either.
Other automated routines work however flawless if initiated by time or manually executed in the app.
Have I misunderstood the concept of Smartthings and how it’s intended to work or?
Not all external devices like some wall switches and especially cloud-to-cloud integrations like Sonos don’t push their status back to ST automatically when it’s changed. ST has to poll those devices for new information, which they generally do on a polling cycle, but it’s minutes not seconds. The device also needs to have polling capability in the code. Usually the poll method just calls refresh.
Short answer: They should eventually, but it may take longer than is acceptable for some automations depending on the hardware and integration.
Edited: If the Fibaro plug is zwave, normally ST can update status pretty quickly for them. At least they can with the GE stuff in the US. The GE sends some message back to the hub, and ST sees that and immediately polls the device. Don’t know if something similar could be done for the Fibaro.
If this is a problem for you try the pollster app - this will regularly poll your things at pre-defined intervals and should keep them more up to date; "Pollster" - A SmartThings Polling Daemon