SmartThings Hub is offline but automations(routines) still working?

Hello,

My ST hub (circa 2016) goes offline almost every night(for whatever reason?). It’s a problem that has been worsening for the last 6 month or so. It’s offline as I post this. EVERY device is offline according to my phone app and won’t work. The hub LED is solid blue…as i write this… but it was also blinking blue for a while. Google Home can’t control devices, either- According to GH, ‘The device isn’t available right now’- every last one of them.

Here’s the kicker- my SmartThings automations(routines) STILL work!!?? I have a couple different night light automations that work based on time and zwave motion sensors as triggers. I know of a third different automation that works as well. (For example, I can see the zwave sensor LED flash and then a zwave light turns on even though both devices are ‘unavailable’)

Can anyone explain this??? I was convince my hub was dying until an hour ago but am beginning to wonder- everything tells me my hub is offline, but routines using those exact same devices have been working for the past hour? The only thing that was even remotely noticible was response time- elapsed time between triggers and actions was maybe 1-5 seconds( i’m more accustomed to 1-3 second intervals). I’m lost- PLEASE HELP!!

FWIW, I am referring to the ‘Automation’ tab at the bottom ot the phone app where you can ‘Create routine’… And I just checked again- hub LED is blue but routines sill work 2 hours after the hub went offline…

good luck -jim

Sounds like your hub (assuming it’s a v2?) is losing connection to the Internet and the reason why automations/routines still work is because all the devices associated with them must be local on the hub.

Can you validate what model hub you have?
What time at night is this happening?
Have you tried a different LAN port on your router (assuming a v2 hub)?
Do you have any kind of automated maintenance process enabled on your router, like a nightly reboot?
Is your router’s firmware up to date?

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In the SmartThings world, “offline” just means the SmartThings cloud hasn’t received a check in from the device when it expected to: everything might be running fine at home, as @johnconstantelo noted. So if you unplug your hub from the internet, it will be marked “offline” in an hour or so, but any local routines will still function.

(It can’t run that way forever, though: the hub itself does expect to synch with the cloud once a day or so. If it doesn’t, weirdness starts to occur.)

So the explanation is that “offline” in this context means “missed a check-in with the SmartThings cloud.”

Thank you,

I have the V2 hub with a lan port. I have tried different ports on my switch and have used different ethernet cables. Nothing changes

I have a Google nest wifi and apparently updates happen automatically. I do have nightly routines that block certain IP address of both wifi and hardwired devices. My ST hub is not one of the blocked items. Now that you mention it I will disable my routines to see if there’s any change.

I will have to track the timing better to see exactly when my hub goes offline.

good luck -jim

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Thanks @guessrow please keep us updated as you learn more.

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