Strange new Zig-bee problem

Devices & Integrations
#1

The other day this problem started. Random Zig-Bee devices would go offline and nothing would bring them back until I did the following. I opened IDE went to my devices then the device. I then clicked on the device and choose edit. I picked a different device type similar to the one it uses. Clicked save and the device came back online. I then reverted back to original. Example SmartSense Motion Sensor I changed to SmartSense Motion.

This problem includes mostly SmartThings devices, but sometimes Lightify and IRIS plugs.

#2

I had a strange thing happen yesterday. A lot of my sensors, (zigbee and zwave) suddenly appeared as offline. No matter what I did, I could not bring them back to online, (although they were all working as they should). Following another poster’s advice I checked my device health and it was turned on. I turned it off and suddenly everything showed online again. Weird.

Brian

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#3

Not weird.

Device health has consistently caused problems for many (but I presume, not “all”) users.

Unfortunately, something keeps turning it back On even if you shut it off. Perhaps after App updates. I don’t update often, so mine has remained Off.

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#4

Yes, good idea. I find these devices that go offline still actually work. But in the IDE they also show offline. So if I am correct if offline in iDE then they are actually offline and might work with local automations but not . WebCoRE etc. Does that sound correct?

#5

I’m afraid I do not know the various definitions of “offline” by SmartThings.

They have never published the specifications of any of this… Including nothing published about Health Check or how to implement it in your own DTH (though docs are always changing… So who knows what’s the situation today vs a month or year ago).

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#6

I agree, I don’t know what there idea is. But usually if the IDE shows offline the external functions are not working.

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#7

my impression of Device Health is that if no activity is received from the device in something like 1-2 hours, then the phone app indicates “unavailable”. It’s useful to see how noisy or efficient a sensor may be. To me the function seems totally passive, since it doesn’t seem to do anything to change operation.

My lawn sensor reports every 4 hours with no issues, but usually when I look at the phone app it has the red dot and says “this device is unavailable at the moment”. Since the sensor reported only 15 minutes ago, the dot is gone for now.

Don’t know how it relates to IDE status “offline”, “inactive” , “active”. I studied these clues for about 20 seconds and then saw a shiny thing.

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#8

A while back I started “refreshing” all problematic devices with webCore. I believe it added quite a bit of traffic on my mesh networks but it kept devices from being marked offline. I turned off Device Health soon after its introduction because it only ever caused me trouble. With many devices, not all get used constantly so marking them offline simply because I don’t use them all the time is plain silly.

#9

but why care if it shows “offline” yet still works ?

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#10

With device health on, if a device is marked offline, you can’t even control it from what I recall. This may have changed though… Also, I recently noticed that any device marked offline causes Alexa to say that the device is not working when you try to control the device but then it actually works…

3 Likes
#11

The devices I showed off line were working perfectly with local control. Even the devices that SmartThings showed offline and were WiFi like WeMo worked with automations. So I have no idea what will work and what won’t. My Smartsense motion detectors showed offline but showed motion.

#12

A while back the app would block you from using the device as it was flagged offline within the ST app. The fix was to turn device health off, activate the device so it would be back online, and then turn device health back on. That was my first reason to just keep device health off at all times. I guess they changed that… good.

2 Likes
#13

I actually think this is a bug. I usually can get things online again by changing DT in iDE then back. Strange that it works this way.

#14

Now that you mention this, I have experienced that too. I believe there is more than one degree of “offliness” (if I may invent a word). The lowest degree is easily restored by simply activating the device, subsequent degrees need more effort.

#15

Yes I agree, there is no documentation on this.

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