Troubleshooting for weeks now... Devices will not exclude

Hi,

I’ve been troubleshooting various problems with my system for weeks now. In the course of that troubleshooting, I removed (excluded) several zwave devices from my network that were giving me problems. Specically, a Yale Assure Zwave lock, a Schlage Connect Zwave lock, and a GE Enbrighten Zwave Outlet. These devices have been completely excluded and removed from Smartthings and are not showing in the “My Devices” tab in the IDE. I am trying to include these devices back onto the network but every time I try to add a device through the app and go follow the device-specific instructions to pair the device, the device is never found during the inclusion process. I have the v2 hub within inches of the zwave device(s) when attempting to include them and the light on the hub stays solid green… when it is in inclusion mode it should be flashing green but it does not flash… it remains solid. This tells me the hub is not entering inclusion mode and not communicating with the device(s) properly.

So, upon my testing, I tried putting the hub into general exclusion mode and excluding each of these devices. The app tells me that each of these three devices are successfully excluding from the hub when it is in general exclusion mode. BUT, what I think is really my problem, is that the devices are not actually excluding from my hub.

The reason I say this is because when I am in exclusion mode, I can exclude a device an INFINITE number of times. For instance, when excluding my GE Outlet, I have to physically press the button on the outlet while the hub is in general exclusion then it will immediately exclude it in the app and pop up a notification that it successfully excluded 1 device. After that, while the hub is still in exclusion mode, I press the button on the GE outlet again and it tells me that now “2” devices have been excluded. So, I keep pressing the button on the outlet. Every time I press the button it tells me that another device has been excluded (3, 4, 5, 6, etc). I pressed the button 150 times and the app told me it successfully excluded 150 devices. (As far as i know, this is not normal. I believe that you should only have to exclude a device once, and that once it has been successfully excluded, it will no longer be detected or register in the general exclusion process) After 150 exclusions, I gave up at this point and exited exclusion mode. I then relaunched exclusion mode and tried excluding the same outlet again. Again, the app tells me I successfully excluded the device but when I press the button on the outlet again, it lets me exclude it again… and again… and again…

I tried this on my other devices I am trying to add (Schlage lock and Yale lock), and experienced the exact same results. I could exclude the locks many times but whenever I tried to include the locks back onto the network they were not recognized and the light on the hub stayed solid green (instead of flashing) during the inclusion process, like the devices were not being communicated with and the hub was not actually entering inclusion mode.

I suspect that the reason I cannot include these devices is because I cannot get them excluded. Based on the behavior I described, that seems to be what is occurring.

And yes, I have factory reset all of these devices countless times, attempting to start from scratch, with the same results. I even replaced the Zwave module in the Yale Assure lock with a brand new one and it is doing the same thing!

Has anybody experienced this type of issue? I would really appreciate if Smartthings Support (@Brad_ST ) could please take a look at my “MAIN Hub” and see if any issues can be identified?

Thank you.

Have you run z-wave repair and if so, any errors recorded?

Rebooted the hub?

Yes. Many, many, many times.

Be sure to open a ticket with ST support

Thank you. How do I open a support ticket?

support@smartthings.com

This isn’t accurate. Any Z-Wave controller should be able to exclude any Z-Wave device and it doesn’t matter if it currently isn’t included in a Z-Wave network.

This is accurate and could be an issue. Based on the logs the hub is entering inclusion mode though. Have you checked the IDE when you are adding a device to see that the hub is reporting “Z-Wave include search started”? Do these devices pair to any of your other hubs?

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This isn’t accurate. Any Z-Wave controller should be able to exclude any Z-Wave device and it doesn’t matter if it currently isn’t included in a Z-Wave network.

Okay… that is a relief. I never really started mashing the buttons during the exclusion process until now and didn’t realize that was normal behavior. That’s a good thing!

This is accurate and could be an issue. Based on the logs the hub is entering inclusion mode though. Have you checked the IDE when you are adding a device to see that the hub is reporting “Z-Wave include search started”? Do these devices pair to any of your other hubs?

So, the only reason you see that the hub going into inclusion mode is because yesterday evening, I switched from my Galaxy S21 (brand new app) to my wife’s iPhone, which incidentally still has the new-old version of the app. Her phone puts the hub into inclusion mode just fine… mine doesn’t for some reason. Since I was able to use her phone to get the hub into inclusion mode last night, I was able to add the GE Outlet back to the zwave network successfully. Then I tried the Schlage and Yale locks but still could not get them to join, even though the hub was in inclusion mode. I ran some network repairs and watched the logs. There are a couple of devices on my network that have been returning “unable to update mesh” errors when doing a repair. So, I decided to remove those devices from my network with the intention of doing a network repair afterwards. I was hoping those devices were somehow related to my locks not pairing and was going to try adding the locks again after the network repair. Well, now when I view the event logs of the hub, it is constantly throwing a message about device 7A. See screenshot:

A device with ID “7A” is not listed in my device list in the IDE. I assume this is a ghost device. In an effort to delete it, I attempted to manually add a device with the DH “Zwave Device” and network ID “7A”, then delete it through the Smartthings app. The app reported the device was deleted successfully. But, when I check the hub logs afterwards, it still throws the message about device 7A. You can see all of this in the screenshot above.

Now, whenever I check the logs it is constantly throwing a message about device 7A and I have no idea how to stop it. I have never seen this type of behavior in the event logs before.

Obviously, there is some issue with either the new app or my phone which is preventing me to activate inclusion mode on the hub. I am glad I found the workaround with my wife’s phone and am anxious to start working on troubleshooting again, but I have to figure out this “7A” device error before I can move any further. Not being able to activate the hub’s inclusion mode through my phone is a secondary concern at this point, but definitely still a major issue… I just want my system working again. If a ghost device (7A) is appearing on my network, I need support to delete it (along with any other ghosts)… as I have been unsuccessful doing it myself. This is all occurring on the hub labeled “MAIN Hub.” Thank you.

@Brad_ST @garrett.kranz @jkp