I am sure that is all true, and even one person’s experience can vary over time, I had major issues that seem to be resolved but maybe that is because I no longer use SHM. My guess is the experience is going to vary greatly depending on just how each person uses ST, in combination with the various issues that still exist. I think I happen to be using ST in such a way and with the right combination of apps that my experience currently is not bad, I feel that if I install SHM that experience would immediately change based on my last test.
I’m glad it’s working well for you, but honestly it’s just random as to whether it works for someone or not. SHM has its own separate issues, but I haven’t even had it installed for a couple of months. having SHM might increase the number of problems, but not having it doesn’t mean there will be no problems.
I have 3 simple automations that run every day. None uses any custom code. The only devices involved are a Z wave plug-in module and a zigbee plug in module, both on the official “works with SmartThings” list. both use the official device handlers and are within one hop of the hub.
One is a routine that runs once a day and changes the mode.
One is a smart lighting automation that runs once a day and turns on a light.
One is a smart lighting automation that turns on a nightlight in the evening and turns it back off in the morning.
All three fail several times a month, in different ways.
You can’t get any simpler than these.
My own guess is that quite a few people don’t even notice that they have problems because they just immediately open the app and try something again, or go to another Plan B, or they aren’t home and they don’t see the problem occur.
We have community members who will sincerely say they’ve had no major problems even though they had three or four broken rules, had to reset a couple of devices, had some bad statuses in their app, Had to run a network heal utility, all within a few days. They enjoy tinkering anyway, they have the physical ability to do so, they’re willing to put in the time, and so it all seems like no big deal.
Anyway, my point is that the simple stuff breaks too. It may just be that the solutions are also simple for many people and so they don’t feel the weight of the problem in the same way.
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The bottom line is we have inconsistent success. Your not a good basketball team if you can’t be consistently successful, and your not good product, if you can’t be consistently successful either. Too many people with issues. I’d love to see a poll of how many people have seen things improve since the platform updates.
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I completely agree with you. Each users experience is unique in so many different ways, it honestly can NOT be measured or compared.
My system has a lot of devices and a lot of programming. Yes it had problems and yes I feel that it runs pretty darn great. But put it in your house and our opinions would become exact opposites.
I try to not be completely negative. I try to be as honesty and open as possible. I try to encourage other users but at the same time be critical of the platform. I try to be a good consumer! Lol.
None of our experiences are perfect, and that is the fault of the platform and the company.
But we all have pretty much have one thing in common… we want this platform to succeed and grow, so that our experience can become perfect.
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That’s a fair point. I guess the blame falls on the engineering/development teams. I guess that I am a little bewildered that it takes those teams a month to figure out why SHM Security will not disarm. I know they have other performance and reliability issues going on concurrent to SHM’s issues, but it has taken a month and for me, and at least some other people on here still have the issues that occurred on the first day this all happened a month ago. If in 30 days they still have not resolved the issues they obviously need some help. Whether that is simply more bodies working on it, or the issue is more complicated than their current teams are capable of dealing with I do not know.
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My hue lights have become completely unresponsive. I have had to re-pair my zigbee ge bulbs as well. Also made my Sonos unresponsive as well. Not sure what this update did aside from break my system. This is awful and ridiculous. System works fine for a few days and then needs some tinkering. I have no clue why I have to constantly mess with things just to get it working just the way it was advertised.
Yeah I dunno. I mean I know nothing about computer programming, code etc. So, if things like timers and routines don’t work, ok…big deal but,
This system should at least be able to act as a basic controller for a zwave network, yes? I mean my phone should a signal to the hub, the hub should send a signal to a switch, the switch should do what the signal says, the switch should then report it’s status back to the hub which then reports that’s status to the ap, right?
This basic (I Know it’s complex) core function should be rock solid on any zwave hub but it’s not with this one? What am I missing here. I can understand things like delays between devices being activated, latency etc…
The basic functionality doesn’t seem to be there. I want it to be better but at this point I think it’s just consuming too much life force energy to make it worthwhile. Who makes a hub that will give me rock solid performance with just basic light switch operation from an android device?
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Your missing another intermediary step - the Cloud (Internet). The phone can’t talk to the hub, and in many cases your devices can’t be controlled directly, or have their status enquired without Internet connectivity. A fundamental architecture flaw in my opinion - but the hub local processing capabilities, or lack of, have been debated a million times.
ST is very vulnerable to users ‘chatty’ code loading their cloud servers when it really should be possible to handle this traffic locally , avoiding the issue totally. They even mentioned that in the current threads as a contributory factor to the current failure issues.
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Another ST fix and another morning with random lights coming on routines not firing. Gentle wake up running randomly. Smart lighting takes 2-4 seconds to turn on a light. Yep it all Rule machine fault. Useless to contact support. Don’t need another email saying we’re working on it.
As for the app I get different versions every time I open it. Sometimes there’s play a play button next to the smart app Sometimes all have them Sometimes none. Sometimes random. The screen that shows hub and mode give me random displays too. Sometimes it list Hub is online- notification- smartapps. Sometimes I get 2 of the 3, Sometimes I get a contacts list. It’s random just like the reliability and everything else with ST.
Lost all faith in ST’s promises.
I shouldn’t have expected much from a technology company that can’t even keep the info on it’s web site up to date. Live chat? Shame on you Samsung.
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Funny you should mention the Play and Contacts button… I’ve been getting this as well at times. In fact I even wondered at one point if the app was updated…
You’re correct, just more ST giving us what we DON’T need, instead of basic, rock solid reliability. Good Lord, my son is more reliable 1.5; at least he wakes up at the same time each morning… 
J
Now this morning, she won’t disarm. Stuck on arm stay. Go to arm away, then to disarm, ap shows disarm, exit ap then go back in and it’s still “arm stay”.
I just don’t understand all the complaining! SHM is useless you can do all you want in Smart Alarm and it doesn’t do all the problems you are complaining about. Yes it isn’t as pretty, but it works. The things I know that work are.
- Get rid of presence sensors, Fobs, phones etc.
- Arm and Disarm from a keypad like the IRIS or the X3400 from Xfinity
- DON’T DEPEND ON SHM other than to see the status of the alarm.
I have been using this method for months and no problems, not one false alarm. When SHM is fixed go back to SHM but until then disable everything in there remove all devices and just use the dashboard for status. In my opinion I wish Geko would continue developing SA as it is far superior to SHM. Now that Rule Machine is gone and you depended on it for delays etc. You have no choice but use SA.
Now that is just an opinion, but to avoid aggravation drop SHM for now.
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I haven’t had SHM installed for a couple of months. That didn’t prevent this, which started happening two days ago:
Again, if it’s working for you, that’s great. But there’s some kind of database issue that can randomly break even the simplest standard function. So there’s no mystery with why some people are frustrated.
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The system is broken and you don’t understand why people are complaining?
SmartThings admits it is broken. It is undertaking a ‘renewed effort’ to focus on basic functionality to address that which is broken.
But, it still escapes some why people are complaining?
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I also get can’t load room’s error, but refresh and it is gone. I have found that I close the ST app once a day and reload and it seems to clear the issues for a while. I know for sure the IOS app is broken since the last update. But more important is the security system issues. My lighting has no problems, and I am using WeMo which for months was a nightmare. I don’t use lots of complex lighting scenes etc. My Alarm works the lights come on and go off when needed, my power meter reports and my leak detectors work as I test them once a week. No I can’t understand why certain people have problems and all are different. It might be time for each of us to post the apps and device types we use and the rules we have maybe there is a common factor we can figure out. It could be a different combo of stuff for each person, but it is a start.
I find if I use rooms I don’t get the error you get but it takes a while for it to load. So that is the cloud I assume. I have a high speed connection and maybe that is why I have less problems than others. I admit I don’t access my devices via rooms I use the things menu. So that could be a good reason my problems are less.
I didn’t mean to be confrontational in my remarks, what I am trying to say is that there are different problems for different people and I was addressing SHM, which hasn’t worked from release day.
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This has been done ad nauseum. The only common factor is SmartThings itself.
I don’t use the rooms, I cannot edit or even view “Things” from the smartapp - this has been ongoing for 5 days. Reboot the device, etc… nothing resolves it. Unexpected error occurred. This is but one issue.
You appear to beleive that because you were able to get around issues you encountered others can to. Issues can be very random and what works for you does not work for others.
…AND our own, as in many ways, some of us are really looking for trouble…
If you want to start a separate thread and collect various configurations, go ahead. But unfortunately you’re not going to get any answers that way.
It has nothing to do with any particular combination of devices or smartapps for any one individual account. SmartThings staff have confirmed this. It has to do with what is called “pressure” on the database, which can lead to flooding or corruption. Cassandra, which is the underlying architecture SmartThings is using, is particularly prone to this as it scales up. (Google “Cassandra hotspots” if you want to see technical discussions.)
It just becomes a musical chairs game. “Where were you when the music stopped?”
SmartThings is aware of the problems. They are working on solutions. Meanwhile, if things are working well for you, enjoy it. 
(Of course there are also some individual bugs, like milliseconds being treated as seconds in the new scheduler, that’s a different kind of issue.)
If you run into a repeatable error, report it to support. If someone else posts about a problem in the forums, and it appears to be due to the database issues, extend your sympathy and feel grateful if you don’t have the same problem. If someone else posts about a problem in the forums which appears to be due to something that’s fixable, help them out.
But there’s no point in us getting mad at each other. 
Some people have lots of problems, some people have no problems, my guess is that most people have some problems that are annoying but not catastrophic. Each person has to decide for themselves how much time, money and patience they are willing to invest for the value they receive. but as others have said, we all have the same hope: that the system will become reliable and stable while retaining its versatility. We’ll just have to wait and see.
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