Virtual switches stopped working (May 19, 2021)

I’ve been using virtual switches to help me control complex modes and coordinate scenes for a couple years. Last night, they all stopped working. I can’t turn them on or off via the app or via the API (e.g. from ActionTiles).

I’ve rebooted the hub and checked the live logs online - none of the virtual switches have changed states in about 18 hours.

I created a brand new virtual switch in the IDE and tried to turn it on and off and hit the same issue: it doesn’t respond and the app throws an error.

Is this a known issue someone is working on after the recent updates?

change the device type in the IDE from Virtual Switch to Simulated Switch. Does it start working?

Looks like that resolved it, thanks Nathan! Apologies if I missed this in release notes or something at some point.

There is a difference; Simulated Switches are cloud devices, and will cause somethings (Smart Lighting rules) to no longer run locally, whereas Virtual Switches are local devices to the hub.

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Just to thicken the plot… without rebooting or anything else, I changed them to Simulated Switch type in the IDE, they started working again, then I switched them BACK to Virtual Switch in the IDE and they still work now. So I’m back in operation after 15 minutes of mindless clicking in the IDE and my configuration is the exact same as when I started.

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I wonder if this was somehow related to this problem report from yesterday:

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That was going to be my next question.

Jlv is correct they fundamentally behave differently - Graham (@orangebucket) has a great post somewhere here that details the differences…

Switching type could either kick something stuck or highlight a fundamental change in how something worked (vswitch)

If switching back they’re still fixed, my bet is platform issue instead of stateless v. Stateful virtual switches.

Good to know bumping the dth hot you going!

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‘Virtual Switches’ do seem to figure in posts like this every now and again. On the face of it they couldn’t be much simpler. Perhaps their being capable of implementing locally is a factor. I don’t seem to have problems with them, indeed I replaced four this afternoon (to attach them to a different hub) without issue.