What is turning off plugs?

Not familiar with that term. Don’t find it in the Smartthings app, nor in my account at https://graph-na04-useast2.api.smartthings.com/

Different Android app?

You more than likely don’t have it. It can be installed and configured via both apps, regardless of phone OS.

To know for sure if it somehow got installed and configured, go to that same IDE site, then go to My Locations:

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Then look for Installed Smartapps and click on that link:

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Then look for Smart Lighting:

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Does the name of your activating app show up there (or anywhere in that list of smartapps)?

Thank you for your reply. Screen shot shows what is installed.
I was hoping that Smartthings would be easy to schedule a few plugs. Have not installed any Smart apps or device handlers. Have not integrated with Alexa, IFTTT, or any other product. Created several automation schedules to test, thinking they would easily be deleted, but they linger on, making the system less usable when I’m away.

OK… had to use the classic android app to install Smart Lighting. But going back to the Smartthings website I see nothing under that app.

What’s the Custom rule performing within Smart Home Monitor (in the Classic app)?

Looking at the classic app I really don’t see anything.
Under ‘Automation’, no routines listed

I’ve spend lots of time - mine, yours, and jkp’s attempting to resolve this hidden schedule. After floundering with issue I have a few observations.

  • User communities are great, but difficult because we are dealing with two different Android apps as well as the web interface.
  • If I can see the results of an action (plug turned off every day at 0716) why can’t the web interface point to the routine that actually causing that result?
  • Then if I can see the routine, why then can’t I modify, or delete, within the web interface?
  • Why should I need several versions of an app to accomplish relatively simple automations?
  • All of this must be in the cloud, as all automations, including a button for toggling several lights, didn’t function when we (and our entire region) recently lost internet for nearly a day - a real issue for my wife just returning after surgery.

That said, I’m willing to scrub the entire system if I can be assured that I can start at ground zero and not have lingering schedules to plague me - a factory reset. A new Samsung account with a different email address included.

So the question boils down to: How do I do a complete factory reset and completely start over without any ghosts?

It’s not a huge system, and all Samsung devices:

  • 1 hub
  • 5 smart plugs
  • 1 button
  • 1 temp/motion sensor

Let’s try something else in the Classic app…

  • Open one of the devices in your My Home : Things list
  • on that device screen, click on Smartapps in the upper menu
  • there you will be able to see most apps or routines that are associated with that device
  • from there, you can click on each and possibly try to find what is turning them off
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Pretty stark entries. In the Classic app no Smart Apps are shown to be installed with the either of the plugs I’m having trouble with, nor any of the other devices in my system.

Ah, ok. disregard my edited post from a minute ago.

What you could do is watch Live Logging to see more detail about activity in real time. Just before 7:16, assuming it’s a consistent time, bring up Live Logging and see what gets listed, like this:

From that list you should see device and smartapp live logging when they’re being used or sending/doing something. Can you try that?

You can click on anything in that list to see specific details vs. the gobs of info flying by:

What is the make and model of this smart plug?

Plug make and model: Samsung OCF Smart Plug 7A-PL-W-A1

Below is a screen shot of the other plug (same make/model) that turns off at 2223 every evening. Really seems like both are exhibiting the same issue, and up to now been focusing on the one that turns off at 0716, assuming that once the culprit for the one is found the other one should be easy! I captured this one yesterday evening, and can get the other one in the morning.

you might Try looking in the devices section in the web ide for all events for this device and see if there is more detail there.

Here’s the log trace from the plug that turns of at 0716.

I’ve looked through every screen I can find in both the Android app versions, as well as the web interface - nothing. Finding what is triggering the plug to turn off shouldn’t be that difficult. And if it is something I did earlier was I ‘learning’ the system, it still should be easy to find, to my way of thinking. There aren’t any added Smartapps, no integration with Alexa, Google, IFTTT. It’s all within the Samsung infrastructure with Samsung components.

As the system is small, I’m willing to do factory resets on whatever, create a new Samsung account with new email if I could be assured there won’t be pieces of this linger on. My concern with the whole system is that if it is this difficult to find some ‘hidden’ automation schedule controlling a couple of plugs, then is this a platform I want to move forward with and grow?

Nah, it’s usually not this difficult to be honest. Your situation is not the norm, but I also have experienced this.

You can see the “off” at 7:16:01AM, but there’s nothing else to point back to with regards to saying why, who, what is causing it. Definitely an odd duck.

You could exclude and delete the device from ST and add it back, or you could email ST support and have them look at the back end of things to see what may be causing this, especially since it’s more than one device. There could be an underlying issue impacting more than those devices, and/or more then just you and it’s not been reported yet.

Emailing support isn’t the fastest, but I’ve had good experiences lately with them, so give them a try at least. Tagging @jody.albritton and @Brad_ST for awareness.

Thank you. I have created a support ticket. Hopefully they are good at hunting the ‘odd ducks’ in this system.

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There were two ghost automations that were created in the new app, either a scene or a custom automation. I escalated the issue and those are now removed. Let us know here or via your support ticket if you are still seeing issues.

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@Brad_ST, is it the new norm? There are a few recent posts about ghost automations. Or unknown triggers. What is causing these? Will these issues fixed somehow?

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Thank you, Brad. One down, one to go. The ghost on LR-1 plug seems to be gone, but the one on BR-1 plug at 22:23 lingers on.

I’ve been responding to emails from support, but my last email, from Thursday evening, has yet to be responded to. So at this point I’m unsure of the best communication path with support.

The plug continues to power off each evening at 2223 (Pacific Time), even though I have no automation for that action.

In an last email from support I was asked to remove the plug and reset, as follows:

We request you to Delete the BR-1 plug from the account and Re-add it back and before re-adding the plug make sure to Reset the plug .

Here are the below steps to Reset Wifi Smart Plug :

  • Press and hold the Power button for 5 seconds
  • The light on the front of the outlet will blink green when it is ready to connect

I removed the plug as requested, and reset. Added it back, changing the name to “BR-1a” (renamed for my clarity). The plug continues to power off just as before (at 10:23:04 PM) . as shown in the log below, and the attached image. I didn’t have much faith in this exercise, as once the plug was re-added to my system all history restored. - the only thing missing was any of the automation’s I can see in the app. I then suspected that the plug really wasn’t totally removed from the ‘cloud’, and thus the ghost automation lingers on.

864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7 10:23:05 PM: trace component: main, capability: powerMeter

864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7 10:23:05 PM: info Parsed Description: {“correlationId”:“59f696ff-197b-8091-62a7-b45b5ecb801f”,“receiverDi”:“dealer”,“enqueueTime”:1572585784990,“path”:“/oic/route/864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7/capability/powerMeter/main/0”,“data”:{“payload”:{“unit”:“W”,“power”:0}},“senderDi”:“864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7”}

864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7 10:23:04 PM: trace component: main, capability: switch

864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7 10:23:04 PM: info Parsed Description: {“correlationId”:“e9c6785e-fa50-f6f7-c98a-df8794491dc6”,“receiverDi”:“dealer”,“enqueueTime”:1572585784710,“path”:“/oic/route/864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7/capability/switch/main/0”,“data”:{“payload”:{“power”:“off”}},“senderDi”:“864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7”}

864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7 10:23:04 PM: debug returned [senderDi:OCFDeviceType, receiverDi:864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7, coapToken:41ba58e1ae4c56c9, path:/oic/route/864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7/capability/switch/main/0, observeOption:null, message:[payload:[rt:[x.com.st.powerswitch], if:[oic.if.a, oic.if.baseline], power:off]], responseCode:CHANGED]

864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7 10:23:04 PM: debug postOcfCommand(/oic/route/864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7/capability/switch/main/0, [power:off])

864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7 10:16:34 PM: trace component: main, capability: powerMeter

864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7 10:16:34 PM: info Parsed Description: {“correlationId”:“109258d9-b0dd-f741-6ad3-2ff8f68189f4”,“receiverDi”:“dealer”,“enqueueTime”:1572585394783,“path”:“/oic/route/864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7/capability/powerMeter/main/0”,“data”:{“payload”:{“unit”:“W”,“power”:20}},“senderDi”:“864b9e7f-38db-7477-ed82-69982da199a7”}

Using a Samsung Galaxy Tab S2 / Android version 7.0
New Smartthings app version 1.7.38-21

Thank you for interesting details and results of “exercise”. Looks like this problem is quite deep. I think it is even not related to Hub, because my ghost automation is about changing the home MODE. It is common function, which is available even without any connected Hub.

In the end, it took Smartthings support to resolve the issue, as each of the two plugs had ‘hidden’, or ‘ghost’ automations.
Several observations through all this:

  • Community has been great, but there are things that can not be resolved by the user as the system is configured now.
  • There should be a way to view ALL automations tied to a device through the web site, and delete any not wanted.
  • Device history only shows a rolling 7 days window (in the ‘new’ Android app). Makes it harder to see how a device has operated historically over time for those ‘once a week’ automations.
  • Device history is not deleted when a device is removed, reset, and added back to a system.
  • Adding additional apps and integrations would have only complicated the problem resolution.

Thank you all for your assistance.

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