Why Did My Integration/SmartApp Stop Working in January 2023?

[JDRoberts]

As they have been saying for over a year, Samsung has finally turned off the hosting in the smartthings cloud for custom Groovy smartapps. So all of those smartapps no longer work. (Basically, any smartapp that you had to install yourself through the old IDE.)

That also includes some third-party integrations which worked via custom groovy smartapps hosted in the SmartThings cloud.

It’s frustrating for many people, but it shouldn’t really be unexpected.

Here’s the most recent announcement:

Groovy SmartApp Shutdown

And here’s a discussion of general alternatives:

Replace Groovy with Automations—what’s your plan?

I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THIS WAS A CUSTOM SMARTAPP, IT’S JUST THE WAY I WAS TOLD TO SET IT UP

If this was a third-party integration, the best thing to do is to contact support for that service/device and ask them if they have a transition plan to the new architecture.

If they say they do not intend to update their integration for the new architecture, you can come back here and search the forum to see what alternatives other people are planning to use.

WHAT IF THE ISSUE IS A DTH, NOT A SMARTAPP?

If your integration stopped working because of a groovy DTH instead of a smartapp, again, contact the author of the original code to see if there’s an alternative. Some official integrations are not going to be available on the new platform. See the official transition FAQ for a list of those:

Platform Transition FAQ

If the problem is that you had a virtual device that you used to Trigger Alexa Routines and that stopped working, see the following community FAQ for options:

FAQ: Creating Virtual Devices with the new architecture (Without the IDE) (2023)

SOME SPECIFIC OPTIONS

And here’s a list of some known alternatives for popular smartapps that have now been discontinued, in no particular order:

1) Webcore. There are no plans at present for anyone to create a new version of Webcore that will work with the new smartthings architecture. See the alternatives discussion thread for a number of possibilities:

Replace Groovy with Automations—what’s your plan?

2) IFTTT. The company has announced that it is working on an integration that will work with the new architecture. They released it briefly on 12 January, but then withdrew it again, presumably because of glitches. Contact their support for further information.

3) Life360. The company has announced that it does not plan to create an integration for the new smartthings architecture. There is a discussion of alternatives in the following thread:

Life360 Connect (post Groovy)?

4. MyQ. There never was an official integration. The old community-created integration won’t work anymore, but the same author has now created a new edge driver integration. This one works, but will require that you have an additional server device. See the following:

[ST Edge] SmartThings MyQ Edge

5. Laundry Monitor. this can be replaced with routines. Details in the following thread.

Replacement for Laundry Monitor

6. Vacation Lighting. Different people are trying different alternatives.

If you have a pro subscription to sharptools ($30 per year at the time of this writing), one community member has figured out how to create an alternative there:

Vacation Lighting & SharpTools

Otherwise, see the discussion thread:

Vacation Lighting Alternatives?

7. Options for Hosts and Landlords to manage locks and modes remotely

Since the very popular Rboy apps are not working, and there’s no timeline for replacements, here’s a discussion thread for possible alternatives:

Manage Rental Lock Codes And Home/Away after Groovy?

8. Konnected or Noonlight via Konnected

The old groovy integration has stopped working, but connected has created a new cloud to cloud integration, which works fine. See:

Konnected.io after groovy

9. Notify Me When

If you just need a static notification when a specific event occurs, the good news is that Routines in the new artichecture can do this quite well.

However, if you want a variable notification (“If any of the following sensors is open at 10 pm, tell me which one”), you may need to use a third party app like SharpTools.

See discussion of both these situations:

Any replacement for Notify Me when?

10. Elder care (notify if no motion

This was used to notify a relative if there had been no movement in a specific area of the home, typically the kitchen, for a long period of time. Or to notify a friend/neighbor for someone who live by themselves. The official smart app went away when the groovy cloud went away.

The always technically creative @taustin has an alternative that works with the new architecture. It’s a little more complicated to set up, but if you have any questions, just asking that thread and someone will help you.

Notify someone if NO movement within a period of time

11. Garden Hue (color looping)

Several possible alternatives are discussed here:

Replacement for Garden Hue Colour changing App? (Colour loops)

12. Custom Monitors in SmartThings Home Monitor

From 2015 until 2017 you could create custom security monitors. This feature was dropped when the V3 app was released in 2018, but those who had created custom monitors in the old classic app could still run them using a new smartapp called Custom Monitors. Although written by smartthings staff as part of the migration it was never officially supported.

It now appears that it has stopped running along with all custom groovy SmartApps.

You can probably create a similar automation to get regular notifications, but there’s no longer a way to include those in the security features.

Discussion thread:

Custom Monitors in SmartThings Home Monitor No Longer Supported?

[csumner (Chris)]

It’s been a good ride but now a good reason to move over to something like Home Assistant or OpenHab.
With the lack of ability to make basic HTTP requests to trigger Alexa announcements or more complex routines, I can’t see myself staying on this platform for much longer.
Support has been very unhelpful to add insult to injury.
RIP Smartthings and more importantly, WebCore.

[fido (Mike)]

Does this help ?

[ST Edge] Web Requestor: a driver to issue local POST and GET HTTP requests

I’m converting the text result into a number in SharpTools using the round() expression. Having the result automatically in a numeric field would be great.

[JDRoberts]

@csumner

With the lack of ability to make basic HTTP requests to trigger Alexa announcements or more complex routines

You can still do this, but you have to do it in a completely different way.

As @fido mentioned, there is now a category of edge drivers that the community is calling “edge services” that allow you to reach server devices on your own LAN so you can use all kinds of integrations, and even use some we didn’t have before (like reaching an MQTT broker locally). But many will require running a 24/7 server device on your own Network, like a raspberry pi or a laptop. So not for everyone, but quite a few people are using these successfully.

To find the existing ones, see the “edge services“ list in the quick browse lists in the community-created wiki.

https://thingsthataresmart.wiki/index.php?title=Quick_Browse_Lists_for_Edge_Drivers

As far as more complex rules, there are several options for those depending on exactly what you’re trying to do. As noted in the first post of this thread, start with the following topic, and you’ll see discussion of the webcore alternatives:

Replace Groovy with Automations—what’s your plan?

If there’s a specific piston that you are trying to re-create in the new architecture, you can start a thread in the following section of the forum and hopefully someone will be able to help you:

Automation Ideas

You may still decide you’d rather go to a different platform— different things will work for different people. But there are probably more alternatives in the new smartthings architecture Than it looks like at first glance. After all, Webcore itself was an unofficial community project, and not mentioned anywhere in the smartthings app. So some research was required to find that one as well.

[RottenMutt (Eric Anderson)]

Did anything speed up? Let me answer that for you, NO!

[Glen_King]

I have an automation that was disabled that, somehow since the change, has enabled itself… but I can no longer edit or delete it. I get this error:

Any ideas on how to at least disable it?

[Lev (Roy)]

In all fairness, this end of Groovy was only announced in the circles of the online community.
I for one was unaware that a community even existed for these purposes until suddenly I couldn’t update the code in Groovy.

It’s not a safe assumption that all these people are part of the online community, reading these news.

IMHO they have NOT been announcing it for a year.
There are people who have been aware of this for a year, but to reach all relevant parties they should’ve announced it in the Groovy IDE, and in the android app, or wherever else developers or users could see it, and they should’ve announced it so that at least 80% of the users of the technology could somehow catch it.

I like the changes, and it’s nice to have a platform with high integrability.
Would I have liked to feel like I have to run a marathon for close to 2 months just to restore the automation I had running, set up a new environment, drop other priorities etc? No.
I hope someone there will execute a more communicable process, should there be another fundamental change in the future.

[Andrew_Bartlett]

@Lev

in the android app

[JDRoberts]

@Lev

but to reach all relevant parties they should’ve announced it in the Groovy IDE

This is a very good idea, although again I do think there are some people who installed Groovy code as part of the initial install process for a device using instructions they got from a third party, and they may have never touched the IDE since.

And there are some affected third party integrations like IFTTT where even that wasn’t necessary.

I know there were some emails that went out to all registered accounts, and since you had to register an account to set up a smartthings account, theoretically that should have reached almost all users. (There could be some people whose systems were set up by someone else.)

But I still think there should have been a specific list of the devices and smartapps that would be affected for each account sent in advance to each account. Samsung certainly had that information even if it would require some programming to generate the emails.

Not “accounts may be affected” but “your account will be affected because you are currently using the following which will be shut down during this process.” At least for the smartapps.

For the custom DTHs, they could word it differently, using “may,” but it should still be specific.

JMHO, of course.

[Lev (Roy)]

Yes, where was that posted?
Guaranteed I wasn’t aware of this post.

Probably most people not active in the community online were unaware of it.
Which is exactly my point above.

[Andrew_Bartlett]

@Lev

Yes, where was that posted?

Smartthings App, Menu, Notices.

[Lev (Roy)]

Then not visible enough, I’m using the app everyday and have been since 2-3 years ago. Never saw any such notice.

I think it really depends on the goal, if your goal is to cover your behind, then you’ve covered it. If your goal is to make your community happy, you’ll think about what’s impactful and what makes a difference.