Why is this system so broke. I came home tonight at 11:14pm and all my Christmas lights were on. They are set to turn off at 11:00pm. I have been using Smartthings for about 4 months and I read over and over about all the issues people are having. I am having the same issues. I want a light bulb to turn on or off as scheduled. It fails over and over. This is not rocket silence, it’s turning light bulbs on and off a few times a day…
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It’s maddening to say the least but, they say they are working on it. Sadly, every other platform has the same complaints. This platform is the lesser of evils in my opinion, or I would have bailed already.
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Some platforms have the same complaints. Some platforms have different complaints.
If all you need is for lights to go on and off on a schedule, you can use a Leviton light controller or Staples connect or Lutron and get a solid reliable lights management system. (Or Phillips hue bridge for indoor lights.)
It all comes down to your specific needs as far as which system will be the best match for you,
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Wait…did you say Christmas lights? It’s not even Thanksgiving yet. 
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Tonight 3 out of 10 lights turned off according to the “Smart Lighting” Smart App. Everyday things are completely random. What is the best way to debug this?
I have one virtual switch to turn on the lights on and off. It works every time, all the lights come on and off when I hit the icon. The timer function in “Smart Lighting” turns them all on ever time but fails to turn them all off. If I look at ‘Recently’ the lights never received the command.
I never know day to day if it is a local issue or another day when SmartThings is trying to fix their broken cloud. Tomorrow I will post many pics of my logs and setup.
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Last night they all turned off as scheduled. It is a completly random when this system will work or fail. Here is the log. Nothing changed from day to day.
I on vacation for two 2 weeks in FL. Every day I use the mobile app to see of my Christmas Lights at home in Ohio turn off as scheduled. So for 1/2 of them failed 2 of 5 days. I can turn them off using the mobile app. I just do not understand how random this system is. Some days it works some days is fails.
I wish I could set the system to log from 10:58pm to 11:03pm to show it failing on random days. Is SmartThings cloud still having issued like a few weeks ago?
I check every night to make sure the lights come on and off as schedule. So far the last 4 days it has worked as planned. I hope it keeps working.
I’m just staring in the ST world, so all of this is new.
While I cannot relate to the issues [as of yet], I am sure they will crop up for me as well as I expand my system.
In a previous reply the user said if simple on/off functionality is desired, said user complaining should use a leviton [or other] device…
THIS DEFEATS THE PURPOSE OF ST!!! If ST cannot handle simple routines as on/off RELIABLY, what hope is there for more complex scenarios/device/rule/event scenarios???
Just my 2c.
J
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I am back from vacation. Since my last post all the Christmas lights turned on and off as planed. One of my outside lights did not turn on one time, (1 of 9)
The worse thing is I can manually turn all the outside and Christmas lights on and off manually with my phone. It is the timer function that works 99% of the time. The 1% of the time it does not work is a real pain.
Things have been working ok until last night. I have 9 outside lights. One did not come on. My Christmas lights are a different story. I have 7 Z-Wave modules running them. Last night only 4 came on. Everything turned off as planned.
Why is this system so random. Some days it works perfect others it works horrible.
“The Cloud”
We lost power last night (briefly) and of course all the HA was down until we rebooted the infrastructure and reconnected to the internet. Fun 
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I have been through that a few times. It is painful.
Last week I was invited to Smartthings office in Minneapolis to demo their upcoming app. I was given a $50 Amazon gift card and a Smartthings coffee mug for my participation. I was so excited that I decided to switch out my Wink hub in my other house and bought a Smartthings Hub V2.
My Dropcam, Liftmaster garage door, Logitect Harmony Hub and Sonos all works great, however all of my z-wave and zigbee devices paired well, but I have to unplug and plug back in my new ST Hub about every hour so my z-wave and zigbee things will keep working.
Did I get a bad ST Hub, should I have gotten a V1, or should I have just stayed with my limited option but basic working Wink Hub?
This is a lot of money to invest in for a product that only works 120 minutes per time.
I found an work around for this problem online: Hook your ST hub to a z-wave outlet that is controlled by a Wink hub, to cycle on/off every 60 minutes. REALLY?!
No phone number to call for help, online chat disconnected, and who knows how long for them to respond to your email?
Anyone have any idea what to do here?
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If you have not already, open a support ticket. Apologies that you are having a troublesome getting started experience. In the meantime, if you provide some troubleshooting details I might be able to help you.
How close is your hub to the wifi router/access point?
What color are the lights on the hub?
Have you tried the repair mesh option in the mobile app?
This is my second ST hub. My first is a V1 in my Florida home. It works GREAT! I got my V2 yesterday and moved all my devices from my Wink hub to my new ST V2.
The issues were noticed right away last night and this morning I opened a support ticket. Since then I have had to reboot my hub 5 times today.
I can understand if I got a “Friday” built hub, I just want to be sure before I remove my devices and send it back.
Today everything turned on as scheduled. It is crazy how unreliable/unpredictable this system is.