I have a hard time believing that this is a GE issue. Today I came home and all 9 of my GE outside bulbs never turned on at sunset. The GE bulbs in the house all turned on at sunset, but the bulbs all failed. SmartThings system fails randomly. Tomorrow I bet it all works. In 2 days I bet something will fail again.
Did you try to control the lights manually using ST app? Just in case its wireless network distance issue?
ST will not be so smart to missed only those lights at outdoor.
Do check your routine setup also
Honestly, the Link bulbs are a hot mess from what Iâve read. I come from the Iris world where the Link bulbs worked but were not supported. The bulbs were so unstable that some users reported issues with devices disconnecting other odd issues just by having a couple Link bulbs connected.
Iâm not saying this is the case here, but it is something that you might want to look at.
It is exactly that. SmartThings doesnât support them either. Even Hue has big bold red letters stating that user experience can be crappieâŚ
It is absolutely a GE Link issue. Try this experiment. Replace 1 or 2 of the Links bulbs with something else, like the Osram bulbs, removing the rest of the Link bulbs from your system. I would be willing to bet, assuming youâre not having issues with range, that those bulbs will actually reliably. I have a mix of Sylvania and Lightify bulbs, they have all been rock solid, except for a recent power event that turned them all on. But it turns out that is expected behavior since theyâre designed to turn on when a light switch is briefly toggled.
Give my test some serious consideration. At the very least, you can return the Lightify bulbs and get your money back if you see no improvement.
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Totally sounds like a mesh issue with the bulbs. Zigbee uses a nearest neighbor to relay messages, so if a hop in the middle is down nothing downstream will get messages. That is the issue with the GE bulbs is that its mesh is crap. People with 2-4 bulbs seem to work well (most likely all direct connect to hub), but the larger the mesh the more unreliable it becomes.
On top of that the GE bulbs are not rated for outdoor use, so heat/cool/moisture could also be causing performance issues.
I would recommend dumping the bulbs and moving to smart switches, much more reliable. If they fail its an easy hit the switch and all is well. I have probably had to hit the light switch 2-3 times in the last 3 months due to a rule failing, and most my lights are on motion trigger or sunset trigger.
I can use the ST app any time to turn one or all of the outside lights on. That never fails. The scheduler fails to schedule.
If it was in issue with range only some of the 9 bulbs would not work. All 9 of 9 fail at times. I can turn all 9 on and off with the ST app reliability. I can try putting another brand light in but I know it will not change the outcome.
My hub is on the second floor of the house directly in the middle of the house. The 9 outside bulbs surround the house. I can turn them on and off with the ST app anytime. The bulb are in a weather tight fixtures. It does not matter what the temp or humidity level it is. The ST app will turn the lights on and off every time. The scheduler does not work at times.
It has been well documented that GE Link bulbs donât perform well when paired directly to the SmartThings hub. From what I remember reading it was a specific firmware issue which caused SmartThings to pull official support for them. I have 4 of them hooked up to a hue gen 1 bridge and it works fine for me but Iâve heard that using the hue bridge is the only way to get them to work reliably.
Does anyone just hook up the $14.99 Hue White bulbs directly to ST hub and have better luck? I have 10 Links, some are good some not, but with a very strong mesh. Tired of battling as the rest of the house is very reliable, just not links.
I saw Cree has issues. Looking for any other solution for these specific bastards.
What scheduler are you using?
A âweather tight fixtureâ does not protect against temperature and humidity, often just rain. The GE bulbs could work reliably when you off/on/off/on from the app cause the mesh is active. If dormant for hours at a time, then an on command sent the mesh may not be reliable.
Nearly everyone that says âSmartThings Sucksâ have a single thing in common, the GE bulbs. This thread is now going on 8 monthsâŚ
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I use a Hue bridge and its pretty solid. I would highly recommend getting the Hue bridge. You can get a Gen1 for pretty cheap (no Homekit but who cares). Integration is easy.
Another bridge! Sweet! 
just kidding. So BBY has a bridge + 2 starters for $79. So ST â> Hue Bridge is real reliable?
Just get a cheap hue gen 1 hub off of ebay and connect your GE Links directly to it. Then use the hue integration to get them into SmartThings. Thatâs exactly what I did a year ago and I have been able to use my GE Link bulbs almost flawlessly since then (Iâve had to switch the bulbs on/off twice over the last year to get them to work properly).
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Oh! Good idea. Then I donât have to toss them.
So the GE links show in ST as normal, even though paired directly with Hue insteadâŚif I have that right?
Some people get better results with the GE links when they are connected through the Hue bridge, but it doesnât solve the problem.
Many people who donât have SmartThings but do have GE links connected to a Hue bridge report that from time to time the links will lose contact with the bridge. This is the famous âyellow!â Issue that was probably behind Philipsâ decision last fall to not allow the GE links to connect at all. They were getting a lot of customer service calls and forum posts about problems which werenât Hue problems at all but rather due to the GE links. ( Phillips later rescinded the block of third-party bulbs at customersâ request, but the problem still exists.)
I have 8 GE links from my first round of buying smart bulbs. Whether they are attached to the SmartThings hub directly or through the Hue bridge, still one or two of them go off line at least once a month. Itâs a known firmware problem and is the reason why the GE links are not on the official âworks with smartthingsâ compatibility list regardless of how you connect them to the hub.
I have Hue whites connected through the hue bridge that have never caused a problem. Once those were available for $15 each at Best Buy, we took all the GE links off any critical positions and use the Hues instead. We still use the GE links, but they are now the third light in a room so if they arenât connected itâs not a big deal.
Given that the prices on other brands have now come down so much, I no longer personally recommend the GE links at all. I havenât tried any of their newer models to see if those have the same issue.
( regarding GE links being the only reliability problem with SmartThings: just read forum postings. There are many other issues that can arise, such as the ones with smart home monitor, modes not changing, motion sensors not working, etc. that have nothing to do with GE links. But while reliability as a whole for smartthings has improved over the last six weeks, the GE links are a problem outside of smart things control. Literally in many cases. 
)
So if you want to get a Hue bridge and try the GE links on that and see if it improves anything, go ahead. It might or might not. But it wonât fix the problem completely.
Yeah, thats why I am considering just replacing them all with Hue whites. Just tired of the fighting with those bulbs.
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