one of the main reasons I wanted to set up home automation / smart home is to have lights toggle while we are on vacation to simulate normal evening routine. just got back from vacation and lights did not work… in fact they won’t turn on or off at all!!! they do work manually toggling the switches.
these zwave devices still work…
-thermostat
-door and motion sensors, smart home monitor
-Aeon SmartStrip
…but my nice GE and cheaper Enerwave light switches will not work via app or Alexa
I am using vacation lighting director New App: Vacation Light Director and pollster to update status of these switches (don’t understand why I have to poll always powered devices). could they be causing this?
I have also tried repairing zwave a couple times. is there any indication when this completes? I don’t see any.
so frustrating that a simple use of smartthings doesn’t work.
What do the IDE logs say when you try to turn lights on and off from the app?
You shouldn’t have to poll the lights to refresh statuses either, it’s not instant but it shouldn’t take more than a few seconds to update in ST when the light is changed at the switch.
I think I read somewhere here that some bulbs have the tendency to drop out of the network and require a reset. @JDRoberts seems to know more, if I am not mistaken - I think it was his comment.
Very frustrating. Since the GE switches are on the official compatibility list, I would contact support and have them look into it. It could be an issue with the mesh but it will be easier for them to see from their side.
If you do want to dig into it further yourself, this gives more details and how to troubleshoot:
( and, yes, the dropping off issue is typically with GE bulbs, not the switches. That’s why the bulbs are not on the official compatibility list, but the switches are.
There’s a different issue that can affect GE switches, typically about eight months after they come out of warranty, but that wouldn’t affect multiple devices. )
A significant but not excessive number, maybe 12 to 15%, about 6 to 10 months after warranty start having trouble maintaining connection with the network. It’s not a super big deal and since the devices are already out of warranty, they are not considered defective.
Sometimes you can solve the problem by cutting the power at the circuit breaker and reconnecting them that way. Some people just replace the switch if it happens. The switches are cheap enough that even having to replace 10 to 15% of them are you still spend less than you would other brands. There has been much discussion of this in the forums, as well as on other home automation forums. It’s nothing to do with SmartThings.
Last time I looked at the log nothing ever showed, but it is working now. I see events from thermostat and also GE outdoor switch I have connected to fake fireplace… 52ebe845-3c12-4491-afce-ee09c5353147 9:32:19 AM: debug event from: Fireplace, value: on, source: DEVICE, description: zw device: 08, command: 2503, payload: FF
When I hit the light switches from app, nothing prints in the log. Since both brands of light switches are failing at apparently the same time, I don’t think it is a problem specific to either.
The two Enerwaves have dropped out before (I don’t remember if it was at same time or not) and I had to remove them from smartThings and add them back.
Actually it looks like one GE light switch in basement may be working based upon log. I didn’t check this one at home:
Another clue pointing to Vacation Lighting Director … I don’t have this switch selected to turn on/off. Deselecting the switches and removing the SmartApp didn’t immediately fix the problem. I will take this to the smartApp’s thread
Possible ST was having issue the same time you went on vacation. I lost a few z-wave and zigbee switches and sonsors 2 days ago as well. It was the same time ST was having issue with Smartapps. Power cycle did the trick for zigbee but I have to reset my z-wave switches.
Edit : just to save you time. Don’t delete and add switch if you have many smartapps tie to that switch. Use replace or put in a dummy switch in place of the bad switch in the smartapps so you don’t have to recreate all the smartapps again.