Philips Hue app 4.0.11 disconnects all devices

Since the latest updates of Homey and the Philips Hue app from Athom (bridge app) all hue devices are disconnected from the app. The bulbs, sensors and switches work perfectly when controlled by an iPhone app.
After restarting the app in Homey the devices are back again. Within 24 hours they are lost again.
I am using a 2-hourly hue app restart as a workaround, but I hope this can be repaired.
The Hue app version is 4.0.11.
I use a Homey Pro on 2.3.0.

Anybody with the same problem?

1 Like

Pull the Plug for 15 minutes and then let Homey start up for min. 15 minutes, then check if all devices are back.

I’m using a Homey v2.3.0 with the Hue v4.0.11 app.
Don’t have this issue.

At saterday there was an update for the Hue Hub and Hue White & Color lamps.
Maybe that will make a difference.

I have the problem since Philips Hue App v4.x
Because of memory issue. The memory usage of the app increase and increase over the time. Latest after 24 hours the App become the status “paused” and all hue devices are disconnected.
I have to restart the app minimum one time per day!

I agree with ^^. I’ve had it since v4.0.4. I’ve removed the app and added the devices directly to Homey ZigBee network. No problems anymore. Too bad I cannot use the Hue scenes now.
But I’m surprised this issue is still around…

I will try that.
Out of curiosity: what process takes 15 minutes? Is it a polling interval?

Thanks for adding that. Indeed, I also have the pause icon in the Hue app.
I have updated the bridge firmware as well. It did not solve the problem

The time is needed to convince all devices that the communication needs a “new start communication” and not a “resume communication”, so all the needed parameters will be send to all the devices and the network will be rebuild. That is also the reason to wait 15 minutes after Homey is started, the transmitting of the parameters and response from the devices, takes some time.

Thank you for explaining. I understand.
I tried the PTP for 15 minutes last night. This morning the app was paused again and all devices were offline in Homey.
I checked Homey’s memory, It was fine, about 75% free.
Maybe the app has a bug, causing it to think that memory is full and takes subsequent action?

Check the memory usage over the time of the Philips Hue App!

I checked the memory usage of the app in Insights. Good tip. After the PTP memory usage starts at almost zero. Then over the course of about 6 hours it gradually grows to 80 Mb and then it flattens at that value. I speculate that the app has paused itself at that point. After a soft reset of the app this cycle repeats itself.

So it seems there is a memory leak. Other apps don’t show this behavior

Welcome to the club!

See also some User reviews

Hmmm, indeed.
As these things apparently can not be prevented, it would be good if Athom would invest in a rollback capability, or backup and restore mechanism.

I understand the risks if Homey’s ecosystem relies on community coding. User contribution is an important element of Athoms business model. Athom offers the platform and users with a generous heart make great apps. Without them Athom would not survive.

In my view it would make sense if Athom at least gives us the possibility to downgrade apps that don’t work in all situations or contain lasting bugs.

Having an online app archive that allows us to install a previous version would already relieve a lot of the pain and frustration. That is a small effort to keep many users happy and help Athom to grow as a business

I had the exact same problem and created a pragmatic workaround for it.

My work around is as follows:

  • 1 Flow that runs every minute to set a temp var to -100. It then reads a hue sensor and tries to set the temp var to brightness value from the sensor (if Hue is paused it won’t assign the value and leave the value at -100). It then sets HueStatus to the temp variable.
  • 1 Flow that checks variable HueStatus variable for changes and for the numeric value -100. When this value is present, I set HueStatus variable to 0 and next step is to restart the hue app. In this step you can also send an alert to your mobile or to the notifications, so you know when a reset was done.

This fix works for me reliable for more than a week now. The main advantage of this is that at maximum Hue is not responding for only 1 minute. Another advantage is that I only restart Hue when needed. I only see Hue reset 1 or 2 times a day now.

You can also use the above flows for any other bad apps you may have.

I am finally happy about controlling my Hue from Homey.

I hope this helps you too.

As replied in Juli, I don’t have this issue.
Hue app 4.0.11 / Homey (Early 2018) 2.5.2

Great that you don’t have any problems with Hue.
With the pragmatic workaround I described on August 26, I occasionally see a restart of my Hue app. In my case about every 2 - 3 weeks, the connection gets lost. The workaround restarts hue within 1 minute. I still prefer to use the workaround, just to be sure Hue is monitored every minute and keeps working.

Hi Lion,
could you please give me more details regarding this work around I’m not really comfortable with flow…
I still have this problem with the app.
Thank you for your help.
Blaise

I have the same issue here. I am surprised that this issue has not been addressed in the last 10 months. With respect to you workaround: I don’t see the necessity of this complex solution. Isn’t it easier to just use a flow that restarts the Hue app on a regular basis (say every hour, twice or three times a day)? I just have the Homey, so I can’t see if this option was available earlier.

Since homey v4.2.0 experimental there is no need to restart the Philips HUE App anymore. :grinning:


So you can install the experimental or wait until 4.2 will becomes stable.

I have 4.5.1 and the probleem still exists. Can anyone from Athom explain? This is an Athom made app for probably the most common range of smart home products. I would say one might expect this to work properly.