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Echo & the Hue lights OFFLINE?

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jwestbro

Echo & the Hue lights OFFLINE?
« on: July 29, 2015, 10:58:38 pm »
I recently bought 5 Hue Lux lights so that I could use my Echo to help dim/on/off the lights. A little background:

The lights in the Philips Hue app shows a "!" over each light saying it may not have connection to the lights--however they ALL work without lag. I've used a 3rd party app "Huemote" to control the lights, which they do just fine. All the lights on the Hue Hub are all on and steady (no blinking).

My problem: The Echo app says my lights are all "offline" and when I ask it to discover the devices it cannot find them. If I ask it to turn on my lights (i.e. "Alexa, turn on my living room lights") it says it can't find it. How do I get it to work together??

I have tried: rebooting the wireless, rebooting the app, restarting the wireless connection to the Echo, discovering the Hue Hub by pressing the button before asking Echo to find devices (and vice versa). My iOS, Echo, apps, etc. are all updated. I've also checked my router for updates or problems.

I can't seem to find anything online about this specific problem. Help!

UPDATE: I called Amazon and they said it's on Philip's side of issue and not Echo. They suggested I delete the lights and start over. However, my problem is that the app can't ever FIND the lights except if they are right next to the hub. I followed one blogger's idea (http://www.gordonmeyer.com/2013/07/philips-hue-problem-adding-new-bulb.html) to find the lights, which it did in that ONE light socket (all other sockets in the same fixture wouldn't work). So I deleted one light to see if it would be found where I put it (the porch) and can't find it. I guess the bigger question now is: how do I find my lights?!?! By the way, my hub is connected to my router so I can't really move the hub very far, which has me concerned that this is the problem (except then why not the other lights in the same fixture near the hub??). I've also tried LampStealer--on both a Mac and on Windows (just because I'm trying everything), which found my bridge/hub but when I press "Start linking" it says "something went wrong." ODD.

PLEEASE help. I know the lights work. But this is nuts.
« Last Edit: July 29, 2015, 11:55:26 pm by jwestbro »

mikepsych283

Re: Echo & the Hue lights OFFLINE?
« Reply #1 on: July 31, 2015, 07:44:56 pm »
Hey jwest
 Brother I feel your pain , i spent hours working on those darn Hue lights. So this is what i did
1st make sure all your devices are on the same network
2:Disconnect and reconnect your echo to the network ( hopefully it will autofind but if not try the autodiscover)

I truly hope this helps , it was frustrating to not have it working and it has disconnected once or twice I just went thru the echo setup again

patsac

Re: Echo & the Hue lights OFFLINE?
« Reply #2 on: September 16, 2017, 09:33:58 pm »
Here's another thing to consider, if other people have this problem:

For Echo and Hue to work together, your router needs to support UPnP, and it needs to be enabled. Most of them do by default now, but it's worth checking if you're having problems.

My Alexa just stopped working with my Hue lights one day, and it took me forever to figure out why. Turns out my router (an Asus TM-AC1900) had "updated" firmware that broke UPnP. When I swapped out the router, everybody started playing together nicely again!

ericnrosesmom

Re: Echo & the Hue lights OFFLINE?
« Reply #3 on: September 19, 2017, 12:12:00 pm »
I had similar issues a few times when I was putting in my hue lights. Most of them were able to be discovered right away, but a few were stubborn. What helped me was to first delete all the bulbs from the alexa app, then do a master reset on the hub. To do this turn the hub over and look for a little tiny hole. Inside that hole is a reset button. I used a toothpick to push it. Then I went into the hue app and ran discovery until it found all the bulbs. Some I had to enter the serial numbers manually. Then once the hue app had found them all I had to have alexa rediscover all of them and set up the groups with the rooms. Note-this will scramble the numbers. For example, before the reset I knew my living room had bulbs 1,2,and 3, my front porch 4, etc. after the reset it was more like 1.8.6 in the living room. 3 and 9 in the hallway, etc. So it was a pain to figure out which ones were where and what groups they all belonged in. Also, I had one bulb that even after gong through all those steps above the hub still refused to discover it. I fought with it for hours and finally wound up taking it back to walmart and exchanging it. The new one was discovered on the first try.

jikel

Re: Echo & the Hue lights OFFLINE?
« Reply #4 on: November 19, 2017, 10:18:07 pm »
All good, but when you say you reset the hub, was that the Hue hub or the Echo Plus?  I just got an Echo Plus with one Hue bulb and it has wasted at least one full day of my time and has me questioning the whole concept of a Smart Home!
I did set the bulb up on the app but then made the mistake of renaming it from 'Lamp 1' to 'Accessory light' in the app on my iPhone.  From that time on the system went in a death spiral.  The app on my Windows 10 computer did not show the name change and remained fixed as 'Lamp 1' and the routines I had set up on the iPhone stopped working.  I deleted the routine and removed the lamp from both the apps thinking that i could re-associate it and fix the problem and that I could create new routines ---- silly me.  Now I am unable to discover the lamp and so I have a $20 bulb that is as smart as a $1 bulb as I am unable to reset it without a hub from Hue.  I refuse to buy that hub as I just paid an extra $50 to get the Echo with the built in hub.  I tried adding the Hue skill to Alexa but am stymied because I cannot get far enough in the Hue website without the hub.  The Hue website is as much use as a sack of potatoes to me as the help section only has FAQ's, none of which deal with the resetting of the bulb without the hub.  I cannot find anywhere to reset it using the bulb serial number as you say you had to do --- where is that function available.
I am having trouble seeing how this is making my home smarter or my life easier; the old on/off toggle switch is looking very smart these days.