I had a C-7 for a couple of years and upgraded to the C-8 Pro, everything moved over with the database backup and life was good for several months. A storm rolled through and we lost power for a couple of hours, and after that, nearly none of my Z-Wave devices will work with any regularity anymore. I've rebooted the hub, switched to the legacy Z-Wave driver, done several Z-Wave "repair" operations, and nothing seems to work. Most devices just don't respond anymore, but the Z-Wave graph and device topology shows everything, mostly blue.
I have a lot of devices (30+) (mostly GE Embrighten switches and dimmers) throughout the house and most aren't working today. To try to troubleshoot I tried to remove one, and the exclude didn't work, so I forced the remove and did a factory reset on the switch (which did work -- five blinking lights and now the status light is on when the switch if off, previously the status light was always off). But I can't get the Hubitat to find it again. I can't get the Hubitat to control any switch on the first or second floor either (I haven't tried the basement switches yet).
Any ideas on what to do next? I kinda want to just reset the whole thing and just add all the devices back in and make all my rules over from scratch (though I have plenty of backups too) because I'm so frustrated. This is feeling like a burn it down and start over kind of situation, but I'm open to other suggestions if that will save me time.
Have you tried a database rebuild while doing a boot or a soft reset using the Diagnostic Tool?
My suspicion is that your database was corrupted when the power went out.
The soft reset does a clean load and also reloads your Z-Wave radio settings.
when line power goes down, electronics may come back up in odd states. My first try would be to cycle those circuits by cutting power at the service panel then after a short time switching it back on. The age old "did you reboot it" tech support go to things to try.
Unfortunately, the GE/Enbrighten/Jasco switches had some quality issues where they die and can then really wreck your mesh.
Search the community here for past threads about it. IIRC, their cust service has historically been generous with sending replacements for confirmed-as-failed units, but I have no first-hand experience.
I flipped the breaker for 30 seconds and tried the include again -- still nothing. The Hubitat can control the other switch in that same 2 gang box, so it shouldn't be a radio problem.
No time to deal with customer support today, but it sounds like that might be my next thing.
It seems like the other switches are working now, or at least working better, so maybe I just need to hunt down a few fried switches and remove them and see if that helps.
If I'm remembering correctly, the Enbrighten branding was a few years after the 2017 batch that had the capacitor issue. OP should check the date code (which doesn't require removing the switch).
While that issue did manifest after a power cycle, it would be rather odd for nearly 30 switches to fail at once. Could there have been a power surge?
Is the date code on the front of the switch? So just remove the faceplate?
All the upstairs switches are working perfectly, and instantly from the GUI, now that the one problem switch has been factory reset and I can't get it included back into the system.
I haven't tested all of the switches in the house yet, but it seems like @hydro311 might have hit on the source of the problem (busted mesh from one fried switch).
That dimmer says "2044B" while the switch that's working right next to it says "2146B". And they're "UltraPro" if that makes a difference (too many different switch brands!). Dimmer is for the bathroom lights, switch is for the bathroom fan.
I just tested all of the switches/dimmers/outlets in the house and everything is working great now that this dimmer has been factory reset (and won't rejoin).
If you already have one, this is for those whom do not.
Due to surge events on the power lines, protecting our homes electrical system from damaging grid surge events can help with the longevity of our smart home devices. Especially since we can't hide a wall switch or smart bulbs behind a plug in surge suppressor.
I just ordered a new UltraPro 700 switch for early morning delivery tomorrow (thanks Amazon!) and I'll let you know if it's the old switch or something is still going weird with the Hubitat not wanting to add a device.
New switch arrived and installed and it's still not being found in Z-Wave inclusion. The QR code on the switch brings me to Samsung's SmartSwitch application, which isn't helpful since it doesn't know about the Hubitat (and I don't seem to be able to tell it about the Hubitat). The "instructions" QR code on the UltraPro instructions are a dead link.
I did a factory reset of the switch, which is to pull the air-gap toggle, hold down the bottom button, and push the air-gap toggle while keeping the bottom button pressed until the LED cycles through all 8 colors. I did that.
Then it says "power on the light and wait 10 minutes" and it will be automatically added to the mesh network, so that's what I'm doing now, but confidence is not high that this will work.
Since the Hubitat can control the switch right next to it (they're sharing the same neutral wire), and it's a brand new switch, it can't be a radio problem, right? What's the next steps for troubleshooting this? Is there a debug screen in the Hubitat where I can see if it can even see "something" out there, even if it's unable to do an include?
It's interesting to see the Z-Wave page. Some of the devices say they have 44 neighbors, but most are saying 28. The fan switch says 36 neighbors, but if I click on the refresh button (the one for that switch) it will jump up to 44 and then down to 28.
Before the power loss I'm pretty sure nearly all of these devices were reporting 44 neighbors. Now nearly all are reporting 28, but that's still enough to have a decent web back to the Hubitat.
For SmartStart (SS), you need to scan the z-wave QR via the Hubitat mobile/phone app, not just your plain camera app (which is presumably how you got to Samsung SmartSwitch site?)
I also recommend using Jeff P's helpful SS hub-app to manage SS devices -- more info here -- the second post of that thread contains helpful pairing tips and troubleshooting tips.
ETA -- it's frustrating that device packaging these days includes 2 or more QR codes all over it for different things -- the SS QR will commonly also say DSK and spell out the 1st 5 digits of the DSK # (not always, but that's a pretty common tell for the SS QR).
I don't get the Smart Start button in the new Hubitat app, which is really just a Chrome wrapper. I launched the old, unsupported, Hubitat app and it has the SmartStart scanner, and I scanned the QR with that, but it doesn't seem to have a "done" button, so it shows the 40 digit info and "not included, pending", and I can't figure out how to move on from there.
Looking at the instructions you pointed me to, those screen shots appear to be for the unsupported original Hubitat app, not the new one that launches Chrome (though not really Chrome, because I have the three vertical dots that allow for "Open in Chrome"). In the new app, I have "Find by device type", "Find by brand", and "Add device manually", which is where I've been choosing Z-Wave. I don't have an option to scan a QR code from inside the Hubitat app.
Are you on the latest version of the Hubitat mobile app? There were some issues along these lines in recent history, but it sounded like they were resolved in recent mobile app releases.
Your phone also needs to be on the same local (your home) network as your hub -- the ability to add devices via the mobile app will not show up if it's not on that same network.
I'm on "Hubitat Elevation" 2.1.3.20, which says it was released July 25, 2025. I also have "Hubitat Mobile", which is the one that says it's not supported and points me to Hubitat Elevation.
I installed the SS hub-app and it sees the switch, but for the life of me I can't figure out how to get it included.
AND... after writing this and checking the logs again, I see that it shows as included and I can see it in the device list and I can turn it on and off via the GUI.
So SS hub-app to the rescue, and that was PAINFUL.
