Hubitat REV C-8 Pro
Ethernet connected
Direct power from wall outlet
Platform version 2.4.3.171
App version 2.1.60 (460)
iPhone 16 running iOS 26.2
99% of all interaction occurs through the app on my phone.
I’m a fairly new Hubitat user, and I’m realizing that I don’t know much about general best practices for keeping my hub at tiptop performance, because I’m finding that after a day or two some commands are really sluggish and actions are delayed or sometimes just won’t happen unless I reboot the hub or refresh certain devices or cancel some pending rules that should’ve fired and didn’t.
I’ve set a reminder to reboot my hub once a week, and I have some quick tools built to refresh specific devices that are prone to this issue to clear them out and get them moving again, but I’m sure there are probably folks on this forum with some advice or who know some tips and tricks for keeping things moving cleanly and to avoid the hub becoming sluggish and slow so quickly.
I try to keep my rules very concise and clean without excess or unnecessary actions or conditions. It’s used primarily for home security monitoring so door contacts and smart locks probably get the most use, as well as the HSM.
As a newbie, I would welcome any advice or suggestions that you all have from your experience because more than likely, I don’t know any of those things. Just want to learn a bit more about this device and how to use it efficiently and effectively. Thank you all very much in advance.
In general there isn't a whole lot that the hub needs to keep running, so kind of surprised that your C8-Pro is becoming sluggish - I rarely need to reboot any of my hubs outside of loading a new firmware version.
Couple of things you could look at:
Logs
a. Look for any Error Messages, notices about queues getting full, or radios becoming jammed.
b. Look at the device and app tabs on the logs to see if there are any that seem overly active - note that the % busy given is a percentage of the device/app total busy not the hub so if all devices make up 2% of the total hub busy and a device entry says 40% busy , it's 40% of 2% or 0.8% of the hub.
Check your free memory when things start slowing down (should never be an issue with a C8-Pro) - generally anything over 120MB free isn't cause for concern.
Hub is geared for ZWave and Zigbee, but also has the capability of supporting other protocols through integrations and custom apps. Devices that require a lot of HTTP traffic can cause slowness in UI responsiveness but may not be impacting the hub otherwise.
Check for ghost ZWave devices - a few thousand threads on here about detecting and remedying.
Never unplug your hub without first shutting it down from settings/shut down. Although not as likely as it used to be, database corruption can occur with an abrupt power removal.
Go to settings/reboot, click “show advanced options”, click “rebuild database on reboot”. First thing that I do when having issues or sluggish response (which should be rare).
Put the hub on a UPS to avoid issue number 1. I use a large Cyberpower UPS, because I already have it nearby, but many have reported good luck with regular lithium backup batteries, as long as they provide power while being charged.
Install some tools to help determine what is happening when you are having sluggish responses. Hubitat Package Manager is a community app that can help you to locate, install, and keep community apps up to date. You can find the excellent Hub Information app there.
Make sure that you don’t have Jumbo frames enabled anywhere on your network. This has caused people problems in the past.
If none of these suggestions fix your problems, let us know exactly what devices you are having problems with (manufacturer, device, protocol used) and someone here is likely to be able to assist with finding a solution.
I did this right after I posted this actually. Everything looks pretty normal I think although I did see that both of my ThirdReality Zigbee outlets are producing a TON of debug and info logs.
That is 1 of 9 screenshots exactly like that all within a single minute, 11:11 pm. Approximately 80 messages in that minute. All of the info logs are just reporting wattage, varying from 0 to 2. I honestly don’t know what the debug messages are for. They just seem to be providing specifications about the device… I’m not sure if this is part of the problem or how to stop it.
I’m not even sure where you view memory on this device… i’ll go poke around. I’m assuming it’s somewhere in the settings.
At the moment I only have Zigbee and Z-wave devices connected. I was running an API maker app for a JFFS Script to utilize the FTP server/notifications from my video doorbell but that's been completely removed now, so pretty clean zigbee/z-wave only system at the moment.
I discovered this fun little phenomenon after a very frustrating day of z-wave device setup failures, I had quite a few! None anymore.
For any power-reporting devices, take advantage of anything in the driver that allows you to prune the reporting to just what you need in terms of timing and data.
At their defaults, many such devices are way too chatty, and when you have numerous such devices, it can become a strain on both the respective mesh and the hub overall.
ETA - take advantage of any device-level firmware updates... In particular, the initial release of power-reporting devices is commonly notorious for being chattier than intended.
@hydro311 I don't want any power reporting other than it's on/off state, but I didn't see this option in the device details. I'll go back and look more closely. Thanks!
It adds a virtual driver - use that from your Device page, Add Device at the top, and choose the Hub Info driver as the virtual device's driver.
Additional: Once the virtual Hub Information driver is installed you can configure it to watch what you are interested in, and use it's output in rules/automations as well. More info, and ask questions herre:
General advice on Z-Wave...any time you are adding new Z-Wave devices, always check the Z-Wave Details page after any try, successful or not (especially if not). You want to find and remove ghosts immediately if you have an unsuccessful Z-Wave inclusion.
Thanks @danabw! Yes, checking the z-wave page is now standard practice for me when adding z-wave devices haha. I'll download that app.
I checked the power reporting on my outlets, and they are both disabled... but it did have description-text logging enabled, so I disabled that, maybe that will do it.
ThirdReality Zigbee Outlet/Plug. I already had the power reporting disabled but I was getting tons of logs about it. Turning off the description text logging just now did stop the logs, but not the events. I just turned it on and got 10-15 power readings under the device events page in the first minute, and climbing.
There were some FW updates for the Third Reality plugs, IIRC. @rlithgow1 has these, I believe.
There shoudl be a "Update Firmware" option on the Commands tab of the plug...you can open a live logs tab, and then click on the Update Firmware button on the plugs device page to check to see if HE has a FW update available for the plug.
You'll see entries in the logs from the hub when you start the FW update check. Hub is "sys1" in the logs.
I would need that hub to do the firmware update at all? Or to see specific in the logs like @danabw is describing? I did attempt a firmware update on them already but wasn't sure if it succeeded or not.
You would need the Third Reality hub to do the FW updates, only way, evidently. If you have a lot of them might be worth the investment.
If you click the "Firmware Update" button on your Device page you should see entries from the hub (sys1) trying to do the update, but it will fail as evidently Third Reality dosen't make its FW updates available outside their hub.
