Groups and Scenes App IS available

[user2744]

Hi
I am new to hubitat so apologies if this has already been asked but i cannot find anything helpful on the forums.

I would like to create scenes for my lights. Everything suggests that i should use the Groups and Scenes app.

Not sure if i am just being stupid but i cannot install the groups and scenes app as it does not appear in the built in apps.
Is there something wrong with my Hubitat or does this app no longer exist. If the app is no longer available any suggestions on creating scenes would be appreciated.

I have a hubitat C7 with the latest firmware (2.3.3.130)

Many Thanks

[Inge_Jones]

Hi, there has been a change and you now need to use the Room Lighting app. Groups and scenes has been retired

[hydro311]

Those Groups & Scenes were very recently deprecated in favor of using the newer, more comprehensive "Room Lighting" app instead.

These 2 threads should be good starting points for navigating groups and scenes in RL...

And welcome to the community!!

Room Lights: Scenes, Groups & Voice Assistants

Room Lights: Scenes, Groups & Voice Assistants Room Lights can be used to create Groups and Scenes. Both Groups and Scenes involve the automation of a number of lighting devices intended to be Activated together. The differences between the two lie in how they are defined and how they are Activated. Both allow for Activation and control by Voice Assistants such as Amazon Echo and Google Home. Scenes In one sense every Room Lights automation defines a Scene, and possibly a number of Scenes …

How to use Room Lights for Groups

There seems to be a fair amount of confusion about how to set up a group in Room Lights. Before getting to that, let's define what a 'group' is: A group is a set of lights that should all respond identically to an activation device. By turning on the activation device, all of them should turn on. By turning it off, all should turn off. By setting it to blue, they should all be set to blue. For Room Lights to have a group, we first need to select the group member devices in the pull down for…

[user2744]

Many thanks for your fast response, It is very much appreciated.

[JoeJ]

I don't mind that older features get deprecated, but I do mind that the user is blocked from installing the app. I've got tons of rules using Groups and Scenes that work 100% and hesitate to replace them just for sake of using the "latest and greatest". Especially concerned if I need to replace my hub and cannot install the app.

[danabw]

If you have Groups and Scenes on a hub, you can keep using it.

If you have Groups and Scenes in your hub backups, restoring one of those hub backups will restore the app as well as all of the groups/scenes you created with it when the backup was taken.

If you purchased a new hub then the Groups and Scenes app would not be available in the built-in apps. Even then, however, if you really wanted Groups and Scenes you should be able get around that by restoring a backup from another hub that had Groups and Scenes on it.

You only need Groups and Scenes on one hub, really, as you can share groups and scenes you've created on one hub to another hub via the Hub Mesh feature, if you want to.

Room Lighting can import your groups and scenes. When it imports them it automatically pauses the new Room Lighting version of the group or scene so they won't run in conflict w/your existing Groups and Scenes. That allows you to compare the setups in RL to Groups and Scenes, and explore how Room Lighting works. That is very helpful in deciding if/when you want to move over to RL.

[erktrek]

For those of us with a baseline install for our clients making this switch is a little annoying due to the increased complexity and paradigm shift. Have to re-evaluate my strategies for installation/configuration that normally "just worked".

Having said that just because it doesn't (yet) fit with my use-case doesn't mean it is not the right thing to do for Hubitat, Inc going forward.

Maybe they could post the old source code to their Github examples area (if no secret sauce) and let people install it with heavy disclaimers/caveats.

[Inge_Jones]

Well it's not actually deprecated, it's retired. There is a difference inasmuch as deprecated means you can use it but there is something better and more likely to be maintained.

[danabw]

@Inge_Jones

deprecated means you can use it but there is something better and more likely to be maintained.

It is an interesting mixed bag, because the experience is different for existing and new hubs (and sort-of existing and new users when those are aligned):

• Existing: You can continue to use Groups and Scenes (unless and until you uninstall it). The "something better and more likely to be maintained" is RL.

• New: Not available at all. RL is only option.

This is true of other apps as well, like the older versions of RM (pre-5.x), which some users might still be using, while newer users like me only have RM 5.x and newer.

[Inge_Jones]

Well it's now unretired again. Whether it is "deprecated" or "as it was" I am not sure

[smartishhome]

Do we know why groups and scenes was un-retired in 2.3.3.132? I recently attempted to adjust one of my groups or scenes (don't recall which) but now even having installed 2.3.3.132 from 2.3.3.130 I cannot get a scene to save or allow me to hit "Done". It just spins and spins. This is on a C-7 that has a well seasoned Groups and Scenes app on it.
I guess I should post this as a new topic but the retirement and un-retirement has happened a little fast for me to get my head around while troubleshooting my stuff.

[bravenel]

Neither 'retiring' or 'unretiring' would have any affect at all on an existing instance of Group-2.1 or Scene-1.2, or of Groups and Scenes. You have something else going on.

[kzgagne]

I am experiencing the same issue as smartishhome, I can no longer make any changes to certain scenes without either them not even opening, or upon committing changes, it spinning endlessly. More alarmingly I can't even force remove the individual problem scenes using the gear button and clicking remove child instance. I also cannot even remove the entire Groups and Scene app itself, the remove button also has no effect either!

[bravenel]

What release are you on?

You should consider restoring a recent backup, as this is more likely to be a database issue than an issue with Groups and Scenes per se.

[user43]

I'm experiencing the same issue as kzgagne and smartishhome. I'm on version 2.3.3.137.

Would restoring the most recent backup fix the issue by rebuilding the hub's database, or is the problem likely to be something that is included in the database and I'll have to find a backup that was made before the problem occurred?

Thank you!