How to delete old missing apps that are still sending cloud requests

The logs show I have 3 apps that constantly send cloud requests to the hub. I cannot locate the apps on the hub by the numbers that are given in the log entries. I suspect previously uninstalled apps have left remnants on my hub. I have removed all of my apps and devices, then soft reset, and added one app back on so far. It is not the app given in the error logs. How to I remove the offending apps. They are requesting cloud by the minute, generating hundreds of log entries. I do not have any earlier backups available from before the problem appeared. I suspect that if I could delete my database and start over, that might be a solution, but I don't know how to delete the database.
Thanks for any help.

Right, the error is telling you that the app isn't on the hub, but some external system is trying to contact it via the cloud endpoint. The solution lies outside the hub: find whatever that thing is and remove it. Often, this is a cloud service you previously integrated (and removed only the corresponding Hubitat app for). Examples include Alexa, Google Home, IFTTT, Life360, or community integrations like HubiThings. The fix is to remove that side of things.

If you share the actual log entry, there is a chance someone may be able to recognize the endpoint and what app it belongs to. (No guarantees, as any app can use any endpoint called whatever it wants, and many are quite generic-named; but there are some common ones.)

This is actually backwards: something in "the cloud" (the Internet) is attempting to contact your hub (via Hubitat's cloud endpoints, which don't do much more than relay that to your hub). The hub is just relaying this information to you in the logs -- the app it was trying to reach on your hub is no longer there, so the traffic isn't being handled.

A soft reset deletes your database, but: (1) this won't really help since the problem isn't on your hub in the first place, and (2) note that if you did this, you'd have to start everything on your hub over again (re-pair all devices, etc.).

3 Likes

I have deleted Life 360 app previously, If that is one of them, how would I stop the requesting that is coming from that service?

Have you used HubiThings, one of the possibilities I mentioned above? The /callback endpoint is one used by it (though, as I also mentioned, this is a generic name that possibly lots of apps might choose). If so, remove the pieces on the SmartThings side to stop the traffic.

2 Likes

I have and still use Hubithings. I'm not using it right now because I deleted it to troubleshoot my problem.

How are you using it if the Hubitat side is deleted? That would cause this problem and is the most likely culprit. It seems you may have tried setup at least three different times given the different app IDs in use. Again, to stop the messages, if you removed the Hubitat side, remove the ST side, too. I'd do that even if you plan on using it again since with the Hubitat side gone, you'd need to set it up again on ST anyway.

3 Likes

You are right on I think. I have installed it at least twice, How do I remove the Smartthings side? Hubithings is one of the main reasons I got Hubitat, so I could keep my Smartthings system and make up for a loss of functions?integrations that happened when they killed Groovy.

All was working well until a few weeks ago, then Hubitat started dropping off the interface every day or 2, and I would have to soft reset in order to restore operation. This present cloud call thing is what I thought might be causing that problem. At that time, Hubithings had only been installed once and was working.

I don't know how to remove it on SmartThings; I haven't used ST since I switched to Hubitat. :slight_smile: (And it's quite different now with the "new" app/driver model.) If you can't figure it out from general SmartThings documentation or perhaps instructions for this particular app that the developer may have provided, I'd suggest asking in either the Hubitat or ST community post topic ("thread") the author created to see if someone can help.

1 Like

Thanks for your response. You have been very helpful to help me understand more about the issue.

I understand, kind of, that these hundreds of cloud requests are most likely coming from previously installed apps now deleted that had cloud access to my hub, but I still don't know any method of stopping the incoming requests. I've been having to soft reset my hub every day or 2, and was thinking all of the unanswered requests building up in the logs might have something to do with it. Maybe I need Hubitat support to help me here.

Just guessing here, but could you change IP address of hub.

I don't think they can help. You need to identify what services you had, and delete them (or stop them) at the originating source. I don't think support have any way to identify what you set up, and they certainly can't stop an outside app from trying to contact your hub.

I don't think that would do anything.

1 Like

Log into whatever web service you had linked to the hub (and removed the app for) and de-register it so it will stop trying to send stuff to your hub. There are not any specific instructions, it will be different for every service, and for some it is only possible with back end web hooks unfortunatly.

Actual soft-reset from the diagnostics and restoring a backup, or just rebooting?
If its just rebooting, take a local backup, download it, and then restore it right away (this does a soft-reset as part of the restore). That will fix a known memory issue with 2.3.6 firmware.

Unlikely.

1 Like

I have to do an actual soft reset and restore to get hub back online because it won't allow me to log in to user interface.

I don't think I can figure out how to do that. If I bought a new hub and registered it, would those same apps come back and bombard me with requests again? If not, then how could I make this hub act like a new registration?
The idea of changing the IP address occurred to me, but you said probably won't solve the issue. How can apps call back if IP is changed from when they were configured?

No, that is actually the only way to get a new Hub ID # and make it stop.

You can't, the cloud endpoint uses the hub ID which is hardware based and cannot be changed.

Your hub has a hardware ID number, when it connects to the hubitat cloud it shares the hub ID and tells the cloud server how to reach it. When an app connects to the cloud relay it uses the hub ID and then the relay connects the app to the hub. So no matter where the hub connects from the hub ID is always the same.

From the URL you provided, this seems to be HubiThings again. (Again, this is a generically named endpoint that anyone could probably use, but I'm not aware of anything else, and this one definitely stands out since you've used it.)

If you have not asked in a HubiThings topic on the ST or HE forums, that would be my suggestion for a starting point if you can't figure it out on your own. It should be possible, and someone should know how.

If it's not causing problems, you can also ignore it; the log entry is not indicative of any problems per se, just an FYI that it's happening (though, perhaps intentionally, it may be annoying enough that you're encouraged to find and remove whatever it is; these requests would still try to come in, whether your hub is online or not, and even if you replace the hub -- though, of course, not to the new one, unless you manage to do this again, maybe one more reason it's a good idea to figure out).

1 Like

Thanks again. I will pursue that idea as you suggest.

I found the solution by going into the Smartthings app and deleting several Oauths that I had generated during reinstalls of Replica all. That has eliminated the unwanted cloud requests.
Thanks again to all who replied.

3 Likes

Seeing this thread now, you followed the correct procedure to remove the SmartThings applications. In future releases of HubiThings Replica, I will update the generic 'callback' to something more descriptive, but it will not help with current deployments. If you delete the OAuth from Hubitat, it will destroy the SmartThings application, but with migrations, etc., this might not happen.