Hue Bulb Update Available Dec 17, 2018

I just noticed that there is an update for some of my Hue bulbs. I have no idea what the update involves. I went into settings on the Hue app and all my bulbs started “downloading” immediately. Just mentioning it.

1 Like

Yes, I was up late and had a weird occurrence with my Hue bulbs. Went to the app and updated. This update brought my older Hue bulbs made in Holland up to date for the new Power Loss behavior feature. So where I could only use it with my newer bulbs before, I can not use it with all of them.

You must have automatic updates turned on (Settings > Software Update > Automatic Update in the Hue mobile app.) If you don't have it turned on, you'll get notified of updates when you use the Hue app, but they won't automatically download and install on your Hue devices.

The same page also has a link to the release notes:

...so you theoretically don't need to guess what changed. Unfortunately, they don't make it clear for bulbs which firmware updates apply to which bulbs. The current version 1.46.13_r26312 you see at the top of that page only apples to third-gen and newer bulbs; the first and (I think) second gen are numbered at 5.x, and I don't even see the new 5.127.x firmware on that page, but do I know one of my first-gen bulbs got that update, while another identical bulb didn't. I'm not sure if maybe they released and then pulled that update and will re-release it later, but I do know it enabled the "power-on behavior" feature that older bulb like the new 1.46.x firmware has on the newer bulbs (as you can see in the release notes).

In any case, your firmware update was probably the latest one that enabled (among some other fixes) the power-on behavior feature, which requires both new bulb firmware (coming soon to older bulbs, already available for newer ones) and the latest update to the Hue mobile app.

1 Like

I don't know how they release updates, but my devices have been updating in some kind of groups. I thought they were releasing update based on models, but that doesn't seem to hold water. I've had a few left that refused to update no matter what I tried. I've tried pretty much everything I could think of, except for resetting the bulbs. I didn't feel like doing that, so I assumed they will never get the update. I just tried again and they all started to update. I have the auto update enabled, but you can manually trigger the update as well. For example, "Living Room B" is the same old color model, and was purchased at the same time as the other 3. It updated on the same day as the rest of the bulbs. The other 3 just updated after 3 days...So maybe they did pull the update and now they are pushing it again...Who knows, the takeaway is, be patient :smile:

2 Likes

I finally got all my bulbs updated. 4 of them I moved them closer to the bridge after 3 unsuccessful days trying to get them update. Took about 4 hours after the move.

1 Like

I didn't move mine, but I tried power cycling the bulbs, the hub. Keeping the hub powered off for 30 minutes. Nothing worked. However, I have had problems updating Hue devices in the past, and had an exchange on Twitter with @ tweethue:

In that case nothing worked either, it updated on its on, a few days later.

1 Like