Hello,
I'm trying to migrate from a C7 to a C8 Pro hub. I'm following the migration documentation and, as far as I can tell, I'm doing everything right, but not having much success.
The C7 was running firmware 2.4.3.167 (I upgraded it before the backup). I took both a local and a cloud backup. I primarily use Z-Wave devices with the C7 and it was working fine. Per the instructions, I setup the new C8 and did the migration/restore of the configuration.
Upon the reboot, the start up screen never gets beyond "90% - identifying hub". It hangs there indefinitely. However, if I go to another browser tab the C8 configuration interface is reachable. In there, I can see all my devices, but the Z-Wave status show nothing at all, so I'm guessing that is where the problem lies.
I tried a "Soft reset" and I did another migration/restore, but it does the exact same thing, hangs during the startup screen at "Initializing Hub: 90% - identifying hub".
I'm not sure what to do next. I was going to try updating the firmware maybe on the C8, then do a soft reset, and try a restore again? I also thought maybe I should try using my local backup for the restore? Just not sure what to try next.
One update, I did update the C8 Pro to 2.4.3.167 and tried to do another migration/restore from the C7 cloud backup, same problem. Hangs still during startup at "90% - identifying hub".
This last time though, when I went into the Home Screen, I saw this:
Well after digging around in the forums some more I saw some talk about "ghosted" Z-Wave devices. So I booted up my old C7 and took a look, and sure as heck, look at what I found:
So I did the refresh and remove, did a NEW cloud backup, then swapped the C8 Pro back in and restored the new backup and sure enough, it worked! So far, all my Z-Wave devices seem to work and the initializing did not hang at all.
A few years back I used to have several GE/JASCO Z-Wave switches and every single solitary one of those pieces of garbage failed over the years and had to be replaced. I guess there was some remnants in there from those days.
Side note/question, I see that some say a local backup does NOT backup the Z-Wave radio. I don't have cloud protect because I rarely change my system, it is very very static, so I figured a local backup was sufficient. Is a local backup NOT really protecting me?
Thanks and sorry for the unnecessary post! I hope it helps someone else in my predicament!
Oh Interesting, I guess I never ever realized this. I bought my first hub, a C7, in October 2020 and it had been working pretty much flawlessly ever since (I had moved off Wink at the time).
I always thought the local backup FULLY protected me, but clearly I was wrong. I just figured being touted as a non-cloud solution I was covered. If I had known, I probably would have sprung for cloud backups a long time ago. Boy would I have been shocked if it had failed!
So, to be clear, there is absolutely NO WAY for me to totally protect myself from catastrophic failure without paying for a cloud service? Is that correct? Or is there a way I can backup the Z-Wave radio locally too?
I will say this, my Z-Wave mesh seems much more reliable now with the C8. I have a combination (about 50/50) of Lutron Caseta and various Z-Wave devices (around 25 of each). The Lutron stuff is always, 100%, rock solid, never ever fails. My Z-Wave though was never 100%, it was good, maybe 90%, but there would always be times when it would just not respond or respond very slowly (I have a larger old house that is not great for RF propagation). Now with the C8 Pro, wow, it's snappy. That was really the only reason I upgraded, the C7 was doing the job for me and I hesitated to upgrade because I thought, why rock the boat? But if you use Z-Wave, it's totally worth it (and I generally don't buy much, if any, Z-Wave anymore, stick with Lutron for switches/dimmers for the most part).
I'll definitely get either Hub Protect or a Cloud Backup subscription!
Nice sleuthing/reporting. Migration is an "all of it" process so if you have problems on your old hub you bring them to your new hub.
Yup - they had a known problem w/ one of their earlier Z-Wave (non-plus) switches where they would just die (believe it was a capacitor failure). I had a few that died, but GE replaced all of them under an extended warranty (five years!) and they were very fliexible about it, I had a couple replaced > five years out. Luckily it was just that one switch model, all my other GE/Jasco/UltraPro switches and dimmers have been in the very desired "just works" category.
Thanks. It was interesting that the "ghosted" device never seemed to impact my old C7 hub (although now I wonder if that contributed to my Z-Wave reliability issues? Hmm...Guess I'll never know).
Oh man, they had an extended warranty? Wish I knew that! I had 5 of them, 4 of them all died after 2-3 years (you'd just hear a click coming out of them). The 5th one I just replaced so I didn't have to wait for it to die. Guess I should have checked! All my Z-Wave switches/dimmers are Leviton now.
