A couple weeks ago (I think before I went to 2.1.5.124) my hub lost connection with most all my battery powered devices which are all Iris V1 contact and motion sensors as well as a couple of my Phillips Hue white bulbs. I have tried a variety of recovery schemes from re-loading a backup to reverting to a previous hub version to going back to latest version to a soft reset all to really no avail. The only success I have had is in deleting and re-adding my devices, which means adding them back to my app rules (at least the best I know anyway).
At this point I'm mostly back except my Phillips bulbs won't rediscover because I can't factory reset them apparently without a Hue hub which I don't have. I converted from Iris V1 so I didn't have any other hubs and just bought the Phillips bulbs and added directly to HE. What are my options? I saw something about entering the serial numbers in the Phillips site but since I never had their hub, I'm not sure if I can do that... Thoughts?
Unfortunately, the Hue bulbs do require some external device to reset them. Unlike may others, they don't have a special on/off sequence you can do with a regular wall switch. One option is the Hue Dimmer. I know the Eria Remote/Dimmer also works, and I suspect an Ikea remote/dimmer/"steering device" would too but haven't played around with one to see. (The Eria is a bit cheaper than the Hue one if that's any consolation.)
What you saw is probably for the Hue Bridge: if you manually enter the serial number, you can usually make the Bridge via the Hue app do something special to "steal" the bulbs away from another network that they think they are joined to. It could probably help here--get them joined to Hue, then politely delete the from the Hue network, which will "reset" them--but I wouldn't get a Hue Bridge just for that. I would, however, consider a Hue Bridge for this reason: most smart bulbs are poor repeaters for non-bulbs and may cause problems with your Zigbee network if you have other types of devices, which it sounds like you do (Iris sensors). Keeping them on a separate network, like one with a Hue Bridge, is one way many people avoid this problem.
PS - if all your affected devices are Zigbee, you likely could have just reset the devices and put Hubitat into discovery mode for Zigbee without deleting the device first. Then, it would match up the existing devices with the ones being paired (it knows their factory-set MAC), and you wouldn't have to redo all your automations with "new" devices. With Z-Wave, unfortunately, you would.
Good to know! My suspicion is most Zigbee bulb remotes can (like the Ikea ones), but I was hesitant to recommend anything I haven't tried or read about for sure.
I guess I should add the Lutron Connected Bulb Remote to the list of known-working devices as well, but if you're not willing to pay for a Hue Bridge, you'll be shocked what some people are willing to pay for those (discontinued) remotes nowadays for I-don't-know-what reason...hopefully not this one.
Try finding a hue bright on Facebook marketplace or eBay. I got my bridge for $10. I also have a Lutron smart bulb remote prior to the hue bridge just for resetting hue bulbs. Also got it next to nothing when Lowes was throwing them out.
