Unable to connect with Zigbee devices post migration from C7 to C8 Pro

Hello,

I recently migrated from C7 to C8pro. Since then my zigbee devices have stopped working. I try to re-pair them to discover and re-add but no good.

I remove the device from the device table all together and try to re-add but they are not discovered.

Ive tried recovering my DB from cloud backup created during migration but that did not work either.

Is my Zigbee Mesh corrupt somehow? Is my zigbee radio not working?

Any suggestions? The majority of my infrastructure is on the zigbee protocol so i have lost most of my automation.

Thanks for any support/suggestions that is provided.

Really looking for some help with this issue. How can I confirm it isnt a faulty radio on my new hub? I have rebooted the hub. rebooted the radio. Rebuilt the betwork. Nothing works. Zwave is fine. Zigbee not so much.

The weird thing is that the Zigbee radio device table shows that some devices have a current date/time in the 'last message' column as if they are reporting to the hub.

I really want to avoid a full reset of the hub but am unsure of what else I can check/try.

Thanks!

Zigbee on the 8/8Pro is far less forgiving than the C7 -- it took me a while to finally get my zigbee working well again. Unfortunately, there's no one silver bullet -- the issues & solutions depend heavily on your local environment (deconflicted frequencies, strength of mesh etc).

In my case, three things solved it - 1) moved from channel 15 to 25 (my Hue's on 20, and my wifi 2.4 stays on lower channels). 2) lowered radio power to 4 -- that put the weight of my mesh on repeaters instead of gunning for direct connections. 3) replaced any ZHA1.2 mains-powered devices with ZB3.0 devices. Since my repeaters were doing all the heavy lifting now, a couple older mains-powered 1.2 devices were causing issues - when I replaced those with 3.0 devices, things improved a lot.

Figure out what the best deconflicted channel you can use is (higher generally better), and experiment with the zigbee radio power. From all the posts about this ever since C8 came out, I'd say folks seem to have better luck with lower radio power (8 or 4), but that's not always true - some users are very happy at 16 or 20.

If those 2 steps don't improve things much and you have older 1.2 repeaters, consider replacing them with 3.0 devices. Good luck!

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@hydro311 Thanks for replying!

Questions;

  1. When I look at my Zigbee Channel Scan should I see My Hub/Radio listed on one of the Channel rows? I currently have my Radio set to channel 20 but in the scan don't see anything listed (just 0) .

  2. Shouldn't my radio be picking up a zigbee device in paring mode right next to it (well 10 feet away in same room). I just don't know how to rule out that the radio is broken in the new hub.

  3. When you mention 'older 1.2 repeaters' vs. 3.0 devices. is there somewhere in the device details I can discern that information easily?

Thanks again!

That Channel Scan tool seems to be really hit-or-miss, unfortunately. I wouldn't rely on it as the sole tool to help deconflict channels. If you have other zigbee hubs (like Hue), those channels should be ID'd in its app, and your router interface can probably tell you what channel(s) it uses for 2.4

This is a good graphic to then use to deconflict:

Not sure what to say about the pairing issue, but if some of your zigbee devices are working OK (not sure if that's true or not), I doubt your radio is totally borked. But you can always consider submitting a warranty claim with Hubitat either way. It's worked for some users.

ZHA1.2 is an older version of zigbee protocol (like 500-series z-wave is older than 700/800), whereas 3.0 is the latest -- 3.0 should to be more interoperable than 1.2, but that's admittedly painting with a broad brush.

@hydro311 Thanks for the information was very helpful. I saw another post come across today with the same issue and they solutioned it with the same info you provided (Channel Change) I tried it...IT WORKED!!!

Unfortunately in my panic/frustration I had removed alot of my zigbee devices and will need to re-pair. a small price!

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Very glad to hear it - hopefully you're now out of the woods!

It's kinda crazy... On the C7, my zigbee was completely bulletproof but z-wave was always fragile. On the 8/8Pro, my z-wave is now the unshakeable rock-star, and zigbee is the tenuous & fiddly one.

My 8/8Pro zigbee mesh has performing well overall ever since I did the steps I described earlier, but I still can't shake the feeling that it's all somehow still on thin ice. Perhaps I'm still just gun-shy from all the experimentation it took to get me there. "Don't question a miracle", I guess :wink:

Trying to get an accurate map/picture of your zigbee mesh has never really been possible, but Dan Danache recently launched a very cool new tool that does it -- it is very impressive!

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