Zigbee pairing on C8

I was an early adopter of the C8, but I migrated so never had to actually pair devices. Over this weekend because of various issues, I tore down my mesh and nuked my hub. Adding back the Zwave stuff was easy, but dang these Zigbee devices are just a pain in the butt. They get discovered but never fully initialized. I’ll go through it ten times or more before I may go through, My hue motion sensors never did. Ended up putting them on my hue hub through coco hue. Am I the only one with these zigbee issues? Or have others had similar results?

I had no problems after they got the Zigbee issues worked out. I also migrated, but along with migrating I moved many zigbee devices off of another C7 hub to the C8. I could not get my Iris V1 devices to pair, but I guess I am SOL on that. All my other devices paired pretty easily.

I don’t have many, I’m mostly Zwave, but every device has required multiple attempts to pair, and a few never get past initialization. Running 2.3.6.144.

Are you using a mobile device to pair the devices? I had a similar issue with Zigbee devices using an IPad to initiate the pairing. When I switched to my laptop, the devices paired fine.

I know computers are recommended but the iPad is just so easy.

I have been using both. Either ways it’s just been a complete PIA. I’ll be honest I have the same opinion of Zigbee that most have about Zwave. I rarely have Zwave issues, but zigbee has always been buggy (in two different houses). These devices are 3 Hue motion sensors, 4 inner bulbs (I could run those through the hue hub too), and I haven’t seen those anywhere in a while, 2 sengled bulbs (don’t like those but wanted to add two rooms for security reasons) and 4 Inovelli RGB Zwave bulbs, but when you can find those they aren’t cheap.
I’m starting to see some matter bulbs popping up. Hopefully matter support isn’t so far behind? I’ve been skeptical of matter, but I’m open to trying it anyway.

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yes i am overly unimpressed with the new zigbee chipset in the c8 in my opinion (and this is just my opinion ) it is udder cr%%. i have left one of my hubs on the c7 for this reason.. while my c8 for the most part is working and i am not going back to the c7 (in one house), as you anything i need to change something with zigbee or add a device it gives me fits..

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Glad to know it's not just me. I had not thought of that. Maybe I'll just roll the Zigbee stuff over to a C7 and use the extra C8 for something else.

Thanks for the suggestion. When I got home I tried with the C7 I had set for cloud integrations, bing paired up right away. No fits, no resetting a dozen times, Just paired right up. Thankfully, I don't have all that many zigbee devices, so it really shouldn't be a big deal to just move them all to the C7 and off the C8.

Are the devices your struggling with old not 3.0 devices? Did the inner lamps join ok for example as they are 3.0?

Also have you done a zigbee scan of the channels within the zigbee settings, you may find that there are more than one device on the same channel that your C8 is using. I had that issue with my C4 (before I changed it to a C7) and my other C7.

3 of 4 joined ok. The fourth refuses, but joined hue just fine. The res are “old” zigbeesemgled bulbs and hue motion centers.

No, I had t even thought about doing that. Forgot I even could.

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This doesn’t look right either. I know there are at least three hubs. This one, a hue hub, and a C7 that I turned on last night to experiment with adding a motion sensor to. That added no problem to the C7. I’m tempted to just move all the zigbee to that C7and call it a day, I have my rules and most apps on a seperate hub any way, so it would just be feeding devices from 2 locations instead of one.

Have you tried the additional pairing modes for devices that are giving you trouble?

Yeah, I did both of those many times. They were still either not being discovered, or would get stuck in initializing, even doing the pairing in the clear.

A few times I even put it on the shelf right next to the hub , no dice.

Can you change the channel to something else than 20? Try 21 through 25. See if that makes a difference.

Sure, that’s just what it defaulted to. Is 20 a problem channel?

I went to 23, we”ll see what happens.

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UPDATE:

Changing the channel on the C8 did not make a difference, still a pain to include. Putting them on the C7, they included right away. While most of the Innr I finally managed to get paired are working fine (and they are closer to the hub). the Sengled bulbs I had further did eventually include but they aren't reliable. they are on a schedule to turn on at Sunset off at 10:00 p.m., then on at 5:30 a.m., and off at Sunrise. I would estimate about 50% of the time it doesn't respond.

I notice in comparison, my Zigbee power level is set to 8. I think that was done by one of the updates last spring when I (and others) were having some issues with pairing (my case was a couple of Hue motion sensors).

Not to sidetrack (we can put this somewhere else if desired) but @bobbyD - are there instructions for determining or tuning the Zigbee power level?

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I'll need to check, I haven't touched the power, but I think mine may be set at 12. If so that is where the default was when I powered it up (replacement hub).

At this point, my main culprits are also hue motion sensors. I put them back on the hue hub for a bit. I got one off and put it on a C7. I have a spare I can play with once I adjust my power settings, and see if that help.

I wish I could tell you for certain what fixed mine. As I recall I ended up removing them (Hue outdoor motion sensors) and resetting them - that improved the situation but one of the platform updates around the same time improved them even more. At the risk of jinxing myself - they have been rock-solid ever since.

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In terms of not being able to pair them, or something else? I have a few in my mesh and they've always been a pain to pair, but once they are in, they are rock solid. You can go up on power to see if that makes a difference. I keep my production on channel 23 with power 16. Going higher than 16 may make Zigbee stronger but may impact Wi-Fi devices. I don’t recommend going up to 20.