Philips Hue Lights Unreachable?.
Once you’ve set up your Philips Hue system – Philips Hue smart bulbs and matching Philips Hue Bridge – everything is great. You can control the light bulbs with your mobile phone and even your desktop computer. You enjoy all the ambiance and automation that Philips Hue offers.
However, there are times when the app may say that Philips Hue lamps are not available. What is causing this problem and what can you do about it? In this article, you will learn about the most common causes of this problem and how to fix it and reconnect your Philips Hue bulbs to your smart home in general.
1. Is Your Mobile Device On the Same Wi-Fi Network?
The most common problem when your Philips Hue lights are not available to the Philips Hue app is that your mobile device is not on the same network as the Philips Hue hub.
You can check it on your mobile device in several ways. The first thing to check is that Wi-Fi is indeed enabled on your mobile device. On Android, you can quickly check this by swiping down on the home screen and making sure the Wi-Fi icon is on. On an iPhone, just check for the Wi-Fi icon in the status bar at the top of the screen.
If it’s on but Philips Hue lights are still unavailable, you’ll have to dig a little deeper. On Android, open your device’s Settings menu, select Connections, and look for the network name in the Wi-Fi section next to the selector. On iPhone, select Settings > Wi-Fi from the Home screen. You should see a blue check next to the name of the network you are connected to.
If this network name does not match the network connected to your Philips Hue Bridge when you first set it up, you will need to change your mobile device’s network to this before you can control your Philips Hue lighting.
2. Make Sure the Philips Hue Lights are Powered On
This may seem like common sense, but you might be surprised how often forgetting the light switch results in Philips Hue lighting being unavailable to the app.
Make sure the switches that control the correct Philips Hue lamps are turned on. And if you’re using a dimmer to control the lights, make sure it’s turned on, otherwise, the lights might not work. Or you can purchase a Hue dimmer accessory if you need this feature.
3. Double-Check Philips Hue Bridge Connections
If you know that your mobile device is connected to the same network as your Philips Hue bridge, then the next step is to check the bridge itself.
First, trace each cable from the back of the Philips Hue Bridge and make sure they are properly connected.
The power cord must be connected to the nearest outlet and you must use the original factory power adapter supplied by Philips.
The Ethernet cable from the Ethernet port must be connected to one of the numbered LAN ports on the back of the router. . Make sure it’s not accidentally connected to an incoming internet port (usually marked with a globe icon).
If you have confirmed that everything is connected correctly, the next thing to check is that the Philips Hue bridge is properly connected to the network by checking the connection status in the Philips Hue app.
Launch the app and select “Settings” in the lower right corner.
The Settings window will open and you will see all installed bridges listed under Hue Bridges. The status here should be green and active. Select Hue Bridges and in the next window, you will see the network connection information. This includes the connection status and its network IP address.
If you don’t see a green Connected status or no IP address is listed, your Philips Hue Bridge may have a network connection issue. If so, try the following troubleshooting tips.
Unplug the Philips Hue bridge, wait a few seconds, then plug it back in.
Reverse the Ethernet cable connecting the bridge to your router. as this cable may be defective.
Reset the bridge by turning it over and using a pointed tool, press and hold the reset button for 5 seconds. This button is next to the factory reset label.
If you need to reset the bridge, you will need to go through the installation process again that you went through when you first installed it.
4. Are the Philips Hue Lights Added to the Correct Room?
If you’ve set up multiple rooms in the Philips Hue app, or if you turn on the switch for a room, the lights don’t come on, there might be a problem with how you added lights to each room in the app.</p >
To check this, on the main screen of the application, touch the room you want to check. You should see all listed Philips Hues that you have installed and want to control in this room. If you don’t see one of these lights there, you’ll need to add it (usually moving it from another room to which you may have accidentally attached it).
To do this, simply touch the three dots in the upper right corner of the screen in the “Room” window and select “Edit Room”.
The last thing to check is that even if all of your lights are listed in the correct room, one of them may be disabled or turned off individually. You will see this if the switch is in the left position and the light icon is displayed as a dark icon.
5. Reboot Your Wi-Fi Router
One method that most often resolves connection issues both on internal networks and on the Internet connection itself is to restart the Wi-Fi router.
To do this, simply follow these steps.
Disconnect the router’s power plug.
Wait at least 30 seconds.
Reconnect the router’s power cable.
Wait until all router lights return to normal solid or flashing green.
Once your router has rebooted, try connecting to your Philips Hue lights again.
6. Make Sure Your Router Isn’t Blocking the Hue Bridge
While unlikely, a setting may have been changed on your router that is blocking Philips Hue’s network bridging.
Devices are usually not blocked by default, so someone must have set this up to cause the problem. But it’s good to make sure that at least the bridge is connected to the router without problems.
To do this, connect to the default gateway IP address (usually 129.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1, but you can check this by typing ipconfig on the command line).
Log in to your router as an administrator and in the network connections menu (it depends on the router), look for the “Devices” option.
You should see all connected devices and their connection type. Since the Philips Hue Bridge is probably one of the few devices connected via Ethernet, you should see it listed with this type of connection.
The last four digits of the device name will match the serial number on the back of the Philips Hue Bridge.
Make sure this device is not blocked by checking the Service Lock or Device Lock checkbox under Parental Controls (again, this may vary depending on the router).
Usually, this list will be empty. If you see the Philips Hue bridge here, just remove it from the list.
It also doesn’t hurt to check if the router’s Ethernet port correctly detects the connected device. Check the Ethernet menu option on your router and look for something other than Disconnected for the port number the Hue bridge is connected to.
If the status is disabled, try switching the Philips Hue Bridge to a different Ethernet port on the router to see if that fixes the issue with Philips Hue inaccessible lights. If you had to correct any of these settings, chances are your Philips Hue lights will reconnect.
7. Test a Replacement Philips Hue Bulb
Whether all your bulbs are plugged in or just having a problem with just one bulb, it doesn’t hurt to purchase one Philips Hue smart light to see if installing it solves the problem.
If all of your light bulbs are not working and a new light bulb fixes one of them, you may need to replace all of your light bulbs as well.
We hope the troubleshooting tips above helped you get back on track with your smart lights!