IOT's Disconnecting from AC86U but will come back online if im next to them with my phone

[vandriver]

Hello,

Can anyone help me with this please?

I have various wifi bulbs, smart plugs etc connected to guest networks and I control them via the Smart Life app on my phone, or using echos an echo shows.

For the past several months they have been randomly disconnecting from the router and the various access points dotted around the home, they are appearing offline in the Smart Life app. When I ask an echo show to switch them on or off it concurs by saying the device is offline etc.

I must have 100 bookmarks to threads on this forum describing troubleshooting the network and what settings I can change on the AC86U's. I think I've tried everything there is.

Today I thought I would give it another go but I noticed something different!

The bulbs and smart plugs will come back online when I select the offline device in the Smart Life app, press the back button to go back to the all devices screen, wait 10 seconds (then the device comes back online)

but ONLY in this scenario:

I'm standing in the room near the devices that are offline and I have my phone in my hand.

I thought these bulbs were initially set up using the phone app then all ran off the routers wifi and only the app would be needed if you wanted to switch something on or off.

Cheers

Scott

 

[sfx2000]

try toggling IGMP snooping/IGMP proxy, and see if that helps...

also, airtime fairness (which if I recall is in wireless/professional) can be challenging with some IoT wifi chipsets

 

[vandriver]

try toggling IGMP snooping/IGMP proxy, and see if that helps...

also, airtime fairness (which if I recall is in wireless/professional) can be challenging with some IoT wifi chipsets

okay thanks Ill try just now

 

[vandriver]

no joy. thanks though.

 

[Farley]

Here in Australia we have a rebranded version of the Tuya Smart Life app called Grid Connect, and the behaviour and appearance of the two is very similar. This is what I think might be happening (based on similar frustration I had with Grid Connect and an outdoor "smart" power point).

I suspect it works when your phone is nearby because you can also operate the devices using Bluetooth from your phone. You could test this by disabling Bluetooth and trying it again.

As for why they keep disconnecting:

1. Do you have Smart Connect enabled on your router? The FAQ for the Grid Connect app advises us to disable band steering on our routers, because these "smart" devices are really not very smart (my words, not theirs). If so, and you want to keep using Smart Connect, you could use one of the 2.4GHz Guest networks for the IoT devices (which might be more secure anyway).

2. The other thing I noticed (confirmed by a call to support) was that if the router is offline for a few hours, the server (somewhere in China) decides that the device is offline, and permanently disconnects it. I have no idea why they would do this.

The FAQ in the Grid Connect app has a few more useful tips than what is in the generic Smart Life app. You can see these by downloading the app, clicking on the three bars in the top-left corner and going to help and support.

Cheers,

Leon

 

[jontalk]

If you don't mind me asking, what is the manufacture date of your AC86U? There have been countless posts about the units made between 2017-2019 failing within a year along with issues with the 2.4 gHz band and others. I ask since I've seen pre-owed units made in 2020/21 and am only interested if the problems had been corrected. Thanks

 

[Farley]

Mine is early 2021 (China). No problems with WiFi so far.