Orbi RBS/RBR 50 Version 2.1.3.4 and Apple homekit iDevices and Philips Hue problems.

I may have been premature or in error stating that I had trouble with Philips as I didn't get a chance to reproduce it.  However, the iDevices definlitely have a problem with this newer firmware.

I just spent about two hours on the phone with a patient but very pleasant support person who walked me through the various steps to capture information to give to the tech team.

I now have everythng rolled back and working but hopefully the information captured is of use to finding a resolution to the problem.

Although it was a lot of trouble to get to support with the barriers put in place to get money (and still wondering why no response from mods here), the two support people I dealt with were very pleasant and helpful towards getting information required for a solution.

I am running 2.1.3.4 on my Orbi 53 using wired backhaul. I also have 3 AppleTV 4K's running 11.3 (and during the last two days upgraded to 11.4 beta to see if it fixed my issue, it didnt), Phillips Hue with latest firmware on hubs and bulbs, numerous iHome, Incipio, August, Nanoleaf, Chamberlain, and Ecobee HomeKit devices in my house. I have not noticed any dropped Homekit devices but I HAVE noticed they are now extremely slow to respond. When refreshing my Homekit page it takes up to a minute to get the "updating" to resolve to a standard status. When I tap a device to toggle its status or change a color of a bulb it is very slow to respond. Note this is while my iPhone/iPad is in WiFi mode (cellular mode always has lag, WiFi never did). 

Having had zero issues in a little over a year I have recently been experiencing issues with WiFi dropouts on my iPad when connected to the Satellite.  Additionally, I have seen issues with my Philps Hue lights in that Routines I have setup fail to function.  Both these issues have only occurred after installing the v2.1.3.4 firmware.  Having read this thread I have downgraded to v2.1.2.18; I had previously had zero issues with this or any other firmware version.  I'll report back in a couple of days as to whether this has cured the issues.

I think eljarviso nailed it.

I have multiple HomeKit devices including Nanoleaf, Hue and VOCOlinc. They all worked reliably before the 2.1.3.4 update. After the 2.1.3.4 update most devices started showing up as unresponsive, and they wouldn’t respond to Siri.

I took a look at my network and found that all my _hap._tcp mDNS devices were constantly disappearing and reappearing from the network. This is how HomeKit communicates with devices, and them disappearing from the network will make them appear as unresponsive.

So it appears whatever the Netgear folks did to try to fix the Orbi crashing issue caused by Chromecasts appears to have broken other devices.

Well to update following my firmware downgrade:

The WiFi dropouts on my iPad when connected to the satelite have ceased.

The Philips Hue issues remain so it's going to be a Hue Hub reset and reinstate everything from scratch when I have an hour or so to spare.  It's a real pain as there's no way to back-up settings with the Hue system - a major failing.

I had to pretty much reset my Philips Hue also after I downgraded. 

It was unresponsive and just not really working.

Certainly a lot of work to go through...updating, finding problems, trying to fix them, then downgrading and having to fix problems again.

All working fine now....on the downgraded firmware.

Netgear Tier 3 support are still working on this.

I don't know why I got an email that some comment about "resetting" everything was accepted as a solution.  This problem is not solved and it will only be solved by the firmware being fixed....until now, the "solution" is to revert back to an older version, which is actually a workaround and not a solution.

I am glad to help out but am also pleased that many other people have mentioned their problems so that Netgear can get a grasp on how widepread it is.  I do wish they'd pull the update from the download list, or at least put up a warning about the issues.

No updates on the weekend, but I have every reason to believe they are working on it as I did get some questions as things progressed.

The issues with my Philips Hue lights were resolved without having to reset the hub and set it up from scratch.  A power cycle was enough to correct the issue following the Orbi firmware downgrade.  All has worked perfectly for 3 days now.

It's been a couole of week. Any updates on this?

Nope.

Not a word.

The firmware that was giving all the problems is still available as a download too.

Well, I can't say I'm surprised.

About 10 years ago I swore off buying Netgear products. Looks like I have to learn that same lesson every 10 years or so.

Thanks for keeping on them Bill.

I appreciate the support of the other posters.

I like the Orbi system, I just don't like failed firmware updates, especially two in a row, and unresponsive support.

I can tell you that the two support people I talked to were great, didn't make me do any stupid things, etc.   But then it got passed on to Tier 3 and I don't hear from them..

For what it's worth, this fixed my chromecast issues (24 hours with no dropouts, fingers crossed).

On the satellite, enable telnet from debug.htm, login and run:

echo 1 > /sys/devices/virtual/net/br0/bridge/multicast_querier

Thanks for the information.

I was going to wait for a new firmware update instead.

I see that version 2.1.4.10 is out now..no mention of the problem being solved from what I can see...

In case anyone is wondering, I tried version 2.1.4.10.  I am back down to version 2.1.2.18.....

Bill____, 

Thanks for the information on your experience with 2.1.4.10.  I am running 2.0.1.4 waiting for a resolution of the HomeKit issue.  I hope NetGear puts some resources toward fixing the problem.  I also hope my system does not auto update...

Since a new release is going out today without a fix, I imagine it will be at least two or three weeks before there is any hope for a solution to the HomeKit woes.

-whittle