NETGEAR is aware of a growing number of phone and online scams. To learn how to stay safe click here.
Forum Discussion
Orbi RBS/RBR 50 Version 2.1.3.4 and Apple homekit iDevices and Philips Hue problems.
I have updated to firmware version 2.1.3.4 and have noticed some homekit instability. I have several iDevices Switches which have become intermittent and no other changes than the router firmware. ...
Wait, are you guys really having luck with 2.1.2.18? My HomeKit devices are showing up with a "!" next to them indicating they're not responding, but I'm still able to control them.
Just confirming what other posters have said here.
I have about 7 Leviton Decora switches and 3 iHome iSS50 sensors all on Homekit with my Orbi.
Firmware 2.1.3.4 was nothing but trouble ... accessories were intermittently non-responsive. Sometimes restarting the home app would fix it, other times recycling WIFI on my iPhone or iPad would help.
Rolled back to firmware 2.1.2.18 and its now totally stable. Amazing.
Also, I can also confirm what others have said re: firmware 2.1.4.10. It does not address this problem.
Yesterday, as mentioned, I upgraded to firmware 2.1.4.10 to see if the issue had been fixed. It had not. So I downgraded to version 2.1.2.18 and all worked well. Howver, this morning, I noticed some troubles. Upon checking, I see that my system automatically upgraded to 2.1.4.10 automatically, It appears that they have decided to push out this software automatically (which I haven't seen them really do previously). This is somewhat disturbing since this issue is apparently being dealt with by tier 3 support.
-they have not provided any update.
-they did not pull the firmware with the problem.
-they did not update the release notes or any other information I could see to alert people of the problem so they could avoid the grief.
-they automatically deployed yet a newer version of firmware, which still contains the problem.
-no mention in the release notes.
Honestly, if they took 2.1.2.18 and added the option to disable automatic updates but left everything else untouched, I would be fine with that. At this point, I couldn't care less about fancy new features in new updates; I just want something that's stable and that works.
- I updated to V 2.1.4.10 yesterday and power cycled all my smart plugs. This update has helped some with my iHome smart plugs but the HomeKit issue definitely needs to be fully looked into by Netgear.
It’s definitely more stable than V 2.1.3.4 in my use case.I cycled my iDevices but it wasn't working well...so I am back to the older version. I have hopefully blocked updates by going into the NVRAM settings using telnet. Time will tell...
Just a status update ...
3 days after rolling firmware back to 2.1.2.18, Homekit has been solid and stable. All devices have been behaving themselves.
I've followed the advice given here to disable auto-update in nvram. Seems to be working.
I think I will leave the auto update off, even if they do fix this problem.
Hopefully keeping auto-update off actually works. I disabled auto-update to prevent updating from 2.0.1.4 to 2.1.3.4; it worked, but then when 2.1.4.10 came out it auto-updated to that.