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

[PeytonBrandt]

Wait, never mind. I'm only experiencing this on my phone - iPad seems to work perfectly. Not sure what's going on.

[DavidJZU]

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. 

[Bill____]

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.

[PeytonBrandt]

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. 

[OutGolfn]

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.

[Bill____]

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...

[OutGolfn]

Looks like I spoke too soon. I am now getting “No Response” from all my Homekit devices. It’s random and seems to affect all.

It got worse throughout today into tonight.

[DavidJZU]

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.

[Bill____]

I think I will leave the auto update off, even if they do fix this problem.  

[PeytonBrandt]

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.

[eljarviso]

The NVRAM setting resets after a reboot of the device.  I ended up putting my asus router back in and running the orbi in AP mode.  I then put in firewall rules to block the download servers netgear uses to push out updates.

[Bill____]

Mine upgraded too.

My pleas to get it set so it won't upgrade have fallen upon deaf ears so far.

The support call is not really progressing at all.

I have a lot invested in the system and it worked in version 2.1.2.18 - if I could only keep it there until this craziness stops.

I am going to have to find some solution on my own, I hope I don't have to buy a competitor product.

Pretty disappointing.

Nice to see the complete lack of attention from the moderators, even though one of them was messaged at the start of this...

[eljarviso]

I’ve started looking around for a different solution as well. ASUS Lyra looks like it might be half decent. The Linksys Velop is a little too expensive.

[PeytonBrandt]

I’d love to be able to just buy a different system, but I don’t know if any other solution would get the speeds that the Orbi is able to do. I have the 400Mbps internet tier through Spectrum, and the Orbi might be the only system that’s able to give me full speeds throughout my house.

[Bill____]

 Well, I have three brands of homekit devices connected.   iDevices switches a Philipes HUE system, and a couple of Elgato Eve systems.

I remove all of the iDevices components.  Now, the system appears stable....so it appears to be, for me, the iDevices switches having some commotion on the network which also affected other things.

I seem to recall some other posters having trouble who possibly didn't have iDevices, but have other things that I don't have.

Assuming Elgato and Philips devices are okay, is there any chance of someone having troubles removing a brand of components from the homekit in order to see the effect?  If we can find a list or category of items having trouble, thalt might be helpful.

[eljarviso]

I removed my iDevices plug and problem still exists. The other device I have is a raspberry pi running Homebridge which links my non-HomeKit devices to HomeKit (nest, sonos, harmony, and smartthings)

[john_rowe]

I don’t have any iDevices devices and I saw the issue with 2.1.3.4.

Reverting the Orbi firmware fixes it. That makes me fairly sure it’s the Netgear product causing it.

Every Orbi firmware has had one or more showstopper bugs - I really can’t wait to replace these things.

[Bill____]

their support was trying to replicate the problem with Philips Hue, and of course nothing came up, so I think they need to be able to find two, three, or four things that we know they are having problems with so it can be figured out..

I'd guess Raspberry PI, iDevices switches...... 

Thanks both people for the updates.

[MattEyraud]

I have noticed that all the devices that are communicating via WiFi are impacted. At least in my setup. So Netatmo Presence, LIFX bulbs, iDevices. So it can’t be all those different brands all the sudden having issues. It has to come from Orbi.
Especially knowing that it used to work before their terrible updates ...

[MattEyraud]

And I forgot to mention ecobee thermostats. They’re using WiFi and they have issues with the new firmware updates.

[eljarviso]

iHome Devices are also causing issues. Bluetooth devices connected to AppleTV seem OK.

[eljarviso]

The raspberry pi running HomeBridge is connected via Ethernet which wireless talks to my AppleTV running as a bridge.

[john_rowe]

I have Nanoleaf, Hue, LIFX, and VOCOlinc WiFi HomeKit devices and they’re all misbehaving with 2.1.3.4. My Bluetooth August, First Alert and Eve devices have been fine the whole time.

Reverting to the prior firmware fixes the WiFi devices.

I’m surprised that Netgear haven’t got in touch with the folks having problems. If Netgear can’t reproduce it, the next step seems like contacting the folks that can.

[usahale]

KooGeek outlet devices. Noticed before shutting it down that Orbi could handle 2 of them. As soon as the 3rd one was added, inconsistency. 

[bent_wookie]

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@eljarviso wrote:

The NVRAM setting resets after a reboot of the device.  I ended up putting my asus router back in and running the orbi in AP mode.  I then put in firewall rules to block the download servers netgear uses to push out updates.

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I feel like mine must have rebooted since I installed the beta, but I like the idea of really walling it off from Netgear. What servers are you blocking?