My Bulbs wont connect to wifi, Tech support is not being helpful

Developing with LIFX
#1

I work in the mobile device industry and I am very familiar with ai technology such as google assistant and alexa. That’s why I was more than pleased when my parents bought me a set of smart bulbs for Christmas. However the process of syncing these lifx mini bulbs to my wifi has been an unbearable nightmare.

They worked fine at my parent’s house but they will not connect to my wifi and all tech support is willing to do is send me a link to the setup guide. (Before you ask, the answer is yes, I have reset my bulbs.)

At this point I feel it best to steer my customers interested in automating their homes away from this brand do to poor tech support. Please give me a reason not to.

#2

You might want to give us a hint about the differences between your parents’ house where they work fine and your house where they don’t.

And some symptoms of what’s happening beyond “an unbearable nightmare”.

My first guess would be that you have the 2.4GHz band turned off on your Wi-Fi system and are trying to use devices that only support 2.4GHz on a 5GHz only Wi-Fi network. But, hey, that’s a guess since you’ve given no actual data to work from.

#3

Thank you for your prompt response Mr. Galos. Your reply certainly gives insight into lifx’s position on customer retention.

Yes I am using the 2.4 GHz band. I have even attempted to connect my bulbs with my phone connected to the 2.4 GHz band.

I don’t know what type of router my parents use I only know that mine is an Arris TG1682G.

My bulbs are in the same room as my network extender so signal is not an issue.

I have reset my bulbs more than once so that is not the issue either.

I have gone through the setup guide at least 5 times so that is not the answer.

I am at the stage where I need tier 2 tech support.

Do you have anything to offer in that regard?

#4

As an FYI, I’m not a LIFX employee. I’m just a customer.

What are you getting as an error?
What client are you using (and is that the same one you used at your parents’ house)?

#5

I realize that now. I am using my Motorola phone and the lifx app. I’m not sure what you mean by client.

#6

I’m not getting an error, the bulbs just time out whenever I try to connect them.

#7

The client would likely be the LIFX Android client. And the timeout would be the error.

Seeing, though, that it’s the same client and the same bulbs I suspect there’s something it’s unhappy with in your Wi-Fi setup.

#8

Well firstly you are posting in the dev section not using…

Lifx support is actually rather good, they always respond quickly to me and their setup guide covers what you need if you follow it. Resetting your bulb isn’t going to do anything more than reset the bulb.

Have you done your research and looked at their web pages ?
Have you checked your router ? 2.4g is required, ensure you don’t have too many devices on your network and your router isn’t the issue. Is DHCP enabled on the router, do you have enough available IP addresses for the number of devices on your network ? Often cheap routers have no more than maybe 10 devices allowed.

If you can start the on-boarding process on your phone (it detects your bulb) and the app lists your wifi then you are most of the way there, if it won’t connect past that then you need to look at your router and the settings there, the bulbs are simple, they may be rejected by the router have a look at the log on it.

#9

Further to the suggestions above, when I first started with LIFX I found that sometimes it would help to reboot the phone prior to attempting to link the LIFX bulb.

#10

also if on Android it used to have issues with connectivity, I would disable mobile data and then it forced all data over wifi which resolved the issue.
The latest OS and updates to the app seem to have fixed issues I had in the past.