Hueblog: More and more problems: What’s going on with Philips Hue?

More and more problems: What’s going on with Philips Hue?

No longer just delivery problems

I like Philips Hue. No wonder, after all, I have not only equipped almost my entire house with smart light sources from the manufacturer, but I also have a blog dedicated to the topic. In principle, not a day goes by without me dealing with Philips Hue.

And these are not only positive stories, but meanwhile also more and more problems. I don't even want to talk about the two price increases at the beginning of the year and in spring, as well as the general delivery problems. You could almost say that we have become accustomed to them by now. Or to put it another way: Philips Hue is not alone with these problems.


But precisely because of these difficulties, it should be ensured that everything else runs smoothly. And this is exactly the sticking point. And that's exactly what Philips Hue can't seem to get right at the moment.

The first case: the new Hue Go portable table lamp

It all started with the new Hue Go, which was supposed to be launched in late summer. What a practical idea it would have been to take the portable table lamp to the terrace in August or early September, when it was still summery warm in the evening but got dark earlier. But the product, which was introduced in June, has now been postponed until next year – a required certification, which was necessary for sales in Europe, was not granted.

In the USA, on the other hand, Philips Hue wanted to stick to the schedule. However, it is extremely unlikely that it will work out with the late summer, because the beginning of autumn is just around the corner on 23 September.

The second case: the Philips Hue Lightguide series

That's not the only false start, though. We also have to wait longer for the new, visually impressive Philips Hue Lightguide light sources. Here, too, Philips Hue actually did everything right and promised availability for the fourth quarter when it was officially announced on 1 September.

However, the first orders were delivered a little more than a week ago. Only to find out that there are such serious technical problems that the sale has to be stopped again. The market launch has now been postponed “until further notice“.

What will happen in the coming weeks?

The next major construction site for Philips Hue is already imminent: the launch of Matter. In October, the new smart home standard is to get underway. With the preparations, Philips Hue has of course long since received. A firmware update for the bridge should already be in the starting blocks and will hopefully be rolled out in time for the official launch of Matter. Philips Hue should not allow itself a false start here.

Beyond that, there are still one or two construction sites in the background at Philips Hue, but I can't share any concrete information with you at the moment. Let's just hope that everything runs smoothly here…

Note: This article contains affiliate links. We receive a commission for purchases via these links, which we use to finance this blog. The purchase price remains unchanged for you.

Check your local Philips Hue Online Store for availability of Hue products in your country. There you will also find all the technical information and prices.



In den letzten Jahren habe ich mich zu einem echten Experten in Sachen Hue & HomeKit entwickelt. Mittlerweile habe ich über 50 Lampen und zahlreiche Schalter im Einsatz. In meinem kleinen Blog teile ich meine Erfahrungen gerne mit euch.

Comments 5 replies

  1. Thanks for the update. What shall we expect from the arrival of Matter? A firmware update to have the bridge compatible with more products or will it make some products obsolete? I’m currently renovating my house and have installed several Philips Hue products, that I hope to keep for a while 🙂 thanks

    1. From my current understanding and available information:

      Matter has multiple parts, the important one for interoperability is the Matter protocol itself on the IP network side, making devices capable of communicating with each other. They also provide a standard for a low-power radio network that maps the physical network layer to the Matter protocol.

      From Hue’s current announcements, a firmware update will make the Bridge v2 compatible with Matter. This should make all existing lights and accessories compatible, as the bridge will take care of speaking Matter on its Ethernet side and translate to Zigbee on its radio side, and the other way around.

      Hue currently do not seem to have a plan to move the radio side to the companion Thread protocol. This means current investment will be migrated to Matter and work with other devices on the IP network. Hue devices will be seen and controllable using Matter, but they will act as a vendor-specific physical network. They will not participate in the Thread (Matter companion radio standard) network, probably forcing you to have several isolated radio networks overlapping the same areas.

      The impact of this decision is that Hue lights and plugs will not act as relays to help a Thread device that is too far from other Thread devices to have a more reliable connection, and they will not be able to talk directly from a device to another one, everything has to go through the Hue Bridge.

      On the other hand, it means Hue will take advantage of their manufacturer-specific extensions to Zigbee, such as reliably support streaming colors to Entertainment areas. They basically will get interoperability with Matter, but will not participate in the unified IoT radio infrastructure.

      I don’t see Hue moving from Zigbee to Thread any time soon, as that would require a dual-radio bridge, but also mean a new light far from the bridge wouldn’t get help from older lights to relay its commands. The only customer-friendly way to achieve such a migration would be a decade-long transition of not only dual-radio bridge, but also dual-radio lights that can participate in both networks until you don’t have any legacy Zigbee devices anymore.

      I don’t mean that Hue is a bad investment today, as its radio protocol is reliable, and Matter will be supported even on legacy devices. It just means we’ll have several radio networks instead of a unified one.

  2. A sincere thanks for the clear explanation. I believe you are right and I would also find surprising to see Philips changing fully its new lights and moving to Thread, without main added value for them.

    While it is interesting for them to claim that other products can be used with their bridge (as it already is the case for the Ikea bulbs (I just tried)), they are obviously favouring their products. If a thread based bulbs doesn’t work because located too far from the bridge, that will certainly not trigger a strong reaction.

    Kind regards
    Olivier

  3. What about the newer Bluetooth-enabled bulbs, could that radio be converted to Thread use with a firmware update? Then the bulbs would have Zigbee and Thread, but no more Bluetooth (no big loss, especially if by user choice).

  4. Hi. Thanks for interesting blog. I have a question, for about 1 month ago all hue lights and accessories was not possible to control(unreachable). I have made a lot of troubleshooting all the way back to factory reset everything, tried new bridge, new Wi-Fi router, connected with serial number etc. Nothing works. My 30+ units are totally gone. Only the connection via remote switch and a single light works. But not able to control via bridge and App. Have any one of you heard anything of same issues. It’s very frustrating and support have problems come with a solution. Appreciate any information.

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