FabianIt is one of the demands that Philips Hue users have repeatedly made: A backup function for the Bridge to be able to restore the installation that was set up with great care if the worst comes to the worst. I have never experienced a hardware defect that would make a backup necessary over the years, but you never know.
The online blog ifun.de is now reporting that Philips Hue is working on a backup function for the Hue Bridge, although no specific sources are mentioned in the report. Allegedly, Philips Hue is planning a cloud solution to back up the data and settings of the Bridge externally.
When exactly the backup function for the Hue Bridge will be available is still up in the air. However, I can assure you that Philips Hue is indeed looking into the subject of backups. So it's probably only a matter of time before the function is integrated into the Hue app.
How have you dealt with the limitation so far? Do you use a third-party app to create at least a limited backup of the system?
All 4 Hue offers a backup function with restrictions
This would be possible with All 4 Hue, for example – but only with restrictions. You have to manually connect all lights, switches and sensors to the new or restored bridge. The hardware is “linked” at the start of the restore process. All 4 Hue obtains the unique serial numbers of the various devices from the backup and links these with the new identifications that the devices have received after pairing with the new bridge.
Only then does it continue automatically. The developer tells us: “Software resources are elements that are created on the Hue Bridge via apps such as All 4 Hue, i.e. memory sensors, light groups, zones, rooms, light scenes, room scenes, timers, alarms, rules and rule groupings. All 4 Hue is able to recreate all these resources automatically as part of the recovery process.”
All 4 Hue charges a one-off fee of 6.99 euros for this functionality. Let's just hope that Philips Hue won't charge us extra for this “luxury”, which should actually be a basic cornerstone of a smart home system…
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That would be a very nice feature for power user with large installation and complex rules and scenes.
not a game changer though but something that would add to the strength of hue ecosystem.
For me it’s mandatory to have this kind of feature for such a complex system.
E.g.
I have 12 dimmer switches & haven’t yet “saved” any of them with the new “timezone” feature because i don’t want my current setup to be ruined (like with the motion sensor change).
The ability to backup & restore is invaluable for anyone experimenting with new features.
It should be delivered 5 years ago
I suspect this feature is necessary for a third-generation Hue Bridge. For example, a third-gen Bridge could simply download a backup of a second-gen Bridge, so if a user upgrades their bridge to the new one, they won’t need to reinstall all their Hue devices on the bridge.
I actually had a bridge fail and it was a pain to set-up everything back, re-connect with HomeKit, fix automations…
But first they need to solve the “more than one bridge with one account” scenario. I have 3 bridges and in the past I was able to log out of one bridge and then log in into another one, with the same account, to be able to control it when out of home (only one can have out of home control activated and that’s the one you are logged in to).
But since Hue started “playing” with the “you need the account” feature I can no longer log out of the bridge (to log in into another one) without getting the warning that the bridge will be deleted from the app if I log out!(?) I’m basically “stuck” with 3 bridges in the app but only one can be controlled out of home and I can’t change which one is it.
So even if they roll out some kind of “bridge backup” function, what’s the point if I can backup only one out of three bridges, because I can’t log in into the other ones?
Hue has been a mess for a long time and it seem their only focus is dumping more products on the market without solving some of the biggest issues that already exist for years. I’m afraid that with the focus now being “home security” they will care even less about updating the bridge hardware.
I did experience 2 spontaneous resets;
Email message:
‘Hue Bridge reset
Hello Arian,
Your Hue Bridge was reset to factory defaults and has been disconnected from your Hue account.’
WhatsApp hue support told me this happens due to a software bridge error.
So not just hardware failures but also software failures are deleting your configs. At least a backup and restore functionality should have existed from the start.
Crazy that this feature doesn’t exists yet