FabianUntil now, I have only published my personal weekly reviews of Philips Hue on the German-language Hueblog. But now there is so much going on here that I would also like to look back on the news of the last seven days on Hueblog.com. I hope you enjoy this additional content.
The Hue Bridge Pro has been available in stores for just over a week now, and many of you have already ordered it. I migrated from one of my two old Hue Bridges to the new Hue Bridge Pro on Monday. Except for a few devices that are still waiting somewhere deep in the closet in their packaging to be used during the Christmas season, the whole process went absolutely smoothly.
That’s exactly why I find it difficult to respond to individual desperate emails or comments that have popped up over the course of the week. After all, migrating to the Pro Bridge is not something I’ve done many times before. I have just as little experience as you do, and on top of that, there are an incredible number of variables.
So I’m eager to hear your comments: How did the migration go for you? Feel free to write about your experiences in the comments, even if everything went smoothly.
Hue Bridge Pro
$98.99 / €89.99
And how about performance?
I’ve never really had any complaints about the speed of my Hue system with two control centers. However, I have noticed two things over the last few days.
When I turned on three rooms on the ground floor with one switch at the same time, the lights in the kitchen, dining room, and living room came on one after the other. With the Hue Bridge Pro, this happens almost simultaneously. Definitely an improvement.
I also noticed that switching individual rooms via Siri and Apple Home is much more synchronized than before.
All Hue news of the week at a glance
- This is how good the new Hue Essential GU10 spots are
- Why I’m excited about the Hue Secure Video Doorbell
- Review of the new Philips Hue Festavia Globe
- iConnectHue now supports the new Hue Bridge Pro
- All new Philips Hue light strips compared
- Hue Bridge Pro now available again in the US
- These Philips Hue products will soon be discontinued
- Step-by-step guide: Transferring data to the new Hue Bridge Pro
- Wanderlust: Philips Hue gives us five new scenes
Hi, my migration went fine until it came to the Apple Home stage. Hue, Home Assistant and Google Home were easy… Apple Home slower. I struggled to get the bridge to initially connect to Apple Home, then once connected Hue started the whole… add a device at time… one tip, when this starts load apple home on an other device and drag the hue devices into the correct rooms. Then load a scene in Hue App and then set that up in Apple Home. I documented my experience on my personal blog https://www.thesmarthome.blog/getting-started-with-the-philips-hue-bridge-pro/
Hi, my migration went fine as well. I use the Smartphone app. The conversion from unpacking the brigde until full operation took less than 45 minutes. One minor deviation: all GU10’s were on on their usual color and dim-settings at the conversion start, but after the conversion ended they were 100% white. Scenes and other settings all seem to be as usual.
I’m interested to know if anyone notices any differences in performance in the Sync Box 8K vs the original bridge. My play gradient light strip syncs well with the TV, but there’s just a little bit of choppiness at times.
Direi tutto abbastanza bene! Ma non perfetto… Ho dovuto eliminare e poi reinserire 5 luci! Perché non c’era altro modo per fargliele comandare!
Poi ok! Una volta che l’app è aperta i comandi sono istantanei! Però ho notato una cosa che è peggiorata! Ovvero quando apro l’app, ha un tempo tecnico di diversi secondi per connettersi con il bridge… Più che ne con il vecchio
I have a very large dual hub setup so I’m impressed that the migration went well (at least for the 1st hub). The 2nd hub was a tedious migration which was expected, especially since it doesn’t look like the hue app supports automatic detect anymore (which was unreliable anyway). HomeKit integration has been more problematic since I had to manually re-label all the lights from the 2nd hub since they wouldn’t sync to the hue app. I also discovered that I’ve lost the ability to add Hue scenes to HomeKit, presumably a limitation of the move to Matter. But I’ve also had connectivity issues between my 8K Sync Box and the Hub Pro, despite the fact my hub is wired. I found that I was able to alleviate the issue by connecting the hub to WiFi, ironically. I had no such issues with the old Hubs. Had I known the HomeKit experience would be so much worse, I think I would have held off. I’m now trying not determine what the issue is with the 8K sync box and if others are having it too.
I had 4 bulbs that failed to migrate, even though they were up to date firmware wise and on. The app said I should “reconnect” them which went through steps to reset the bulbs – learnt something new – rather than power the bulb on and off endlessly to reset, you can just hold power on+off on a Hue dimmer right next to the bulb for 20 seconds. Easy. For 2 of them. The others were outside of the house up in wall lanterns. Would they reset? No. Tried it on a bulb indoors, reset ok. So I thought it was because they were in metal and glass fittings, maybe blocking signal? Was just about to unscrew the casings as it started raining when I had a thought… I will try powering the bulbs off and on and try the dimmer reset again. Bingo. Phew. What a faff.
Migration was fine, but there wasn’t much benefit to the new bridge. Only two of my rooms have sufficient lamps to work with the motion aware feature. And even then, the only way to get notified of any motion is if I pay for the hue secure service. otherwise it only turns on lights (which isn’t so helpful). I didn’t notice much of a difference in response time when turn lights on/off. It will be easier to have everything on one bridge (instead of 2), but other than that, I don’t think it was really worth the money.
Im waiting for my pro arrive. One bit i had with the 2 old bridges is range. One bridge could be upstairs and the other downstairs. This helped when devices were out or range for the first hue.
Has anyone found the pro offers better range?
Anyone else had issues. When I attempt the migration of old bridge to new. I get a message to say the pro needs an update (I already did it and can see it is on the latest version) when I click update now it says the bridge is up to date but then I just get taken to a screen to say I need to update but just the option to migrate later. Driving me mad
I’ve had the same exact issue. Just got off the Hue chat support. Of no help. Has it worked for you?
Having the same issue right now. Did you ever get a fix??
I have the same issue. Have you solved it?
It went flawless until the end. Three annoyng things I encountered:
– One set of non-signify made ligtstrips run by a generic zigbee universal controller had to be reset to re-connect – but that was NO BUG DEAL!
– We’ve been using samsung smart things Music Sync – a sub-app or module for Smart Things ecosystem to sync our entertainment areas with sources other than spotify. What’s weird, although the main smart things hub connecfted with the ‘new’ hue setup pretty fine – after a disconnect-connect cycle, the music sync module struggles to find anything when searching for hue brigde. So no music sync for me at the moment 🙁 But at least I BELIEVE THIS WILL GET FIXED by either one of the manufacturers (or perhaps it has to be both). It is probably due to the bridge pro haveing a different product id, similar to… the last and most disappointing issue…
– I loved our ambilight+hue sync with a couple of signe lamps and a festavia-based ceiling setup. And now it’s gone completely. And I HAVE NO HOPE this could ever get fixed, since it was in neither TPVision’s nor signify’s interest.
I am now considering either:
– using the old bridge, and hooking up the lights I want synced only for that old feature to work. But that is hardly ideal.
– getting a hue sync box, but that would eliminate using the tv’s built-in apps and running everything via apple tv or the home theatre setup…
– digging deeper and check whether employing a smallish Home Assistant setup to somehow restore those is possible (no idea so far)
K, it seems like my last point was just wishful thinking and there’s now way to do it…
Thanks for sharing your experience with the Hue Bridge Pro It is great to hear that the migration went smoothly and that the lights respond almost simultaneously now. I am especially excited about the MotionAware and AI powered features. Makes me feel more confident upgrading my own Hue system.
Migration went fine, added non Hue Zigbee items. However I cannot connect to Homekit anymore which is my platform for home automation. I get error HFErrorDomain error 6.
I’ve just migrated to the new Bridge Pro. What Philips failed to tell us in advance was that it has disabled lights that worked perfectly well with the old bridge, i.e. some of the LivingColors lamps. I have three of these that are now just gathering dust. Thanks a bunch, Philips.
Does the pro not work with the sync box. Keeps telling me they aren’t connected to the same network but they are. Started out Ethernet then went to WiFi, same error.
Hi. My migration also went fine. Only problem now to add 3 wifi balasts Phoscon FLS-CT.
Any idea how to pair with the Bridge?
My migration won’t work, new pro hub is just a paper weight.
When I try to do the migration from the old bridge to new Pro bridge. I get a message saying the pro bridge needs an update, when I click update it comes right back saying the bridge is up to date but then it just goes back to the screen saying I need to update but only has an option to migrate later.
I’ve tried ‘factory reset’ of Pro hub, rebooting both hubs, made sure they are on the same subnet, both hubs are withing the same ‘home’.
Are you part of the beta program?
the same happens for me. What can I do?
It went terribly wrong. As a last step in the migration it asks to push the reset button. Which led to deletion of all rooms, zones and lamps. The old bridge for some reason can’t be added either