Why Are My Smart Bulbs Unresponsive (7 Easy Fixes) (2023)

Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I greatly appreciate your support!

Smart bulbs have become increasingly popular in recent years, providing homeowners with a convenient and efficient way to control their home lighting.

However, despite their advanced technology, smart bulbs can sometimes become unresponsive, leaving users frustrated and wondering what went wrong.

In this article, we explore some of the common reasons why your smart bulbs may be unresponsive and provide practical solutions to help you get your lighting system back up and running in no time.

Whether you’re a tech-savvy homeowner or a newcomer to smart home technology, this article will provide you with the information you need to troubleshoot your smart bulb issues and get your smart bulbs working again.

Why Are My Smart Bulbs Unresponsive?

When smart bulbs stop working, you can usually fix the problem using one of these seven troubleshooting solutions. Let’s go though these seven solutions, one at a time.

#1. Do a manual reset of your smart bulb

If your smart bulb is unresponsive, the first things to do is reset your smart bulb. Most times this will fix the problem.

There are two types of reset you can do on your smart bulbs: a soft reset and a hard reset (aka factory reset).

A soft reset does not erase the current settings for your smart bulb, whereas a factory reset erases all of your custom settings and restores them to factory defaults.

These are the instructions for doing a hard reset for various different brands of smart bulbs:

Lenovo Smart Bulb

• Use the light switch to turn the smart bulb on and off 5 times in a row ( with a time interval of 1~2 seconds when turning the light on or off).
• Make sure the light is ON for the last time.
• When the white light is on and the bulb starts slow flashing, the smart bulb is ready to be re-configured.

Wyze Smart Bulb

• Turn on/off the light switch associated with the bulb 3 times.
• Wait for your Wyze Bulb to start pulsing slowly.
• Once the bulb starts pulsing, you can either set it up again or turn the light off to preserve the factory state.

Yeelight Smart Bulb

• Switch the bulb on and off five times in a row (2 seconds on and 2 seconds off).
• The bulb will start flashing.
• After 5 seconds, it will restart and show white color, which means the bulb has been reset to default.

Sengled Alexa Light Bulb

• Start with the bulb in the on position.
• Turn it off/on five times in quick succession where off/on counts as one time. If done properly, the bulb will flash three times—pause—then blink once.
• If it does not flash three times—pause—then blink once, and repeat the process.
• Once successfully reset, the smart bulb is ready to be paired again with your Wi-Fi.

TP-Link Kasa Smart Bulb

• Turn the light switch controlling the bulb to the OFF position.
• Flip the light switch on and off 5 times

Nanoleaf Color-Changing Smart Bulb

• Switch the bulb off, wait for 3 seconds, then switch it back on for no more than 1 second.
• Repeat this for a total of 5 cycles.
• If the reset is successful, the bulb will flash red three times, and then it’s ready to be paired again.

Osram Sylvania Smart Bulb

• Switch the light on and off five times in succession for five seconds each time for a total of 50 seconds.
• When switched on again, the lamp flashes once briefly as confirmation and can now be paired again with the hub or smartphone app.

Ikea E26 Smart Bulb

• Start with the switch in the on position.
• Switch it off and back on 6 times, not counting the initial on position.
• On the 6th ‘on’ position, wait until you see the bulb increasing in brightness intensity. This confirms that the bulb has been reset.

Hive LED Smart Bulb

• Turn the smart bulb off and on six times at the light switch
• Leave a one-second pause between each flip of the switch

Innr Color and White A19 Smart Bulbs

• Switch the lamp off and on six times (6x) with intervals of 0.5 seconds between each state.
• The lamp will blink to indicate it has been factory reset.
• It can then be connected again to the hub or smartphone app.

#2. Ensure your Wi-Fi connection is working properly

If that doesn’t work, the next thing to do is check that your Wi-Fi is working.

Smart bulbs, like other smart home devices, need a Wi-Fi connection. Your home’s Wi-Fi is what connects your smart bulb to the app on your smartphone.

In other words, if your Wi-Fi won’t work.

Check the light panel on your router and make sure the ‘Internet’ light is on.

Also, make sure your Wi-Fi network has enough bandwidth. You can check your bandwidth athttps://www.speedtest.net/.

You need a minimum of 3 Mbs upload speed to operate 12 to 15 smart home devices:

#3. Check for 2.4 GHz vs 5 GHz

Most brands of smart bulbs require your Wi-Fi network to be set to 2.4 GHz.

People often have their routers set to 5 GHz because it affords faster Internet speeds than 2.4 GHz. But 2.4 GHz has greater penetration than 5 GHZ and will reach further into your house than 5 GHz. Which is why smart bulbs usually require 2.4 GHz.

Many routers will serve both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz simultaneously. But this can also be a problem because the smart bulb tries to connect to the 5 GHz and fails.

The solution is to log into your router (on an Internet browser, you type in the IP address of your router) and temporarily disable 5 GHz. Your router will then only serve 2.4 GHz. Once your smart bulbs are connected, you can then re-enable 5 GHz.

Note, however, that if you have a power outage and your smart bulbs disconnect from the Wi-Fi network, you will have to go though this same process again when the power comes back on.

#4. Restart your router

Next, try restarting your Wi-Fi router.

Unplug the router from the mains electricity. Leave it unplugged for at least 30 seconds. Then plug it in again and wait for all the panel lights to turn on. It can take a few minutes until all the router lights are on again.

#5. Check the distance between smart lights and router

If your smart bulb is unresponsive, you should also check the distance between the light and the router. If your smart bulb is too far away from the router, it won’t get the signal that it needs to operate correctly.

Smart bulbs communicate with your hub using wireless technology. There are four main wireless protocols used by smart home devices:

• Bluetooth Low-Energy (Bluetooth LE)
• Zigbee
• Z-Wave
• 6LoWPAN

Of these, the most common are Bluetooth LE and Zigbee.

Here are the maximum distances allowed by these two wireless protocols.

Bluetooth LE

• Outdoors: 77 m (252 feet)
• Indoors: 10 m (30 feet)

Zigbee

• Outdoors: 300m (985 feet)
• Indoors: 12-25m (40-82 feet)

So whichever wireless protocol you use, make sure your smart bulb is not located outside the range.

If you are using Wi-Fi mesh, it’s unlikely that range is an issue as a Wi-Fi mesh network can coverup to 6,000 square feet.

#6. Check your hub or bridge

Some smart bulbs require a hub or bridge in order to work, while others can connect directly to your Wi-Fi network. If you are using a hub or bridge (e.g. Philips Hue Bridge), check to make sure that the hub or bridge is working correctly. You may need to reset the hub or bridge or re-pair your bulbs with the hub.

#7. Replace the smart bulb

If none of this works, then you should consider replacing thesmart bulb. An average smart bulb last about 20,000 hours. If you were to leave your smart bulb turned on 12 hours a day, that’s over 1600 days or 4.5 years.

But even if you haven’t had the bulb that long, it could still need replaced: like any electrical device, a smart bulb can malfunction.

Conclusion

Smart bulbs unresponsive? There can be several different reasons. But the most common cause is that the smart bulb has lost connection with the Wi-Fi network.

Check that the Wi-Fi router is working properly. Then try doing a factory reset of the bulb. If that doesn’t work, check the distance between the smart bulb and the router. And finally, consider replacing the smart bulb.

Related Articles

• How To Link Smart Bulbs With Google Home
• How To Use Multiple Smart Bulbs In One Fixture
• Smart Bulbs Vs Smart Switches – Which Should You Use?