Adding a second Hue bridge breaks almost all devices

Everything Matter
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I bought a M3 Hub and some Aqara devices, after researching it’s official support stand of 3rd party devices. I have a huge collection of Philips Hue bulbs and devices, and was planning of making Aqara my central hub for domotic, leaving GH behind and expanding automations through Aqara instead.

I link the first hue bridge, made all the automations and renaming, including rooms and etc.

After adding a second bridge, the next day I realized some automations were not triggering.

The culprit was that a switch (hue dial) which should trigger an automation used in another aqara sensor automation no longer record presses.

It was working prior to adding the second bridge.

It’s a faulty unit, as in other systems I have it linked continues to record presses.

Than I realized that random switches are not registering presses (update, long presses do get registered by aqara, only short presses aren’t).

I’ve read to “simply” re-add, but having more than a hundred devices, rooms, automations and alike to redo is just a nightmare.

I cannot find any other workaround or solution and I fear this error/bug is just to risky to continue my endeavours through aqara. I’m only in the beginning with aqara, but had plans to massively embrace it in my home. But, given this situation I’m not comfortable on gamble on that.

Any advice?

Update: I tested long press on the Hue Switch and aqara record it. So oddly, it’s only presses that are not being registered.

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@virgilio_alves It sounds like you’re encountering a challenging issue with your Aqara Hub M3 and your Philips Hue setup. From the reference information, it seems the Aqara Hub M3 is designed to integrate with third-party devices, including those in the Matter ecosystem, but there might be limitations or bugs when using multiple Hue bridges.

Here are a few suggestions you might consider trying:

  1. Check Device Compatibility: Ensure that all devices, including the second Hue bridge, are fully compatible with the Aqara Hub M3. Sometimes, certain features or functions may not work correctly if the devices aren’t fully supported.

  2. Firmware and App Updates: Make sure that both the Aqara Hub and the connected devices have the latest firmware updates. The Aqara Home app should also be updated to the latest version to ensure optimal performance.

  3. Network Configuration: Verify that your home network supports the necessary protocols (such as IPv6) and that the Thread network is set up properly.

  4. Consider Device Limits: Some hubs may have limitations on the number of devices or bridges they can efficiently manage. Double-check if adding a second bridge exceeds any such limits.

  5. Re-add Devices Carefully: Although re-adding devices is cumbersome, it might be necessary to ensure a clean setup. Begin with the most critical devices to minimize disruption.

If these steps do not resolve the issue, it might be worth reaching out to Aqara’s support team for further assistance. They might be able to provide more targeted guidance or indicate if this is a known issue with a planned fix. Engaging with the community here can also be beneficial, as other users may have faced similar challenges and found alternative solutions. Good luck, and I hope this gets resolved soon so you can enjoy your smart home setup to the fullest!

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Hi, Thank you very much for reaching out to us. I would like to confirm whether the on/off function of this switch is working properly and whether it will display the short press as a button?
I think maybe you can re-add and just set an automation of this switch to validate?

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Hi, in the Aqara app, all Hue Switches (either the simpler or the one with a rotating dial), display all buttons (naming them by default “Wireless Switch#”, 1 to 4), the rotating dial, isn’t supported, as it doesn’t appear.

Then, for each button, it shows data when it was pressed. Initially, data would register “Short Press” followed by last time date and time, the same thing to “Long Press”. Now, only the “Long Press” data appears, and after a day or two, if only short presses are done in the switch, the Aqara APP will only show data as “None”, as if it were never short pressed.

I do know that initally short presses were being recorded by Aqara because a) it triggered an automation and, b) a couple of days later it still show “Short Press” with date and time. Now that time has passed, the buttons when we only short pressed all are given the info “None” in the Aqara App.

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I’ve read that to delete and re-add a hue device, implies deleting the bridge with all the time-consuming work it implies, renameing, re-assigning rooms, redoing all automations, etc.

I was hoping for a more smooth aproach, as it cannot be guaranteed to fail again.

Theses systems need to be stable, otherwise it defeats its purpose.

Also, in other platforms the switches are being recognised and register with no incidents, which (reinforced by the fact that i’ve seen it working in Aqara previously) let me assume somthing happened on the M3 Hub side.

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