Why can’t I control Philips Hue away from home?

[elise2000]

Hi all

I’ve recently got a few hue lightbulbs, and control them via the hue app. Lovely. But I want to control them away from home.

There doesn’t seem to be an option in the app. I’ve googled it and it says to go into settings and select out of home control. I don’t have this option displayed.

I’ve logged in on a desktop too, and there it says the bridge is offline. It’s not though as working fine.

Any ideas?!

Many thanks

[DoctorX]

Hadn't noticed that this setting had been removed. Maybe it's on by default?

Might be something here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Hue/comments/133f805/out_...

[Mont Blanc]

Do you have the Hue bridge in your house? I know the apps says the bridge is offline, but do you actually have one?

I have a whole load of Hue bulbs in lamps all over my house, and control them off the iOS phone app, and they all work fine when I'm away from home.

[JimbobVFR]

The newer bulbs and lights also have Bluetooth so can be controlled locally without a bridge.

If you do have a Hue bridge did you create a Hue account and sign in to it on the app.

Does your bridge have all 3 indicator lights lit? One is for power, one for network connectivity and the 3rd for internet access?

I do have lots of other thoughts as well but it's worth checking the basics first.

[elise2000]

Mont Blanc said:

Do you have the Hue bridge in your house? I know the apps says the bridge is offline, but do you actually have one?

I have a whole load of Hue bulbs in lamps all over my house, and control them off the iOS phone app, and they all work fine when I'm away from home.

Yes have a bridge

[elise2000]

JimbobVFR said:

The newer bulbs and lights also have Bluetooth so can be controlled locally without a bridge.

If you do have a Hue bridge did you create a Hue account and sign in to it on the app.

Does your bridge have all 3 indicator lights lit? One is for power, one for network connectivity and the 3rd for internet access?

I do have lots of other thoughts as well but it's worth checking the basics first.

Yes have a bridge, am signed in, and all lights are on

Thanks

[dapprman]

Geo doesn't work for me for the coming home function, but that is due to Oxygen/OnePlus being st with enforced power management, but aside from that it is fine for me.

Does the app work when you are in the house ?

[elise2000]

dapprman said:

Geo doesn't work for me for the coming home function, but that is due to Oxygen/OnePlus being st with enforced power management, but aside from that it is fine for me.

Does the app work when you are in the house ?

Yep absolutely fine in the house

[Grey_Area]

Does this help?

https://www.gearbrain.com/amp/philips-hue-enable-r...

Here's what mine says in the settings part



I also have the Hue essentials app installed which in use to add a few more tweaks, have you tried that?

[zorba_the_greek]

very odd, call their help line. They are very good at assisting/troubleshooting

[elise2000]

Grey_Area said:

Does this help?

https://www.gearbrain.com/amp/philips-hue-enable-r...

Here's what mine says in the settings part



I also have the Hue essentials app installed which in use to add a few more tweaks, have you tried that?

Mine is the same but doesn’t say remote access

No I haven’t got the essentials app- will download and see if that helps

Thanks

[elise2000]

zorba_the_greek said:

very odd, call their help line. They are very good at assisting/troubleshooting

Have you got a uk phone number for them? Couldn’t find one earlier. Thanks

[elise2000]

Have downloaded the essentials app and granted away from home permissions. Will see if it works next time I’m out. Thanks all

[cml24]

elise2000 said:

Have downloaded the essentials app and granted away from home permissions. Will see if it works next time I’m out. Thanks all

Can you just turn off the WiFi on your phone to check?

[elise2000]

cml24 said:

elise2000 said:

Have downloaded the essentials app and granted away from home permissions. Will see if it works next time I’m out. Thanks all

Can you just turn off the WiFi on your phone to check?

lol good point!

Ok it doesn’t work.

Get the error message “error. Unexpected response from bridge. Please try again later. Use jsonreader.setlenient(true) to accept malformed json at path $

Any ideas?!

[Grey_Area]

Try re-syncing with the bridge, I had this a couple of times in the past. A re-sync cured it both times.
Alt,ctrl,del in windows terms usually does the trick.