Once you’ve set up your Philips Hue system – the Philips Hue smart bulb and the associated Philips Hue bridge – everything is perfect. You can control the bulb with your mobile phone and even desktop. You’re enjoying all the ambience and automation that Philips Hue lights offer.
However, sometimes the app may say that the Philips Hue light cannot be connected. What causes this problem and what can you do to fix it? In this article, you’ll learn the most common causes of this problem and how you can fix and reconnect your Philips Hue bulbs to your smart home as a whole.
Table of Contents
1. Is your mobile device on the same Wi-Fi network?
The most common problem when the Philips Hue app fails to connect to your Philips Hue lights is that your mobile device is not connected to the network with the Philips Hue hub.
You can test this on your mobile device in a number of ways. The first thing to check is that you have indeed enabled Wi-Fi on your mobile device. On Android, you can quickly check this by swiping down on the home screen and checking that the Wi-Fi icon is enabled. On iPhone, just check the Wi-Fi icon in the status bar at the top of the screen.
If this feature is enabled but the Philips Hue lights still can’t connect, you’ll have to dig a little deeper. On Android, open your device’s Settings menu, select Connectionand see the network name below WIFI near the selector. On iPhone, select Setting > WIFI from your home screen. You’ll see a blue checkmark next to the network name you’re connected to.
If this network name does not match the network connected to your Philips Hue bridge when you first set it up, you will need to change your mobile device’s network to that network before you can control your Philips Hue lights.
2. Make sure the Philips Hue Lights are powered on
This may seem like common sense, but you might be surprised how often forgetting the light switch is off results in apps not being able to access Philips Hue lights.
Make sure the switches that control the correct Philips Hue bulbs are turned on. And if you are using a dimmer switch to control the lights, make sure the switch is on, otherwise the light may not work. Or you can purchase a Hue dimmer switch accessory if you want that feature.
3. Double check the connections of the Philips Hue Bridge
If you know that your mobile device is connected to the same network as your Philips Hue connector, the bridge itself is the next thing to check.
First, trace each cable from the back of the Philips Hue bridge and make sure they are connected correctly.
- The power cord must go to a nearby outlet and it is recommended that you use the power adapter provided by Philips.
- The ethernet cable from the ethernet port should go into one of the numbered LAN ports on the back of your router. Make sure it’s not accidentally plugged into an incoming internet port (usually labeled with a globe icon).
If you have confirmed that everything is connected correctly, the next thing to check is that the Philips Hue bridge is correctly connected to the network by checking the connection status in the Philips Hue app.
Launch the app and select Setting in the lower right corner.
This will open the Settings window where you will see all the installed bridges listed below Hue Bridge. The status here must be green and Positive. Select Hue Bridges and you should see your network connection information listed on the next window. This includes its connection status and network IP address.
If you don’t see a green Connected status or no IP address listed, your Philips Hue bridge may be experiencing network connectivity issues. Try the following troubleshooting tips if that’s the case.
- Unplug the power from the Philips Hue bridge, wait a few seconds and then plug it back in.
- Change the ethernet cable connecting the bridge to the router as it may be faulty.
- Reset the bridge by flipping it over and using a pointed tool to press and hold the reset button for 5 seconds. This button is next to the label restore factory settings.
If you have to reset the bridge, you’ll need to go through the setup process again that you did when you first installed it.
4. Are Philips Hue lights added to the correct room?
If you’ve set up multiple rooms in your Philips Hue app, or toggled a switch for a room with no lights on, there could be an issue with the way you add lights to each room in the app.
To test this, from the main app screen, tap the room you want to check. You’ll see any listed Philips Hue that you have installed and want to control in that room. If you don’t see one of those lights there, you’ll need to add it (usually, this involves moving it from another room you may have accidentally assigned it to.
To do this, simply tap the three dots in the top right corner of the screen in the Rooms window and select Edit room.
The last thing to check is that even if all of your lights are listed in the correct room, one of them may be off or off individually. You’ll see this if the switch is on the left and the light icon shows up as a dark icon.
5. Restart your Wi-Fi router
One of the most common things to fix connection problems, both on the local network and the internet connection itself, is to restart your Wi-Fi router.
To do this, just follow the steps below.
- Unplug your router.
- Wait at least 30 seconds.
- Re-plug the router’s power cable.
- Wait for all router lights to return to their normal solid green or flashing state.
After you restart your router, try connecting to the Philips Hue lights again.
6. Make sure your Router is not blocking Hue Bridge
While this is unlikely, there may be a setting in your router that has changed and is blocking the Philips Hue bridge connection to the network.
Devices aren’t normally blocked by default, so someone would have to set this up to cause problems. But you should confirm that the bridge is at least connected to the router without any problems.
To do this, connect to your default gateway IP (this is usually 129.168.1.1 or 10.0.0.1, but you can check this by typing ipconfig into Command Prompt).
Log in to your router as administrator and in the network connections menu (this option varies by router) look for Device right to buy.
You will see all connected devices and their connection types. Since it’s likely the Philips Hue bridge is one of the few devices connected via ethernet, you’ll see it listed with that connection type.
The last four digits of the Device name will match the serial number on the back of the Philips Hue bridge.
Make sure this device is not blocked by selecting Block Service or Block Device in Parental Controls (again, this can vary between routers).
Normally, this list will be empty. If you see the Philips Hue bridge listed here, just remove it from the list.
You also cannot check if the router’s ethernet port correctly detects the connected device. Check the Ethernet menu option in the router and look for anything other than Disconnected for the port number to which the Hue bridge is connected.
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If the status is Disconnected, try switching your Philips Hue bridge to another router’s ethernet port to see if that fixes the issue when it can’t connect to your Philips Hue lights. friend. If you have to fix any of these settings, it’s possible your Philips Hue lights will reconnect.
7. Check replacement Philips Hue bulbs
Whether all of your bulbs aren’t connected or just a single bulb is having problems, you can’t buy a Philips Hue smart bulb to test it out with installation. or not.
If all of your lights aren’t working and a new light fixes one of them, you may need to replace all of the bulbs as well.
Hopefully the above troubleshooting tips have helped you reconnect to your smart lights!
