Hi everyone,
I’ve set up a Ikea tradfri on/off switch to one of my Philips hue lights. While the switch works perfectly ( on/off and dimmer functions), The light is now non responsive to either the hue app or the hue essentials app. Is there anything I can do so it works with the switch and apps or is it one or the other?
Thank you in advance.
It should be possible to use both. There are videos that demonstrate how you should connect everything. Key is to add the tradfri switch to the hub first (via touchlink). After that you can add the light to the switch and it should work both from the app as from the switch itself.
It’s a bit hit or miss in my experience, tried dosens is times the last few days. Sometimes I succeed (most of the time I don’t) it never keeps working for me. After a short while the button or the app stop working again…
Drives me crazy actually, those tradfri on/off switches are perfect in both functionality as price for a lot of use cases. Frustrates me i can’t get it to work…
PS the video tutorials are found here: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLRyaDXojWPOCoJkIhSM-XMSfv14l5yeza
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Thank you, I have finally got them working, didn’t realise the lights had to be removed before the switches got connected, just linked 2x on/off switches and as you mentioned everything about them is better than the hue dimmer switches and nearly a third of the price, so fingers crossed it keeps working. 
So you linked two separate on/off switches to two different bulbs? What bulbs did you use? And was it trial and error, or could you replicate the process with ease?
I hope you are right and it’ll stay this way! In my case, connection broke within 24hrs 
I’m having a similar issue.
After following the video guide I can get the Tradfri remote to pair with the hue bridge. However, when I run the “search for lights” function in the app, the lights get added OK, but the remote seems to get disconnected/unpaired.
Has anybody else had this problem?
Just signed up here to reply, yes I have exactly the same issue. Using an IKEA e27 bulb and the on/off switch. I have just repeated the process 3 times and the remote always stops working as soon as the bulb is found by the app. I can help test or troubleshoot if needed, just ping me. Can’t wait to get this to work. I went premium on the app from day one, found it through the Hubitat forum by the way.
EDIT: Just tried once more, followed the video to a tee, remote did exactly the same as in the demonstration and still, only really works once after the light is detected. Then the remote stops working 
Yes two different tradfri on/off switches and two Philips hue white and colour bulbs,
My method
- Link the on/off switch to the ikea gateway (check for updates)
- deleted the bulb to be paired from the Philips hue app, then turned it off at the dumb switch.
- paired the first tradfri switch to the hue box ( through hue essentials app)
- turned light on at dumb switch and paired the tradfri switch to the light.
- searched for light in the hue essentials app and paired.
- checked Philips hue app that light had been added then renamed.
Same with the second switch although it took 2 attempts to get it controlled by app and switch.
As for how long it stays working for, I only did it last night so will have to wait and see.
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Damn, I gave my IKEA Hub away to the girlfriend as I thought I was done with that, need to take my button over and update it, it seems. Should I also try to update the bulb while I’m at it?
I can’t see that it would hurt to try, I did try my second on/off switch without linking it to the ikea gateway first and it didn’t seem to work although there wasn’t an update for either the gateway or switches, but saying that I could’ve just been unsuccessful in pairing it all the first time on my second bulb.
Can I just ask (being nosey 
) if you’re using ikea tradfri bulbs and switches what hub are you using? Only asking as I’m using the Philips hub but only really intend on using Philips bulbs.
What you call nosey I call natural nerd curiosity 
I have the Hue hub of course, but my main hub is Hubitat. It links devices from Hue hub perfectly. I have a few IKEA bulbs, 2 Hue Play lights and a couple of dimmer remotes. The switches have never worked for me nor do I expect them to show up as managed devices in Hubitat if I get them to work via Hue Essentials, but I still want a physical switch for this new light I added in the kitchen.
EDIT: I live in Sweden so the IKEA stuff is really easy to get (although a bit of a drive for me, I never order online from them)
I’m in uk, our local ikea opened Monday so first things on my list were 2x switches and the gateway, wanted to try them for my children’s room as their phones and tablets are never charged. When I was struggling to get the lights working with app and switches someone told me to get the smart things hub as that’s suppose to work with everything, not sure on that but as I’m a bit stubborn I was determined to try and get it working as the hue essentials video showed.
Smartthings is great, Hubitat is a little better and the app / driver code is mostly cross-compatible. There’s a great community on both platforms and Smartthings is a bit more polished in the UI side, but relies on a cloud connection, while Hubitat performs local commands (of course it can also be controlled via the internet). Tons of integration options. For example, I have my LG TV with Plex added as a media device, which I can use to control mood lighting when watching TV in the evening, turning off unnecessary lights etc. Many more options out there and Rule Machine (the rule / automation engine) is great.
I also maintain a homelab so I have a ton more integrations than needed, such as Node-RED but it’s a great platform, very happy with it. It really depends on how much time you want to spend playing with it or if experimenting is even of interest to you.
EDIT: clarifying this is a subjective opinion on Hubitat vs. Samsung ST, not trying to diver the thread into a discussion about which is better.
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Wow reading that has just made me realise how new to this lot I am and how little I know, but slowly getting there might have to look at a different sometime in the future but while I’ve only got 6 hue lights and 2 tradfri switches the Philips one is doing what I want.
I have a mix of Philips things, IKEA things, z-wave in-wall relays and Aqara sensors around the house, plus Tado smart thermostats on upstairs radiators. All integrated in Hubitat. One thing I could with Node-RED, Grafana and Influx was track all that data in an “environmentals” dashboard for my home, here’s a peek:
Home automation is like eating Pringles…
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… As in you eat the whole tube in one go🤣.
All looks a bit technical for me that lot.
Indeed! I had ONE, just ONE z-wave relay and the hub when I started. Then bit by bit… it’s also not all that particularly technical but it does require to have some container knowledge and a spare PC / Raspberry Pi to play with. Anyways, going to the girlfriend’s tomorrow to update the button (hah, I see what I did there…)
Lucky you , hopefully upgrading the firmware will work for you.
Same here. Remote stops working after lights are found and paired in app… I tried like 10 times.
The only thing I can think is, have you updated the firmware of the switch? I have only paired 2 switches to 2 different lights and after I got it sorted they haven’t missed a beat.
All I can advise is to remove the light from the Philips hub 1st, then pair the switch to the hub then to the light and then add the light to the Philips hub.
Hope that helps.
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I understand that I need the gateway for the update, which I don’t have. Tomorrow I’ll get one from Ikea, it’s not expensive at all, and try again after the update.