Motion sensor triggers light even though conditions are not met

Hi experts

I have been using my Philips Hue setup for 5+ years now without any problems.

Recently it was required to sign in with your Hue account in the Hue app to continue using the system. Not sure if it related but ever since signing in I have had problems with my motion sensor triggering the lights to turn on even though the conditions for sensitivity during daylight has not been met.

I have been in contact with the Philips Hue customer support but their advices have all been useless. They asked me to buy a new motion sensor, reset the sensor, delete the bulps connected to the sensor, etc. but none of it have helped. I have even tried removing all devices, resetted the Hue bridge to factory default and deleted the bridge from my Hue account - only to find the exact same behavior after setting everything up again.

I have noticed that if I change the settings of the motion sensor it will work for a day - next day it will turn on the lights again regardless of the light conditions.

Any ideas on what is causing this other than a software error? I have asked customer support to get in touch with an engineer or more technical staff but that is apparently not possible.

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I’m experiencing the same issue. My setup functioned seamlessly for several years. However, following a recent update and the new requirement to sign in to my Hue account, all my motion sensors now activate upon detecting motion, even when the lighting conditions should prevent this. I’ve observed, similar to your experience, that the sensors seem to operate correctly for a day after I modify and save a setting, but then the problem recurs the next day. Unfortunately, Hue support is terrible in resolving this issue.

So you never got it solved either?

All support is saying is that I should get a new motion sensor (which I already did) or reset the sensor (which I also did and even made a factory reset of the entite system). They then wanted me to take a photo of the sensor - not really sure what they can see out of a photo (?)

Nope, not solved yet which makes my whole setup at least partly useless.

So you bought a new sensor but still the same behavior? Did you report that?

I don’t think they can get anything out a photo.

Yes - I bought a new sensor as they requested me to and the exact same thing happens with the sensor - and after that I did a complete reset of the system setting up everything from scratch - only to learn that it did not do any difference at all.

I reported this and they requested me to reset the sensor (!) As this did not do any difference they wanted a photo of where it is mounted - but it is a the exact same place as it has been for more than three years. The answer was then that the new sensor also must have a hardware failure.

Still no useful answer from Philips Hue on this topic. They send me a new motion sensor free of charge but the exact same behavior occurred (as expected).

However I have tried to connect the Hue Bridge to my Apple HomeKit bridge (an Apple TV). I have then removed the lights associated with the motion sensor in the Hue app and instead setup a rule in HomeKit that mimics the same behaviour as in the Hue system (if motion is detected within a specified time range and the light conditions are below 50 lux then turn on the lights). Here it works fine and as it did when the trigger was configured in the Hue.

So I guess it is fair to say that a hardware failure can be ruled out and it must be a firmware/software issue. I have send my findings to the Hue support but no response.

I have been using my Philips Hue setup in 3 houses for 5+ years now without any problems. (2x in Australia and 1x in Germany)

Recently it was required to sign in with the new Hue account system in the Hue app to continue using the system. Since signing in I have continued problems with my motion sensors triggering the lights to turn on even when the setup sensitivity during daylight is not met.

Several people with the same issue have been obviously in contact with the Philips Hue customer support but their advice have all been seen useless so far. People were asked to buy a new motion sensor, reset the sensor, delete the bulps connected to the sensor, etc. but none of it have solved the issue. Removing all devices, resetting the Hue bridge to factory default and deleting the bridge from my Hue account - only to find the exact same behavior after a fresh new setup.

I have noticed that if I change the settings of the motion sensor it will work for a few hours or so, but soon it will turn on the lights again regardless of the light conditions.

There must be a glitch in the recently introduced software as it was working flawlessly since the updated login request.? Btw, using a 3rd party app on IOS, called “hueDynamic” doesn’t trigger this problem as described above. Unfortunately, “hue Dynamic” let me select only one Room instead of a Zone.

Dear Hue team please fix this issue as a matter of urgency!!! I have about 70+ bulbs, 20+ sensors and 3 Bridges in all of my houses and they behave all the same now - very annoying!!!

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Mid March and the problem is still there - every morning the same routine: “darling, your lights went on again, I just switched them off!” Since the app reports daylight levels correctly, the sensor must be ok. The rule engine is in the bridge - something is wrong there; probably a recent change to the rule Engine / Bridge broke the daylight behavior. I had another strange issue some years back with randomly changing light behavior, it took the team about half a year to fix. Best is to be patient and not listening to the advice of buying new sensors;-)

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I have the same issue although haven’t tried replacing any sensors (and I won’t now!). Lights in my hallway just randomly turn on during the evening or even in the middle of the night when nobody triggers the sensor.

Exactly the same experience and it drives me crazy. Lights are on continuously for nothing. Worked for years without any issues, using both old and new sensors (no difference).

What I do notice is that I have dual hub set-up. One hub for the ground floor and one hub for the rest of the house. The hub on the ground floor is connected to the Hue-account and is accessible from the outside. The issue is with that hub because the sensors on the other hub have no issue at all.

There must be a relation.

Same probleme here! Really annoying :grimacing:

The light level settings of the motion sensor seems to be ignored after manually switching off the lights after the light was turned on by the sensor before.

I can confirm that this works for a while after changing the sensor’s configuration.

Any update on this?

**I have same problem with 1 motion sensor. **
**There are 4 motion sensors on bridge. **

**They one that has this problem was working perfect with “three times a charm” from hue labs. **
**So now hue is taking away Labs and advice me to use normal settings. **

**When I configure it like normal, the sensor works. **
**When the next day i come into room the lights go on. (Even that the app said no). If I turn of light. (Manually or via app) lights just come back on when motion is there. **

**If I reload settings in motion sensor. The sensor works good. And lights will not turn on. Until next day! Problem starts again. **

Buying a new sensor did not solve it!

No updates from Hue support whatsoever - apparently they seem not to listen or care about this.

I have given up on Hue so now the bridge is merely working as a gateway as I have connected it to Apple Home using the Matter compatibilty option.

I have configured the motion sensor in Apple Home with the same behavior as I previously had with the Hue bridge: Lights should only turn on when motion is registered and the light conditions are below the lux threshold. In Apple Home it works perfectly fine now.

Hence I am quite certain that it is a bug in the Hue firmware - but all support is saying is to reset the sensor or buy a new one - but that is definitely not the solution.

I have asked for getting in contact with a developer but that is obviously not an option.

This is really annoying! Hue support think we are stupid. With there questions.

But…i added the sensor in HomeAssistant now.
Sensor works flawlessly.

So, there is a software problem with Hue and not a hardware problem.

What still is strange: my hallway and top floor motion sensor work perfect in hue app. (Light level and motion)

Just the one i setup with “Labs” (and yes, I swapped sensors out) is giving me problems.
If I reload settings it works ok. But next morning it just keeps turning on. (When detecting motion. But light sensor says “light will NOT turn on in this light level)

Same here. I‘m almost there to implement everything in home assistant instead, but this also brings chance for failure.

Hey Hue Guys, where are you? There is plenty of money we have spent. Some should be motivated to fix this bug!

Two months passed by, any news here about this issue/bug?

No - Hue Support gives an useless answer and then closes the ticket. I doubt that they will ever give an answer on this topic.

This issue is causing my lights to be on during the day and annoys me greatly.
It would also be handy if we could ask the outdoor motion sensor to work only between sunset and sunrise instead of a fixed timeslot…

Unfortunately the Phillips Hue team is not concerned about our feedback - just imagine how much CO2 wasted every day because of this little bug…

+1
Exactly the same issue over here. Hue support provides everyone the same ‘solution’, Reset your devices and check…, but clearly that does not work, at least not permanently, it functions for some minutes or so, as mentioned in the the post(s) above.

I have the Hue motion sensor setup in OpenHab. I use other lights then Hue to trigger together with Hue bulbs directly connected with the Hue bridge. In this case I use the Hue motion- and daylight sensor to trigger some WiZ (and other) wifi lighting. During day-time the Wiz lighting does not turn on (using Hue Motion and Daylight Sensor with OpenHab), but the Hue lights (using the same sensor with the hue bridge) do turn on. So, the Hue motion/daylight sensor is working fine, but not together with the Hue bridge and bulbs. That’s stupid :upside_down_face:

Hue please fix asap !!

Hey everyone, I’m not 100% sure yet but I think the problem might have been fixed with bridge firmware update on version 1966117030 last week.

As the problem itself is not mentioned in the release notes they introduced the “do not disturb my scene” feature with the motion sensors, so there was some ground work concerning the sensor integration. Maybe the problem was fixed as a positive side effect…?

Since the update my sensors do not switch the lights on again if i turned them off manually if the light level threshold isn’t reached.

Hope it stays like that…

Greetz
Jan