There’s no doubt about it, smart home equipment has come a long way in the last few years. Whereas there used to only be a handful of products for every purpose, now it seems as though there are infinite options.
Though the vast majority of these are designed to make some aspect our lives that little bit more manageable, they can occasionally be tough to figure out.
Though perhaps not the most well-known brand of smart light out there, LIFX have managed to secure a decent share of the market. And, for us, these sorts of things don’t happen at random. As a manufacturer, you at least need to have something that others don’t.
In the case of LIFX, we think that the draw is not only their prices, but also their vast range. Pretty much any type of smart lighting that you can think of, they’ve got a product for it.
For the most part, these are easy to run and adapt to also. You just make sure that they are hooked up to the Wi-Fi and then you can control them all from the one app.
How To Fix LIFX Bulb Not Connecting
For the most part, we haven’t heard of too many people having issues here. But, in the last while, there have been a few reports from users saying that they just can’t get their bulbs to connect up – no matter what they do.
Seeing as that makes them totally unfit for purpose, we thought we’d put together this little guide to help you troubleshoot the problem.
1. Give the offending bulb/s a quick reset
When little problems such as these pop up, the easiest way to remedy them is to simply give the bulb a little time out. Resetting any device is great for doing this and clearing out any minor bugs and glitches that may have accumulated over time.
If the bulb you are looking at has a power button on it (normally the case on their outdoor range of products), all you will need to do is hold this down for about 15 seconds to reset it.
If the bulb you are dealing with doesn’t have this power button, then the process is a little different. It’s still absurdly simple though. All you need to do is unplug the bulb and then just let it sit idle for around a minute.
After that, just plug it back into the socket again. While it is starting up again, it should then connect to the app without any more trouble. If not, it is time to move onto our next fix.
2) Check internet speed and router settings
At this point, we have established that the problem is unlikely to be related to a minor bug with the light. The next step is to rule out a whole range of internet-related issues from the equation. First up, we would suggest that you make sure that your internet speed is sufficient.
The best way to check this is simply to Google “internet speed test”. This will bring up a whole range of sites that will test your speed for you, free of charge. If we were to recommend one, we would go with Ookla.
Next up, we should probably check that the router is set up in such a way as to allow for the lights to function. First up, we would suggest that you look at the MAC filter and establish whether or not your router will allow new devices to connect to it. Naturally, you may need to change the settings here if new devices are blocked.
And now for one of the most common causes of issues with smart devices – frequency settings. If you are running a dual frequency router in your home, you should always set it to the 2.4GHz band when working with smart devices.
Smart devices simply will not work on the 5GHz range. If you have switched over to 2.4GHz, make sure to give the router a restart before trying to connect the LIFX device again.
Our final suggestion for this segment is that your router may just be too far from the LIFX device to connect.
There’s no advanced way to check this though. You will literally just need to put them beside each other to see if that works. If it does, you can then gradually space them out to get a good idea of the range that they can communicate over.
3) Try disabling your VPN
VPNs are notorious for causing these kinds of problems with smart devices. Yes, we realize that they have a practical use. But, when it comes to this sort of stuff, they can easily become a nightmare.
If there is a VPN enabled, it is best to just remove it. After it has been removed or disabled, the next thing to do is restart your device. After that, the lights should show up again as available.
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I have 3 bulbs that wont connect. I see them in the network but the app does not connect with them.
In no way does turning off power to the bulb “reset” a LIFX bulb