Philips Hue: technical questions

If it's a LivingColors light of the Friends of Hue serie, just select "find new lights" in the app's configuration menu. If it is an older SmartLink LivingColors, it's a bit more complicated. Follow the steps below to link an older LivingColors light.

1) Reset the remote control to factory defaults: Remove the back cover of the remote control, and insert and hold a paperclip in the little reset button inside the remote. Hold until you hear a beep.

2) Add each LivingColors lamp and Hue lamp to the remote control: Move the remote close to the lamp, subsequently press and hold the "I" button. The lamp will now flash 3 times. Hold the "I" button until you hear a beep from the remote; the lamp will shortly flash in green.

3) Now it is connected to the remote control and will turn to its last "on" setting. Verify whether all the lamps can be controlled using the remote control.

4) Reset the Hue bridge to factory defaults and clear the Zigbee network settings: Press the link button on top of the bridge and bring the remote close to the bridge, then press and hold the "I" button. The LEDs on the bridge will start blinking. Hold the "I" button until you hear a bleep from the remote; The middle LED on the bridge lights up. Start the app and follow the instructions.

*Note: Only 50 bulbs/LivingColors can be linked using this procedure.

The different lights on your bridge are linked to different things, so it depends on what of these things is off:

All lights are off:
Check if the bridge has power, is the wall plug in?

Lights 2 and 3 are off:
Check whether your bridge is connected to the Wi-Fi router. It has to be linked to router with the network cable provided. Also, make sure the Wi-Fi router receives power.

Light 3 is off or blinking:
This might indicate that you are having trouble with your web connection. Check whether your Wi-Fi router is connected to the internet. Verify if your other devices are online.

The big button in the middle is off:
This means your bridge is unable to find your lights. Start by checking whether all Hue lights receive power, via the wall switch or a freestanding lamp plug. Subsequently restart your app and select "yes" when asked if you want to add lamps.

First check whether all 4 lights on your bridge are on.

If you are trying to connect your bridge to your Hue account then the device you are using to visit the Hue website needs to be on the same network as your bridge. It means they both need to be online via the same network. Make sure you are not using a VPN connection or a firewall in your router/modem that blocks the bridge connection to the web.

Go to setting of the app/ find new lights/ enter serial numbers.

If it does not work, please follow the instructions below:

1) Download the LampStealer zip file.
2) Open the Mac application or the java jar.
3) Find your bridge.
4) Bring the light you want to connect close to your bridge.
5) Start up the link process.
6) Search for new lights in the Hue app.

No, this is not possible. You have to create your scene preferences when connected to your home Wi-Fi network. So before going on holiday, make sure to 'create favorite schedules' to pretend you're at home and keep intruders at a distance.

Check the tab on the bottom of the app. If the two bars are green, you are connected to the Wi-Fi network. If they are yellow, it means you are in portal/ out-of-home mode.

Don't panic, nothing's wrong. It just seems your light has been physically turned off (e.g. by using the normal wall switch) or is out of normal operating range of the system. If you see this happen frequently without bulbs being switched off, please make sure that the bulb in between the bridge and the bulb with the exclamation mark is also switched on. If the problem still occurs, you might want to extend the range by adding an additional bulb.

This happens if the first three lights are not Hue bulbs, but e.g. friends of Hue or older generations of LivingColors / LivingWhites.

When agreeing to Hue the terms & conditions in order to allow updates (by either checking if there are updates available or by selecting a new feature such as recurring alarms) it takes up to 24 hours before the update becomes available for your bridge. If you want to speed this up, remove the power from the bridge and reconnect the power after 10 seconds.

Geofencing enables you to let your lights switch on or off automatically when you are approaching or leaving your house, even without taking your smartphone out of your pocket.

1) You need to have a smartphone compatible with a cellular data connection and GPS.
2) You need to have an account on the portal at meethue.com.
3) You need to have the latest Hue app installed.

Create or activate a scene to enable geofencing. Create a new scene, tap the "auto switch" icon and then select "my location".

All iOS and Android devices with the latest app and cellular data capabilities support geofencing.

Press the refresh button or go outside your home where you still have Wi-Fi connection. Subsequently press the refresh button on the "my location" screen.

No, you have to be connected to the Wi-Fi router to which your bridge is connected, in order to set up your home location.

The "my location" icon on the scene thumbnail means that geofencing is set up for that particular scene. If the icon is blue, then geofencing is active. If it is grey, you need to double tap the scene to activate the geofencing. If you want to be notified when your geofencing is triggered, you can go to iOS setting/hue and enable the "Geofence notification".

Do this by changing the geofencing zone (from small/medium to large/maximum). To change your geofencing zone, go to your device setting/hue/geofencing zone (for iOS).

Yes, do this by creating a new scene or adjust an existing one and set the alarm to be triggered on Saturday and Sunday.

When you set an alarm time and enable the randomize option, the Hue system will turn on/off scenes within a range of 30 minutes before or after the given time. This time margin alters from day to day to make it look natural, instead of an automatic timer. This adds another level of security when you are away from home for longer periods.

With a timer you can set a light to switch on or off for given amount of time (e.g. turn the lights on in 30 minutes).

Select a scene, tap the auto-switch button and select the "Timer" icon. Subsequently save the scene, after which you will see a blue "hour glass" icon.

Simply double tap on the scene, after which the "hour glass" icon will turn blue.

The manual option only applies to the bulbs with the latest software built in (you can tell because they turn on instantly). If your bulbs still carry an older type of software, you need to do the following:

Go to setting of the app/find new lights/enter serial numbers.

If this does not work, please follow the instructions below:

1) Download the LampStealer zip file.
2) Open the Mac application or the java jar.
3) Find your bridge.
4) Bring the light you want to connect close to your bridge.
5) Start up the link process.
6) Search for new lights in the Hue app.

Be sure to have downloaded the latest app and set up a portal accounted linked to your bridge. After a while, you will get a notification to upgrade your system.

1) Go to settings > My bridge part of the app and tap "check for updates".
2) Power the bridge off and on.
3) Make sure that your Wi-Fi router is connected to the internet and all the LEDs on the bridge are lit.

Be sure to have the latest version of the app installed:

1) Go to settings > My bridge part of the app and press "check for updates".
2) Power the bridge off and on.
3) Make sure that your Wi-Fi router is connected to the internet and all the LEDs on the bridge are lit.

IFTTT stands for "If This Then That". This service lets you link your Hue lights to more than 60 different products and services with IFTTT Recipes. You can use Recipes to do all these awesome things:

- Let your light's colour turn when the weather changes.
- Make your lights blink when your favourite sports team is about to start a new game.
- Change your light's colour when you receive a text message.
- And much more. The possibilities are enormous! Discover them all at http://ifttt.com.

The MAC address can be found on the back side of the bridge, above the bar code, it starts with 00:17:88...

Reset your bridge if you want to remove one of the lamps (e.g. if one is broken) or if you want to remove everyone who has access to your bridge.

*Attention: All your scenes will permanently be removed if you reset your bridge.

Yes, by resetting the bridge (Press the "Restore to factory setting" button on the back side of the bridge). Subsequently load the app, press the push link button and search for new lights again with only the ones you want powered.

Remove the power from the bridge.

Reinsert the power after 30 seconds.

Try to link the bridge to the portal again by logging in into the portal/ settings / my bridge and selecting "Add bridge".

Check if it is connected to your router and tap "Reconnect".

Make sure the tablet is connected to the same wireless router as the bridge.

It might be possible that this router blocks the UPnP discovery mechanism. To find the bridge, please power cycle the bridge and retry to select "More" and find new bridge.

If it still does not work, try finding the IP address of the bridge in the DHCP table of the router or open the following URL in the web browser of your mobile device: www.meethue.com/api/nupnp and use the IP address between brackets after "internalipaddress": e.g. "192.168.1.12"

You can manually enter this IP address (without brackets) in the app by selecting "More" and entering bridge IP.

 Do you still have some unanswered questions? Please check the Frequently Asked Questions and the productquestions or contact the customer service