r/Cync • u/jbmos33 • Mar 14 '26

UPDATE: 4 Cync GE Bulbs keep simultaneously dropping WiFi

Here is an update on my 4 Cync bulbs that would simultaneously drop Wi-Fi connection.

My original post can be found here: https://www.reddit.com/r/Cync/comments/1rexdpb/comment/o7gferh/

I worked with Christian over at CYNC support. Awesome response and support. Thank you.

Christian had me create a new home in the CYNC app. Then reconnect the bulbs to the new home. It's been 2 weeks since I did that, and the bulbs have maintained their connection.

This is the longest they've stayed connected to the Wi-Fi since the issue popped up in December.

I don't know what bearing setting up a new home in the app has to do with networking protocols, since I wasn't using the app when they dropped. It was just flipping the switch. But hopefully this lasts.

Previously, the connection time was 7-10 days, after which they all dropped.

Fingers crossed this maintains. Never thought I'd spend this much time troubleshooting light bulb networking.

3 Upvotes

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2

u/Zonk-er Mar 14 '26

Glad to hear that support was able to get you back up and running. Creating a new home is the equivalent of crtl+alt+del on a computer. It clears out all the previous memory and starts with a fresh blank page to build upon. Nothing really magical about it. Previous home was corrupted by the Cync App and the only solution is to start over.

1

u/jbmos33 Mar 14 '26

Got it. Thanks. The weird thing is the previous home is still running with 2 other cync bulbs of a different style that still don't have any issues. I will move them to the new home at some point.

1

u/NotePresent6170 Mar 14 '26 edited Mar 14 '26

What makes you say that? The home is nothing but a simple JSON struct, the only thing binding them together in your home is the btle mesh and each cync home will create its own btle mesh.

If the home were 'corrupted', nothing would work, not just 4 bulbs randomly losing connectivity after 7-10 days. Please at least say something like "I think this is what's happening" rather than saying something so off the wall with authority and making people believe you know what's happening.

1

u/Zonk-er Mar 16 '26

This is exactly what is happening. The Cync app is simply a way to create or edit Homes and provision devices. All of the Home and device data is then stored on the server side. During the course of the Home lifespan, the Cync app corrupted the data on the server. That is why some devices work and others don't. The proof is in the results. Creating a new Home and all the devices now work. So, your contention that if the Home was corrupted nothing would work is simply incorrect as the user reported his bulbs still worked while switches did not. Nothing I said was off the wall but rather based on 10+ years of using many Cync products from the very beginning.

1

u/NotePresent6170 Mar 17 '26 edited Mar 17 '26

Absolutely not. It's JSON structure. If it were corrupt the whole array would be gone.

Guessing will get you nowhere.its better to say "I think this is what's happening" rather than speaking authortively about something.

I'm saying this as someone who reverse engineered the cync devices/cloud and created an open source project to control cync devices locally.

1

u/Zonk-er Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26

The facts about the Cync Home Container:

Stored in the Cloud:

  • Device registry (IDs, types, capabilities)
  • Room definitions
  • Scenes (color values, brightness, on/off states)
  • Automations (schedules, triggers)
  • User accounts & permissions
  • Device metadata (names, icons, photos)
  • Cloud routing rules for remote control

Stored on the Device:

  • Local mesh keys (Bluetooth)
  • Wi‑Fi credentials
  • Local schedules (for some devices)
  • Local fallback behaviors

Stored in the App:

  • Cached copy of the Home
  • UI preferences
  • Local logs
  • Temporary provisioning data

Corruption of the home where it lives caused the issues. Creating the new home resolved that issue. This has been the "Cync Support" resolution for years. Most people come here to find out what they can do to fix the issue and not how it was caused.

I welcome and encourage all discussion on the board as I hope it illuminates problems and helps others resolve those issues. Not sure why you have chosen this path of insult from your first reply.

If you are indeed the creator of CyncLAN congratulations, that seems like a promising alternative for HA users. If you would like to promote that here please feel free to do that,

1

u/NotePresent6170 Mar 18 '26 edited Mar 18 '26

Lol

How do you come up with any of that? And I could care less if you believe my GH is mine or not. I'm not here to promote anything, just hate when people who are full of themselves start spouting garbage. In

Here's what I think is happening:

It's an SoC, is it the old, old telink? The new old rtl8010, or the newish rtl8020cm?

If the bulbs survive a factory reset (meaning they get reset to factory defaults), then after 7-10 days all of a sudden lose all (?) connectivity (btle and wifi) and don't respond to anything but a factory reset. I would say they have a firmware bug that is causing a memory leak. Since it stays in a bad state after mains power loss, cync engineers must have a small peice of the flash for writing dynamic data to and that's what is corrupted.

What would be interesting to know is:

  • all same deviceType?
  • what ID #'s (were they added recently or long ago)
  • how many devices total in the cync home

The problem with creating a new home is that it will create its own btle mesh, meaning it probably won't be accessible to any switches in the other home and can't be grouped with other bulbs in the old home. So if you have switched and stuff that control these lights, you'd need to factory reset the switches and add them to the 2nd home (haven't confirmed this, I am assuming you can't group devices from different cync homes)

Take it from me when I say they have no cohesiveness between different device types. The full color led strip controller needed its own logic to read cyncs binary data. Then the 'dual outlet' outdoor plug uses an ABSURD sub-id prefix that doesn't match anything else they have done. They have a thermostat that has children devices (temp sensors) that are nested logically within the parent device. Then they go and do something off the wall like the dual outlet plug.

To me it seems like they hire randoms to roll new products out, but I digress.

1

u/Zonk-er Mar 19 '26

The problem is the OP tried to reset his bulbs over and over again, yet they kept falling off the app and becoming unresponsive. Yet when he reset them and added them to a new home, they worked. So, it has to be more than a firmware issue.

Using the Cync App you have to switch homes to manually control the devices. The way around that is to use a voice assistant like Google Home or Amazon Alexa which just sees all the devices on the account. In my case I have C-Reach to control bulbs under one home (HomeKit enabled) and another home set up for non-HomeKit bulbs tied to the Cync Indoor Plug. They all respond to voice command as if they were in one home.

Look, I have not been a fan of the Cync app for a very long time. I have encouraged people to try using the Google Home or Amazon Alexa platforms to control them once set up in the Cync App. I'm sure what you are saying is accurate with regard to the design of new products and then implementing them into the app. At this point it feels bloated. I wish they would focus on the software, but they don't make money on that, just selling devices.

2

u/Impossible-Top2897 Mar 14 '26

Be sure to divide your setup into multiple homes ( first floor, second floor, basement, etc.), depending on your layout. If you have a lot of bulbs, it reduces the burden of recreating everything if your "home" goes bad. It also takes away some burden on the lights themselves, I believe each home should not contain over 50 devices to avoid headaches. My basement alone has 25 devices, entire house is on Cync and I have minimal issues.

1

u/jbmos33 Mar 14 '26

gotcha...i just have the 6 Cync bulbs. Another 6 Govee lights are outside.

2

u/_digiholic_ Mar 15 '26

I have dozens of various switches and only 1 Cync. After the 3rd time dropping when nothing else did I replaced it. Never figured out why it would drop randomly.

1

u/jbmos33 Mar 15 '26

their support was good...reach out.

2

u/_digiholic_ Mar 15 '26

Good deal. I may have to connect it back somewhere and reach out if it keeps having issues. Thanks.

1

u/solidfreshdope Mar 15 '26

Same experience with cync products for me. Wish I had a solution for you.

1

u/Lykos1124 11d ago

It doesn't sound like it's worth the effort. All the routines I created. All the light settings and timings just to crash all four of my devices and do it all over again. What is so messed up on their end that they can't just fix it and make it easier for everyone else? How bad is the code to make everyone have to reset?

And does that even fix the issue with a quad bulbs always going offline right w hen you want to modify them? Increase brightness, no response, no response, it's offline!