Pairing a Hue bulb on Home Assistant with serial number? (removing hue bridge) (lemy.lol)

submitted 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) by flork@lemy.lol to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world

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I'm trying to remove the Hue bridge from my home network but can't seem to get Home Assistant to find the bulbs over Zigbee. Even the Hue app can't find them unless I use the "use serial number" method.

I deleted the lights from the Hue app
I factory reset the lights (using dimmer switch method)
I clicked "add device" in home assistant... aaand nothing. Just "Searching for Zigbee devices…"

I thought the problem might be wifi interference but I turned off my 2.4ghz network and still nothing.

I have other Zigbee devices successfully connected to my dongle, (Sonoff) and I can pair the bulbs with Hue bridge, but only using the serial number method.

Any ideas as to what might be going on?

Update: To any future readers, I set up Zigbee2Mqtt and everything works really great now and pairing was a breeze.

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[-] SpatchyIsOnline@lemmy.world 5 points 1 month ago

I would recommend you use Zigbee2MQTT instead of the built-in ZHA. It seems to play nicer with certain devices. I also used the dimmer switch method to reset a hue bulb I had and it connected perfectly.

[-] EarMaster@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

ZHA works just as well. You just need to use the remote to pair Hue devices either way.

[-] y0din@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago

I did not use the remote, only enabled permit join in zigbee2mqtt. I don't even own a remote.

[-] flork@lemy.lol 1 points 1 month ago

Thanks I'll give it a shot. I was trying to avoid more add-ons and the rest of my network is already configured with ZHA. But like I said even the official Hue Bridge/app can't discover these bulbs without the serial number method.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 4 points 1 month ago

I used the remote. It can be used to unpaid a bulb and rejoin to a new hub (zigbee). You just hold the top and bottom buttons close to a bulb and the bulb will pair to any hub that has registration open. Worst case, pick up the remote and at the end of the day you have a new switch.

[-] flork@lemy.lol 1 points 1 month ago

This is what I did and ZHA couldn't find it.

[-] scrubbles@poptalk.scrubbles.tech 1 points 1 month ago

I used zigbee2mqtt and mosquito, but IIRC I enabled joining I held down the top and bottom buttons of the remote until the bulb flashed, and then it connected. Distance was a problem at first, but the meshing took over well after a bit

[-] flork@lemy.lol 1 points 1 month ago

Yep that's exactly what I did. The bulbs flashed and appeared to be reset. Like I said the official Hue app can't even detect them without the serial method.

I am going to figure out Zigbee2Mqtt and see if that works, but it feels weird to install a new addon and migrate everything over when Home Assistant has that functionality baked in. Also like I said even the official Hue App and Bridge can't detect the bulbs, I need to enter the serial. I was hoping ZHA or MQTT had an "enter serial" method.

[-] just_another_person@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Are you using ZHA, or another coordinator?

[-] flork@lemy.lol 1 points 1 month ago

ZHA

this post was submitted on 09 Mar 2025

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