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Hue Lights Unreachable? Here’s the Fix

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A common issue with Hue lights is that they are unreachable. You have added them but when it comes to turn them on and off the app says it cannot connect to that light bulb.

How to fix the Philips Hue lights unreachable error

This is a common issue and can be very frustrating, however there are a few reason this can happen, once you know which reason it could be then you can easily fix it from there.

How to Fix Unreachable Hue Light Bulbs

Why are my Hue Lights Unreachable?

There are a few reasons this could be.

  • The Bulbs are not turned on at the mains
  • Too far away from your bridge
  • Too far away from other Hue bulbs
  • Wifi Interference

These are common issues as to why your Hue bulbs are not reachable, it could be as simple as they are not turned on so have no power going to them, or that they are just too far away.

How to Fix

If your lights are unreachable then here are the 4 main things to check to resolve this error.

Check your light switch

First check it is turned on at the mains, turn the light on and off at the switch, when on the bulb should be lit a bright white.

Too far away from your bridge

This depends on your set up and how many bulbs you have, if this is your first bulb then it could be too far from the bridge.

To see if this is the case try plugging the bulb into a light that is a close to the bridge as possible, turn it on and see if you can control it from your Hue app. If it is reachable and working then the issue is with the distance it was from the bulb.

The fix here is to either  move the bulb closer to the bridge than it originally was, or add in another Hue bulb that is in between where the first bulb was and the bridge.

Hue uses Zigbee, and creates its own wireless network, each bulb helps link the network, so the more bulbs you have the better and stronger the Hue network is. This is not part of your home wireless internet network, that is different and separate.

Too far away from other Hue bulbs

 If you have quite a few Hue bulbs in your home and all are working fine except some new additions then they could be too far from the bridge or other Hue bulbs. This can be common with the new outdoor Hue lights where there is a bigger distance between these and other bulbs you have.

The fix for this is to bring one closer to help bridge the gap in the network, or add in another bulb to help link them together. Again this can be tested by moving a bulb to see if it works when closer.

Wifi Interference 

Your bulbs may all be close together, all working but sometimes it says unreachable for what seems like no reason at all. A cause of this could be interference from your home wireless network. This can be worse if the bridge and your Wifi router are next to each other too.

Your home internet WiFi and the Hue bridge that uses Zigbee to create a wireless network both broadcast on 2.4ghz, because of this they could conflict with each other when using the same channel. The fix here is to change the channel your bridge uses.

To do this load your Hue app:

  • Go to > Settings
  • Then > Hue bridges
  • Select your bridge clicking the ‘i’
  • Then go to > ‘ZigBee channel change’
  • Here you can then change the channel, ensure all your lights are turned on when doing this.

There are different channels to try, so if the first choice doesn’t work then try another channel range.

My Hue Bridge can’t find my new Lights

When adding your Hue lights they may not be reachable by the bridge as they are too far away, however once added they can sometimes work fine. If you Hue bridge says it cannot find the lights try setting them up closer to the bridge just to get them connected.

Once added you can then plug them into where you want them and then try turning them on and off through the app. If it says they are unreachable then look at the fixes above to resolve this.

If with the bulb closer to the bridge it still cannot be found then you can add the bulb by manually entering the serial number via the Hue app. You can do this via settings and adding the serial number there.


Founder & Editor

Mike is the founder of Hue Home Lighting, a huge Hue fan with far too many lights, covering home and garden. A smart home gadget addict and also enjoys the odd bit of DIY

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68 Comments

  1. Steve G.

    What if the lights (total of 5) have been working for months now all are unreachable? Rebooted hub, changed channel, all lights are on with power. No power “bump”.

    Reply
    • Joe Normandin

      Same thing here. They have been working fine for over a year and all of the sudden have become unreachable.

      Reply
      • Ryan

        Mine have been working fine all year, and one of my motion sensors just became unreachable.

        Can’t troubleshoot…

        Reply
    • Karin

      I’m having the same problem. My Hue lights have been working fine for over 2 years. Now for the last couple of days I’m having trouble with 2 of my bulbs (2 out of 5). They aren’t reachable. This is so annoying.

      Reply
  2. Nia

    I have one that has suddenly (after 1 year plus) become unreachable. It is a hue bulb with a motion detector

    Reply
    • Vicki

      Has happened with me also Motion sensor stopped working and a bulb . Can not get the hues app to discover the sensor or bulb. How do we get help from hues , would be helpful if they had chat

      Reply
  3. Gina

    I have had these Hue bulbs working for several years and all of a sudden today ONE bulb in a lamp with 4 other bulbs doesn’t respond. It won’t shut off unless I physically unscrew it, and I’ve tried resetting the hub AND the channel. So annoying.

    Reply
  4. Brian

    This is absolutely awful. I just spend $200 replacing my leds and now they are unreachable, everything is brand new! It just worked 3 weeks ago! I smell a lawsuit, get this shit fixed philips! If you do not I will never use your products again and will expect a full refund plus damages.

    Reply
  5. mike britton

    my hue app is frozen on the “Update Available ” Screen. It is stuck on “connecting” with and the circle just spins.

    Reply
  6. Chris

    Hey guys hopefully you have been able to resolve thi issues. I know I hit the HHome app on my iPhone and after that suffered some frustrating and same issues as you are. Try deleting the bulbs via the app then re add them. Also making sure your iPhone/device is using the 2.4 WiFi (if you have dual band WiFi) also there is a great group of folks on Facebook (Philips Hue Community)that have lots of experience trouble shooting frustrating issues. I can tell you all brands suffer the same issues but in my opinion Hue has the least problems. Tech support through Philips is slow but they can typically solve the issue first time.

    Reply
  7. Ryan Mohamed

    Same issue. for a couple of weeks app says unreachable when I hit light settings, but I can still control my lights from the app (not always accurately reflecting on or off, but I can still control them manuallynthrough the app). Since the lights were unreachable in the app, likely during the October app update, I lost all synchronization ability and control through my google home which is extremely dissatisfying.

    Reply
  8. Tom

    I’m having the same issue – 7 lights all show as unreachable. I tried deleting one and now I’m unable to re-add it. Power cycled my router and the Hue Hub several times.

    Reply
  9. Lars Christoffersen

    Same problem AS everybody else! Had the system for many years and suddenly I have problems with unreachable lights (2 out of 4) Very annoying!! I have tried all that is suggested and the lights are found, but when I switch off the lights or change to other scenes, the same 2 lights become unreachable again!
    I have told everybody about the system and proudly shown it to others but now I am desolate and very unhappy about Philips Hue!
    Can we have some qualified help from Philips?

    Reply
  10. Mcor

    Same problem here. Working for at least two years, now unreachable. Changed channels, turned off/on from app, updated app, cleaned up, powered off/on hub, etc. Strangely, can intermittently get it to work with an old Halloween app. Then it goes out again. I don’t want to have to troubleshoot turning my lights on!

    Reply
  11. Ethan

    I have been having the same problem and the best solution to this issue for me was to go into settings in the app, remove the unreachable light bulb, turn the light switch to the off position, then, turn the light switch back on after a few minutes. Once the light bulb was on I added it as I would a new light bulb. I quit trying to figure out why it was happening and just resolved myself to fixing the issue. As of now, the offending bulb is back and responding normally. I hope this helps

    Reply
  12. Lars Christoffersen

    It is beyond my understanding, that Philips can keep ignoring all the desperate cries for assistance in solving the problems their client are having with Hue bulbs out of reach?
    How can a Hue system that has been working perfectly, suddenly begin to call bulbs unreachable?
    You need to do something and you need to do something now!

    Reply
    • Eileen Loh

      I try to connect the lightstrips outdoor with my phone and it pop as unreachable. Then, I try to turn off and on, notice that the lightstrips does not turn blink up when the switch is on! If it’s possible the PSU adaptop had broke? How can it be fix???

      Reply
  13. Jens Malm

    Bought a startkit yesterday. Worked fine until 9am this morning. Now all 3 lightbulbs are unreachable. Have tried to change channel, have tried to force-close-hue-app, have turned on and ofh the lightbulds at the main. Done everythingand nothing happens. This is not ok! I will return this product and byt IKEAs instead!

    Reply
  14. D-Ro

    Same problem. One of four bulbs unreachable. I’ve tried all of the tips to no avail. Can a bulb’s controls go out? Is the bulb itself faulty? If so, it’s a $15 LED bulb.

    Reply
  15. Samuel Hawley

    Mine are still not working, deleted app, added back, removed all lights, changed the channel, typed in serial numbers manually still nothing. Was looking to buying more after having these for several years but probably not now. Help us with your product Philips hue.

    Reply
  16. Patrick La Roque

    I have a big setup—heavily invested in this platform. Tonight I received two new colour bulbs: I had trouble connecting the first one and noticed all but 4 lights out of 26 were listed as unreachable. They all still worked fine however. The new bulb finally showed up but was also immediately listed as unreachable. Also still worked. The second bulb on the other hand is a no go: for the first time I need to return a Hue bulb. Tried everything, even the Touchlink solution…nothing. Either the bulb is dead is something is wrong with the system…seeing this thread doesn’t inspire much confidence.

    Hopefully this is a bridge firmware glitch that can be fixed ASAP.

    Reply
  17. Stephan Viertel

    Same issue here. Couldn’t reach any of the 4 Hue bulbs after working fine four a couple of years. All unreachable. Changing channels did not work. After deleting all four bulbs from the Hue App I could not add them. The App did not find new lights. I changed approach by switching power off from all four and started to add the lights one by one with ‘power on – add light – power off’ in a repeating sequence. Now all four are reachable again and everything seems to work fine. Not sure if this is a sustainable situation. Let’s see. I think this is an wifi / zigbee interference issue but very strage that this occurs all of a sudden.

    Reply
  18. Steve

    Same issue as everyone else, had 8 Hue bulbs connected to an Amazon Echo that worked fine for almost a year, than one day, they are all unreachable. I have tried all the suggestions posted so far to no avail. Very frustrating to be left with 8 expensive LED bulbs.

    Reply
  19. SIFIRID

    Sounds to me very common and relatively recent. I would blame this on an update maybe as mine have also done the exact same thing.. pay way to much for such unreliability. Mine happened on 1 Dec 2018. Have reset bridge, moved lan cable to another port, turned all lights on, ran Alexa discovery, etc…

    Reply
  20. Michael

    I had this problem too. After the latest software update (the one that lets you control the power-on behaviour), one of my bulbs became “unreachable”.

    Here’s what worked for me: I used “add light” and entered the serial number of the bulb manually. It reported “no new lights found”, but my light was now reachable. (I assume that if I had already deleted the unreachable bulb, it would have found it as a new light.)

    Now my only problem is that some of my bulbs won’t seem to take the latest update. I have a few different model numbers but it doesn’t seem to be totally based on that.

    Reply
  21. Susan Jay

    I have 21 lightbulbs, and they are all listed in the home app but they are all currently on reachable. I usually use Alexa – think God for Amazon! – so I can still control my bulbs, but it is irritating not to have the access on my phone anymore.

    Reply
  22. Martin Cater

    Whole system completely bricked, despite resetting & reinstalling. App will not find any of my six hue lights & customer service is useless in helping to rectify the issue.
    Faultless performance for almost two years, now since latest updates, nothing but inconsistencies and now total failure.

    Reply
  23. RTS

    This forum has been very helpful. Seems like those who are more invested in Hue than I are having the same problems. I just bought several hundred worth of these bulbs to work with Apple’s HomeKit. However my bulb keep dropping their links to the hub. Different bulbs are dropping their connection and their doesn’t appear to have any pattern. I got this to have some fun over Christmas but this is nothing but frustrating. Hopefully the suggestions in tbis article will help solve my problem. If not, at least I can still return them.

    Reply
  24. Toby

    Hue outdoor ‘lily’ just purchased on amazon prime a few weeks ago and installed just before Christmas, one of three fittings suddenly fixed on a green colour and then became unreachable for a few days and now permanently off
    None of fixes appear to work

    Reply
  25. CJ

    Same problem. Starter kit plus two white lights. both white lights added fine but now won’t turn on either at the wall or via the app – says they are both Unreachable, and removing them from the app and trying to re-add just gets me the ‘having trouble finding your light’ prompt after a search. If this ain’t fixable quick, they’re all going back to amazon with a filthy review.

    Reply
  26. KR

    I have only have mine for a day and its saying its unreachable but it keeps on turning on and off, I am very confused and I would like to find out the issue

    Reply
  27. Laurie

    Like many others posting here, my 12 HUE lights had worked problem free for over a year. Update comes along, and poof! My Alexa app and my Echo both advised me that my lights are unresponsive! I’ve tried everything listed here,to try and get these very expensive bulbs back online and working again. But, they are simply extremely expensive lightbulbs at this point! Beyond frustration!

    Reply
  28. Simon Vicary

    Same here. 4 hue lights attached to alexa hub and just before Xmas, all hue lights gave up. All other devices (non hue light, plus a few sockets) work perfectly. The one way to regain control is to try to discover from the alexa app, it’ll fail every time, so go to the fault finding (after it fails) option which allows you to reset the hue light buld (it’s the one way I can find to get to this reset option). You then need to enter the ID on the bulb, and a reset is sent to the bulb. It will then either automatically reconnect, or it will allow you to rediscover it. I did this on all bulbs and all working over Xmas, then just after new year, they all went again. Come on philips hue, get your act together! Where is your Quality Control? I’m now going to make a note of each bulb’s ID on a post-it to make resetting them easier. I’ll go for a different brand in future!

    Reply
  29. Nick Spaniola

    Same here! just started happening around December. I have 32 HUE lights that are unresponsive now! What the heck!

    Reply
      • Eileen Loh

        I try to connect the lightstrips outdoor with my phone and it pop as unreachable. Then, I try to turn off and on, notice that the lightstrips does not turn blink up when the switch is on! If it’s possible the PSU adaptop had broke? How can it be fix???

        Reply
  30. Robert

    Had the same problem as everybody else, and was really frustrated. Tried evertything, or at least I thought i tried everything.

    In the Philips Hue app i choose “Add light” under “Settings”. Then i searched for new lights, and BING, it was again reachable.

    FIXED!

    Reply
    • Ebie

      This is the only thing that worked for my new lights!! Thank you!!

      I have a few hue bulbs in regular lamps. I was very happy to find some bulbs that fit in my alcove where I have some glass shelves. The app saw them, but they were unreachable. I was really disappointed.

      So I tried what you did and it worked! Thanks so much!

      Reply
  31. Jidehem

    Hello. Same problem here. All my lights became unreachable.
    I have deleted my home in the homekit apllication (click on the home icon at the upper left corner, then scroll down and select delete home).
    Restart Philips Hue app, and add the hue bridge again. All my lights are OK now.

    Reply
  32. Thomas A Taroni

    Mine were reachable for the first hour. Then they went to unreachable. Can control them in Alexa but not Hue App. Frustrating

    Reply
  33. Justin

    Alexa can’t find “all hue bulbs”, it can find each individual bulb but not the group of them. Makes it impossible to change scenes via Alexa. It was working fine until we had a power outage. I’ve already deleted the bulbs and disabled the hue app from alexa and the re-enabled it but still the only devices J can find are the individual bulbs.
    & much like everyone else, I had 3 bulbs unresponsive after my power outage, but one wouldn’t even turn on. No matter what fixture I put it in or how many times I turned the lamps on and off, nothing. I ended up taking the whole set back and getting another one, & now this.

    Reply
  34. Michael

    Hey Guys.

    I just fixed the one light that was unreachable in my living room.
    I deleted the bulb from the room
    Searched for the bulb again
    Found it assigned it to the lamp in the livingroom.

    Works now.

    Reply
  35. Michael

    The problem I’m having is my lights are set on a timer, but one light doesn’t go off when the timer expires. I have to turn that one hue light off multiple times throughout the day because it keeps coming back on.

    Reply
  36. Pmarkc

    Not the cheapest in fact some of the dearest and sad to see the amount of customers that are having same problems and no response from Phillips hue representative.
    Act up Phillips hue or take the risk of losing customers and bad advertisement.
    Tried all the above myself without any joy giving Phillips hue until end of month to come up with a solution to the problem, then I will be moving to another supplier, can’t guarantee I won’t do any bad advertising on social networks

    Reply
  37. Debbers

    I’m about the chuck the entire shebang in the Delaware. I’ve tried most things listed except starting from scratch. Guess I’ll irritate myself with that this weekend. Epic fail HUE!

    Reply
  38. Amy

    This has been an issue for months. I’ve tried every fix that I could find but they still don’t work. Very frustrating to have spent so much money on something that hasn’t been working for almost 5 months.

    Reply
  39. Phil Mouquinho

    I bought a Philips Hue Light strip with an extension and had it in my restaurant and it worked great for many years. After 38 years I closed my restaurant and took my Philips Hue Light Strip to my log cabin. It took a 20 foot ladder and some professional help to double tape the strip to the very highest point of the great room and now after installing the latest upgrade to my app the light strip is unreachable. I tried every single fix I read on this thread except the one where I have to insert the 6 digit number of the “bulb”. How the heck am I going to read the number on this light strip which is about 25 feet at the highest point of the log cabin interior ceiling.
    I am another victim in this sad and unfortunate Drama.

    Reply
    • Hue Home Lighting

      Try moving the bridge closer to the strip, or moving the closet Hue bulb that works, closer to the strip to ensure that the network is connecting and talking to the Lightstrip

      Reply
  40. James Hornsby

    My system worked well for 3 years. Then overnight, all lights say “unreachable”. Despite this, I can SOMETIMES turn them off / on with the app, but it is very sporadic.

    Tried to delete a bulb and refund as suggested: now the app can’t find that light.

    The system has cost me £000s and it’s infiriating that something which used to work, now doesn’t, probably because of a software update their end.

    Reply
  41. Peggy

    For those having remote access issues, I updated the app on my phone to version 3.17.0 and it took care of my connection issues outside of the home. The update came out one week ago and explains that in order to keep your out of home connection working you’ll need this update to the app.

    Reply
  42. Colette Harlan

    Help – I bought a new V2 bridge one after getting an email saying I need to upgrade … Have the square one already. I have lights all over my house – ceilings everywhere and they will not be discoverable with the new bridge. Tried everything. Can’t bring chandelier and ceiling lights to the bridge … any suggestions… I have about 20 that will not be recognized

    not even sure why I needed a new bridge anyway

    Reply
  43. Goran

    Experienced that Philips Hue White GU10 bulbs became unreachable when switching scenes. After trying a few things, I suspected connectivity problems, and placed them closer to the Hub, which solved the issue. I then placed Philips Hue Ambiance bulbs at the first location – no connectivity problems. Also placing the Hub high of the ground and away from the router is a good measure for obtaining a better signal, as there are fewer obstacles up high.

    Reply
  44. Goran

    I thought I had solved the issue. However, white ambiance bulbs also becomes unreachable in the same location as the hue white bulbs. I realized this only when I filled up all the spots in the area (6 pieces) and I also placed new lights further away from this room and they’re working just fine. So It would seem to be a interference problem. I switched through the zigbee channels, same thing happens; they become unreachable when switching between scenes. Reducing the number of bulbs in this area to just 2, they work fine.

    Reply
  45. michael

    After 2 years of using my A19 and Hue go light also got the message on my app lights unreachable like everyone else here….i don’t recommend buying those lights

    Reply

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