I have found that joining and upgrading devices works best when the device is close to the dongle. The Zigbee protocol is for short messages, such as turn on/off, return the temperature, etc. When you add the transient delays of passing update data through multiple routers, (and the reply acknowledge) it slows the upgrade process greatly. I have a plug in my upstairs office and my dongle is in the basement. There are three or four routers between them. A device update through this route can take upwards of an hour. If I move the device to the basement just a couple of feet from the dongle, the upgrade takes a few minutes.
So, my experience is to move the Zigbee device neat the dongle to re-pair it.
Note that I said three or four routers between them… I don’t know. The Zigbee network is constantly re-routing itself, so moving the dongle to another room may disrupt the network for a period.
Version 21/22 - I would be surprised if the Zigbee versions aren’t backward compatible.
If you haven’t upgraded your coordinator firmware or moved to a newer coordinator, you might still run into issues with too many direct devices joining.
If you want to add devices via your new plugs, the permit join button has a drop-down arrow right next to it. Just click that and pair devices via your plugs.
There’s no guarantee that they will keep using that route, but it’s a good start
Thanks everybody for your help and good ideas. Best of all, I learned a couple of things about zigbe networks and zb2mqtt. Because I was already frustrated and kind of desperate I took a picture of the device so you can help me better. I felt so stupid when I took a closer look at it. I’m 100% sure I ordered the ZigBee version, so I didn’t even checked it. Lesson learned
