HA app won't forget old Thread network name

Configuration Matter/Thread
1

Hi all,

Compared to Zigbee, matter seems to complicated. I bought an IKEA Bilresa (with the scroll wheel) and Kajplats lamp and wanted to connect these to HA. At first I though, hey that should be easy to set up with Hue, as they advertise that they are Matter compatible… well, you can use Matter to “borrow” devices from other integrations via Matter, but not connect.

Bummer, so, I bought a second Sonoff MG 24 dongle and flashed it with the OpenThread firmware, installed the OpenThread border router app on HA (Raspberry Pi5) and told that to use the new dongle. After a few attempts with the settings it started and presented itself to HA. Integration popped up, added, Thread is there, too.

All seemed fine, so let’s connect the Bilresa. No luck and I figured I had done something wrong, found an article explaining how to configure some network things inside the OTBR container and start the thread server there. Still didn’t work as expected and I kept getting an error about the network not being found. Oh, yeah, had to sync the credentials to the companion app… Getting better, but still no luck.

OK, let’s start from scratch. Deleted everything, restarted HAOS, created everything step by step and tried to connect again. The Thread network got a new name. Let’s say it was OpenThread-aaaa, and the new one OpenThread-bbbb, but the companion app still wanted to set up with OpenThread-aaaa. I’ve cleared the cache, even deleted all app data, archived and unarchived the app, restarted my phone… nothing. I’ve even started from scratch again, making sure everything is wiped from HAOS using docker system prune, cleared my phone again, but still it tries to connect to OpenThread-aaaa, instead of what is now OpenThread-cccc.

I found this article, too: Companion App always tries to connect to an old thread network

I was hoping someone has any better idea?

Thanks

2

Did you sync the credentials to your phone?

In Android companion app it is done in the Settings → Companion app → Troubleshooting → Sync Thread credentials

3

@WallyR yes, several times…

4

If it is an Android, then try th phone settings and search for clear Google Play cache.

5

Let me try that… In fact, I’m clearing ALL app caches (I had already done so for the HA app).

After many tries, I was able to link the Bilresa via Zigbee, but I don’t see any event. And even though I was in a different room, about 3 meters apart, it is now, at the same time, tied to the Kajplats lamp, which should only happen when just centimeters away.

6

I factory-reset the Bilresa, deleted it from the Zigbee network, cleared ALL caches on my phone, restarted my phone… Tried to link it via Matter and again, the first network was being tried.

In the meantime, the Bilresa was automagically tied back into the Zigbee network.

I’ll just give up. I can control the lamp with the Bilresa and via HA. I just don’t see how I can make any (additional) use of the Bilresa in HA.

Now, delete the OpenThread border router and find another purpose for the Sonoff MG24.

7

The only thing left I could think of is to start, once again, from scratch and re-flash the dongle to wipe any “evidence” on that device. Will try that later.

8

Tried that and no luck…

9

I have the exact same issue since 3 days now … I had more than 20 Ikea Matter-over-Thread devices working great except for one that went offline and I could not make it work again. So, I had the great idea of resetting the thread network but since then, impossible to re-pair my devices !
I have an SLZB-MR2U (two antennas, one for zigbee and one for Matter over Thread).
I tried reinstalling OTBR, Matter server, resetting the network and thus creating a new dataset, clearing cache and deleting data on my Android phone, I also tried factory resetting the Ikea bulbs tens of times, but it still advertises the first ha-thread-xxxx network !

This is driving me crazy ! have you managed to find a solution ?

Thanks

10

The only way I have reliably managed to get a 'droid phone to pick up the new (i.e. required) network involves a further step on from Google Play Services data/cache deletion and/or HA App cache deletion.

i.e.
Stop Google Play services
Delete Google Play Data and Cache (this annoyingly could/will mess up many other things…)
Uninstall Google Home app
Remove data and cache for HA Companion app
Reinstall Google Home app
Wait for Thread/Matter capability to automatically download in background (few minutes typically but can take longer evidently i.e. hours)
Manually resync ha creds for thread in HA Companion App

Uninstalling the Google Home App appears to completely wipe the Thread cache and gives a fresh start.

Doing this has always worked for me (many times, unfortunately)
Just deleting the Play Services data/cache does not work most of the time in my case.

1 Like
11

Thank you very very much !!! This worked like a charm.
Matter over Thread is far from being straight forward to setup / debug if something goes wrong …