Hue hub update causes "hue event"

[Stiltjack]

There was a software update for the Philips Hue hub overnight (my hub settings have it check for updates at 3am). This appears to have generated a “hue event” which in turn launched every one of my automations triggered by buttons and dimmers. For example:

- id: '1625682754234'
  alias: Bathroom panic button pressed
  description: ''
  trigger:
  - device_id: 7232bc1ae7d86b1e8a1430c0e2fb74a5
    domain: hue
    platform: device
    type: remote_button_short_release
    subtype: turn_on

For the most part they just turned the lights on, but the one above woke up the neighbours. My confidence in HA’s usefulness for serious purposes is somewhat shaken.

Anyone else?

[123 (Taras)]

I have been using this automation, to report all hue_events, and have not seen any other than the ones when I pressed a Dimmer Switch’s button.

I checked the Hue app and it indicates that the hub’s software is up to date. However, I don’t see a timestamp anywhere so I don’t know on which day it updated (the time is scheduled for 14:00). Nevertheless, no inexplicable hue_events have been reported (ever).

My instance of Home Assistant Supervised is running 2021.9.6.

[Stiltjack]

OK, happened again.

An update to the Hue hub (new version is 1.47.1947108030) generated an “on” command from all dimmer switches and buttons.

Nothing to distinguish it from a real button press. (Thanks @123 for the automation.)

This is easily handled by switching automatic updates off in the Hue hub - the HA log shows a message when one is available, so it can be done manually, with embarrassing automations switched off

Still, very annoying.

Edit: I imagine this is a “feature” of the Hue update process, rather than a bug in HA.

[123 (Taras)]

From the “Department of Cold Comfort”:

I wish I could help you pin down the reason for your Bridge’s behavior but all I can offer is a contrary experience. I have my Hue Bridge scheduled to perform automatic updates at 14:00. I have never had any buttons report “on” during one of its software updates.

In my case, the Hue app reports the bridge’s software version is slightly behind yours:
1.47.1947054060
and it doesn’t indicate an update is pending.

I’ll be on the lookout for any unusual activity in the coming days but, based on past behavior, I don’t expect to see any.

[123 (Taras)]

You’ll be pleased to hear that you aren’t alone.

I was notified about a hue_event that didn’t correspond to any physical activity (i.e. no one in our home pressed any buttons on any dimmer switch).

My Hue Bridge recently finished a scheduled automatic update and is now running the same version of software as your device. The time in the screenshot is UTC and represents a local time of 2021-10-25 14:26:42.

The following notifications were received, one for each of the two dimmer switches. Interestingly, each one arrived 5 minutes after the software update occurred and the second one about 6 minutes later.

The saving grace is that each event was an “OFF” so it didn’t serve to activate anything.

FWIW, I would’ve thought the unsolicited events would occur moments after the software update. However, it’s interesting that one event occurred 5 minutes later and the other 11 minutes. That might be a clue for someone with a deeper understanding of the Hue integration.

---

EDIT

I overlooked to mention these error messages that occurred at about the precise time when the Hue Bridge was upgrading its software:

They all seem to be reasonable given the Bridge was unresponsive during its upgrade process. There are no other Bridge-related messages afterwards.

[Stiltjack]

Yes, I got similar error messages. Like you, I assumed the bridge wasn’t responding during the update.

[123 (Taras)]

FYI

My bridge updated its software several minutes ago and, as expected, the two dimmer switches were reported to have been turned off.

I think it’s safe to say that your observations are positively confirmed and software updates cause unsolicited dimmer switch events.

FWIW, there’s a new version of the Philips Hue integration in the pipeline. it will be based on a new API from Philips. Maybe this bug will disappear in the new version.

refactor of Hue integration with full V2 support

[Stiltjack]

@123

I think it’s safe to say that your observations are positively confirmed and software updates cause unsolicited dimmer switch events.

Yup, same here. At least this time I was able to disable a couple of problematic automations in advance. Thanks for your help in documenting the problem.

[123 (Taras)]

If you look in Configuration > Devices > Philips Hue > Device Info it reports the firmware version. Unfortunately, that value is not exposed via an entity. Otherwise, we would be able to make some sort of kludge to ignore dimmer switch events that have occurred moments after the firmware version changes.

That change to the firmware might be announced via a device_registry_updated event. However, I don’t know what sort of data would be in the event so “trapping it” becomes a challenge. Anyway, hopefully the updated Hue integration eliminates this annoyance.

[iBlake12 (Blake Edge)]

Hi,

Did any of you find a fix for this? I have had HA and Hue Integration running for almost 2 years and started getting the exact same problem recently. Confirmed by turning off auto updates on the bridge and manually triggering it at one point with no one in the house, sure enough after 10 mins or so all hue dimmer buttons were ‘pressed’ causing all sorts of carnage!

[Stiltjack]

Never did find a solution. In the end I kept auto update turned off and did it manually every couple of months after disabling the automations doing the damage.

[123 (Taras)]

FWIW, I have scheduled updates enabled on my Hue Bridge and I haven’t had an errant ‘hue event’ turn on anything since my last post in this topic (November 2021).