Latest Harmony breaking Home Assistant component?

you cant do anything anyrmore, there is no connection anymore to the hub from HA

Ugg, that’s kind of what i thought but read a post on reddit from someone saying that it would not affect most people which confused me.

Does downgrading and blocking updates via router have any downsides. I read some people saying they were noticing extreme slowness after downgrading but I cannot really see why that would happen.

Sorry to ask questions that probably have been answered, just saw some conflicting info depending on which subreddits I read.

well, i am still on 201 firmware, blocked internet access on the hub
at first when using HA afterwards, i noticed small delays when starting activity; not sure why, i guess some kind of timeout on the hub itself, now that timeout is gone… hope is stays that way…
only thing is that you cant use the android/iphone app anymore… when internet is blocked

The lack of app support is going to be a problem for some like me. I have a Sony tv using network control via harmony which is nice. No need for IR control. But every month or so I have to use the app to re enter the psk key. Sounds like if i unblock to use the app to re connect to the tv it’ll probably update and I’ll be screwed. Really hope they revert this

nah, it wont update that quick, probably on time interval, just dont do a sync!

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After troubleshooting HA uselessly for about an hour thinking that this was an HA problem, I landed in the reddit discussion and then this thread.
Then I checked and found that my logitech hub was running version 206. What a disappointment. Hoping that logitech will get the message and revert this, a tech from logitech posted a message in their forums so hope is not yet lost.

Did the restore back to previous firmware and blocked internet access for my harmony hubs until this sorts out. Luckily only one of mine upgraded - I didn’t know they did that automatically.

I used a mac and here’s what I did:

  1. Download Harmony Desktop software for Mac from here https://support.myharmony.com/en-us/download
  2. Start the software - DO NOT CLICK IN WINDOW ANYWHERE AFTER LAUNCHING
  3. press option-F9 (may need to use the Fn key as well depending on keyboard)
  4. Choose your harmony from the list (I chose smart control) - select Factory Reset
  5. You’re taken to a page that has two steps
  6. Plug your hub into a USB port - wait until the buttons become active on the screen - took about a minute or more for me
  7. Click “Restore”

Your hub will be downgraded to the previous firmware (193 think). I did NOT do the factory rest.

After it was complete, I plugged it back in at my tv and everything worked as it did before. It appears to HA, etc.

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As a work-around until another solution is found, I am using Stringify to control the Harmony. Stringify can receive a web request from HA using a shell command (curl) and trigger a Stringify flow that runs Harmony activities which are programmed with the iOS or Android Harmony app. Tedious at best.

FYI, @ehendrix is the hero we don’t deserve and has submitted a PR to have HASS use the still-open websocket port: https://github.com/home-assistant/home-assistant/pull/19440

Has some hurdles to clear first (i.e., the owner of pyharmony needs to merge a companion PR), but there’s hope on the horizon.

FYI: seems like Logitech pulled the 209 FW update. I did a reset to 193 and then did a sync with an update. It installed 201 which is working fine.

EDIT: I think you meant 206, not 209.

I just opened the app on my iPhone to edit a device. It just downloaded and installed 206. I was on 201.

I downgraded to 193 this morning, just now triggered an update, and am currently sitting at 201.

I’m afraid to try it - I’m staying at 193 until we know for certain the websocket api is working… gonna start investigating broadlink or some other solution though… really sucks

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Update of HA fixing this has been released. Great work of the devs.

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This is why Home Assistant is the best thing that hit home automation!!

Let’s just hope this doesn’t turn into a cat and mouse game between Logitech and the devs here like the jailbreaking community and Apple. I still don’t get why Logitech would want to risk losing a large part of their customer base because of local access to their hub. There’s little security risk when accessing local.

Maybe if we all keep tweeting Logitech and posting on their forums they will realize the extent of their miscalculation

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If I block internet access for the hub, will I still be able to add/modify devices, activities, etc? Mine is currently not hooked up, so I was hoping I could just block internet access for it before setting it up.

I am not able to use the Android app, if hub is blocked… So don’t know how to change stuff, maybe we need to update the remote with desktop software and USB cable… Not tried yet

ok, so i changed a button in activity, with desktop software
so i get presented this screen to update the remote, i think next step is that the remote tries to sync with the hub (that i blocked from internet) … not sure if i will get stuck in the process with 206 on remote and 201 on hub

any1 tried this already ? see here :
i want to stay on 201 as long as needed, also if websockets is ready … i dont care if my mobile app doesnt work, but offcourse i want to change devices/buttons when needed offcourse :slight_smile:

In other threads, I’ve seen people saying that their apps still work by blocking certain domains rather than completely blocking internet access. I’m not entirely sure if the domains on the blog post will work for that or if you need to only block a subset of them. If your router supports blocking by domain or changing the DNS, you could try that approach.

yes, seen that too, but its strange, since the hub probably only needs those domains
on my router i also have the option to block domains, i tried it, but seems with my notebook i was stll able to ping and surf to those domains, verry strange
so i want to be 100 % sure, so i think people that are saying the app still works, the hub is still able to download the new update 206
n older logitech forums, logitech confirmed that in order to work with the android app , the hub NEEDS internet