ZHA Zigbee Devices stuck on "Starting Interview"

Hi everyone,

I’ve now been trying for some time now to set up these Osram Mini Switches:

grafik

I’ve bought a pack of 4. One works flawlessly, but whenever I try to set up the others, the configuration is stuck on this:

Does anyone know how to fix this?

I have the same problem with a switch. No solution yet?

Seems like this is a bug in ZHA, not in my devices. Now I can’t even add Aqara Sensors, they are all stuck on “Starting Interview”.

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I have had this happen also, but they do pair. I usually give it a minute or two, hit the back button in the upper left of the screen (to go back to the Zigbee Coordinator screen (the screen you click the “Add devices VIA this device”))
, hit back again which takes me to the “Devices” tab in the Zigbee integration and the new device is there…

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I imagine this is the same issue as in the Xiaomi devices.

Try this: when it starts the interview, make sure you press the pairing button every 2-3 seconds just to keep the device alive and it will then pair in about a minute.

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This did it. Thanks for the trick.

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Worked for my aqara 6 gang switch too. Thanks for that.

the pairing button on my moes 4 gang switch takes 10s to start the pairing process. any idea how to get around this?

I am very new to HA and I am having the exact same problem. I’ve moved my Sonoff Zigbee USB stick practically up against the ceiling, just underneath some Zigbee outlets (that I plan to just use as extenders) and it can’t seem to pair the devices. After about 3-4 “device” factory resets, I get them to show up in the HA search, but it just sits at “Starting Interview” and never seems to complete from there.

I’m not new to smart home tech, so I know this shouldn’t take hours just to pair a single freaking device…???

I have the same issue with Osram Smart+ GU 5.3 bulbs. However, they do not have a pair button, obviously.

Only reset with either 5x on/off for 5 seconds or 10 seconds pressing using a Hue button. Neither seems to get me to the 3 sec intervall for the above workaround…

This is the solution right here. Was having trouble with my Aqara door/window sensors, this did the trick.

Was there a recent change? I have several Aqara door / window sensors and they used to be very easy to instal, but when I added one recently I had this problem – and pressing the button every 2-3 seconds did not help.

I am anyway suspicious of this solution …

  • (a) the device knows it is pairing, so so why would it go to sleep?
  • (b) might not pressing the reset button reset the pairing process on the device and therefore stop it from completing the interview?

Hello everyone!

I’m kinda new at Home Assistant and the whole automation stuff.
I have a bit different problem with my Aqara H1 wall switch. I use a SONOFF Zigbee USB Stick with ZHA and when I try to add the switch to HA, it finds the switch in a few seconds, but then it gets stuck on “Interview complete, configuring”, and evetually times out. Then I get a “SEARCH AGAIN” button but nothing happens.

Since I have a spare SONOFF Zigbee bridge, I tried to add the switch to it on my phone and it went successfully in a few seconds.

Did anyone run into the same problem?

Well…somehow I did it :slightly_smiling_face:
I really don’t know what the ultimate solution was, but now it works.

I’v tried to pair the switch at least a dozen times, sometimes it couldn’t be found, other times it was found but just partially.

I’ve also tried to pait the switch through another device, since I have some Philips HUE bulbs, and they are showing up as Zigbee routers. It went almost well once, seemingly the paring was finished, but then at every click on the switch in HA I got the message that the device is offline (or something like that).

Then at one try as I was about to remove the device again, something happened and suddenly all the entities showed and it is working well ever since.

Sorry if someone is looking for a solution to the same problem, all I can suggest is to try and try again.

After operating flawlessly for many months, one of my Aqara mini switches went offline for no apparent reason. The battery is fine. After removing the device from ZHA I tried to pair it up again. ZHA finds it and starts the interview but it doesn’t complete. I have tried dozens of times over the last couple of days. I have tried the pressing-the-button-every-2-seconds-to-keep-it-awake solution until I tired. No joy.

What if the switch circuitry is simply malfunctioning? I used it as a garage door opener and as a result it stays in my car. In this heat, I wonder if the device overheated one day when the car was parked in the sun and one or some of its electronic components fried?

There have been zigbee issues, specifically with zha, ever since 2023.5

No permanent resolution has been posted that I have seen.

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there’s a ticket open here: ZHA onboarding fails — stuck at “Starting Interview” · Issue #99497 · home-assistant/core · GitHub

And that problem still exist in 2024…
It´s actually hard work entering a Osram/Ledvance that way… :confused:

Thanks. Working with Moes 3Gang Zigbee “Scene Switch”, too.

Same problem, after removing 2 different types of lamps that have been working for weeks, suddenly they are all stuck at “Starting interview”.