Official Homey Android App discussion topic

MarcoF · June 2016

Here a "fix" for the above issue:
wipe the app's cache and devices are show instantly

Reproduce info:
Wipe cache,
Start app
Devices are shown
Kill app
Start app
Now devices are gone.

Wipe cache data and devices are back again

glijie · June 2016

MarcoF said:

He's back again

I'm some testing while on the way.
After the Initial install the app showed device in de home zone. Unfortunately the app isn't showing devices anymore. It isn't showing any devices and all zones are empty.

....

Also noticed that after the install the app asked for audio permission and after a forced close the app asked location permission.

Same here.

After new reinstall, the app showes the devices even when i'm crolling thrue other folders. when i close the app and reopen, everything is gone again.

jorden · June 2016

My app just updated, and showed the devices for 1 or 2 seconds, one of them with an error, and then no more devices...

It's probably an error because of one of my z-wave devices not being recognized.

FrankM · June 2016

Exact same here. The app also doesn't show the 'No devices in this zone' message for empty zones so it looks like the device list is not being drawn at all....
App also crash upon one of the starts, report sent....

MarkVanWinden · June 2016

Removed all data. But still no sigar(like graves)...

Still got these bloody annoying screen's that won't go away after moving through zones.
(Don't think it was looked at with this latest update-

phb · June 2016

At first install,I have all devices, then nothing ......

Fire69 · June 2016

Force Close and Clear cache makes it work again.
This was probably the issue with the previous version also.

zippo · June 2016

I seem to understand devices can only be controlled via a smartphone, and the homey doesn't allow to be connected to a TV screen directly, and have people use the TV remote for instance to control devices with that (correct me if I'm wrong here !).
What if you don't have an android nor iOS smartphone, nor want to get one (as it's ultimately an expensive component, and breaks down after 3 years or so) ?
Can someone just install android on a raspberry pi, and use that instead (output screen can for example be a TV screen connected to the raspberry) ?

zippo · June 2016

Another question: is the homey software open-source, and if so, could someone say just adapt the software and simply modify the android software on a raspberry pi to make a "lightweight" version of the homey (which has far fewer connecting ports and is thus able to control far fewer devices, yet is still able to do some things -which may be sufficient for some-.

Is there a linux-based (so not android), 32-bit, x86 version of the homey software btw ? If so, the same could even be accomplished with a conventional, second hand PC.

MarkVanWinden · June 2016

Removed the app then installed it again. Now got my devices back.

superice · June 2016

zippo said:

I seem to understand devices can only be controlled via a smartphone, and the homey doesn't allow to be connected to a TV screen directly, and have people use the TV remote for instance to control devices with that (correct me if I'm wrong here !).
What if you don't have an android nor iOS smartphone, nor want to get one (as it's ultimately an expensive component, and breaks down after 3 years or so) ?
Can someone just install android on a raspberry pi, and use that instead (output screen can for example be a TV screen connected to the raspberry) ?

I think you might be able to do partly what you want by using a Chromecast and writing a custom app for Homey, but I don't think we're ever going to support a workflow without mobile Android and/or iOS devices playing a role in it, because ultimately there aren't that many people implementing a smart home without at least one of those devices.

zippo said:

Another question: is the homey software open-source, and if so, could someone say just adapt the software and simply modify the android software on a raspberry pi to make a "lightweight" version of the homey (which has far fewer connecting ports and is thus able to control far fewer devices, yet is still able to do some things -which may be sufficient for some-.

Is there a linux-based (so not android), 32-bit, x86 version of the homey software btw ? If so, the same could even be accomplished with a conventional, second hand PC.

No. We did release some parts as open source (mostly NodeJS modules) but most parts are proprietary. Ofcourse I can't and won't speak for everyone here at Athom, but other than the fear of someone creating a lightweight Homey with a Raspberry Pi (which is not that likely really), there is the support component: we don't have the resources to build a generic version of the Homey software running on all kinds of devices, let alone support people in setting up that software to tailor it to their specific situation. We struggle even to get it right on the specific Homey hardware, let alone on any device in the world. Personally I would like the idea of an open source Homey-like device, but with the limited resources the open app model is the best deal you're going to get. By the way, these are rather complicated questions, not necessarily related to the Android app. Creating a new topic would have probably been preferable

glijie · June 2016

killed app....cleared cache... removed app ..cleared cache...reinstalled app nummerous times( about 30)

And after each time it works once. Maybe it's better to wait for a fix, because each time i cleared the cache mine mobile device is added in the flow for a push notification

MarcoF · June 2016

@glijie;
Here not such a problem.
I did clear the App cache multiple times and here still 3 device in the Mobile picklist.
Have my doubts if the cache clear is causing the multiple device in the list.

Also a bit strange that a Athom employee reacts in this topic and "completely" ignores the current issues with the app.

glijie · June 2016

MarcoF said:

@glijie;
Here not such a problem.
I did clear the App cache multiple times and here still 3 device in the Mobile picklist.
Have my doubts if the cache clear is causing the multiple device in the list.

Also a bit strange that a Athom employee reacts in this topic and "completely" ignores the current issues with the app.

or it thinks each time that i have a new phone when i clear cache and erase data?

https://forum.athom.com/discussion/1622/remove-mobile-device-in-homey

FrankM · June 2016

After (re)opening the app with no devices displaying I managed to get my device list back by clicking on 'Devices' in the menu. Since then I haven't had an empty list.

glijie · June 2016

@FrankM ;
here to, but when i go outside my wifi network like 3g/4g or another wifi network i don't see anything anymore.

I wonder how it is working for you, outside your own network?

superice · June 2016

MarcoF said:

@glijie;
Here not such a problem.
I did clear the App cache multiple times and here still 3 device in the Mobile picklist.
Have my doubts if the cache clear is causing the multiple device in the list.

Also a bit strange that a Athom employee reacts in this topic and "completely" ignores the current issues with the app.

I have taken notice, I am considering all your input, but I don't have a meaningful response as of yet as I don't know what the problem is yet. Rest assured, this is my first priority monday morning.

FrankM · June 2016

glijie said:

@FrankM ;
here to, but when i go outside my wifi network like 3g/4g or another wifi network i don't see anything anymore.

I wonder how it is working for you, outside your own network?

glijie said:

@FrankM ;
here to, but when i go outside my wifi network like 3g/4g or another wifi network i don't see anything anymore.

I wonder how it is working for you, outside your own network?

Hmmm, I just tested it here and it appears to be related to which network I am connected here as well. When Homey can be reached through its local IP (on same network) all devices where there. When I turned wifi off, the device cards were there but just waiting for connection (spinning disc). When I then removed the app from recent and tried again all zone displays were empty (nothing drawn). Logging out and back in seems to reset the connection. The app appears to be trying to connect to Homey on its local IP once it has done so and doesn't detect the network connection change.

I get similar behaviour in the browser. With wifi on it connects to Homey's local IP and all device cards are loaded properly. As soon as I turn off wifi the device cards lose their connection and show a spinning disc. I have to manually reconnect through my.athom.com to reach Homey through the atom servers.....

Fire69 · June 2016

superice said:

Fire69 said:

Fire69 said:

@superice, does the app use the language settings defined in Homey, or only English?
https://forum.athom.com/discussion/comment/18878/#Comment_18878

@superice, any comments on this?

I'd have to look it up, but I think the 1.x branch uses the language of the phone, 2.x has no localization yet, so english only. Would you prefer localization by phone or by Homey?

@superice , was the localization removed in recent versions?
Seems like the app is sending English again while my Homey is set to Dutch.

MarcoF · June 2016

@superice ;
thanx for your response! Following on our PM chat about the presence weirdness; Today my wife came home after begin "away" about 2 weeks...

2 weeks no home/away messages and all of a sudden, the flow was triggered....

MarcoF · June 2016

FrankM said:

After (re)opening the app with no devices displaying I managed to get my device list back by clicking on 'Devices' in the menu. Since then I haven't had an empty list.

HI was able to reproduce your fix and it works great until; you go to settings and change one setting. After changing a setting, all devices are again gone.

So its definitely a settings/appdata issue.

SdR · June 2016

On the LG the ground floor is on top of devices, so I cannot control them

EvertorN · June 2016

Has anyone else noticed that the Homey app takes up so much battery life? At the end of the day it's my most 'expensive' app in terms of battery usage.

MarcoF · June 2016

My phone (Android 6.0.1 with most recent security update) currently is at 59% and the Homey app isn't show in the battery usage list (so 0% used?).

superice · June 2016

EvertorN said:

Has anyone else noticed that the Homey app takes up so much battery life? At the end of the day it's my most 'expensive' app in terms of battery usage.

Can you try if this happens when you turn location services off? Most likely, this is a bug in home detection which causes GPS to remain active over extended periods of time.

MarcoF said:

FrankM said:

After (re)opening the app with no devices displaying I managed to get my device list back by clicking on 'Devices' in the menu. Since then I haven't had an empty list.

HI was able to reproduce your fix and it works great until; you go to settings and change one setting. After changing a setting, all devices are again gone.

So its definitely a settings/appdata issue.

You were very close, but not entirely correct. I just found the issue, it was a bug in the library we use to do communication with the webview and the code of our app. It assumed only one webview would be active in the entire app, and when you navigate away (to media or settings for example) and navigate back to Devices, a new webview was created, as well as when you switch between Homeys. I've submitted a fix to the creators of the library, and have fixed it locally in our copy of the library as well

This was an incredibly hard bug to find, your analysis definitely helped; it would've taken me quite a while to figure out why cards were not appearing at all your devices, but were at mine.

You guys can expect a release for Android in the beta channel later today, and as soon as people confirm that is indeed the fix I'll push it to stable

jorden · June 2016

@superice Nice work! Love how you guys also do pull requests when you improve something.

superice · June 2016

I just released 2.2.2 on the beta channel, which should fix the last issues with the cards not showing up. I'd love to hear if that is indeed fixed and if it doesn't introduce any other bugs. Hopefully I can push this to stable either tonight or tomorrow so everyone gets a working app again soon!

jorden said:

@superice Nice work! Love how you guys also do pull requests when you improve something.

Thanks

Using open source libraries makes sure we receive patches as soon as other developers write them, seems only fair that if we fix a bug we contribute it upstream as well.

MarcoF · June 2016

@superice ;
Great news and also great the communities investigation helped fixing this

jorden · June 2016

superice said:

jorden said:

@superice Nice work! Love how you guys also do pull requests when you improve something.

Thanks Using open source libraries makes sure we receive patches as soon as other developers write them, seems only fair that if we fix a bug we contribute it upstream as well.

I totally agree, but it's beautiful that you do it (because a lot companies don't!)

MarcoF · June 2016

Just updated to 2.2.2 build50 and its looks like Zones are not working properly. When navigating from Home>Zone1>Zone1.1 and with the back-arrow back to Home, the devices of Zone1.1 stay on the screen.

Tried to remove cache/app data, which didn't help.

Also "Menu button" > "Devices" keeps the Zone1.1 devices on the screen.

So basicly only on initial load/start the Home devices are loaded.

Official Homey Android App discussion topic

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