Hue Light Serial Numbers

Hi,

So I've been using Hue bulbs with Indigo now for several years. For the 2nd time, I've lost all of the information about my hue system and needed to completely change the hub. This causes me to lose all of my lights and the connections to Indigo and also Homekit (and Alexa which I'm depreciating) too. 55 lights of various types.

The last time this happened, I just told the hue app to "Add lights" which it did... it found all of my lights and although they were scrambled, at least it found them and I was able to piece it all back together..

This time, "Add lights" doesn't find any of them and it forces me to go find the bulb, record the serial number, and add the bulbs one at a time... I'm 68 and climbing ladders is not something that's easy for me. But the problem gets even worse: 8 of my lights are in the soffit at a height of about 25 to 35 feet in the air! Unscrewing those bulbs to find the serial number on each of them is really not an option. Finally I have two light-strip controllers that are buried in a couple of built-in cabinets and I can't get to those.

Is there ANY hardware that I can buy (like Conbee II) or ANY software that I can buy like Phoscon that can access those serial numbers? I realize that Hue serial numbers may not be embedded anywhere in the firmware. I've tried every way to reset the bulbs... I was able to get the soffit lights to turn on and turn off (Factory reset, off 5 seconds, on 8 seconds, off 2seconds, on 8 seconds, off 2 seconds, and on 8 seconds)... so I can at least power the bulbs from my fuse box... but that's no way to live with hue bulbs).

Now I'm recording serial numbers in a spreadsheet and also in the indigo comment field with each device. Is it possible that I can get this information from my old indigo hue lights plugin? (I haven't messed with that), or maybe from homekit? Any ideas much appreciated.

TIA, -al

Hi, So I've been using Hue bulbs with Indigo now for several years. For the 2nd time, I've lost all of the information about my hue system and needed to completely change the hub. This causes me to lose all of my lights and the connections to Indigo and also Homekit (and Alexa which I'm depreciating) too. 55 lights of various types.

The same has happened to me... at least twice. Have had to enter serial numbers one-by-one multiple times. There has to be a better way. The Hue bridge hardware/software does seem a bit flaky these days. Quite surprised they haven't built backup and restore option. Would love to know of a better option with all the Hue bulbs I own these days!

I had that happen to me before too.

The plugin current does not use the serial number to id the devices, but the light # (1...x). And that would not allow to remap the hue dev serial # to an existing indigo device.
That could cut the work in half. You would still need to re-learn the devices to the hue bridge, but the indigo side would stay unchanged.

I could look into using the serial number to id the devices, they should not change. BUT that is not a small task. I am out for 3 weeks starting Friday. When I am back i could look at it.


Karl

and when you re create the devices, could you check if the dev state "uniqueId" stays the same for the devices? - checking one should be fine.


Karl

Thanks for the responses.

I will check into that ID# when I get around to installing it all back into Indigo. The real puzzle to me is that I'm sure the first time I lost all of my devices, I was able to retrieve them all, even the ones high up on my soffit eve, just using the "Add Light" command. At least then I could turn them on and off one at a time to rename them and re-associate them with indigo. But this most recent time the devices were lost, it's insisting on bulb serial numbers. That means I need to get out the 32-foot ladder and risk life and limb. For sure I'm now keeping a separate data-base for these serial numbers in case this ever happens again.

I've purchased a Conbee II to see if that will return serial numbers, but I have little hope of that working.

-al

if some one could try this:
v2022.16.59 @ 2024-04-23
" added option to enter serial number from the bulb (and sensor) into indigo device edit.
This info is then available in reports ie print lights.
In case you have to re-learn a light to a hue hub you can get that info from here.
BUT you need to maintain that info manually. There is no known way to get the serial number from the hub."

after I get feedback I shall post to the regular indigo site.

Karl

https://github.com/kw123/Hue-Lights-Indigo-plugin/releases/tag/2022.16.59%3C