WEMO - about to throw them in the trash..FIXED!

Hey folks,
I’ve been dealing with WEMO devices (switches) floating in and out of my WEMO app for a while now. I’ve read that if you configure them in the App and Apple Homelink funky things can happen. The problem is to set them up, WEMO defaults to Apple Homelink.

I read if you reset the devices, plug them in and let them sit for 15 minutes, the Homelink requirement times out. My problem is it doesn’t seem to time out.

I just want to set them up through the WEMO app. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance

 

I didn't know what a "WEMO" device was. But I looked it up after seeing your post. The first thing I found is that Belkin gave them the "End of Life" treatment in 2020. That may be what's causing your problem... there is no more mothership for the devices to communicate with.

 

I appreciate you checking in.

These are what I'm talking about:
https://www.belkin.com/us/smart-home/wemo/wemo-wifi-smart-plug/p/p-wsp080/

Still being sold..

 

Ok.. It looks like they pulled the plug on WEMO Netcams, and those owners/users are apparently SoL. Hopefully that's not the case for your devices.

 

Thanks!

 

I had one of those too and ended up throwing it away. It would constantly error out and had to reset it constantly. A real POS plug

 

These smart home products concern me. I have about 20 Z-wave and Zigbee devices on a smart home controller. Years ago I had a Wink controller. Wink’s business model wasn’t working out for them because they had a server farm to keep running and the only way to fund it was new wink controllers. Wink started charging a subscription fee. I then bought a Smartthings controller and while it’s still subscription free I don’t see how that can last. I’m betting someday I’ll either have to pay a subscription or give up on a smart home. I love tell Alexa to turn things on and off, change the thermostat temp, and building automated rules for many devices.

 

I think I figured it out so this is for anyone dealing with an Apple Homelink forced set up with WEMO. (& me when I forget how to do this...)

1. If you have an existing set up, do a factory reset and replug it in. If you have a new smart plug, just plug it it.
2. Your WEMO device will show up in a new heading in your Wifi page (I'm using and Iphone) call 'Set Up Device'. DO NOT DO THIS.
3. Wait until the WEMO device shows up under a Wifi network heading. This will happen automatically. It might take 8-15 minutes. Be patient.
4. Connect to the WEMO device in your Wifi setting.
5. Open up the WEMO App. It should recognize your device.
6. Continue with the setup prompts.
7. I don't know if it's needed but I closed the App everytime I added a device.

For the first time in a while, all devices appear in the App and seem to be stable with no funkiness whatsoever.

Good Luck to all! Tag me if you need help setting this up.

 

I did a full "smart" home build out at my previous place. Every light switch connected to a hub via ZWave and we had a smart thermostat and sprinkler controller.

After some tough lessons, I would recommend to anyone trying to build smart switches, thermostats, and so forth into their home that they choose ZWave or Zigbee protocols and a controller not tied to a major company. The two protocols I mention are agnostic to the hub you select; ZWave in particular has been around for a long time for alarm systems and will likely have ongoing support in many devices. As for the hub, Smartthings, Hubitat, Amazon, and others all need some way to generate revenue. Right now they get it by hoovering up your data doing goodness knows what with it. It's better to build your own hub using the SmartHome open source application. There are great tutorials how to do with a Raspberry Pi 4 and other low power devices.

All that said, staying on top of an open system like the one I've described will take a lot of your time and energy. You can try to offload that burden to a big company like Samsung or Apple, but you'll find yourself burned as companies remove device support and try to force you to buy the next big thing in a year or two. Add in the data and privacy concerns and I say the cost is too high. In my current home I've opted not to build in anything "smart" for a while. Light switches have worked well for 100 years and there's not a huge need to complicate them.