If you hate having to hunt around for the Hue light switch in the dark, instead, you want to have your hub bulbs turned on within a few seconds when you walk in. you should buy Philips Hue Motion Sensor.
It is an awesome product, which has full HomeKit support. It also can sense temperature in addition to motion. There are also some great options in the Hue app. For example, you can set it so if it doesn’t sense anyone for more than 20 minutes or so to turn off your Hue lights. It is very great for those of us that always forget to turn our lights off.
There could be some reasons you need to reset your Philips Hue motion sensor. Whatever the reason, the method is the same. You need to delete the motion sensor device from your Hue app and use a small pin or paper clip to press the “setup” button hidden inside the hole on the back, and reconnect your Hue motion sensor to your Hue app. The LED should start blinking and then you can go to the next step.
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What is the Hue Motion Sensor?
Philips launched Hue in 2012, one of the earliest smart lighting, allowing for brightness and colour control from a tablet or smartphone. Numerous years on and the system has seen a number of updates and expansions. Now Philips hue has a comprehensive range of lights and other devices for different locations to enhance the lighting in your home.
It becomes a big ecosystem including LED strips, light bulbs, motion sensors, and other devices. They also have great integrations with Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa, Samsung SmartThings, and Apple HomeKit. Whatever overarching system you have selected for your smart home, Philips Hue is going to fit in with it.
Motion sensors are an important part of your home security system. When your Hue Motion Sensor detects motion, it will send an alert to your security system, and even send right to your smartphone.
Motion sensors are typically used to:
- Notify you if some pets enter areas where they are not supposed to be
- Save energy by powering lights in an area only when entered
- Alert you when your children enter restricted areas in the home
- Detect when a potential intruder is near to or inside your home
Smart home automation allows you to tap into luxury and high-tech functionality that wasn’t possible in the past. As smart home technology development continues to expand, there will be more smart devices such as Hue motion sensors to make our life easier and more enjoyable.
The motion sensor you are using is likely to have included infrared technology. The integrated infrared capacities enable your motion sensors to detect the natural infrared radiation that is emitted by hot objects and living things.
What separates an outdoor motion sensor from a standard motion sensor is the rugged and tough design that allows the outdoor motion sensor to handle any inclement weather that may be present.
These motion sensors are useful for your home, but you may have some problems with them over time. No matter what happens with your motion sensor, the first fixing is to do a factory reset.
Why You Need to Reset Hue Motion Sensor
Resetting can solve a lot of problems for various devices including your Philips Hue Motion sensor.
You can try to reset your Hue motion sensor if you have the following issues.
- Your Hue Motion Sensor can’t pair
- Your Hue Motion sensor starts acting up
- You have run out of batteries and even you have changed the batteries
A Factory Reset removes all user data from your device and reverts it back to default settings, or to be more exact, returns it to the way it was when you bought the device first.
There will be no problem while you reset your Motion sensor to fix your issues, and it just takes a little time to do it.
The reset is commonly used to:
- Any connectivity issues or performance problems
- There are sensitive problems in the App
- Your App can’t connect to your motion sensor
- Your Hue motion sensor can’t talk to your other devices
- Trouble pairing
So you usually can solve a lot of problems with just a quick factory reset on your Hue motion sensor.
How to Reset Your Philips Hue Motion Sensor?
Smart home products can bring us great convenience, but they will also have some problems we need to fix. You also can try a factory reset if your Hue motion sensor doesn’t work.
If you don’t know how to reset your motion sensor, please follow a step-by-step guide below.
- If you have used the Hue Motion sensor before, you will find it under Settings > Accessory Setup in the Hue app, please delete it first.
2. You will see a hole and the word “setup” on the back of your sensor, use a pin or paper clip to press the button hidden inside the hole.
3. Please hold the setup button (small hole at the back of the motion sensor) for at least 10 seconds. The LED light should blink red, and then if you see orange blinking. It means your sensor is reset and ready for installation.
4. Returning to the Settings > Accessory Setup, and click the “Add Accessory”.
5. You will see “Hue Outdoor Sensor” or “Hue Motion Sensor” there, choose it.
6. You will complete the factory reset by following the rest of the on-screen setup guidelines.
Hue Indoor and Outdoor Motion Sensor Reset Differences
Motion sensors for smart lights can be used widely throughout your home both outside or inside.
Indoor motion sensors work usually the same as outdoor ones, but the difference is in where and how they are used. Indoor motion can be reset by using the above method without modifications.
However, if you want to reset your outdoor sensor, it would be slightly different on step 2 compared to the above steps.
You can’t reset quickly on the outdoor sensor. Because the reset button is hidden behind the mounting bracket, rather than hidden into a hole, so you should remove the bracket to press it.
You don’t need any tool to press, just press it with a finger.
It is so easy to reset your motion sensor, and I am sure you will solve most problems by resetting it.
Why My Hue Motion Sensor is Not Working after Resetting?
Sometimes resetting doesn’t solve all of your problems, you will find out that you have reset your motion sensor and also reinstall it but still can’t fix it. What’s wrong with it?
Philips Hue uses ZigBee to communicate with other smart devices. ZigBee is a wireless technology developed as an open global standard to address the unique needs of low-power, low-cost wireless IoT networks.
Wi-Fi and ZigBee channels both exist in the 2.4 GHz band, existing in the exact same frequency space. When deploying both ZigBee and Wi-Fi in the same environments, please ensure that they will not interfere with each other.
For example, if your Wi-Fi channel is 10 or above, you should change the ZigBee channel of the Hue Bridge inside your Hue app to channel 15, 20, or 25. In this way, you can prevent interference from Wi-Fi and ZigBee.
If you have fixed the all of above problems but still can’t make your devices work. You should consider if it is a ZigBee range issue.
- Separate your Hue Bridge and internet router, it would have interference if you place them too close.
- Put your Hue motion sensor high up in your room to prevent electrical interference from the rest of the other devices.
- Your Hue Motion sensor should be close enough to your Hue Bridge or Hue lights to function. If there are several doors or walls and it is a 30+ feet distance, take them closer together as well as try pairing your devices once again.
In fact, when you got the Hue motion sensor and Hue Bridge, you should do a test within eyesight first. You can test multiple times to eliminate all kinds of problems. Once it’s all done, you can start to install them and apply them to your life.