topic Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening in Broadband & Landline

Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

PaulB2005 — Sat, 30 May 2026 15:53:09 GMT

Seen a similar story here but not sure if its the same - https://community.ee.co.uk/t5/Broadband-Landline/Phones-suddenly-dropping-off-the-Wi-Fi-why/td-p/1620263

We have EE 1GB fibre BB with a Smart Hub SH32B (Model: F5394-P EE) and its been great for 18 months or so.

Suddenly in the last 4-5 days we've noticed in the evening many (not all) of our TP-Link smart plugs, smart bulbs and WiFi repeater in the house, go Offline.

The only thing that fixes it is to restart the hub and everything is back online until the following evening.

From the hub

App version: 3.14.5

Firmware version: r4.26.1-R-1860948-PROD-83002

Is there a possible issue with the hub / firmware?

Edit to add - 2 x iPhones, 1 x EE TV Pro box, 1 x iPad, 3 x Amazon Alexa's, 1 x dishwasher seemingly unaffected by this. Noticed today there is a 2.4 and 5Ghz Compatible Wi-Fi setting. Would I be right in thinking that switching on the 2.4 Comp and getting the affected devices onto that might help?

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

JimM11 — Sat, 30 May 2026 16:04:52 GMT

@PaulB2005 As you were working great for the last period, have you tried a power off like the posting you refer too, the other OP is seeing how the Full Factory reset is going to work out currently, if NOT to much off an issue would hobble along for the week first to see how or if the other OP reports back on it. Copied @Cliff_G so he is aware...

Compatible wifi has been on the Hub for well over a year now.

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

PaulB2005 — Sat, 30 May 2026 16:06:08 GMT

Hi @JimM11

Do you mean try the 20 minute power off? If so, I haven't tried it yet... but I will.

I have considered a factory reset but wanted this as a last resort.

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

JimM11 — Sat, 30 May 2026 16:24:34 GMT

@PaulB2005 Five minutes would be enough time, but as reported was only just a temp fix so hence the Factory Reset which is as you are aware rather drastic to get the hub back, FW updates can have strange effect's at times as now showing to you. Do not have an EE Hub anymore so cannot jump onto and check out! FW update that you have was reported around the 25th May just so you are aware, and that is the version you have now. Your wifi repeater is it an EE one or third party wifi device?

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

PaulB2005 — Sat, 30 May 2026 16:36:43 GMT

@JimM11 Thanks for the clarification.

The Wi-Fi repeater is also TP-Link.

I'll look at doing a factory reset if it continues and will setup the older devices on the EE Comp channel.

Thanks again

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

JimM11 — Sat, 30 May 2026 16:39:55 GMT

@PaulB2005 Is it a chance that the Tp is dropping out and then the devices connected to that follow suit?

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

Cliff_G — Sat, 30 May 2026 17:39:21 GMT

@PaulB2005 @JimM11 I can update you. The EE Guide did a factory reset on our router yesterday at ~2 pm. The phones we're having trouble with stayed on the wifi until sometime after we went to bed. I turn my phone's wifi off overnight, my wife leaves hers on. Both had dropped off the wifi this morning. I had a quick look at the log but didn't really take it in (only just awake!).

I powered the router down for just over 5 minutes (not the 20 as I posted earlier) and the phones came straight back on the wifi. All the other devices were fine, a modern iPad, and ancient Samsung fondleslab (Android 7), and this laptop.

Conclusions:

1. The factory reset did not cure the problem

2. The problem seems to be limited to certain devices

3. Unclear if it is time of day or time since boot

Musings:

I have the phones (they're a few years old, Android 11, low end phones) now on the Main wifi, not Compatible, and they are synced to the 2.4 GHz signal, on WPA2. The Main wifi is set to WPA3-Personal-Transition, so these phones, unable to do WPA3, are negotiating a fallback position. It is only these phones that drop off the wifi, all our other network devices are fine. This laptop is on Wifi 5, 5 Ghz, WPA3-Personal and has never had a problem.

My versions look to be the same: App version: 3.14.5 Firmware version: r4.26.1-R-1860948-PROD-83002

[Stop Press: Wife's phone has just dropped off, mine is still on it.]

[EDIT - the wifi on the phone was off! An accidental swipe down from the top bar. Came straight back on when turned on /EDIT]

My theory is that this is a memory problem, created by the "alleged" [insofar as EE did not confirm to me - I'm not doubting those here who have said this] firmware update. It feels like a memory leak / creep, where that bit of the code (which handles the particular protocol these devices fall back to) resides is not being allocated correctly, or is being written over by another bit of code. That error may have been created by a bug in the updated firmware. Either way, it is only certain affected devices that lose connection. Clearly the factory reset did not work (though it's a necessary step to go through with the EE Guides, or they can't escalate), and what it appears to me to be is time-since-boot. (Mind, a simple reset or quick power down does not work). Time-since-boot would indicate a memory leak, time of day would be something else.

I'm going to wait and see when & if [the] phone[s] drop off then do a 5 minute power down. [=edits]

I shall also export the log before I do, as a power down loses the log.

Hopefully EE will recognise this soon, until then I'm not happy, but do have a proven workaround.

Keep in touch

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

PaulB2005 — Sat, 30 May 2026 17:42:25 GMT

@JimM11

Ah i see. Sorry the repeater is a red herring here.

To maximise the speed to my PC i have a TP Link repeater in another room and a CAT 6 ethernet cable run to my PC so the repeater only acts as a Wi-Fi antenna. One day when we get new flooring I'll look at running the ethernet to the hub but until then this is the best i can do.

The repeater broadcasts a new SSID which is my Hubs SSID followed by _EXT (i.e. EE-1234AB becomes EE-1234AB_EXT) and nothing is connected to the _EXT SSID.

All devices are connected to the EE Hub directly.

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

JimM11 — Sat, 30 May 2026 17:44:01 GMT

@Cliff_G Would also be good if you could throw one off them on the Compatible network, that is alleged to be PURE WPA2-PSK operation, no folding back or trying to play nice on the Main WiFi and fighting the Transition mode to act as WPA2....

I like you have only a couple off devices WPA3, but Asus router is set WPA2-PSK only for All the bands, stuff WPA3 not everything is ready for it, and the EE Smarthub 6 + was set that way from day one on WPA2-PSK and even said so with the FW update that they did to set Main/Comp, although WPA3-T is the only option that is allowed on the Main if that is still so...

Transition can also mean terrible when/if not working correctly.

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

Cliff_G — Sat, 30 May 2026 17:49:02 GMT

That (Compatible) was the first thing I tried. It didn't work either, but good idea, will put one of the phones back on it for troubleshooting purposes.

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

JimM11 — Sat, 30 May 2026 18:03:23 GMT

@PaulB2005 With you on that if nothing else is connected on the WiFi with the _Ext Tp way off doing it, i always edit out that on Tp's to get seamless roaming, BUT it is broadcasting that ssid and if you are not using the PC just power it off JIC it's messing with the wifi..... Nothing is connected apart from your EE hub, it knows all about your Tp and how it's set....

Edit:- Your devices that are dropping off, do you happen to know which band they are attached to, was wondering if the unit was channel hopping about both the 2.4Ghz/5Ghz that the smart wireless is designed to do, but some devices just don't like that at times, especially on the 5Ghz, think my Plus when i had it stuck pretty rigid down on channel 36 and never once opened up to 160Mhz wide. My 2.4Ghz was fixed channel as the Hub allowed and if it did not i moved the other channels away so not to interfere...

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

JimM11 — Sat, 30 May 2026 18:07:30 GMT

@Cliff_G Perfect, see your logical brain is working it all out, pity EE not on the same page but you never know....

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

Cliff_G — Sun, 31 May 2026 08:24:14 GMT

This morning's findings:

My phone, was on the Compatible wifi yesterday, turned off overnight, could not see either Main or Comp when turned on this morning (9 am)
My wife's phone (on Main) was just about hanging on to the wifi this morning but could not find the Comp network.
A 5 minute router power down again fixed everything
The log file contained nothing of interest. Only entries were devices connecting, and nothing at all between 9 pm last night and 8 am this morning

Conclusions

The factory reset did not cure the problem
The problem is limited to certain devices
Unclear if it is time of day or time since boot - but see 5.
The comp wifi did not help.
It looks to be time since boot, not time of day
Can't think of anything other than the firmware update

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

Cliff_G — Sun, 31 May 2026 08:34:51 GMT

@PaulB2005 Can I suggest when everything is up and working that you look through the protocol that each of your wifi devices that are connected to the EE hub are using, i.e. WPA2 or WPA3 etc., and which speed, 2.4 or 5 Ghz. What would be interesting is to establish that it is repeatably only certain devices which drop off the wifi and what they are using as WPA version.

In my case it's not simply old age of the device. Our phones are roughly 3-4 years old, Android 11, but my tablet is an even more ancient Galaxy Tab S2 on Android 7 and has never dropped off the wifi.

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

rhialto — Sun, 31 May 2026 08:45:13 GMT

All the devices (smart plug, cat feeder, LED lights, old printer) that lost connectivity in my environment were 2.4GHz, WPA2. As others have described, they went offline, I restarted the router, they came back. The next day, same process. Fortunately, for the last week, they have remained online without having to restart the router. The only change I made was to move the 2.4GHz channel from auto to 6.

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

JimM11 — Sun, 31 May 2026 08:47:50 GMT

@Cliff_G Will say kind off going with you on point 5, your old phones will not be getting pushed updates at all, and the Other that @PaulB2005 is his IOT devices, hard to pin all those down, band specific, wireless securities, but let me throw this in for you, my Samsung A54 only mine wifes A32 was fine, never dropped off but the speed tanked, was an easy fix wireless on the mobile off/on couple seconds between when it happened, would have swore blind the wireless wifi was good signal wise, when it was down in speed it staid there forever, so sat the phone next to the hub, couple off day's no issues held it's own, started now moving about the home again and sure went back to tanking again so was wifi signal, added another Asus AP and NEVER had it once again, the mobiles are not chain linked to the Asus mesh as they are free to room everywhere home wise, three devices set that way 2 mobiles and the good lady's laptop and they need to be able to drift about the mesh nodes....

Next logical is reset the hub at a specific time, say 8am if up and about, see if the two devices can hold onto 8pm, so 12hours up. Same again 8pm and see if they get through to 8am in the morning....

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

Cliff_G — Sun, 31 May 2026 09:16:06 GMT

"The only change I made was to move the 2.4GHz channel from auto to 6."

Will try that. Seems only possible on the Main on 2.4 GHz, everything else here (Main 5 and Comp 2.4 and 5GHz) is fixed at Auto. Since that's how the problem phones connect, should provide extra troubleshooting info.

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

PaulB2005 — Sun, 31 May 2026 10:30:43 GMT

Will do.

Oddly last night the usual suspects dropped off again but 60-90 minutes later they were all back on without me doing anything....

Next time I'll note the devices, channels and the encryption type.

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

JimM11 — Sun, 31 May 2026 11:41:19 GMT

@PaulB2005 @Cliff_G @rhialto Could be the possible cause with the smart channel auto hopping, or just getting confused when set to smart channel auto operation! 2.4Ghz was allowed at one time to be fixed to the desired channel especially on the main, never used the comp mode as had NO need when it was introduced, the 5Ghz was not allowed to be fixed only Auto but you never no until tried with the new FW may have been something that was changed by EE... Good shout @rhialto

Re: Last few days smart plugs go offline in the evening

PaulB2005 — Sun, 31 May 2026 13:02:20 GMT

@Cliff_G @rhialto

Could be the possible cause with the smart channel auto hopping,

About an hour ago, 5 devices went offline.

When I logged into the EE Hub on the PC, it showed 15 devices connected. The ones that were offline were not listed.

The Wi-Fi repeater that i use as an access point only had the 5 ghz connection and the 2.4 ghz connection was set to an IP address of 0.0.0.0

As the offline devices were missing there was no way get the encryption type etc so i just clicked about until i was looking at the Channels.

2.4 ghz was set up Smart (Channel 11) and 5 ghz was set to Smart (Channel 36)

I rescanned the 2.4 ghz channel and it went to Channel 1 and suddenly the hub was showing 20 devices connected and all the offline devices were online again.

So somewhere in all this, it looks like the issue is to do with the 2.4ghz channel automatically rescanning.

I've set 2.4ghz to Channel 1 with Smart off for now and will see how it goes.

Not sure what, if anything this tells us..... 😕