Often People ask what happens if Homey can’t connect to Internet.
From the “Old” Support site, updated with our current knowledge:
Functionality that requires internet
Homey uses the internet for a number of things, including:
Setup/authentication/updates/installing of Apps from App store
Voice Recognition (Speect To Text / STT)
Athom Cloud Connection for fe Presence detection
Certain Apps (Think about all cloud services, including many online Thermostats)
Offline possibilities
Offline Homey will still be able to manage your home, as Homey is not dependent on cloud services to operate (unlike some other systems). Functionality that remains available offline includes:
Controlling your home with the Homey Smartphone App while you’re on the same WiFi network
Executing flows that don’t need internet, for example sensor based ones
Voice output , allowing Homey to speak (for example in flows)
Logging of your local sensor data in the Insights module
Conclusion
In short, all the capabilities that do not clearly require internet work. Homey will still be able to manage your home using your flows, and you will be able to control Homey via the smartphone app while at home. A lot of extra awesomeness is gone though.
Note: some devices (including most smart thermostats) require Homey to connect to them using the internet (and do not have a local workaround). Homey might not be able to control these devices while offline.
Homey (Gen.2) App 0.17.0.236 on Android Galaxy S7 Edge.
Homey (Gen.2) App 0.17.0.236 on NoxPlayer Android 7 Emulator Local Connected.
Simulating an Internet Outage I Pulled the internet cable from my router/firewall, My local WiFi is still up and working including my Local Firewall/Gateway/DHCP server.
I tested the following successfully:
Connect the Mobile Phone to the WiFi and connect the Homey (Gen.2) App.
Restarted Homey from the Homey (Gen.2) App.
Re-Connect to Homey after loading.
Disconnect Mobile Data (4G) and re-connect using Wifi the Homey (Gen.2) App.
Send an KAKU Signal and Trigger a Flow to Switch a Zigbee lamp.
So far this was everything I could think of to test,
Please know that to function locally both the Mobile device as Homey still need an IP address.
If you have any other experience please describe with as much information possible regarding:
Status WiFi network
Status network services like DHCP, Default Gateway and DNS
Connection status of both Homey and your Mobile
The checks you did, including the complete Flows (for dependencies)
I’m curious about that too.
Suppose my internet connection is down and I reboot my phone (or completely restart the app, so that it wasn’t running in the background), will it still work with the Homey sphere.
So far it looks good, but I’m curious about that last part.
Hi Dijker,
interesting tests, was wondering about this myself as well.
I’m running a domoticz/node-red/mosquitto server on ubuntu along with my Homey here at home. These are connected via mqtt (client app on Homey) and what I noticed is that this connection is lost as soon as the internet connection is lost.
My Homey and mqtt broker are both running on my local lan network and I would assume that this would keep running even without internet connection, but somehow it does not.
For me if I disconnect the internet from homey I can NOT reach homey anymore.
Not if I keep the App open, restart the app and so on.
All the flows are working.
No way to connect to homey
Conditions:
Homey and smartphone in the same Wlan, both have an IP address, Smartphone has internet homey not.
App-Version 2.0.2.246
Homey: 2.0.0
Model: early 2019
Pls describe your confirmation in more detail,
Was it working before?
What connection was the app using regarding to settings general?
Do you have a separate AP?
What did you do to disconnect Homey from the internet?
How does your smartphone have internet?
Etc. Etc.
Hey.
The App was Always connected over Cloud.
It was working all day before with Cloud.
I never saw a local Connection in the app
I have No seperate App nutzen I looked at Developer s.athom.com and homey was also down
I have assigned a profil with No internet in the router.
App was in wifi with internet. The Same Network homee was in.
Homey’s offline capability is designed to let a local mobile connect and work while there is a temporary internet problem.
Disabling internet for Homey probably gives a different result and is definitely not recommend or supported for the long run. I am even not sure all routers and firewalls behave the same when blocking one IP to access internet regarding to local services on the same WiFi.
Try to connect using that mobile app while you disable internet by fe pulling an WAN plug from your modem or router to simulate as close as possible what happens when your ISP has a problem.
All other things like the developers site and insights need homey to be connected as you need to access homey on the cloud id (revers proxy) and that is not available when you deny Homey to access internet.
So that is expected behavior.
Reading your reply I am also not sure you understood my question if you have an separate Access Point (AP), but that’s more of a thing when Homey and the mobile app would be on separate subnet’s.
I am not able to test the described scenario atm, but I will update when I am at home and able to reproduce with the latest version.
I think that ist wrong but I revalidated it. If I plug the wan cabel homey ist also Not reachable.
And I think for homey it is the same If the wan ist disconnected or another Profile assigned.
A no I didnt understand the ap Questionen. Thought it was a Typo.
So yes I have Dome repeater and I am Not Sure If the App and homey where connected to the Same Hardware device. But logicaly they are in the Same Network and even in the Same subnet. So that can Not bei the reasonable.
hello ya all,
since i had problems yesterday due internet connection in the netherlands, a lot of providers had issues.
but i wanted to enter homey with the app.
no results. so i have found this thread.
my main modem had no internet connection, but my WIFI at home was still going.
that means that HOMEY was still connected to my WIFI (checked also with networkscanner) and my phone was also connected.
but NO possible way the enter homey to editing flows etc. the app was saying i need internet.
So the big question.
how can i use Homey without internet at home, even when homey and phone is connected to the same and one and only WIFI point?
The problem is that it should work, even though it obviously doesn’t (also for a lot of other people).
Suggestions like “reboot your router” or “reboot your WiFi access point” are, of course, ignoring the fact that apparently, Homey (or the mobile app) doesn’t have a proper failover mode that works in common environments if it loses its connection to the outside world.
