Insignia Connect

[smeg36]

Looks like the fixed whatever was causing it. I woke up to see the Home app no longer shows the update message.

[KyleR-BBY Senior Social Media Specialist]

Hi, smeg36,

That's awesome news. Can anyone else confirm that everything is back up and running on their device?

Sincerely, 

[TechRider]

I can confirm the updates notice has gone away for me to.  I still have two different firmware versions.

[BenNewcomer]

I can also confirm that the notice has gone away, however I think it is premature to mark this thread as Solved because truthfully, my confidence in things remaining the same between now and November 6th is not very strong.  I am glad I don't have a notification anymore, but I am a little confused why the final firmware's aren't put somewhere that can still be pulled for some amount of time, or on an opensource repository where they can be viewed in the future (think, GitHub).

However, if the best we are going to get is not notification, this will work well enough.

I do want to comment however that Mariah-BBY's response wasn't helpful or encouraging.  I definitely felt like I was messaging with someone that really didn't care about our user experience, and was more interested in getting this post off her work queue rather than helping us figure out what our options might be.  That makes me feel a little distrustful of Best Buy's commitment to it's customers, especially during a difficult time like EOL'ing a product line.  I know it's business to make decisions, but the way this was handled in this thread didn't leave me feeling "This is a bummer about the product, but at least Best Buy is doing their best to make sure I have the least bad experience possible."

I'll eventually mark this thread as Solved once November 6 comes and goes and everything stays working.

[KyleR-BBY Senior Social Media Specialist]

HI, all,

Thanks for the updates, and for your feedback about how this process has worked. We appreciate your feedback, and we'll work to do better in the future. 

Please keep us posted if any more issues pop up.

Sincerely, 

[BenNewcomer]

TL;DR: The green light flashes now, macOS still sees upates but my iPhone doesn't, and if you remove the device or reset it, you can never add it back to Homekit.  Can someone else confirm my above observartions?  This has been a poor experience.

Longer version:

So long story short, I don't have any of my products tellings me that they need firmware updates anymore from my iPhone, but I do see them listed from my Home application on macOS, which is better but not right.  An exciting new behavior (after the InsigniaConnect service was brought down), is that all my devices have flashing green lights.  This is for both the wall switches and the plugs.  Also worth noting is that this did not occur until I pushed the button on them.  So I have a lot of flashing swithces and plugs that I can sort of control, but can't get to stop flashing.

The most fun finding today, is that when I reset the devices (in this case a switch), then try to re-add it to HomeKit, the device is no longer discoverable.  Which in summary means, that if you remove a device from HomeKit to try to make it stop flashing (or for another reason), you can't add it back to HomeKit. My takeaway here is that this EOL included a "brick the devices when we shut this service down" command which is super cool and considerate.  We had devices that worked, without the InsigniaConnect service on the backend, but are now bricks.  Nice job actively making your product unusable after you shut down your software service .  

This really does help me understand how customers are valued, and as a result, I will gladly spend the Bestbuy gift card compensation you sent me, but then I will definitely be taking my business somewhere else.  Thanks for making my decision a little easier.

[idrew3]

I can confirm the same exact circumstances here with two homes that I have invested heavily in these insignia products. As stated in an earlier post I will no longer be using Best Buy. The only reason why I checked back in, was that I knew that it was November 6, the end-of-life date, and I got an email that there had been an update to this forum. Just for giggles I read your post. Your post is appreciated, Best Buy‘s lack of customer centric response however is not appreciated. I am done with Best Buy. To brick devices like this is beyond absurd. They seem to be showing the same kind of care for the customers as Donald Trump shows for citizens of the United States.. Which is to say no concern at all.

[smeg36]

Looks like I’m seeing the same here too.

[TechRider]

Can you please describe how you attempted to re-add the device to HomeKit?  I'm about to try this with one of my devices too.  Here's what I'm planning...

1. Open Home and remove the accessory (the Insignia device)

2. At the Insigina device (light switches for me), hold reset button for 10sec (not the factory reset)

3. Open iPhone's Settings app > Wi-Fi > look for device there and join it to my Wi-Fi

4. Open Home app and attempt to add the accessory

If that doesn't work, I was going to repeat the same steps but in step 2 hold the reset button for 15sec (for the full factory reset) to see if that works.

Anyway, wondering what steps you followed to compare approach.  I won't be tackling this until Saturday and will report back what worked or didn't work for me.  Just hoping my attempts don't brick the device.

This FAQ advises the devices will still work with HomeKit, but doesn't advise if blinking lights is a consequence, or if that can be made to go away.  As of this writing, all my devices' LEDs are blinking but I can still control them with the Home app and even (for now) the Insigina app.  I'd love to find a way to get rid of the blinking lights until I get rid of the devices themselves.

[TechRider]

Just to update, the steps below allowed me to remove and re-add my Insignia light switch to Apple HomeKit, but doing so did not stop the LED from blinking.  Insignia/BestBuy, the lights still work but you need to do something to stop the blinking LEDs.

1. Open Home and remove the accessory (the Insignia device)

2. At the Insigina device (light switches for me), hold reset button for 10sec (Wi-Fi rest, not the factory reset)

3. Open iPhone's Settings app > Wi-Fi > look for device there and join it to my Wi-Fi

4. Open Home app and attempt to add the accessory

In step 2, if you hold the reset button for 15sec instead of 10sec, the result is similar, in that you can re-add the device to HomeKit but the blinking LED does not go away.