Searching local inverter broken again with latest app update

First it was broken with the major redesign, then it got fixed thankfully, but now with todays app update v3.0.3 it's broken again 🙁
iPad still on v3.0.2 works fine finding the local inverter.

Android app 3.0.3.3028. The app gives me a notice: searching locally for inverter with Dismiss button.
It never gets to the Home/Local anymore, as it can't find the inverter.
No other messages or errors are posted.

Same here. Last week after setting this up, everytime I logged on at home it defaulted to away, went through a search for the inverter, said it failed, but then I could hit the home tab and it would switch over to WiFi no problem, and update every 10 seconds. Now it won't even let me press the home button.

Really odd how this is so variable for people.
I’ve not had a problem on any version with local access. Not that I can recall anyway.
A network is a network - particularly a home network. To be honest mine is probably more complicated than most.

After last night's server outage, i can no longer connect to the inverter locally. I get the message searching inverter locally, this may take upto 2 minutes, but it never connects.
Fortunately the server side is working, my versions app is 3.03.3028

Same here...

Since the app update I can only get the app to connect locally by setting the IP. The auto detect fails.

THALL Mine is very flaky. It works with the IP set sometimes other times not. If I remove the IP exactly the same thing happens. It's just unstable!

I just tried and it wouldn’t connect locally until I refreshed and then it worked

I have the same. home button greyed out.
I noticed the change after setting up a Mesh network. Could it be linked?

Same here, my phone works fine but my Amazon Fire 7 is stuck on cloud data, no local since yesterday's update.

Same here; has only connected to the Home option once very briefly since the update on Monday, now won't touch it even with manual search and specified IP address. (iPhone, ios 14.5.1) Presumably everyone has reported this?

Hi, I've got a new installation so this is all new to me! Seem to have the same problem with the Home connection. I assume my phone/tablet etc is trying to connect direct to the dongle wifi? It doesn't find it, and suggests I'm not on the correct WiFi as my phone automatically connects to house wifi. However I can see the dongle wifi when I search for it and manually connect, then the app works OK. However it doesn't reconnect automatically after that. Good App when it's working!!

I find - that if you log onto the M2M server (or pinging it will work sometimes), it usually see's the IP address (gets a green tick) for a while anyway!

davlon no luck I’m afraid.
v3.0.2.1 shows the green tick and works.
v3.0.3.5 does a red X and doesn’t work.

Same WiFi networks. Same iOS versions. Just different App versions.

My Android phone updated to the latest version of the GivEnergy app this morning and now will not connect to the inverter so my Home button is greyed out.

I've logged into the network interface on the inverter to check which Wifi network it was on and confirmed that my phone is connected to the same one. I've checked the IP address of the inverter and manually set that in the app (I get a red exclamation mark next to it even though it's correct). I've also uninstalled and re-installed the app (including manually deleting the stored data) and I've rebooted the invertor and battery too.

Whatever changes were made to improve the stability of the inverter search system, it's had the opposite affect !

I've raised a bug report, and would suggest others do the same.

feidhlim Thanks for that. For reference, how do you raise a bug. I had a quick look around (I'm new here) and couldn't see where to do it.

Pidea You need to do it on the Web Portal where you interact with your system. There’s a “leave feedback” button.

This has got worse for me... When I clicked on the battery now on the app, it shows 4% idle. When I look at it on the homescreen of the app it shows 24% discharging, as does the Web portal.

App seems to be very glitchy since the update.

For me the last version worked fine, this latest one never finds the inverter locally...bit of a sorry state really.

For balance I must be the only one that hasn’t had an issue on any version as far as I can remember. Might have been one which no one could get to work.

I’d love to work out what the issue is because as I’ve said before there is no logic behind the issues if the inverter and device is on the same network and subnet.

anglefire I've noticed that the better the M2M servers RSSI signal quality the less failed connections I get. My wifi module is currently stuck on my main hub rather than the closer BT Wifi disc, and I get more failed attempts to connect local.

I forgot to turn off automatic app updates on my iPad and it updated the app. BUT….local inverter is still seen on the latest app on iPad but not on my iPhone. I give up lol.

My WiFi is very good - I have two access points one upstairs and one down - both connected back to switches so not bridged or anything like that. I have something like 34 devices on my network (currently live and active) most of them are WiFi but there are about a dozen that are wired.
It is all managed so not the usual home network.

I think I’ve figured it out…or at least why it’s not working on one device and is on another.
On my iPad, under iOS Settings > Privacy > Local Network the GivEnergy app is listed and enabled for permissions.

On my iPhone, under the same settings, the GivEnergy app is NOT listed. Apps should throw up a prompt to ask for this permission.
I’ve tried to delete and reinstall the app but it never asks for this permission like it should.

Over on the iPad, to test the theory, I disabled this permission and sure enough I lose local inverter access and even manual IP fails. Flick it back on, and everything works again.

So something is wrong with the app asking for this permission and potentially retaining this permission after an update.

You can’t manually give an app permissions for stuff. They have to request it.

Ok so I finally got it to work. These are the steps I took:

1. Deleted the GivEnergy app.
2. On your iOS Wifi connection, disable Private Wi-Fi Address and disable Limit IP Tracking
3. Reinstall the GivEnergy app.
4. Login into the app and go to its settings and manually enter the IP of the inverter.
5. The iOS Local Access permission pop up should appear now. Grant access.
6. Re-enable iOS Private Wifi Address and Limit IP Tracking.

Great stuff! Anyone cracked it for Android?...

My Android app is working fine with manual IP setting. The search is broken and can't automatically connect to the inverter, as I mentioned earlier.

But if you know your inverter's IP address and set it up in settings, then the search is disabled, the message goes away, and as long as you are on the same network you will get the active "Home" button. It is a little bit difficult, as it just slightly changes colour (not like before when the whole button changed), but if you notice the change in the button, and then select it, you should get another "Connected to Local Data" message. And now, the app updates every 10s or so.

I still haven’t been able to find the IP address of my Inverter.
I’ve been into the router settings, but I can’t see any connected device that’s identifiable as the Inverter.
Any tips on how to identify it please?

ChrisRowe Assuming your inverter isn’t connected by 3/4G GSM, or a Gen2 connected over Ethernet, are you seeing sensible readings in the app or portal which suggest that it’s communicating with the cloud? If not, can you see an access point starting WF…… when you scan for wifi access points? If the inverter is sending data to the portal, it must be connected somehow. It’s feasible your router isn’t the only DHCP device. Do you know?

Tim My Router is the standard TalkTalk one, nothing fancy or complicated, and the only one in the house.
I can see all the expected data in the Portal, and the “Away” tab in the App, so I know the dongle is communicating with the cloud.
I occasionally get a “home” connection on IPhone, but never on iPad.
There’s nothing on the router starting WF.

ChrisRowe i
I had to try and find my dongle IP and found it after a bit of searching, it was called shanghai electric device or something similar. Search under the 2.4ghz list as its not 5ghz compatible I believe.
Once I found the IP I set it up manually as suggested earlier in this thread and the app and it worked OK.

I’ve found it!
Listed as “HF-A21”

I have my HF-A21 set to a reserved IP address on my router, and still can't connect locally to it. When I change the setting in preferences to the relevant address (.230) it fails to connect and resets to .47 immediately. Have all but given up on using the app now.

Yes, HF-A21 here as well.

MRich that doesn't sound right. Remove the reservation?

I used an app, NetAnalyser or something similar. It can scan your local network (WiFi) and report all devices with their IPs. Try it on your phone, when connected to the same LAN as the inverter.

And going back to the original problem. I think the bug in the app is the local search.
When I'm home, it all works with the manual IP setting, as long as I'm on the same SSID.

I'm away now, on a public WiFi, and the app starts with the automatic search message back on top. And the app connects fine to the server data, as it should.

I give up!
The inverter IP Address now has a red exclamation mark in the app and won’t connect, on all 3 devices it’s set up on.
I’ll stick to 5 minute updates from now on!

rio911 Fantastic! It worked for me - many thanks! I could see that the App already had an IP address with the last three digits missing, so perhaps that has been my problem all along.
Hopefully, it will still work tomorrow...
Btw, my GivEnergy is in the garage and uses a TPLink via the mains wiring. It was HF-A21.home.

I had this same. After upgrade to v3.0.3 lost ability to connect locally to inverter.
Installed older version v3.0.2 and all back to normal. Thanks Givenergy for relisting app with fundamental problem.

App v3.0.4 is out now. I'm not sure how it is, as it still has my local IP in settings. And it still works as previously described.

For me I was really glad to see local connection working on Monday but now it’s broken again. Same IP in same box but now goes immediately to an ❗️ very strange and disappointing

CARLMW Check the Inverter IP. It must have changed. Or you are not on the same SSID.

Another app update and more funky local inverter behaviour. This time it won’t switch to local until I go into Settings > Preferences (don’t change a single thing) and just back out and voila it finds the local inverter.

Same behaviour with and without the manual IP.

local was working fine for me until the last few days. Now it has stopped searching when the app loads and the only way to get local is to go to settings and put in manual mode. No idea what triggered the regression but was nice well it lasted :-(

Me too - "local" has worked all the way through until today. Was there an update yesterday?

Well, here goes nothing: I'm on Android, with app version 3.0.4.3033
Make sure the app is closed fully in your device. Start the app and go to settings. Check that in Preferences, you have selected "Search Inverter manually", you have entered an IP address and it has a green tick next to it. Back out to the main page.

I would close the app at this point as this should be your fresh cold start for the app.
Now when you start the app, it should open to the main page with the "Away" selected. In about 10 - 20s, the "Home" button will slightly change to black background and green text (I'm on dark theme). At this point, you should be able to select "Home" and after a quick connect, the app will switch to local. You should also get a brief message at the bottom of the screen, something like "You are now connected to local data".

rio911 hi unfortunately everything is the same 😞

I am on 3.04.3033, and have managed to get the home connection working.
I have a BT Home hub, once i located the correct device (in the 2.4Ghz band), it lists the ip address for that device.
I did change the setting in the home hub to "Always use that IP"
Entered that IP into the settings of the app, and i now have a local connection

Updated my android yesterday and it worked better than before in that it auto selected home at home.

Just updated my iPhone and it didn’t want to find the inverter. Went to settings selected manual and back to auto (the ip was correct) and then back to the Home Screen and it then switched to home .
Had to pull down to fresh and then was doing the 10second update.

My local connection also broke after the latest app update. I had to re-enable the settings to allow local connection. Then it worked OK. However, I recently reset my router and although the Inverter's IP hasn't changed, the local connection option was not working again. So I went back into the settings, tapped on the tick by the IP address (which is still the right one) and it is now working again.
So for me there seems to be something about the discovery process that is only initiated when the settings are applied.

jkazer it does seem that way - which is odd as all my none moving devices have a fixed ip given them by the router. The only devices with ones that can change are WiFi devices that come and go. Phones and laptops for example. Though they tend to stay the same.

The app has just been updated to 3.0.5. For me at least, goes straight to "Home", and I don't need to press anything.

rio911 mine seemed great all day but now broken again 😞

I don’t use the app much to be fair. I do like the overlayed graphs though to be fair.
I use Homeassistant that I can get live data to my phone from anywhere and it sends some stuff (kWh, power and battery soc) to my watch every 15minutes.

Mine (android) is quite broken since Friday.

Use to be if you swiped closed the app and went back in it connects to home nicely.

Now you have to go into settings and either turn manual search on or off. Either way. It’ll then work.

Android v 3.0.5.3034 seems ok

wrefordj that’s what I’m on, and it ain’t for me.

For me on an iPhone it’s now picking up the 5 min online data better on various Wi-Fi networks, such as when I’m at work. At home however I now have no access to a direct connection using manual IP settings or automatic. It feels like when GE fix one they break the other!

I wish the increased frequency of data you get when changing settings would apply to changing charge rates too as I do this often when I’m out.

TX200 Someone suggested using the Net Analyser app to check what the ip address is. In my case the last 3 digits were missing in my GE app which had previously been working ok.

One reason the local API may not be working or working effectively is when the inverter is being directly accessed by other services such as givtcp. Since setting up home assistant and givtcp my home automation that sets the time and percent charge each day regularly gets an inverter timeout and has to retry sometimes multiple times before the API works. Cannot say for certain but the app local access maybe hitting this.

New app, new issues. So, I'm now on the latest android app v. 3.0.6.3035.
Now the manual setting, with or without a green tick, just doesn't work (my inverter IP is correct).
The app behaves differently though. After setting the manual search and IP (every time I open the app now), it does highlight the "Home", but it never manages to connect, i.e. the time counter is the same 5min as the server-side.

rio911 with mine, if I toggle the local search setting on and off, then exit the settings, click away, then home, I can see what it's doing.

Have to do that every time I launch the app.

TX200 Thanks, I fount that out too. Once the app switches to Home, which doesn't update. I can click on Away, which gives a message "connected to server data". Then I can go back to Home, and get the other message "connected to local data". It seems to work on a 10s timer after that.

After updating the app yesterday, I couldn’t secure the local network and it was really pi**ing me off. Tried various things and nothing, it just wouldn’t work. Weirdly, and I don’t know why I did this, but I opened the tour and zipped through the screens. As soon as I closed the tour it searched for and found the local network. If anyone is still having issues, it’s worth trying this to see if it works.

I swear whether mine works or not must be related to the wind direction!

c_squared hmm, yes, it seems that way.

Don’t usually see the searching dialog since the latest update.

But since doing the tour, I get it each time I swipe close then re-open the app.

Good find. 😃

c_squared
Utterly nuts, but has worked for me too.
Have not tried locally, but from VPN (which was not working either), did the tour, hit home and away a few times and seems to be working.

c_squared Goodness me, just did the tour and now it works much better! Thank you!

Glad the ‘hack’ has worked for others as well 🤣

well, I'll be darned - good find

How do you find the tour? Can't see the option on the Android App.

Woodlands theres a little blue ? icon near top right above away - double click that and away you go

No joy for me on an iPhone 😢 to be honest I don’t even want 10’s updates if it’s caused a problem, but the facility to get an instant server update more easily would be fine. I like the way that it updates quickly when you change a major setting, however I’m having to change settings back and forth just to get an update. Would be an easy fix I think if just pressing the quick settings button triggered an update without any setting changes!

Yes, it works on Android for me! Look for the blue ? to the right of: Normal - Last updated 2s ago

Double tap required.

Latest update seems far more robust on iPhone.

The last update before the patch on my iPhone was more challenging - but now its just about instant to swap to local automatically.

Hi guys, solution is to input the ip address manually, then when you load the app go to the same settings, then it gets the tick, then click away and then home, and it works... faffy but a solution. have flagged on givenergy.

sheltont make sure that you are on the latest app version.
Then do the "tour trick". Basically you need to go through the app tour, which is accessed from the blue ? button to the right of the inverter status "Normal - Last updated 2s ago" .
Once you go through the tour, your app should work and automatically locate the inverter if you are on the same SSID.

rio911 tour trick bug resolved yesterday in release 3035 - works for me without standing on one leg, etc

c_squared sorry to be dim but how do you launch the app tour?

Bug report submitted - this needs a proper fix.

Thanks for the trick!

david9694 top right of the screen, there’s a question mark. Tap that twice and it will launch the tour.

c_squared thanks - the ? that disappears in Landscape mode!

It didn’t help - let’s hope the next app update does.

Todays update has fixed it for me

It was working for me earlier today. But I've just updated and now it's not. Seems like it either works for half of the users or the other half but not everyone at the same time!

I’ve said yes to the update but nothing is happening. Patience, I guess.

v 3.1.7.3041 seems to be working ok on my Samsung

On my iPhone I now have access over wireless network at work and local access too at home!

Erm strike that I’ve lost the 10s updates again…

wrefordj Yes, mine has stopped again, ah well...

Working fine for me. Took about 2 seconds to switch over.

Currently ok for me on Android 10

Stopped again on my iPhone. May not be true but feels like GE can get it to work either on IOS or Android not both. At least I’m getting consistent results over my work WiFi now which is something. To be honest just being able to trigger an up date when either at home or away would be fine and easy to implement? A simple button that you can only press, say once a minute for an update is perhaps all we need…?

Yep, stopped working on my iPhone to. Ah well. It's not the end of the world, just nice to sometimes get an up todate reading of the battery SOC.

I do like CARLWM suggestion - unless using a display mounted on a wall - why over complicate things and have it constantly polling - just get a local or remote update when a user asks via a button press.

Manual entry of IPv4 address into the app 'search invertor manually' worked. Thanks for the above info.

iggy1914 I think one of the recent updates removed the IP address. That stopped the app switching to local data for me. Once I entered the IP, the app is working as before.

I like the current setup of the app. If on server data, the app gets the same 5min as the server. When connected to "local data", 10s is reasonable and useful. User update button will be interesting, but that only matters if the inverter/PV/battery actually has new data more often than 10s.

A quick "User forced update" available now is basically to pause and resume in the app. This appears to trigger immediate updates even in away mode so you can actually see if it's worked.
Lasts about 30 seconds.

GrahamRead thanks, I think all they need to do is change the update frequently to say 30s via a swipe down, while maintaining the 5 min auto updates. I really don’t think the load on the GE servers would change that much tbh. After 6 months of owning the system I’m more interested in weekly and monthly data and less interested in minute by minute data. I just want a bit of control over my system, rather than waiting 5 mins, not all the time, but when I need it.

Ideally I want to be able to control my system. I notice that sometimes the battery discharges to the grid, rather than just excess created by the panels.

Strangely, my App updated 4 days ago according to the Play Store and worked fine yesterday. Opened my App this morning and local connection has failed.

Martyn Problem solved.

I hadn't seen that my phone had signed itself out of my WiFi connection.

Its really odd that the local connection works far more often on my iPad rather than iPhone? Im using exactly the same settings???

I have had a fair amount of no local updates every 10 seconds, initially I thought it was the app, but it wasn't the source of my updates problem.

When you are getting problems with the app, check the status of your invertor on the GiveEnergy dashboard web page
https://www.givenergy.cloud/dashboard
It should show online if your invertor is currently connected, but quite often, my invertor was showing as offline.
As my invertor is in the garage and a few walls away from my wifi router, I think the wifi signal is very marginal.

Whilst my invertor was showing as offline, my app was obviously not updating, so I moved the wifi router higher up and closer to the garage. The invertor came online and the app was able to update too.

I also checked my router and the invertor had changed it's local IP address on my local network, so I went into advanced router settings to reserve the IP address for the invertor, hopefully that will lead to a better local search now that the invetors IP address is fixed.

So far so good, app updating every 10 seconds, though I will need to monitor my wifi connection between the invertor and router.
I'm not saying my lack of updates weren't app related, but it's so solid now that I know the invertor can connect to my wifi.

Been struggling with similar issues and appear to have solved them through an app setting I didn't know existed. The following seems to have resolved the issue completely for me...tap the three-line menu key (top left), choose Settings, choose Local Monitoring then delete the saved IP addresses (I had only one but it was out-of-date). Go back to the dashboard and click Home to scan for inverters again.

crispy To add, if your inverter IP address can be made to stay the same, the issue wont come back

thanks for the tips on settings cached ip and setting a static ip..

After updating the Android Givenergy App for home monitoring and setting charge/discharge times etc, I found that the app refused to connect to the "home" setting. The "away" default setting was functioning normally. The Wifi dongle showed a steady blue light, and I could see its connection with my router. The phone could connect to the dongle WiFi (as displayed on the phone's "Settings">"Connections">"Wi-Fi".
Within the app, using the 3-horizontal bar (Top left) options button>"Settings">"Setup Wifi Dongle" would find the Dongle, provided the phone was connected to the Dongle's WiFi SSID. But, returning to the main monitoring screen, the "home" would not connected.
I had noticed that there was a "Local Monitoring" option found as follows: - Within the app, using the 3-horizontal bar (Top left) options button>"Settings">"Local Monitoring". Tapping this option showed a default router IP address of 192.168.1.1. and this is where the problem lay.
I logged in to my router (you'll need to know the admin password) using the default gateway (found by inputting "IPCONFIG /ALL" using the Windows command prompt) and saw the dongle with its common label (HF-A21 (or similar) and next to it the IP address assigned by the Router.
Overwriting the 192.168.1.1 with the router's assigned IP address produced a big tick and then the "Home" monitoring setting connected without issue.
I hope that this may help anyone else who is frustrated with a "broken local connection".

If it aint broke, dont update it 😃

I've a strange connection issue. I have the latest Givenergy App ( 3.3.7 ) running on my iPhone. It will successfully connect to " Away " but I get the spinning wheel on the " Local " tab. I downloaded the app to my Macbook Air, although the App description says iPhone and iPad it runs perfectly and within a few seconds switches from the " Away " tab to the " Home tab ". I dug an old Android Motorola phone out of a drawer, fired it up and installed the Givenergy App. Again it connected to " Local " immediately. I deleted the App from my iPhone and reinstalled it but I just get the message that " No Home connections were found " I'm ok with using the " Away " tab on my phone, the app works really well fullscreen on my laptop, it's more puzzling than anything.

Tenkaykev check the location permissions for the app are on, it won't connect to home if not. Others have had similar situations to you and checked this, once they enable location permissions it seems to work

Cdent
Thank you!
I did as you suggested then switched my phone off and on again and I now have " Local " 👍

I wonder why it needs to know the location. I am in Tenerife at the moment but I can still connect locally through my VPN, so it can't take much notice of the location.

nophead something to do with WiFi networks and accessing devices on the same network I believe, not an Apple user though so only picked this up third hand and can't be 100%