This article is meant mostly for new device setups, or devices being reset for a new WiFi network where the connection is not working. If your device has simply dropped offline (but has worked in the past on this particular WiFi network) - then attempting a WiFi reset for your device is all that should be needed.

WiFi can be particularly problematic for some device setups. Here's our general approach to troubleshooting WiFi issues as seen from the Customer Support desk. The suggestions and tips shown here are in order of their ease of action as well as the success rate for getting devices connected. After changing any settings or environment variables related to WiFi, recommended trying the setup again before changing any other settings.

STOP! If you haven't already tried, always best to power cycle and reset everything before troubleshooting WiFi connection issues. Power cycling the device, force-closing/opening the Emporia app, and even power cycling/resetting the router can fix small issues without having to troubleshoot any further, so always the first suggestion. Can try the setup from within the Emporia Energy app afterward and has a decent chance of connecting afterward. Also helpful to try this every once in a while if you've been changing/adjusting things over time.
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"Power Cycling" is simply a method of unplugging or de-energizing the device for ~30 seconds, and then powering back up. This can happen by unplugging the Emporia device from its power supply, or by flipping the breakers that the power supply is connected to.
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Details on how to force-stop/close the Emporia Energy app are as follows:
​for Android
​for iOS

Signal Strength:

Although the Emporia devices don't need much bandwidth to operate successfully (speed of network not so much an issue), they do need a reliable signal strength for best performance.

For the Gen 2 specifically - it is important to ensure that the WiFi antenna is mounted outside of the electrical panel. The enclosed metal walls will cause significant signal strength issues, so very very important that it is mounted externally to the panel.

If possible, moving the Emporia device to be located closer to the WiFi access point is always a good starting point to at least eliminate signal strength as an issue. If the device is not able to be moved closer, might want to try using a WiFi extender or similar to bring the WiFi signal closer to the device - or using a WiFi hotspot temporarily to see if that'd help.

Another option for the Gen 2 device is to include a WiFi antenna extender. The WiFi antenna itself is a regular SMA-Coaxial cable that can be found in most electronics shops online or in person.

Phone Hotspot:

One thing to try that can be super helpful would be to connect your Emporia device to your phone's WiFi hotspot as a connection rather than the local WiFi network. That usually has a success rate and would help the Emporia device download updated firmware which can help it reconnect to the local network. Once a hotspot has been set up from your mobile device, then you can use the hotspot credentials as part of the app-setup process rather than the local WiFi credentials.
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Steps for setting up/managing a phone-based hotspot can be found here:
​for Android
​for iOS

Router Settings:

Might want to double-check your WiFi/router settings to make sure the following settings are set correctly:

Can reach out to your ISP for more details/help if needing support related to your WiFi router behavior and settings.

Port and Domain Information if needed for router/networking:

Ports:

Target Domain(s):

Problematic Situations:
1.) No 2.4GHz network available - The Emporia devices will not work on a 5.0GHz network. 2.4GHz must be present for the device to be able to connect successfully.
2.) Mesh Networks, Networks with multiple Access Points - While most mesh networks do not cause issues for Emporia devices - we do run into situations where sometimes that causes issues. We've included a firmware update to work better in situations like these. Would recommend trying to connect your device to a phone hotspot temporarily to get updated firmware if possible. If your device is not on updated firmware, then disabling as many access points as possible to reduce the number of connection options to the network can help.
3.) Shared 2.4GHz/5.0GHz networks - In general, the device should be able to connect to these types of networks, but sometimes the router will attempt to re-assign the Emporia device to a 5.0GHz network instead of the 2.4GHz network. If this situation is occurring, it is best to attempt to try and set up an exclusive 2.4GHz network if possible.

While the Emporia Customer Support team can certainly help diagnose Wi-Fi-related issues, we cannot help troubleshoot every router model and network type. Given that all WiFi networks will have different settings and environments, that topic is too large for our support team to be experts in and offer tips/tricks for each unique scenario. We very much recommend trying to tinker with your local network as much as possible to learn the details there and we can assist with the Emporia device-level details if needed.

Feedback and Suggestions

This knowledge base is pretty new for the Emporia team. Our goal is to provide all of the information we can to help you manage your energy in better ways. If this article wasn't helpful, or we could be more clarifying on any points please reach out to the Customer Support team and we'll certainly work to improve these guides.