WiFi Connectivity, Not Connecting

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 success rate for getting devices connected. After changing any settings or environment variables related to WiFi, recommended to try 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 afterwards and has a decent chance of connecting afterwards. Also helpful to try this every once in a while if you've been changing/adjusting things over time.

"Power Cycling" is simply a method of unplugging or de-energizing the device for ~15 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.

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. 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.

Phone Hotspot:

One thing to try that can be super helpful, would be to connect your Emporia device to your phones' WiFi hotspot as a connection rather than the local WiFi network. That usually has a good success rate and would help the Emporia device download updated firmware which can help it reconnect to the local network. 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:

1.) Security protocol set to WPA, WPA2, WEP
2.) WiFi/802.11 protocol set to B, G and/or N
3.) Channel Assignment set to Automatic
4.) No firewall settings preventing the communications - this can include programs/devices like VPN's, Anti-Virus, PiHole and more.

5.) Ensure there are no "connected device" limitations on the router/network settings.

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 needing for router/networking:

Ports:

• 80 (outbound)
• 443 (outbound)
• 8883 (inbound/outbound)

Target Domain(s):

• mqtts://a2poo8btpqc3gs-ats.iot.us-east-2.amazonaws.com
• mqtts://prod-mqtt.emporiaenergy.com/

Problematic Situations:
1.) No 2.4GHz network available - The Emporia devices will not work on 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 - We've included a firmware update to work better in situations like these. 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 setup an exclusive 2.4GHz network if possible.

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.